Tuesday 11 December 2018

The obligatory best Rap songs of 2018 post

2018: the year MC Serch claimed he almost had Necro & Ill Bill shoot MC Hammer on the set of the final episode of YO! MTV Raps. YOUR FUTURE IS MORBIDITY for real?

All I wanted was an anthem, just one world-conquering anthem in the vein of Flex (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh) and 2018 wouldn't give it me. Much like 2009, 2018 turned out to be one of those years where most of the good Rap happened off-centre or in the margins. That's my diplomatic way of saying ZZZZZ @ this year's BIG hits by Drake, Post Malone, Juice WRLD, Lil' Pump, 6ix9once, Travis Scott, Migos, XXXtentacion, and Lil' Baby & Gunna. Please believe that doesn't mean I've spent 2018 listening to Joe Budden gossip podcast Rap or Faux Marciano limited vinylz Rap, though, because both lanes are equally as ZZZZZ to me as the aforementioned BIG hits.

In no particular order of preference and with the usual one song per artist rule, all I love iz these:

Husalah - Bad Young Thang
70th Street Carlos - Sprite
Trel Itz A Hit - Cuffin' Flippas (instrumental)
Valee ft. Jeremih - Womp Womp
DaBoii of SOB X RBE - Onna Gang
Kendrick Lamar & SOB X RBE - Paramedic!
Rico Nasty - Smack A Bitch
BlocBoy JB - No Chorus Part 11
DJ Premier ft. Casanova - Wut U Said???
P-Lo - Same Squad
Open Mike Eagle - Single Ghosts
Queen Key ft. Dreezy - Ha
Sada Baby & FMB DZ - Planet Of The Apes
Lil' Wayne ft. 2 Chainz - Dedicate
Roc Marciano - 67 Lobby
Cash Kidd - Zorbas (solo version)
E-40 & B-Legit ft. Stresmatic - Meet The Dealers
Rich Blue - Hands Hands
Maine Musik - Soulja Slim Flow 2
Doja Cat - Go To Town
OMB Peezy - Venting Session
Nef The Pharaoh & 03 Greedo ft. ALLBLACK - Ball Out
WNC Ram Bam - G Warfare
Lil' Peep - Cry Alone
Dru Down ft. Mistah F.A.B - Streets Is Cold
City Girls - Period (We Live)
Eat Em & Spitta - FaceCard
Sheck Wes - Chippi Chippi
Homeboy Sandman & Edan - Rock & Roll Indian Dance
Mozzy - Who I Am
Tay-K - After You (O.G version)
Jay Lewis ft. Gorilla Mode Deez & Mista Cain - I Hope
Rich The Factor - Do It Gooba
Mouse On Tha Track - Let Me In (Martorialist edit)
Level ft. Boosie BadAzz & Mouse On Tha Track - #DFWT (Remix)
FBG Duck - Slide
1TakeQuan - Grub Hub
Jean Grae & Quelle Chris - My Contribution To This Scam
The Egyptian Lover - 5¢ Camel Ride

You can find a slightly condensed streamable version of this list HERE. Also, you can find a streamable playlist of my favourite 70th Street Carlos loosies from late 2017/2018 HERE.

Barely paid attention to new non-Rap in 2018 so it ain't worth me doing a separate post of my favourite jams. The highlight of Other Music™ in 2018 was obviously the G.O.A.T Guns 'N Roses song finally getting blessed with a video, but there were also a handful of other non-Rap songs that I love like frumpy music critics love sweaters with stretched neckholes:

Donae'o - Chalice (No Canadian Rappers Please edit)
Tamia - Leave It Smokin'
Mr. Fingers - Full Moon
Kreayshawn - Not My Job (Punk cover)
Juiceboxxx - Ripping Up My Soul

Bonus beats: the 2018 Late Pass post.

43 comments:

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

* The Open Mike Eagle song first dropped on Halloween 2017, vanished from Soundcloud by the end of the year, and didn't reappear until OME dropped his EP this year, so I'm claiming it as a 2018 tune.

* Took me a loonnnnnng time to get Slide because it's so slow. I now understand that it probably wouldn't work if it were any higher BPM.

* I still dunno how to rip MP3s from Soundcloud, so anybody care to rip me the Kreayshawn joint?

* Biggest disappointment of the year was Slick Rick finally dropping a new song but it sounded like it belonged on the fucking Cannibal Ox album. Also, LMFAO @ anyone who believed Rick's claim the song was from 1985.

Ray Garraty said...

my anual complaint about a lack of black metal

(https://www100.zippyshare.com/v/dIf9sjUP/file.html
here is that SC rip)

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Cheers.

Kreayshawn's Punk Mac Dre cover song obliterates the entire history of black Metal.

Smell Rell said...

No love for any AllBlack other than the "Ball Out"?

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

His song with Cash Kidd & the Rexx whatever guy is alright. I don't like it enough to pay 99p for it or rip it off YouTube, though.

(I find that's the best criteria for judging how much you honestly like a song.)

DannyBrownsGap said...

No Blueface????

Anonymous said...

Surprised to see Doja Cat on here. Her troll song got all the attention but her album Amala was really dope.

Anonymous said...

i use https://9soundclouddownloader.com to download from soundcloud.

Anonymous said...

i think the only rap songs that were big on rap radio that were big on rap radio that i enjoyed were Ballgreezy "Nice & Slow", Lil Duval "Smile", Derez Deshon "Hardaway" (mostly for London on da Track's beat). Also City Girls' "Twerk" (fun uptempo NO bounce-referencing song) should be huge next year.

Anonymous said...

excluding the trap drums, the beat for that Sheck Wes song sounds like some vintage Neptunes

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Hmmm Chippi Chippi is a bit Skrung Owt, I suppose. I had my epiphany with it when I realised the beat reminds me of Group Home's Stupid MF's.

BallGreezy's Nice & Smooth was in my 2017 list.

Blueface's Respect My Crypn is by far his best song, imho, but that beat is still too much of a warmed-up ratchet leftover for me to ever love it.

buttname fartdude or something said...

i forgot what name i had on here

thanks for that dru, fab and bunch of the shit on this, especially "i hope" which we used at work after running our boss out of town

anyway young buck took awax place for that sentimental old folks rap shit for me this year, the drama kinda makes it more interesting, though doesn't matter

https://youtu.be/GLff0Mtb-9M
https://youtu.be/88H9gvfVfIU
https://youtu.be/K7NyNp8Wq3U
https://youtu.be/wkybqN2Ne8I

and that Larry June w/ Greedo thing is cool too

https://youtu.be/ChQssXSkDPk

Unknown said...

Is it safe to say Roc Marc basically created the less mainstream equivalent to the ATL trap sound. Well I love Roc Marc his imitators are sleep inducing, KA is the only one who's been able to take his formula and give it his own twist.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Griselda stuff is definitely Lil' Baby & Gunna for boom-bap hip hoppers. Drabness is the new waviness across the board in Rap.

L.A said...

I came here to comment on the list but now I'm googling the Serch incident

supremeblaqsquare said...

2018 was meh imo

Good things witnessed in 2017 were not developed further(bennygang still ain't put out paul hardcastle mixtape, mistah fab's thing bout DO YOU REMEMBER THERE WAS HYPHY??? lasted like for one song released in 2017). sob x rbe did some nice things, especially daboii, but nothing like wow ебать охуеть пиздец 10\10. mozzy's camp was OK, i guess, mozzy had some good tracks, but celly ru was unimressive imo, e-mozzy and all other something-mozzy guys dissapeared somewhere, uzzy marcus still locked up and shootergang is not a group I really care about. too short's album was offensively NOT REALLY THAT GOOD, nasty nate was like NICE but not really BEST SHIT EVER. New X-raided is surprisingly good tho.
70th street Carlos is probably the best rapper of the year, other baton rouge artists are good too, but new orleans artists did nothing spectacular as far as I heard from them this year and gameova\reup reedy did like 1(one) song this year so that is dissapointing.

I liked that FBG Duck song, but I still think all this trap\drill\whatever shit gotta stop since bop finally died.

Dipset reunion is wack and TOOTHLES(jim jones voice), alternative dipset with hell rell and 40 cal and jr writer seems to be wack too.

France, the last bastion of enjoyable trap music, gave up this year finally booba, kaaris, sofiane, kaaris & sofiane, sofiane & ntm finally reached atlanta levels of being boring af sonically and only thing niska did was to pay quavo to remix Réseaux. PNL\MMZ etc. thing seems to decline in wavyness too.

German rap still sounds like ass but now they discovered reggaeton and raf camora is the worst artist ever(sonically). People say there was something about SERBIAN REGGAETON this year but from what I heard it is as awful as all other european reggaeton attempts.

UK music is somethnig I deeply dislike, so I have no idea what to say bout all ukdrill roadrap whateverbashment ting, I guess it exists, I want it to exist somewhere else without me, afrobeat shit goes the same direction for me.

Russian rap was, as usual, absolutley 0\10 awful, regardles of what exact branch i'm looking onto, I probably heard like less than 5 nice songs through the course of the year.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Any UK Drill rappers who rhyme about traps, opps, feds, and bandos should be deported, imho.

Re: GameOva, that twat Big Choo STILL hasn't dropped his Hustlas remix.

Anonymous said...

Non-American rap is an abomination.

GGGGGG said...

City Girls are the only good thing about Quality Conytol

hotbox said...

Looks like a decent list on the surface. I haven't listened to nearly enough 2018 rap to really comment but off top I'd add some Shy Glizzy, Lil Yachty & Megan Thee Stallion's fine ass. Lil Blood's "Ndugu" might be my favorite album of the year but I've probably only caught about a dozen.

2018 MVP award goes to SOB x RBE & solo projects with City Girls a close 2nd. Really Mozzy needs to grab the SOB producers he needs more beats that aren't boring. I feel like I should be into the wnc dudes more than I actually am like wtf is wrong with me

now for the 3-4 of us dinosaurs left who got the zip file? I'll dig in soon regardless but old habits die hard

Anonymous said...

In regards to the Griselda stuff, is it the production or rapping that turns you off?

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Depends. Probably both if it's a Westside Gunn song.

THE GUY said...

I'M A VALEE GUY NOW

D said...

I think you covered most of these through the yr so no major shockers bar Doja cat and tay-k. Seeing paramedic on here reminds me what finally got Mozzy to click for me was the marvel cinematic universe ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
His beats could vary more though since he sticks to that one style. Part of what Greedo stand out so much for me too was branching out w beats

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

I posted the Tay-K twice: once with the MP3, and once with a fan-made video.

Mozzy still drops the odd killer song, but he's been a total hack for a few years now. He's basically NorCal's answer to Trae Tha Truth in that his albums are just a buncha random songs with whoever is currently buzzing + a few veterans.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Wait, Philthy Rich is probably the NorCal Trae Tha Truth, tbf.

But Mozzy has definitely followed Philthy's career blueprint.

Ray Garraty said...

IMO this year Philthy's output was stronger than Mozzy's. Mozzy fell off hard.

D said...

IDK even the more liked mozzy tapes like bladadah or w e only had like 2 songs I was into, he's always been someone I had to trawl for plus I fin he's impossible to listen to at length. No way he's as mercenary as Philty though.

Ques the only truth this decade

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Fuck all that shit anyway, did DJ Fresh & the ukelele lad Einer Bankz ever drop their song together?

I had to stop following Einer on IG because he was too annoying, but he posted a clip of the song on his story months ago and it sounded ill.

Charlie said...

'Same Squad' is a big record in Cali. Wish it would blow up nationally.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Man, that 'orrible Made It Count song wot plays in the Pusha T tequila branded compilation advert on my Audiomack playlists is a good example of why I don't ever need any more Auto-Tune rap.

Anonymous said...

No Starlito this year? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eB-3cVJq_9k probably one of my fav Lito verses ever
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UqENXRz1dfk Wish these were the type of beats he rapped over every time because the bars are still there but that generic trap shit is boring and played out.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

I ain't really been checking for $tarlito the past couple of years tbh.

David said...

"IDK even the more liked mozzy tapes like bladadah or w e only had like 2 songs I was into"

nah

David said...

man sob rbe solo projects were pretty 'ok' to me at best. idk, i like it, but i don't see it as being leaps & bounds beyond other regional rap in IE memphis or detroit or FL all of which imo had a better 'spread' of rap than the bay this year

i did like that shootergang jojo song tho

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

On the subject of SOB X RBE, it's amazing that Paramedic! managed to be such a slap when the 20 second intro is so horrific.

Anonymous said...

Need a zip of these

James said...

Needs more City Girls. Otherwise good list.

Andrew Barber said...

"2018: the year MC Serch claimed he almost had Necro & Ill Bill shoot MC Hammer on the set of the final episode of YO! MTV Raps. YOUR FUTURE IS MORBIDITY for real?"

LOOOOOOOOOL

Man, I love Serch. But he was on the Vlad hot seat just spewing WHOPPERS. It was hard not to laugh when he got emotional over a fake MC Hammer hit on his life 30 years ago. He was laying it on a little too thick.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

"When I hear him saying these things like Oaktown 357 sold more records than 3rd Bass, I just wanna put a gun in his mouth.."

OK, Bugsy Serchgel 😂

Juelz Holland, Shoot a Nanny said...

As per usual I've done a Spotify list

https://open.spotify.com/user/11180051859/playlist/428WBmgL24v89CaHMmSxHb?si=1eH6IOlXQuS1o-9A5r86eA

I've not kept up with rap at all this year so enjoying listening to these, and good to know there are still great rap songs being made cos as you say the mainstream has gone stale.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Cheers.

Remove Cuffin' Flippas, though, because it's the instrumental of it that's 2018 not the proper song.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Also, you've put No Chorus Part 10 instead of No Chorus Part 11 as the BlocBoy JB song.