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Favorite Song:
Features: EarthGang, 6LACK, & Mereba
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Favorite Song:
Features: Noname, Saba, Supa Bwe, Jamila Woods, DinnerWithJohn, MFn Melo, Skylr, Sen Morimoto, Raych, Add-2, Kevo B, Kiara Lanier, & Raych
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Favorite Song:
Features: Millie Go Lightly, Future, Snoop Dogg, Lil Durk, & Jacquees
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Favorite Song:
Features: Rihanna, U2, & Zacari
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Favorite Song: Continental Breakfast
Features: N/A
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In a year littered with high-profile collaborative albums, nearly all of which were between rappers, the best one of the year comes in the form of a collaboration between Australian queen of indie-rock Courtney Barnett and American indie-folk singer-songwriter Kurt Vile.

The two come together for 9 tracks that sit right at the center of their styles to create an album that sounds like an overheard conversation on a Sunday afternoon. The album largely focuses on witty observations and mundane musings about the life of an artist and songwriter. The lyrics are incredibly conversational but with a wit that can place tons of story and meaning into a seemingly-small detail. The instrumentals are heavily guitar-driven, with both singers also playing throughout the album. I’ve been a fan of Courtney for a few years now and just recently got interested in Kurt, so I’m very intrigued to see where these artists continue their solo careers from here and am interested to see if they collaborate any more in the future.

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Favorite Song: (No One Knows Me) Like the Piano
Features: N/A
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I had gradually come to know Sampha’s name through stellar features for the likes of Kanye West, Frank Ocean, Drake, & Solange, so I greatly anticipated the British singer’s debut album. The album did not disappoint and Sampha provided an incredibly soulful take on modern R&B with his soul bared through most of it. The album finds him exploring his mother’s death, his own medical problems, and insecurities. A lot of the instrumentation of this album is fairly light and piano-driven, providing a perfect backdrop for his airy, gentle singing. This album is brief but powerful and is the perfect addition to any non-holiday based winter playlist.

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Favorite Song: Star
Features: N/A
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In 2017, Brockhampton gave us 3 albums, an album-length set of demos, a documentary, a short film, a nationwide tour (and a fully scheduled 2018 tour), several merch drops, a Viceland show, and several music videos. Saturation was much more than just an album title for America’s new favorite boyband. Saturation was a mission statement. Given how thematically and sonically similar the three albums are, I decided to lump the entire trilogy into one spot on this list.

Brockhampton is a boyband formed on the forum KanyeToThe that includes Kevin Abstract, Merlyn Wood, bearface, JOBA, Ameer Vann, Dom McLennon, Matt Champion, and 6 other members that handle the production, photography, and other aspects of the band. Though a boyband in name, the group operates with all of the members acting primarily as rappers. Common themes among the 48 album tracks released by the band this year include pop culture references, homosexuality (“Why you always rap about bein' gay?”/‘Cause not enough niggas rap and be gay), struggling with poverty, being independent artists, pop stardom, love, and just about everything else. There’s clear growth with each installment in the series, but all three Saturation albums are quite strong with some of my favorite tracks coming from each album. There’s so much variation that I can’t really explain their sound in this small space, but you can’t really go wrong with any of their music.

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Favorite Song: 17 Wit A 38 ft. Chief Keef
Features: Chief Keef, MF DOOM, Swizz Beatz, Del the Funky Homosapien, Yung Gleesh
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I remembered listening to Jay IDK earlier in his career before he rebranded himself simply as IDK, but his music never really stuck out to me much. Then I saw him perform at All Things Go, a small music festival in DC, and the PG County rapper went all out for his home crowd. Performing almost solely new music, IDK had an energy I had never picked up from him before. I will never forget him performing 17 Wit A 38, then revealing to the crowd that he was going to perform the song again and premiere a never-before-heard feature verse from Chief Keef if the crowd went crazy enough. We obliged and heard yet another show-stealing Sosa verse that brought the crowd to another level for the rest of the show.

When the album came a couple weeks later, I was quite excited and he delivered completely. This album is heavily narrative based, painting the story of a young man that was doing fine but got himself caught up in a lot of trouble. The stories of this album at times sound like your run-of-the-mill gangsta rap stories, but he undercuts these tropes with glimpses into his own mind (Now everybody get up on the fuckin' ground/And if you make a sound, I might have to drown it with these rounds/Knowin' I’m no killer but fuck it, I’m tryna be that nigga) that keep him sympathetic. He also shifts the tone with a song in the form of a jail-phone conversation with his mother, a song about the death of his mother, and a three part tale of his relationship with a woman. IDK constantly switches between being a gangsta rapper, a conscious rapper, a singer, and a super lyrical rapper showing his immense versatility. In 2018 he’s announced that he’ll be releasing visuals for the album, a tour with A$AP Ferg and Denzel Curry, collaborations with Joey Bada$$ and J.I.D, and several more collaborations he can’t announce yet. I’m very excited to see IDK’s trajectory from here.

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Favorite Song: Slide ft. Frank Ocean & Migos
Features: Frank Ocean, Pharrell, Young Thug, Migos, Ariana Grande, Snoop Dogg, John Legend, Jessie Reyez, Lil Yachty, Travi$ Scott, Kehlani, Big Sean, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Future, Khalid, DRAM, ScHoolboy Q, PARTYNEXDOOR, & A-Trak
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This is what Summer sounds like. Calvin Harris decided to step away from his EDM roots a bit and make an album of funky and sunny bangers with an incredible guestlist. The features on this album are all great (with one sad exception), but what really makes them shine is how well they are paired in unexpected but genius combinations (Pharrell, Young Thug, & Ariana Grande! Frank Ocean & Migos!). The album is just pure fun that’s impossible to listen to without dancing.

The album sticks to a pretty tight formula of making a groovy instrumental and throwing a couple of seemingly random stars together on them, with two noteworthy exceptions. The first is Skrt On Me ft. Nicki Minaj, which only features one artist because Calvin was kind enough to make it easy to delete this terrible song without taking any other features down with it. I actually really enjoy some of Nicki’s work, but this song is garbage that somehow found its way onto an otherwise great album. The second is Hard to Love ft. Jessie Reyez, who I had never heard of before. Jessie came through with an incredible and surprisingly melancholy cut on this album that is easily among my favorites and lead to me greatly enjoying her debut EP, Kiddo. The inclusion of a “Vol. 1” in the title of this album has me greatly anticipating a Vol. 2.

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Favorite Song: Blessed
Features: Kali Uchis, H.E.R., Syd, & Charlotte Day Wilson
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In an incredible year for R&B, the best release was the much-anticipated debut album by Toronto’s own Daniel Caesar. This album got me through the hardest parts of this year as I struggled with relationship troubles. Caesar’s beautiful, comforting voice wavered back and forth between ballads of a man fully in love and pained croonings of a broken heart. It’s more traditionally crafted R&B than the trap influenced, hazy rap-singing that has been slowly taking over the scene and it’s a breath of fresh air. Featured on the album are several of the best new women in R&B that provide an excellent counter to Daniel and make the album feel multi-dimensional. This album is fairly simple musically and sticks to familiar themes, but it’s done so perfectly that nothing else is needed.

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