BRL's 2012 Year in Review

It's almost the end of February, which can only mean one thing: It's time for the BRL year-end wrap up. Continuing the long-standing BRL tradition of releasing a top albums list nearly 2 months later than every other blog, we are back again to unleash the vast amount of brilliant music that you should've been listening all year.

Now usually I would make a huge, muli-post countdown with a paragraph explaining why each album made the list, but I'm getting older and too tired to do that shit. Last year was a very odd one for me, as I went through a few major life changes, so I missed a few albums along the way (a lot of albums that came out from May-August got lost in the mix of job hunts, graduation, working a shitty job, and dwelling on the fact that I was 22 and living with my parents). So this list isn't nearly as comprehensive as my 2011 list - where I obsessively listened to every album that would potentially make a top albums list. But 2012 was a phenomenal year for both hip hop and "indie" rock, so without further adieu here are the top albums of the year (and here is my super-detailed Best Hip Hop Albums List I did for RapReviews.com):

2012: The year young Kendrick dominated. Granted you knew that two months ago.

1. Kendrick Lamar - "good kid, m.A.A.d. city" (Score: 95)
2. The xx - "Coexist" (Score: 92)
3. Passion Pit - "Gossamer" (Score: 90)
4. El-P - "Cancer4Cure" (Score: 89.5)
5. Nas - "Life is Good" (Score: 88.5 - Tie Breaker Advantage)
6. fun. - "Some Nights" (Score 88.5)
7. Killer Mike - "R.A.P. Music" (Score: 88)
8. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - "The Heist" (Score: 87)
9. Lana Del Rey - "Born to Die" (Score: 84.5 - Tie Breaker Advantage)
10. Cloud Nothings - "Attack on Memory" (Score: 84.5 - Tie Breaker Advantage)
11. Fiona Apple - "The Idler Wheel..." (Score: 84.5)
12. Beach House - "Bloom" (Score: 84 - Tie Breaker Advantage)
13. Big Boi - "Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors" (Score: 84 - Tie Breaker Advantage)
14. Jack White - "Blunderbuss" (Score: 84)
15. Frank Ocean - "channel:ORANGE" (Score: 83.5)
16. Brother Ali - "Mourning in America, Dreaming in Color" (Score: 83)
17. Ab-Soul - "Control System" (Score: 82.5)
18. Jens Lekman - "I Know What Love Isn't" (Score: 82.5)
19. Oddisee - "People Hear What They See" (Score: 82)
20. Danny! - "Payback (2.0)" (Score: 81.5)
21. Of Monsters and Men - "My Head is an Animal" (Score: 81)
22. Peter Anthony Red (aka Tonedeff) - "The Projectionist" (Score: 80.5)
23. Mac Lethal - "Irish Celebration" (released 12/31/11) (Score: 80)
24. Murs & Fashawn - "This Generation" (Score: 79)
25. Benjamin Gibbard - "Former Lives" (Score: 79)
26. Big K.R.I.T. - "4 eva n a Day" (Score: 79)
27. Andrew Bird - "Break It Yourself" (Score: 78.5)
28. Alabama Shakes - "Boys & Girls" (Score: 77)
29. Justin Townes Earl - "Nothing's Gonna Change How You Feel About Me Now" (Score: 77)
30. Mumford & Sons - "Babel" (Score: 77)
31. The Coup - "Sorry to Bother You" (Score: 76)
32. Best Coast - "The Only Place" (Score: 76)
33. Rapsody - "The Idea of Beautiful" (Score: 75.5)
34. Bat for Lashes - "The Haunted Man" (Score: 75.5)
35. P.O.S. - "We Don't Even Live Here" (Score: 75)
36. Aesop Rock - "Skelethon" (Score: 75)
37. Blu & Exile - "Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them" (Score: 75)
38. Substantial - "Home is Where the Art is" (Score: 74)
39. Brother Ali - "The Bite-Marked Heart" (Score: 74)
40. Perfume Genius - "Put Ur Back N 2 It" (Score: 73)

Rhymes: Brother Ali - "The Bitemarked Heart" (Free DL)

By now you should know the deal; with every album Brother Ali has released, he drops off a little appetizer a few months before. This go-round, the good Brother shows off his charm with a 7-track EP for Valentine's Day.

This EP is a nice little warm up for his up-coming album, Mourning in America, Dreaming in Color, which will be entirely produced by Seattle beatsmith, Jake-One. Jake-One and Ant handle the production on The Bitemarked Heart EP.

Click Here to Download.

Brother Ali - The Bite Marked Heart by rhymesayers

Rhymes: Brother Ali - "Tight Rope" Live Performance

Brother Ali "Tight Rope" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

The good brother does a live rendition of my favorite song off of his latest album, Us.

Rhymes: 2009 WRap-Up

I know I'm over a month late, but I've been busy.
Using a system of criteria I made up including:
-Replay Value (how many times I listened to the album)
-Rapping/Singing (technical sense of rapping, ie: flow, cadence, vocal delivery)
-Production (Overall sound of the beats)
-Lyrics (Includes Lyrical Content as well as Lyrical techniques including multis, punchlines, similies and metaphors)
-Cohesion (how well the album meshes together as a whole unit, includes sequencing)
-Good Songs (plus 1 pt for every good song that stood out on album)
-Great Songs (plus 1.5 pts for every great song that stood out on album)
-Filler Songs (Negative 1 pt for every bad/filler song on an album)
-Tie Breakers are settled by my own personal decision

Top 20 Albums:
20. UGK - UGK 4 Life - 40 pts
19. Slaughterhouse - s/t - 40 pts
18. Tanya Morgan - Brooklynati - 40 pts
17. Eminem - Relapse - 41 pts
16. Jay-Z - Blueprint 3 - 41 pts
15. Asher Roth - Asleep in the Bread Aisle - 43 pts
14. Royce da 5'9" - Street Hop - 45 pts
13. Felt 3: A Tribute to Rosie Perez - 46 pts
12. Wale - Attention: Deficit - 47 pts
11. Q-Tip - Kamaal the Abstract - 49 pts
10. Kid CuDi - Man on the Moon: End of Day - 49 pts
9. BK-One - Radio Do Cabinal - 51 pts
8. K'naan - Trubadour - 52 pts
7. Clipse - Till the Casket Drops - 53 pts
6. P.O.S. - Never Better - 53 pts
5. Sene&Blu - ADayLate&ADollarShort - 54 pts
4. Mos Def - The Ecstatic - 54 pts
3. Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2 - 61 pts
2. Brother Ali - Us - 61 pts
1. Fashawn - Boy Meets World - 62 pts

Top Mixtapes/EPs (To Qualify, must have all original production)
13. Blu - HerFavoriteColo(u)r - 38 pts
12. Inverse - So True EP - 39 pts
11. Pac Div - Church League Champs - 40 pts
10. B.o.B. - B.o.B. Vs Bobby Ray - 41 pts
9. Charles Hamilton - This Perfect Life*** - 44 pts
8. DWill & Stik Figa - hellogoodbye - 46 pts
7. Freeway - The Beat Made Me Do It - 46 pts
6. Drake - So Far Gone EP - 46 pts
5. Atmosphere - Leak at Will EP - 47 pts
4. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - The Vs EP - 47 pts
3. Brother Ali - The Truth is Here EP - 48 pts
2. Danny! - Where is Danny? *** - 49 pts
1. CunninLynguists - Strange Journey Vol 1 and 2 (Both had 55 pts and couldnt decide between the two)

*** Denotes that the album was intended to be released as an album, but due to label difficulties was never released officially (which negated it from the top albums section), but was leaked by the artist themselves.

Rhymes: Top Hip Hop Singles of the Decade (40-31)

#40 The Roots "Break You Off" (2002)

This 2002 single is off the follow up to their 1999 grammy winning classic hit "You Got Me", many say it was a disappointment, but that album along with this song is what got me into the legendary roots crew.

#39 Kanye West "Touch the Sky (ft Lupe Fiasco)[2005]

This song introduced the world to Lupe Fiasco, and Lupe goes off on this. Classic Just Blaze beat, one of Kanye's finer singles.

#38 Raekwon "House of the Flying Daggers (ft. Ghost, Inspectah, Mef, and GZA)[2009]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHVCQc6cbSw (Heres the video its awesome, no embedding allowed, gay youtube)

The lead single off of Royce's comeback album, and one of 09's best albums. A majority of the Wu shred's a Dilla production that sounded like it was crafted for a Cuban Linx album.

#37 Eminem - Lose Yourself [2002]

Everyone's heard this song a million too many times, but who can deny this song? It's easily one of the best things he's ever done, and it seems like this is the closest we'll ever see Mr. Mathers reach his full potential. While 09's Relapse wasn't bad, it still had a hand full of just shit songs, which plagued a lot of his career.

#36 Cunninlynguists - "Seasons (ft Masta Ace)" [2003]

Although there was no music video made for this underground classic, it was released as a 12" single, which qualifies it for this list. Ohio's RJD2 produced this gem, as its one of the few 'lynguists songs that kno does not produce, but he does do a job as he shares mic duties with Legend Masta Ace, former member Mr. SoS and fellow founder of the group Deacon the Villain.

#35 Atmosphere - "Trying to find a Balance" [2003]

Atmosphere's 2003 album, Seven's Travels is often considered the Minnesota duo's worst full-length, but it also features their career defining single, Trying to Find a Balance.

#34 Royce da 5'9" - "Boom!" [2002]

This is vintage Primo with one of Detroit's finest emcees unleashing some his best rhymes.

#33 OutKast - "The Whole World (ft Killer Mike)" [2001]

Outkast drops yet another gem off of their 2001 greatest hits album, some of the best drums I've ever heard on a hip hop song.

#32 Brother Ali - "Room with a View" [2003]

Classic Ant and Ali. Ali's vivid lyricism makes me feel like a resident of Minneapolis.

#31 Mos Def - "Life in Marvelous Times" [2009]

Off of one of 2009's best albums, Mos makes his "Comeback" from 2004 and 2006 duds with this masterpiece. The way this tracks builds beautifully, there is no other word to describe the track other than well, Marvelous.

Brother Ali - Fresh Air

Finally Brother Ali's first single off of his upcoming album, Us is available.

The mp3 is not available yet, but you can buy it off of iTunes or amazon for 99cents. Us will be released September 22nd!

Rhymes: Brother Ali "Us" (Video)

Brother Ali's 3rd album, Us is due out September 22!


TRACK LISTING;
1. Brothers and Sisters feat. Chuck D. & Stokley Williams
2. The Preacher
3. Crown Jewel
4. House Keys
5. Fresh Air
6. Tight Rope
7. Breakin' Dawn
8. The Travelers
9. Babygirl
10. 'Round Here
11. Bad Mufucker Pt. II
12. Best@it feat. Freeway & Joell Ortiz
13. Games
14. Slippin' Away
15. You Say (Puppy Love)
16. US feat. Stokley Williams

Rhymes & Life: When God Gives You Ugly... You Paint That Shit Love

It had to have been maybe five years ago since the angelic sounds of Anthony Davis' drums from a song called "Lovelife" has graced my ears. "Lovelife" was my first exposure to this indie rap group hailing from Minnesota, Atmosphere. Since then the emcee/DJ combo of Sean (Slug) Daley and Anthony (Ant) Davis has become a soundtrack to my daily life. Brother Ali also tagged along for the show in Cleveland [Area], even though he's not on the When God Gives You Ugly Tour. Also Nate Collis' band (Collis plays guitar in many of the songs on When Life Gives You Lemons... and tours with Atmosphere), Attracted to Gods opened.

The show started about 10 til 9 with Attracted to Gods. The alt rock band consisted of Collis and a drummer. They were fairly good, and for a rock band at a hip hop show seemed to get a pretty decent reaction from the crowd. I am not familiar with any of their work, but the band performed some excellent instrumental songs which I may have to explore. Also Nate Collis provides strong vocals for most of the songs.

After about a 45 minute set by the opening act, Brother Ali came on stage. He opened his set with battleraps from his song "Bitchslap!" from his first song. Then spared no time going into the first single from his 2007 album, "The Truth Is" which had the full house screaming "MORE" over ant's reggae fused loop. Ali's stage presence was that of a merging star, as he interacted with the crowd telling jokes in between songs, and having the crowd hanging on every word during his performance. His next album, slated for a September release, is going to be huge (and by huge i mean top 10 first week on the billboard 200). Ali has already established himself in the underground with arguably two classic albums, and I have a feeling he will be getting a lot more exposure with his next release. One of the biggest standout performances of the night was his performance of "Walking Away", which is one of my personal favorites and Ant's bluesy backdrop perfectly compliments Brother Ali's heartbreaking story of his divorce...

"I Guess theres nothing more for us to say,
Got my mind made up, I'm walking away,
sometimes we just outgrow the roll that we play,
I hope you find a happy ending to your story someday..."

Also towards the end of the song, Ali adds another, just amazing verse to the song explaining how his wife neglected his infant son, which made him divorce him. I really wish I knew what the verse was from, it may have been a freestyle, but it seemed too well constructed to be so. Ali's performance of "Good Lord" which was off of his "Truth is Here EP" released in March, was another highlight of the night. The entire crowd knew every word to this song, and the crowd participation to "Freedom Aint Free" was another unforgettable moment.

After Ali's impressive, but short set, Sean and Anthony took the stage with a couple background vocalists, Nate Collis on guitar, a bassist and a keyboardist. Their set opened with "Godlovesugly". Slug was charming throughout the 2 hour set, telling humorous anecdotes inbetween songs. At one point in the show after an outstanding performance of "Painting", Slug had to bounce an intoxicated couple for acting beligerent and disrupting the show, but he made a smooth transition into another excellent performance of a crowd favorite, "Yesterday". Another high point of the night, was "Guarantees", which was played at a faster tempo than on the record, giving it a much different vibe, Slug also included another verse at the end, which was way too perfect to be a freestyle, but at the same time, I wouldnt put it past the Minnesota emcee.

Slug, indeed is the face of indie hip hop, and I like to refer to him as the voice of the unheard generation. No doubt he has the capability to be the biggest hip hop star of the decade, but chose to stay independant instead of selling out to a major label. This may have cost him millions of dollars, but at the sametime I have a hardtime thinking Nickelback and other multiplatnum artists having this strong of a fanbase. Cleveland, Ohio is not known for its hip hop roots, but the Beachland Ballroom, located on the outskirts of Cleveland, was jam packed at maximum capacity with people who knew every single bar the underground star uttered.

The show's most unforgettable moment had to be the performance of "Fuck You Lucy". My personal favorite song off of the God Loves Ugly album, which is Slug at his best:

Fuck the what happend
I got stuck
They can peel pieces of me off the grill of her truck
Used to walk with luck
Used to hold her hand
Fell behind and played the role of a slower man
I wanna stand on top of this mountain and yell
I wanna wake up and break up this lake of hell
I feel like a bitch for letting the sheet twist me up
The last star fighter is wounded time to give it up
On a pick it up mission
Kept it bitter
Getting in a million memories just to forget her

Out of my few live shows I've attended, this is the best musical moment I've ever been a part of. Slug captured the crowd with his tale of heartbreak so sincere, it's almost like it had just recently happened to him. I personally was sucked into the moment so deeply, I almost felt like I was experiencing an outer body experience, chanting the haunting reversed lyrics with the background vocalists:
"It leave never would you, you shouw could I if"

The show consisted mostly of songs from "When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold" and "God Loves Ugly", but towards the end, they threw in some crowd favorites from older albums including "Trying to Find a Balance" "Guns & Cigarettes", and "Always Coming Back Home to You". During the encore, Brother Ali came back on stage and ran through performances of "Cats Vans Bags", which sounds much better live than on the album and "Blah Blah Blah". After that they broke into a rendition of Prince's classic, "Purple Rain", which was very ammusing, then they closed the set with some freestyles.

This was probably the best concert experience I've ever had. Everything was on from the ticket prices, to the stage, to merchandise (I got GLU and WLGYLYPTSG on vinyl), to the crowd, to the performances, and everything else in between. It was an excellent show.

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