What I first wanna say is that I love the banter after the song itself. Like, Beyonce clearly recorded this ahead of time knowing the CMAs were gonna be kinda racist and exploit her performance for views so she figured to make bank off it. So that said, this is the single oddest team-up I’ve ever seen in my life (and I’m a comic book nerd, we know a thing or two about that.) Nonetheless, it works great. It’s a fun, dance worthy country song, that even someone totally apathetic to the genre like me can appreciate. I just wanna jump around and clap and stim every time I hear it.

…there’s gonna be a lot of music that doesn’t make it on to my year end list, but it would excessively inappropriate to not at least mention ATCQ’s final album. I haven’t had the chance to really sit down with the album, and it’s pretty dense so I can’t make a proper assessment of it, but I do know what bumps.

Between the funky guitar work, the boom bap drums, and Q-Tip just going the hell off on a track all by himself, I can’t help but love this song. Abbey Smith and Marsha Ambrosius' vocals do wonders for the song too, filling out this wonderful funk rap track. In case it wasn’t obvious, go listen to Tribe’s last album. (And if you can, figure out what that cycloptic gremlin looking thing on the cover is. That’s been brutally unclear.)

Shout out to Mike Posner for making the soundtrack to my depression this year. Then shout out to Seeb for making it listenable because my God that folk version is crap. I fought desperately for this song to stay on because it’s been really cathartic for me all year, but unfortunately too many great songs came by and it would’ve been dishonest to keep it on the main listing. That said, as a thank you to Michigan’s forgotten son, I decided to give him the Honorable Mention spot, and expand my Honorable Mentions to 2 this year in light of a great act putting out’s it’s swan song. Speaking of which…

I’m calling B.o.B. Nazi scum from now on, so we’re clear. When you are a misogynistic, antisemitic, ableist propaganda promoting, FUCKING HOLOCAUST DENIER (I FEEL THE NEED TO STRESS THAT) who ignores scientific fact, you are a fucking Nazi. So this being said, burn in hell, Bobby Ray.

This song is the worst of 2016 because it’s everything that was terrible about 2016. It denies not only accepted wisdom but established fact. It’s attitude towards Jews seems to be informed by Varg Vikernes. It plays to the gross far-right martyrdom tactic which emboldened B.o.B.’s Nazi friends so much this year. It is sickening from top to bottom, the beat is uninteresting, the hook is garbage, and I’m frankly surprised that GZA and Drake did not collectively reach their hands through the internet and strangle this man until his windpipe gave out. (By the by, Drake, if you were ever looking to put hands on a man, this is the best opportunity to do it. Just saying.)

FOAD B.o.B., FOAD 2016, and FOAD fascists of all breeds. Fuck you very much.

(sigh) And now to clean all of this horrible shit out before we talk about the Top 10 next week, here’s Leftöver Crack with Nazi White Trash:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tersmvh6fFI&user=Mofestoman

I wanna contrast this to something. Because I could spend some time simply complaining that this is just a speech with a beat slapped on it (which it is) but the thing is, Kanye’s a talented sampler, and he’s actually done this exact tactic before to great return. So, before I talk about it, I wanna play another flip Kanye did, Who Will Survive In America:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzNnXH7e9jc&user=UCRY5dYsbIN5TylSbd7gVnZg

That was originally called Comment #1, a proto-rap poem by Gill-Scott Heron about what he felt to be a tension between bourgeoisie white liberals and poor black nationalists. The only instrumental accompaniment it had was a pair of drums he banged on. Kanye added layers of instrumentation, making it sonically bigger than it originally was, and by selectively sampling, he was able to turn it into something prophetic. It feels like a poetic death to blind American nationalism, as the entire country wakes up and realizes not only are they fucked, but it might be too late to turn back. It’s… fucking beautiful.

Now I want you to contrast that with this mess:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGMm8u9t8tM&user=UCRY5dYsbIN5TylSbd7gVnZg

First off: Fuck your Christian propaganda. Second off: Fuck you for thinking you have the sanctimony to spew Christian propaganda at me. Third: This is lazy. My God, that little MIDI keyboard bounce? That’s all you could muster? DJ Mustard has made better beats than that. DJ Mustard scored a hit song with Rihanna with a better beat than that. This song gets to be this high on the list not just because it’s bad (which it is), or that’s sickening to hear propaganda (it is), but because empirically, Kanye has a better skill set than this. The guy can work, the guy can sample, the guy can hold coherent thoughts. But this is an example of what too much stress does to you (that and endorsing a fucking fascist). Fuck off, ‘Ye.