ColaChampagneDad’s Top 10 Albums of 2016
In case it wasn’t already obvious, the end of the year is slowly approaching, and with only a couple of days left, it’s time to drop the list.
Over the last 3 years I have made it my own personal challenge to crank out a list of the 10 best hip-hop albums to release in the last year and over those years we’ve seen some amazing music be shared with the masses.
In 2013 it was good kid, m.A.A.d city, 2014 saw Freddie Gibbs & Madlib take the top spot with Piñata, and last year we saw the return of Kendrick Lamar through what must be one of the best albums of the last decade, To Pimp a Butterfly.
This year we saw an enormous improvement in the quality of albums, to the point where I actually had to make more than one list to compensate for the fact that I needed to give so much music the credit it deserved outside of this list.
As always these lists are created under the requirements that I look for in any solid LP, those things being: the albums overall sound, it’s cohesiveness, lyricism, style, and progression as an artist from any previous record/single that they have released.
With that being said, I hope you guys have enjoyed this year in music as much as I have, and without further ado, here is my Top 10 Hip-Hop Albums of 2016!
10. ScHoolboy Q - Blank Face LP
What year was it that Q dropped Oxymoron...’13? ‘14? Whatever year it was, it doesn’t matter, that LP was garbage for this Crip’s standards. After releasing Habits & Contradictions, I was really excited to see what he had in store in Oxymoron and it came up short of what I would have liked to hear.
Don’t get me wrong, although I actually enjoyed listening to the entire album, it was definitely too friendly & too commercial in sound for me to say that Q had made any progress in the right direction. There were a lot of choruses, a lot of dumbed down lyrics, and it just didn’t fit the bill for what Schoolboy Q represented, at least in that album.
Fast forward to 2016 and we get what might be his best work, sonically. Blank Face LP didn’t exactly appeal to me at first, it took me some time to actually say I enjoyed it. The new sound just didn’t really interest me, it didn’t feel like the album was completed.
This is probably why it’s sitting at #10 and not much higher than that because while it is one of the best albums to drop this year, it shifted in pace a little too much for my liking throughout my listen.
However, the highlights on this LP are also very worth noting.
It’s extremely dark, it’s aggressive, it’s everything that represents what Schoolboy Q is about & grew up on. Lyrically he challenged himself to come out the gates with much more passion directed towards the anguish & celebration of gang life.
With production handled by the likes of Southside, Metro Boomin, Swizz Beatz, DJ Dahi and more, the album comes together perfectly to match the lyrics that Q spits into each verse he exclaims. Without one, the other simply could not sound appealing and they did a fantastic job capturing the artistic direction that this album ended up on.
With hints at another album to come in 2017, we can only hope that what’s to come is as strong as what came about through this LP.
9. Kendrick Lamar - untitled. unmastered.
In all honesty I did not want to include this album on this list off the fact that it’s essentially all throw away tracks from TPAB...but who am I kidding? At only 8 tracks long & 34 minutes in length, it still outdid a lot of the albums that came out this year.
untitled unmastered. was unexpectedly released at the beginning of the year with no real need for it to be released after the widely successful release of To Pimp a Butterfly the year before.
Continuing off the same sound that we heard in TPAB, this LP explored funk, jazz, and soul to create it’s themes attached to the very personal lyricism that we find throughout the contents of this compilation album.
There isn’t really much to say about this. It’s Kendrick Lamar, it’s the sound he perfected in TPAB, and it embodies the current mindset & progress that K. Dot has made as an individual since his first major label debut. You couldn’t ask for better consistency the way we receive it through Kendrick’s music.
8. Ab-Soul - Do What Thou Wilt
Probably this year’s biggest surprise, Do What Thou Wilt ended up on this list mainly off the growth that Ab-Soul displayed since his last release (we don’t talk about his last release, do we?).
Personally, I had no expectations for this album. These Days... was such a bad effort on his part, it really could not get any worse than that, and thankfully it didn’t.
Similar to his label-mate ScHoolboy Q, Ab-Soul explores heavier & darker themes of psychological trauma/pain in DWTW as well as a large portion of his lyrics dedicated to women & the history of misogyny.
Showered with features, the album still manages to sound very much complete & structured, with features like Mac Miller, Rapsody, and ScHoolboy Q adding to the overall sound of the LP which was very enjoyable to me.
Overall, DWTW is a return to Ab-Soul’s old formula. He stuck to what he knew, brought in a team that complimented his sound & direction, and came through with a much more personal album that we could all appreciate and relate to.
If there was any Soulo album to listen to as an introduction to his music, this would definitely be my first choice.
7. KA - Honor Killed the Samurai
In all honesty, I am not one to really keep up with any of KA’s music. The guy makes the type of shit you can listen to only in entirety. His last album, The Night’s Gambit, made it to my Top 10 year-end lists as well back in 2013, and with that on his heels...he needed to come with it.
KA hails from Brownsville out in New York and is actually a full-time firefighter believe it or not. As mentioned in the article, he’s been rapping for years now and when he says he’s about the 90s, this album showcases that.
Now, before you go and decide you won’t give this LP a try off of that, just know that he’s not ACTUALLY rapping like it’s the 90s. The lyrics aren’t friendly and the beats aren’t boom bap.
It’s actually the opposite of that.
All of the generic & common rap authenticity you can think of is thrown out of the window and exchanged for some grimy and essentially simplistic rap songs.
The beats are made in a minimalistic form that compliment KA’s raps in a way where, unlike most songs where it encompasses 50% of the song’s attraction, it serves as a backdrop to KA’s lyricism. The production is hollowed out in a sense, to only give you what you absolutely need to make a song and the rest is taken over by the depressing life lyrics of the rapper.
Album’s like this don’t come often. It’s extremely honest and gives you a lot of insight into what KA’s life is like & used to be growing up in New York. He leaves nothing to the imagination and gives you everything in each verse, leaving no details behind.
If he keeps this up, there’s no telling how far he’ll go with this formula.
6. Isaiah Rashad - The Sun’s Tirade
One of the most highly anticipated albums of 2016, The Sun’s Tirade came through firing on every cylinder to give TDE fans exactly what they wanted as a follow-up to Cilvia Demo.
The gap between the two albums was a little much for my taste but the wait was very much worth it as Isaiah Rashad managed to release an album that was very much on the level of Kendrick Lamar’s Section .80 which says a lot about what Rashad is capable of.
With Free Lunch serving as the intro to what was to come, the rest of the album kept up with how natural & effortless Isaiah came across throughout the entirety of the LP.
With that in mind, I guess the irony in it would be that the reason this album is also so good is the fact that Rashad was extremely open and vulnerable to his fans & critics.
Lyricism dove into alcoholism, drug addictions, depression, and showed much of his weaknesses throughout most of the album but didn’t shy away from the usual that we’ve seen from him. Production efforts were handled by a variety of producers but didn’t negatively effect the album which is one thing I can always appreciate.
An LP such as this one is becoming more & more common as the years progress. More artists are shying away from the norms of commercialized music and making an effort to actually be individuals, a perfect stepping stone into quality music and Isaiah Rashad undoubtedly leads the forefront in this category.
If you’ve kept up with my lists over the last couple of years, you saw this one coming, and if you haven’t, you still should have seen this one coming. I wasn’t going to make a list and forget about YG.
How do you follow up a commercial gangster rap album? By making a flawless gangster rap album.
We’re talking about timeless music this year, and YG definitely earned his way into that category. Still Brazy is exactly as it’s described, brazy.
The difference between this album and My Krazy Life is that while the latter explains the actions of gang life and the glory & benefits of it, this LP dives into the causes, the reasons...the damages that it leaves one with for joining it.
One of the patterns you’ve seen this year is honesty & realities of individuals being laid out on tracks for people to dissect and YG continues that. The reason this album is so much better than his last is that it gets very personal and one track that summarizes the focal points of this album is Still Brazy.
The highlights of the album are the very low points of his life unfortunately. Paranoia, depression, and secluding one’s self from society in order to maintain peace of mind are in essence what made this album possible. The effects of the life he has glorified come back to haunt him and turned his artistic direction in a complete 180 towards the lonesome & gloomy LP that you end up hearing today.
With production handled by Swish, P-Lo, Hit-Boy, and more, the ensemble of producers joined forces to perfectly capture the West Coast sound we have been around for decades along with inspiring YG to come onto each track displaying his best lyricism since the start of his career by far.
Ultimately you get a g-funk classic with this album. Give it some time and 10-20 years from now this will be looked back on as a West Coast classic, no question about it.
4. Anderson .Paak - Malibu
It’s hip-hop, it’s soul, it’s r&b...it’s everything you could think of threaded together and displayed for the world to absorb. Malibu pushed the boundaries of hip-hop further than any other LP this year, and it didn’t even sound like it.
Oxnard’s Anderson .Paak made headlines this year after releasing this very album with news on Twitter about his signing to Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment. This, accompanied with his work with Dre, Compton’s Game, and Fig Side’s own ScHoolboy Q, should have given you clues that this album was Top 5 for this year.
The versatility displayed on this record is truly outstanding. A mixture of a variety of subgenres in black music, Malibu contains every bit of influence in Paak’s life and unlike Childish Gambino, he is actually able to channel the sounds, revamp them, and put his own twist to it...and it’s GOOD.
On top of all that...the producers...can we talk about the producers??? Paak, Madlib, 9th Wonder, DJ Khalil, and Kaytranada are all included on this LP and it makes all the difference. That, tag teamed with features like Rapsody, BJ The Chicago Kid, Talib Kweli, and more, only further push the LP into a display in hip-hop all for itself.
There was really nothing else like this released this year and if anybody wanted something more pure than this, you weren’t going to find it anywhere else. Truly a blessing in 2016.
3. A Tribe Called Quest - We Got It From Here...Thank You 4 Your Service
The biggest shocker of the year (for me) comes in the form of ATCQ’s final album, We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service.
Personally, I wouldn’t consider myself a crazy fan of boom bap hip-hop...it’s just too slow for me at this point. Rap has progressed so much since the 90s it’s impossible to say you can even really just listen to one type of hip-hop because of how many artists have branched out to create their own sound in the genre.
However, by some divine miracle, Tribe decided to take the simple route, sticking to their roots, and it paid off.
The biggest flaw of this album? Phife Dawg passed away before the release and didn’t get to see how universally acclaimed it was, but I’m sure he was aware prior to his passing that they were creating something worth everyone’s while.
Production was solely handled by Q-Tip and co-produced by Blair Wells, and they did it justice. There’s no other way of wording it really. Every song is just as good as the next and every beat flows smoothly into the next. There are no bumps. There are no breaks. No awkward in betweens that don’t go with the rest of the album. Everything is perfectly in sync on this LP and you could not ask for a more perfect listen.
Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Andre 3000, and fucking Jack White to just name a few, are all featured on this record and the vision between the entire cast was so perfect...it was just so perfect, that it couldn’t have come out any better even if they tried. All of the sounds on this compliment each other and while it’s an extremely old sound in hip-hop, ATCQ manage to bring it back in 2016 and made it refreshing & unique.
2016 brought out a lot of negative feelings, ideas, humans, etc. but the message is clear on this LP: love, peace, unity in black communities, power in said communities, and progression as humans can continue to thrive as long as we work together in achieving this. The ideas spread out in 90s music is still very much relevant to this day, so it comes as no surprise that these ideas are exclaimed throughout the entire LP.
If there is one word to describe how this album makes me feel, it’d be hope.
An amazing way to cap off a career spanning over 20 years and it is only fitting that they finish it the same way they started it, with a classic.
2. Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book
Chance the Rapper had an amazing 2016. Amazing features, writing credits on countless songs, jumping on helping Kanye produce his album…I mean, what didn’t he accomplish??
But no accomplishment is greater than what he did on Coloring Book. If Acid Rap wasn’t a convincing mixtape that established Chance in the rap game, Coloring Book definitely was.
While I wouldn’t consider Chance as the most amazing lyricist, what he lacks in that area he manages to make up in every other category required to make a good artist.
Original & extremely memorable, this LP came together with so many refreshing sounds, I wasn’t even aware that I loved gospel as much as I did until this album showed me just how nice it sounds to the ears.
The soulful singing from the choirs echo into your ears smoothly. The beats weren’t excessive but nicely structured with a quality amount of layers, each one complimenting the next. Chance was insightful, deep, and gave you so much to ponder on.
Whether it was reminiscing about life in Chicago or a carefree night of drinking with friends, Chano created each song with the ability to vividly capture each moment in detail for the audience to experience themselves.
Shit, I’m not even religious but this album had me feeling the holy spirit.
The sound (thanks to production handled by his group, The Social Experiment) flowed effortlessly throughout the entire listen and I could not find a single bump or halt to the entire listen. Even the features, while questionable at first glance, managed to make themselves sound important and necessary to the LPs overall quality.
Lil Yachty, Wayne, 2 Chainz, Justin Bieber…all of them did their part in making this album so unique and like I said, just a super enjoyable listen to start off 2016. While this was advertised and sold as a mixtape, it had every good quality you look for in an album. (plus he’s making money off those Spotify streams so really where are we falling in terms of what’s an album/mixtape these days)
Chance created his own version of Chicago in an album and he did so under his own terms, what more could you ask for?
AND THIS IS IT....THE MOMENT YOU HAVE BEEN SCROLLING FOR !!!
1. Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition
For the 3rd consecutive LP in a row (to be honest he’s been killing it since The Hybrid), Danny Brown came through with the most flawless album of this year.
After dropping XXX & Old back to back, I really didn’t expect him to be able to surpass these efforts…match them? Yes. But surpass? I would have never called this when he announced the album for 2016.
One of the things I love most about Danny Brown’s music is his ability to crank out brand new sounds and lace them together with his signature sound to make something entirely different.
His flows don’t change, but they still sound refreshing because he can do that. He is capable of switching his style up and somehow manage to maintain his identity in the process.
The album title, inspired by a Joy Division track of the same name, is very fitting for the styles & themes displayed on this record.
It’s grunge, aggressive, cynical, and a beauty of an experience. The lyrics are twisted, arrogant, depressing, mind bending, and anything else you essentially would find in a horror film. It’s interesting to see how much growth Danny Brown has displayed since XXX because it really shows you what an artist is capable of depending on the mentality that one has going into recording an album. He was depressed & suicidal in XXX and while there are still a lot of negative feelings pouring out of him on Atrocity Exhibition, you know that he has gotten much stronger mentally since his breakout LP.
The production efforts are refreshing and completely changed the style & concepts that Danny tends to write about. With British producer Paul White in charge of over 90% of the LP’s production efforts, it’s no wonder the album sounded so cohesive. It’s the same shit as I mentioned before, same Danny Brown, but you know you’re listening to something entirely new.
Albums are not that easy to just create. Some artists do it in a month, for others it takes them years, and in Danny Brown’s case, it took him just the right amount of time. Danny has been known for putting 110% into all of his records. He doesn’t go for quantity (ironic for the amount of tracks he includes in each LP which are essentially paid out of his own pocket as most labels give you a budget fit for 10-12 tracks at best), he goes for quality, and in his own effort to aim for music that is not disposable, he successfully manages to continue to create more timeless music.
I couldn’t think of a more fitting way to top this year’s list because it really gave you everything you needed to hear and more.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
So with that we end this year’s Top 10 Hip-Hop Albums list. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I HATED creating it (writing is a fucking pain in the ass no matter how much I love music), lets see what 2017 has in store for us and Happy New Year to all of you guys!
