After two successful mixtapes, Joey BADA$$ provides a good debut album for listeners. While tad disappointed that it wasn’t as great as 1999 was, this debut album is a good taste from a young, 19 year old rapper. Otherwise, this album is some sort of fun sometimes, though there are a couple of “pop”-ish songs on the album Teach Me for example, lyrically Joey brings his A- game and doesn’t continue rapping over “dusty” beats as he did prior to this project.

This album was FREE (w/o illegal download)! Keep that in mind because this was a wonderful piece that many accredit more to Chicagoan Chance The Rapper. My favorite song is Familiar because it’s a song that has some of the best lyrics of the album in regards to Chance, while the inflections are fun as well. Personally, I’m far more excited for another Chance project; or a Chance The Rapper & Childish Gambino collab would be legendary.

When the video showing the bands' change sonically broke, I must admit: it had me very worried of what was to come. As a massive fan of their last two albums Sigh No More & Babel, Wilder Mind is a 180 from those prior albums just mentioned. The only piece that remained consistent was the writing by the band.
Even with the sound change, the album also follows the similar suit of the last two albums: beginning powerfully and ending on softer notes. I don’t particularly have a favorite song from the album because it always seems to change, but the opener Tompkins Square Park always has me feel this album will be amazing. Marcus Mumford and his fellow bandmates presumably had fun recording this record after their “hiatus” considering this genre of music was more their suit, not the banjo picking, acoustic music we’d gotten used to hearing.

Kendrick Lamar’s latest offering received critical acclaim as soon as it leaked. With the powerful jazz infusion provided in K. Dot’s newest album, the lyrics interwound wonderfully with the instrumentals. The album’s flowing narrative keeps the energy alive as one listens to the trials and tribulations Kendrick’s been suffering with lately. Ranked second of the year for me purely because T&Y came out, any other year and it would’ve been #1. Of course, my list mustn’t mean too much considering the fact that President Obama named How Much a Dollar Cost favorite song of 2015 which is my second favorite song on the album.
Up for next year…a Kendrick & J.Cole collab?

This entire album is one of the most complete albums I’ve heard from Lupe in years. Playing it in reverse or by the tracklist provides different insights to what it could be about. Nobody can forget that this year, Lupe Fiasco made annotating a full time job with Mural. Aside from the song chock full of lyrical miracles, the rest of the album was done very well. With the acception of Chopper (which goes on too long), the other songs are solid and this palette that Lupe provides in his latest album-work. Released early in the year, to most people it probably deserved top-5 of the year upon release.
Let’s not forget that the album cover is a painting by Lupe himself (“Man Eating Tiger”).
This album just barely beat out my number 2 on the list this year by a slight margin.

He then compares their relationship to many others that end up as only one night stands.