“Beep boop beep boop beep beep beep beep.” Welcome to Nuv’s Best Music of 2011 series. Tommorow will bring us his #1 Artist, Album & Song of the Year. Today, we look at the rest of the best.
OK! I’M RELOADED…
Danny Brown – XXX
Action Bronson – Dr. Lecter
Black Keys – El Camino
Ty Segall – Goodbye Bread
The Throne – Watch The Throne
Raphael Saadiq – Stone Rollin’
Asher Roth – Pabst & Jazz
Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost
The Strange Boys – Live Music LP
& introducing…
Hanni El Khatib – Will The Guns Come Out “He describes his songs as being for anyone that’s ever been shot or hit by a train.” AND he’s a half-pak! How could I not love this?! (Best tracks: Dead Wrong • You Rascal You)
EPs OF THE YEAR
Black Milk & Danny Brown – Black & Brown EP
Bad Meets Evil – Hell: The Sequel EP
The Sheepdogs – Five Easy Pieces EP
SOUNDTRACKS OF THE YEAR
Cliff Martinez – Drive OST
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo OST
The Chemical Brothers – Hanna OST
*that aren’t on any of the above albums
Das Racist – Michael Jackson
Tyler The Creator – Yonkers
M83 – Midnight City
Cults - Go Outside
Yelawolf – Gangsta of Love
Lloyd (Feat. Andre 3000) – Dedication To My Ex (Miss That)
SBTRKT (Feat. Drake & Yukimi Nagano of Little Dragon) – Wildfire (Remix)
Drake – Dreams Money Can Buy
Saigon – Preacher
Pusha T – My God
ScHoolBoy Q – Kamikaze
Saigon – The Invitation (Feat. Q-Tip)
Lil Wayne – Six Foot Seven Foot (Featuring Cory Gunz)
XV - U.F.C. (U Fuckin’ Crazy)
Get Busy Committee - Chains
Action Bronson & Statik Selektah – Keep Off The Grass
XV – SmallVille
Get Busy Committee – Opening Ceremony
Mad Child – Hangin’ On By A Thread
Danny Brown & Joker - Head For Free
The Pack A.D. - Sirens
Frank Ocean – Novacane
Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks (Butch Clancy Remix)
BATTLE OF THE YEAR
Tyler The Creator vs. B.o.B. – Yonkers • No Future
2011 was the year of so many almost beefs that were defused before they ever really began (Yelawolf vs MGK, quickly defused by an MGK apology; Royce vs Canibus, never made it from Twitter to wax) and one that’s been one-sided so far (Common vs the yet-to-respond Drake in Sweet). Thankfully one beef crossed over into actual battle territory. After Tyler’s throwaway diss in the bonkers Yonkers (”I’ll crash that fuckin’ Airplane that that f****t n***a Bob is in”) B.o.B. came back (hard) at Tyler and the whole Odd Future crew on No Future. A diss song in the mold of the classics: simple, scathingly clever, condescending and cocky. You can say what you want about his pop-ass singles, but between this and his showing at the BET Cyphers, nobody can question his skills. I would say he got both the last word and the last laugh.
Winner: B.o.B.
LIVE SHOW OF THE YEAR ALL TIME
‘Fuck else would it be?!?
MUSIC MOMENT OF THE YEAR
Shady 2.0 Cypher at The BET Hip Hop Awards
Shady Records really made all of 2011 one big music moment. The signings of Slaughterhouse and Yelawolf. Eminem & Royce Da 5′9″ reuniting to rap better than ____________ (fill in the blank with ANYBODY!) on the long-promised Bad Meets Evil EP everyone had been asking for since ‘99. 2.0 Boys. Yelawolf killing it on every appearance (live and recorded). And finally, closing out the year with a Michael Bay-ass bang at the BET Hip Hop Awards with the cypher to end APOCALYPSE all cyphers! (Nouns as verbs, what up?) Yela kicks in the door for Slaughterhouse. And then Royce’s “Hi Rihanna” shit blows up the internet. And then. AND THEN! Eminem. God. Damn. Verse of the year. Easy. Best verse of the ANY Cypher. And it’s probably gonna stay up there at the top for a loooong time. Unless Em shows up at BET again next year. At this point, the only one that can beat him is, well, him.
“WHAT. GOES. UP. MUST. COME. DOWN. (BUT NOT ME CLOWN!)”
TWO separate motherfuckers sampled two separate Lords of the Underground tracks this year. This immediately shows a depth of hip hop knowledge in these two young bucks, and also immediately takes me back to junior high with a nostalgia that can only result in feeling old when it wears off. I mean, these kids are sampling shit from when I was still in a single-digit grade like they’re oldies! Makes a motherfucker feel like Nick Nolte looks, ya know? Aw hell, Chewbacca, at least they’re both Dope. Anyway, the first song to call out the Lords name in vain is Thurz’ Los Angeles, which samples Funky Child (Actually, more accurately, it samples the same song Funky Child scooped and looped its horns from) and the second song, Joe Cool’s F’N Cool samples Chief Rocka. Both Child and Chief used to rock in the Walkman (yeah motherfucker: tapes!) all through Grade 9. Cuttin’ class and smokin’ grass. All-purple Cross Colors outfit, out back of the gym. Hand up mo’ skirts than a puppeteer. You know what’s F’N Cool? Me! But you know what’s also F’N Cool? Fingerbanging!
BIGGEST MISSED OPPORTUNITY
“This is a story all about how / my life got flipped, turned upside down.” At a Christmas party with a karaoke machine, I was out of the room when the rest of the party got together and did a group sing-a-long of THE FUCKING FRESH PRINCE OF BEL AIR THEME SONG WITHOUT ME!! I don’t even like karaoke but I was born to do that shit! I know every word to the fucking extended version that only aired with the pilot and like one or two other episodes!! I may spend the entirety of 2012, fists raised to the heavens screaming FUUUUUUUCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!
Fuck! Alright, time to Jazz myself out the door. Yo Holmes, to Bel Air…
– Nuv
TOMORROW: THE #1 ARTIST OF THE YEAR, ALBUM OF THE YEAR AND SONG OF THE YEAR!
I missed the Fresh Prince as well, but, I was there for “Bust a Move”, and it was mo proppa!