Best Of 2022: Hip Hop, RnB, and Reggae

Hip hop continues to dominate popular music, whether as itself or as an influence on production and songwriting. But there is great depth to the field as well, far beyond the commercial frontier. The same can be said for RnB, which now incorporates hip hop, pop, and the old DNA of soul and funk into its makeup. As for reggae, I've stopped worrying about where Jamaican music would go after dancehall and just listen for the sounds that hit my sweet spot. See below for what I discovered in these intertwined genres, starting with the releases I already covered. Find a track from each (except Isaiah Rashad) in this playlist or below.

Record Roundup: 22 For 22 (Part 1)
FKA Twigs - Caprisongs
Pusha T - It's Almost Dry
Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers

Record Roundup: Evocative Voices
Moor Mother - Jazz Codes See also the powerfully skeletal Nothing To Declare by 700 Bliss (Moor Mother with DJ Haram)
Lizzo - Special

Record Roundup: Songcraft
Steve Lacy - Gemini Rights
Sudan Archives - Natural Brown Prom Queen

HIP HOP

Isaiah Rashad - Music 4r Da Vibers Given that his best album included the word "demo" in the title and his second album was about writer's block, it's obvious Rashad sometimes gets in his own way. Following up last year's The House Is Burning with this leaked collection of demos and snippets may point a new way forward for him because it's even better than that excellent album. Warmth, immediacy, and a cutting self-examination are just some of the characteristics that have had me coming back to this over and over, along with the smeared, grimy beats. 

Megan Thee Stallion - Traumazine Wildly entertaining, vulnerable, and intricately assembled, Megan's second album proves her staying power. The best songs feature not only her sharp flow but also a kind of vocal counterpoint going on the the background, breath sounds, random words, and vocal tics creating an atmospheric tapestry. Ending with Anxiety ("They keep sayin' I should get help/But I don't even know what I need/They keep sayin' speak your truth/And at the same time say they don't believe, man"), the first 11 songs alone would have been enough to get Traumazine on this list. Things get a little patchier after that, with the pace slowing down and Megan becoming almost a guest on her own album. But when she's ON there are few others who can do what she does. 

Conway The Machine - God Don't Make Mistakes and Conway The Machine & Big Ghost Ltd. - What Has Been Blessed Cannot Be Cursed While this Buffalo-based rapper seems to be working all the time, God Don't Make Mistakes is only his second album proper after 2021's excellent La Maquina - and he's raised the bar significantly this time. When he ends Tear Gas with the line "I keep the guns and the drugs just for the paranoia," I couldn't help but think, "And for the lyrical content." But by the time you get to the extraordinary title track you realize there's nothing sensationalist about the gritty noir that defines his style. Over a grimy track by the Alchemist, Conway runs through a series of questions about the life-changing aftermath of getting shot ("Sometimes I wonder, if this Bell's Palsy didn't paralyze my grill in/Would there still be murals of my face painted on side of buildings?") ending with his mother praying over his grievously injured body in the hospital. It's a haunting finale that will have you hitting repeat so you can try to grasp how he pulled a new beginning out of that near ending. While God Don't Make Mistakes represents Conway's major label debut, What Has Been Blessed... finds him back with Big Ghost and showing no sign of losing touch with his roots. As he raps on Bodie Broadus: "I'm the main source of the culture, I'm love's professor/The one that every major label wanna all get next to/And that's just from recordin' pressure, all it cost was effort/Bars so electric, shit might could charge your Tesla." All never truer than on these two albums.

Freddie Gibbs - $oul $old $eparately After the haymaker one-two punch of Bandana, produced entirely by Madlib, and Alfredo, produced entirely by The Alchemist, I had some trepidation when I heard Gibbs was going the major label-multi-producer route. I was at least a little bit right to be concerned as there is definitely a more diffuse, diluted vibe to this collection. Even the concept - Freddie locked up in a Vegas hotel trying to finish his album - is not quite enough to make it cohere. But Gibbs is never less than committed when comes to the microphone there's nothing slack about his raps. The concept also imposes a number of skits on the album, which are amusing, but when you have a song as hot as Gold Rings, with its killer Pusha T feature, I kinda wish it didn't end with 30 seconds of tomfoolery, i.e. Jesus leaving a voice mail. They should at least put those on their own track so you can weed them out if you want to.

Prodigy - The Hegelian Dialectic 2: The Book Of Heroine While this collection is uneven, it's good to see Prodigy's planned trilogy finally coming to fruition. Following 2017's darkly elegant The Book Of Revelation - the last album released during his lifetime - this one addresses lighter concerns of "sex, drugs, and partying" as opposed to apocalyptic, political themes. Some of the beats feel demo quality but Prodigy's voice is always strong, rapping with intent. As on the romantic Low from the last Mobb Deep album, Prodigy actually, er, rises to the occasion of discussing sex and love on I Heart You: "Candle-lit rooms, shadows on the wall kiss/Her silhouette shape on the wall so thick/The flames on the wick dancin' to the music/Make our hearts melt like wax into each other palms." It's hard to know what he would have done differently, but I imagine he would be proud to have Big Daddy Kane, D.J. Premier, Faith Evans, his old running buddy, Big Noyd, and others on the project. Perhaps even more importantly, Prodigy's estate was finally able to resolve the business tangles that kept his work off of streaming services, making his indelible legacy available again. The final album in the trilogy, promised to confront death itself, is coming out later in 2023.

They Hate Change - Finally, New Even though their set was cut short at IndiePlaza last fall, at least the festival succeeded in turning me on to this Tampa-based duo. Vonne Parks and Andre Gainey combine tag-team, high energy raps with an eclectic landscape of beats that incorporate dub, drum & bass, and all manner of electronic dance grooves - sometimes in the same song. No dilettantes here, however, as they take full ownership of every sound. While they are aggressive in making it clear they stand apart from much of the hip hop universe (As Gainey raps in Blatant Localism: "It’s funny how y’all get excited about crime/I can’t deny, I thought them rhymes was really true to they lives"), it's less clear where they do stand lyrically - but the words sound good nonetheless, making for an assured package. No surprise, as they've been working their way up to this album since 2015 - hence the "finally" in the title. 

Pinkcaravan! - Bananaz and Eazy Bake Since 2018, when her delightful EP 2002 came out, we've been lucky to be gifted one or two songs a year from this unique artist. These two tracks do nothing to stop me from wanting more of her candy-coated hip hop confections. Perhaps 2023 will make that happen.

Saba - Few Good Things While nothing here quite matches the cinematic sweep and emotional depth of Prom / King, the standout track from his 2018 album, Care For Me, this third album is also more consistent. You can learn a lot about what he's giving us here just by the picture of his seemingly indomitable grandfather on the cover - and the ambiguity of the title. There is no bitter without the sweet, and vice versa, in Saba's universe. As he noted when describing the short film attached to the project, "An empty glass is full of air. An empty bank is full of lessons. An empty heart is full of memories." But this album is full - full of heart, soul, anger, humor, not to mention juicy beats, mostly cooked up by Saba and his Pivot Gang cohort. As Saba tries to just live life, I think you'll find him enriching yours.

Vince Staples - Ramona Park Broke My Heart While his last two projects didn't connect with me, in 2017 I highlighted Big Fish Theory for its "high tech" feel and Staples' "gritty and compelling" raps. Now, on his fifth album he's caught me again, although he's in a much more reflective mood. As the title hints, he's exploring his relationship to the Long Beach neighborhood that raised him. An example of the complexity and depth of his approach is When Sparks Fly, which uses Havoc's echoing beat from Mobb Deep's More Trife Life to provide atmosphere and drive for a love song between a man and his gun, playing with the many ways the language of romance can have a double meaning: "She said, "Baby, keep me closely, love it when you hold me/Know that I'm a real one, I don't do no ghostin'/I know that you love me, you don't gotta show me." Sampling the chorus from Lyves' yearning 2016 track No Love, with its "Lovers in arms" line, is yet another clever feint, making the song sound even more romantic. Of course, there's a subtext about why a young Black man in Long Beach would need a gun. As a bit of of autobiography in the otherwise bloody Magic notes: "Momma met my daddy, then they had me in the ghetto/Handed me a thirty-eight and told me I was special." Touches like that are what makes these songs, and the album, so haunting.

Billy Woods - Aethiopes and Church It's not uncommon for hip hop to come across as cinematic, the words making pictures in your mind that move with the music. Aethiopes, with a textured background by producer Preservation coming from a realm of deep knowledge of many musics of the African diaspora, comes across with the electric, intimate immediacy of an Amiri Baraka play. The Doldrums, for example, stitches together harpsichord stabs, Ralph Towner guitar fragments, throbbing drums, and brooding bass as Woods barks out a tapestry that links the slave trade with the drug trade, both of which can leave people stranded in the doldrums: "Thick mist, piff smoke, draw straws from clenched fists/Sinkin' ship, human souls in thе hull/He got the whole world in his hands, ice cold/Open them palms up, turned black as a ghost." Church features production from Messiah Musik and feels murkier and less coherent than Aethiopes, but still compelling.

Elucid - I Told Bessie Elucid is Billy Woods' partner in the long-running avant hip hop duo, Armand Hammer, and Woods appears on four songs and executive produced I Told Bessie. But as tribute to the love and support Elucid received from his grandmother, Bessie, who died in 2017, it's clearly very personal to him. The album is filled with languid, minimalist beats from a variety of producers, all of whom hew to Elucid's vision and give him space to spin his impressionistic rhymes. Impasse is one highlight, with Elucid interrogating his mortality over an off-kilter drum track and nocturnal horns: "Who will close the book, who ain't write my name down?/Who gon' hold the torch, what the cards say now?/Last good kiss, last call, the lights up/It's where the road splits, asphalt shakedown." With this album, Elucid has definitely written his name in the book of hip hop.

R&B

SZA - SOS In 2017, I praised SZA's "versatility and burgeoning mastery" on her debut, CTRL. Five years and, by all accounts, hundreds of songs later, we get more of the former and evidence that the latter needs no qualifiers. Of course, versatility can become a liability when you have trouble recognizing your strengths and weaknesses, which leads to some longueurs on this 68-minute album. But for every miss, like the rote pop of F2F, you get three hits, like the delicious revenge fantasy, Kill Bill (complete with Tarantino-esque video), the yearning Nobody Gets Me, or Ghost In The Machine, which finds power in sisterhood with Phoebe Bridgers, who guests on the song. Hopefully next time she doesn't feel the need to be all things to all people - after all, as proven by the best songs here, she's already perfect at being herself.

Kehlani - Blue Water Road While the first three tracks on this third album are in no way unpleasant, they feel unfocused, like a warmup. But when the rounded weight of the beat from Slick Rick's Children's Story drops on Wish I Never (one of a few well-deployed samples on the album) the momentum kicks in and doesn’t let up. Even Justin Bieber can’t interrupt the flow of song after song of sleek, emotionally engaged R&B. The ballads, like Melt, which starts off with little more than an acoustic guitar and a drum machine, have an urgency and a melodic inevitability that keeps you listening. When the burner is lit, Blue Water Road is a triumph for Kehlani and their main collaborator, Pop Wansel. The son of Philly Soul legend Dexter Wansel, Pop is in nobody’s shadow by now - and neither is Kehlani.

Phony Ppl - Euphonyus Over a decade into their career, it would be easy to take this Brooklyn-based R&B group for granted, but the fact is there aren't too many like them around anymore, such is the focus on solo acts in the genre. But that would all be immaterial were it not for the many varieties of charming tunes here, from upbeat electro-dance tracks like Dialtone and Warmest Winter, neo-disco like To Get Home (feat. Leon Bridges and The Soul Rebels, who lay down some nice horns), or a creamy ballad like Been Away, which rises to a glorious guitar-driven crescendo. Then there's Fkn Around, another electro track that airlifts Megan Thee Stallion in for a signature rap, complete with counterpoint, which only adds extra juice to the quintet's classic tales of infidelity. 

Yaya Bey - Remember Your North Star Bey comes across as self-effacing, with those lower-case song titles and that sweet voice, which assays jazz, reggae, soul, R&B, and hip hop with equal ease, but don't be fooled. The first words we hear are "Fed up bitch/I just won't let up bitch/I take my foot up off your neck when I feel like bitch," which clues you in to her steely resolve to realize her music and express her feelings, which center around the "deep wound" Black women have around finding love and being loved. Self-produced with assists from Phony Ppl’s Aja Grant and DJ Nativesun, the music ranges over all those genres in which her voice feels so at home. With 18 songs from 16 seconds to 4:25, there's almost a sense of cracking the code of someone's iPhone and scrolling through their voice notes. The vocal sound on a song like Street Fighter Blues only reinforces that vibe. Intimate, vulnerable, and powerful, you won't soon forget Yaya Bey or her music.

Michelle - After Dinner We Talk Dreams Having been lucky enough to catch this charming sextet in concert I am happy to report that everything you hear on this second album is real - the harmonies, the unity, the tunefulness, the grooves, the sheer delight they have in making music together, a feeling they seamlessly translate to the listener. It's also a remarkably consistent album so don't trust those Spotify play counts and only listen to the first four songs. Also give an ear to the Side Dishes single, which has two more great songs. There's a deep well here, so drink up.

Stimulator Jones - Round Spiritual Ring On his debut and subsequent instrumental album, Sam Lunsford displayed his dazzling, somewhat off-center facility at many forms of R&B and dance music. On his latest, he gives us another mix of related styles, from hearkening back to Shannon's Let The Music Play on Pain Inside to paying homage to the mid-70s Isley Brothers on Love Will Light Your Dreams, complete with a smoking hot guitar solo. The album's dreamy trajectory gets goosed by the uptempo rock of Peace, Love, Respect & Adoration, connecting him with other traditions. And it is all about connection - the album title may have originated in a misheard Prince lyric but is a good metaphor for the interchange between creator and listener and between inspiration and creativity. 

Lady Wray - Piece Of Me Twenty-four years on from her debut as a protege of Missy Elliott and Timbaland, nearly everything about Nicole Wray has changed - not just her professional name. Her voice is stronger and her artistic vision more her own, just to name two things. Some of what you hear on this third album was evident on 2016's Queen Alone, when she reemerged in the soul-revival orbit of Leon Michels, Lee Fields, and Charles Bradley. But while she's still recognizably in that world, the sound of Piece Of Me injects much that is new - whether a folk-like directness on Come On In or hints of dub and lovers rock on Through It All - into what can quickly become formulaic. This is also her most personal album, with her father and daughter making appearances, lending even further warmth. Follow her lead: invite the family, then put this record on.

REGGAE

Kabaka Pyramid - The Calling It took not only a 2023 Grammy nomination but an Instagram post from Damian Marley, who produced this third album, for this artist to gain traction in my eardrums. Granted, his output has been slow, with his debut coming over a decade ago. But this rich 15-song collection is a great showcase for his songwriting and toasting. Even if nearly every song has a guest, starting with the opening track, which features an effective sample of the late Peter Tosh,  Kabaka is a commanding presence more than able to hold his own with anyone in contemporary reggae. Grateful is a great showcase of his rhythmic flexibility, with verses seamlessly transitioning from rapid fire flow to stop-start segments. The song has a sweet hook sung by Jamere Morgan, grandson of Denroy Morgan, too, lending an additional sense of legacy to the track. For anyone waiting for Damian Marley's next album - his last, the excellent Stony Hill, came out in 2017 - this fills the gap very nicely.

Koffee - Gifted Nearly twice as long as her fine 2019 EP, Rapture, this gives us a chance to get to know Koffee's breezy, winning style better. Opening with X10, which has her casually singing over Bob Marley's Redemption Song, was a bold move, and many tracks have spare backing to keep the focus on her voice. Whether toasting intensely over Where I'm From or sweetly starting the party on West Indies, where she tosses in a hint of Lionel Richie's All Night Long, she's effortlessly versatile. 

Horace Andy - Rockers & Scorchers One of reggae's most legendary voices, Andy released two albums in 2022, Midnight Rockers and Midnight Scorchers, both brilliantly produced by UK dub magus Adrian Sherwood. This deluxe edition compiles both of them with two bonus tracks, giving us a cup that runneth over with passionate roots reggae. Several songs are updates, like This Must Be Hell, originally on his classic 1978 album, Natty Dread A Weh She Want. But he sounds so engaged, you won't hear complaints from me. He also covers Safe From Harm, the Massive Attack song, in convincing enough fashion that I wonder why he didn't do it in the first place. With so many of the great voices now gone, having Andy nearly at full strength is a gift indeed.

Dubokaj Meets Lee Scratch Perry - Daydreamflix With Perry's death in 2021, I was sure we would be inundated with subpar scraps from the master's workbench. Maybe they're out there - but this is not one of them. Recorded in 2017, Daydreamflix finds Perry working with Swiss-based dub scientist, Daniel Jakob, on a series of spacious, spacey dub tracks, heavy on the electronics and full of atmosphere. Jakob is not too reverent either, processing Perry's voice and treating it like just another color on his palette. A fitting addition to Perry's vast discography with the only mystery being why it took five years to reach fruition.

Dubmatix Meets Future Dub Orchestra - Frontline Dub Smooth, expansive, and never without forward motion, this collaboration between the Toronto-based producer and the Bristol, UK band is an object lesson in dub, if not quite as titanic as the Sly & Robbie connection from 2018.

Find more beats, rhymes, grooves, and rhythms in the 2022 archived playlist and follow the 2023 playlist to see what this year brings!

You may also enjoy:
Best Of 2021: Hip Hop, RnB, and Reggae
Best Of 2020: Hip Hop, RnB, and Reggae
Best Of 2019: Hip Hop, RnB, and Reggae
Best Of 2018: Hip Hop, RnB and Reggae
Best Of 2017: Hip Hop, RnB and Reggae
Best Of 2016: Hip Hop and RnB

Best Of 2021: Hip Hop, RnB, and Reggae

Last year, I only reviewed two hip hop albums, which must be a record low for me. Both of them - Madlib's Sound Ancestors and Tyler The Creator's Call Me If You Get Lost - were on my Top 25, too. But that doesn't mean I wasn't listening broadly and finding much to love in the genre, which, as Dr. Dre and company further proved on the recent Super Bowl Halftime Show, is as much American music as anything else. RnB and reggae also had their moments, with the former at its best when it didn't sink into cliché or pop cheesiness, and the latter always struggling mightily with its own past. Here, then, are the releases that stood out from the pack. Listen to the mix here or in the playlist below.

Atlas Jenkins - The Doomsday Device The cover announces the ambitions of this album to be nothing less than a hip hop Dark Side Of The Moon, an epic mind movie about the human condition - and it comes very close to succeeding. Kicking off with a monologue from My Dinner With Andre that ends with the warning, "Escape before its too late," Jenkins then proceeds to provide that escape through spacy grooves, a few questing raps, including some standout rhymes from Jack Harlow, and more monologues from the likes of astronaut Frank Borman (which seems to cast back to another progenitor, DJ Shadow's Endtroducing) and Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson. There's also a cover of the Beastie Boys' Flute Loop cooked up with sax/flute maven Benny Reid. Another collaborator is Preston Crump, known for contributing gooey bass lines to records by Outkast, Raphael Saadiq, and others. But overarching it all is the vision of Jenkins, who in his day job as an ICU nurse is pursuing the intersection of music and medicine. Take a dose of The Doomsday Device - it's over the counter but strictly prescription strength.

81355 - This Time I'll Be Of Use Pronounce it "BLESS." Indie hip hop from Indy, brought to my attention via Justin Vernon & co.'s 37dO3d (pronounced "PEOPLE") label. Production by Sedcairn Archives is both spare and sparkly, underpinning moody, reality-grounded raps and soaring sung choruses by Sirius Blvck and Oreo Jones. Their struggles and joys seem to become my own - pop music transference.

Kanye West - Donda While Donda continues the troubled trajectory of releases since 2013's Yeezus, West's last true masterpiece, this is more coherent than The Life Of Pablo, more varied than Jesus Is King, and better in every respect than Ye. It's also less approachable than Pablo and lacks JIK's concision. Filled with broad-stroke minimalism that has simple, repetitive structures blown up to arena size, there is an almost operatic or cinematic scale to everything here. In a sort of musical imperialism, some songs overstay their welcome or recur in alternate versions barely distinguishable from the originals. That said, there are more than a couple of real winners here, including Jail, Hurricane, Believe What I Say, Jesus Lord, Keep My Spirit Alive, and Lord I Need You, all of which have emotionally-connected raps and memorable melodic elements. As much as I loathe some of the people involved here (Da Baby and Marilyn Manson, to name two), perhaps there's a message in their inclusion about not being judged only by your worst acts. Musically speaking, they're essentially unnoticeable among the overall grandeur. If there's one thing West seems to have lost since 2013, it might be a ruthlessness toward his own art - something none of his collaborators have been able to inculcate again. Still, an utterly fascinating listen from a man whose talent remains formidable despite the surrounding chaos.

Isaiah Rashad - The House Is Burning "Weed couldn't settle my fire/Couldn't cover my pain," Rashad raps over the melancholy backing of Headshots (4r Da Locals), a standout track from his long-awaited third album. Unlike the tentative moves of 2016's The Sun's Tirade, this one finds him confident in himself, embracing joy, sorrow, anger, and lust in equal measure. He also displays a dazzling variety of flows, from staccato spitting to relaxed rhyming. While the gap between albums slowed his momentum, there's nothing stopping him now.

Conway The Machine and Big Ghost LTD - If It Bleeds It Can Be Killed
Conway The Machine - La Maquina  
The problem with this Buffalo-based rapper/producer is not that his rapid output dilutes his talent, but that he so damned consistent that he demands you keep up. Even as I write this, he has another great album out. That said, there are matters of degree and even by his standards, La Maquina is ahead of the pack. Whether chewing the mic on Blood Roses or uplifting the crowd on Grace (both featuring Jae Skeese, another product of Buffalo), Conway is fully in command. Don't be turned off by the long list of guests, there's no doubt who is calling the shots. Along with work for Conway, Big Ghost also produced The Lost Tapes by Ghostface Killah, and while If It Bleeds... is not as monumentally scuzzy, it's hypnotic and dank, giving the rappers plenty to work with, and they take full advantage for a thrilling ride.

Mach-Hommy - Pray For Haiti and Balens Cho (Hot Candles) Even more so than Conway The Machine, with whom he is connected through the Griselda collective, this NJ-based, Port Au Prince-rooted rapper is building a world of his own. Mostly working in obscurity (his real name is still unknown) since 2004, he emerged big-time with these two albums in 2021. Featuring woozy beats, off-center punchlines, and highly personal reflections alongside outlandish boasts - sometimes in Haitian Creole - both albums display a tight integration of words and music, like a soloist jamming over a jazz band that follows their every move. While the air of mystery might draw you in, you'll stay for the originality and a backstage pass to a place where the rules don't apply. And don't miss his bittersweet track $payforhaiti alongside songs with H.E.R. and Thundercat on Kaytranada's Intimidated EP.

Paris Texas - Boy Anonymous Neither from Paris, Texas, or Paris, Texas, this LA-based duo's debut is a completely assured introduction to their talents, which include making self-produced electronic beats that are are infused with a rock sensibility and pop smarts. The vocals, spoken and sung, are sometimes obscured to tantalizing effect like half-heard conversations from another room. At just over 20 minutes, it's guaranteed they will leave you wanting more.

Brockhampton - Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine "America's greatest boy band," as they like to call themselves, announced an "indefinite hiatus" to begin after their Coachella appearance later this year. Whether this proves to be their last album or not, there are no signs of flagging energy as they trade verses among themselves and a slew of notable guests (A$AP Rocky, JPEG Mafia, etc.) in trademark style. The music is full of color and catchy hooks, adding to the exuberance - and another reason they will be missed. 

Moor Mother - Black Encyclopedia Of The Air In which Moor Mother makes an album completely recognizable as hip hop while also sounding as if she's inventing a new genre as she goes along. Whether wielding an acoustic guitar, a modular synth, or a drum machine, everything she does has a ritual power. If you're seeking a point of entry into her distinctive universe, look no further. Also nice to hear Orion Sun on a few tracks. 

Pinkcaravan! - Pink Lemonade While I appreciate the "more is more" philosophy of some of the artists included above, Pinkcaravan!'s little gems brighten up my year with candlepower disproportionate to their length and frequency. This one charming song is what she gave us in 2021 and I savor every delightful second.

Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams Often lighter than air, Parks' songs are only occasionally in danger of disappearing entirely. But her strong pop sensibility - and that of her main collaborator, Gianluca Buccellati - lodges several choruses firmly in your ears and her emotional engagement gives the songs staying power. Is she capable of something utterly devastating like Cranes In The Sky by Solange, one of her inspirations? Unknown, but I'm pulling for it!

Secret Night Gang - Secret Night Gang While their fealty to the wonders of Stevie and the elements of Earth Wind & Fire is sometimes oppressive, that's more a result of me thinking too hard than anything they should be concerned about. While the psych-folk-soul epic of The Sun is still their strongest song, the album is proof that there is nothing they can't do in the jazz-funk-gospel-R&B arena and no limit to the sunshine they can bring to your life.

Silk Sonic - An Evening With Silk Sonic Well, goddamn if Anderson .Paak doesn't have me listening to Bruno Mars without cringing! The two are having so much fun in their Motown/Philly Soul (with a touch of Outkast) fantasies that it's almost impossible not to join in. The songs are strong, if not especially original, and the production gleams with .Paak's usual flair. Collaborating seems to have brought out the best in both of them so join the party or be a stick in the mud.

Stimulator Jones - La Mano It's been three years since his debut and Jones' music has only grown more organic, shading closer to jazz, but the grooves and gently left-field approach make it a nice fit among contemporary RnB, too. There are no vocals this time, just quietly dazzling virtuosity on a variety of instruments, including organ, synth, piano, guitar, drums, and bass. New vistas, including tv and film soundtracks, are opening up for the stimulating Mr. Jones.

New Age Doom - Lee "Scratch" Perry's Guide To The Universe An unexpected blessing from the now departed Perry, who answered the call from this Vancouver-based drone-jazz-metal collective and set them on a path to the dub side of the moon - and all the other planets. Led by drummer Eric J. Breitenbach and multi-instrumentalist Greg Valou, the album features a big cast, including two members of Bowie's Blackstar band, Donnie McCaslin on sax and Tim Lefebvre on bass. Perry's presence is appropriately spectral yet somehow fully in charge, like a Jamaican Gandalf goading his band of explorers ever onward. Not for dub purists and all the better for that. 

Pachyman - The Return Of... Another unexpected success, as Pachy Garcia of synth-punkers Prettiest Eyes indulges in his dub obsession with almost eerie fidelity to the original masters, most notably King Tubby. What keeps it from being a rote exercise in studio craft is Garcia's ultra-light touch, a sense of play that is infectiously delightful. 

Etana - Pamoja Occasionally you discover an unheard gem among the Grammy nominations, which is how I found the free-flowing joys of Etana as exhibited here, on her seventh album. Resolutely contemporary, but with an expansive gaze that takes in roots as much as dancehall, she lavishes everything with vocals that are both soulful and elegant. The lyrics could be sharper, but I'm not complaining - positivity and uplift are in short enough supply these days. There are also a number of guests, including the dancehall stalwart Vybz Kartel and the now iconic Damien Marley, who is too infrequently heard from (his last album, the excellent Stony Hill, came out in 2017). Marley is in fabulous form on Turn Up Di Sound, which only makes me wish harder for more from him. Etana's generosity with the mic leads to the album's only stumble, on a song called Fly, which features an execrable vocal from a character named Fiji. It's easily avoided, however, but don't skip this album. I'll be pulling for Etana on April 3rd, when they hand out the Grammys - it's about time a woman took the prize.

Find more beats, rhymes, grooves, and rhythms in the 2021 archived playlist and follow the 2022 playlist to see what this year brings!

You may also enjoy:
Best Of 2020: Hip Hop, RnB, and Reggae
Best Of 2019: Hip Hop, RnB, and Reggae
Best Of 2018: Hip Hop, RnB and Reggae
Best Of 2017: Hip Hop, RnB and Reggae
Best Of 2016: Hip Hop and RnB

Best Of 2018: Hip Hop, RnB And Reggae

My Top 25 only included one hip hop album, Pusha-T’s majestic Daytona, and no R&B (Natalie Prass notwithstanding!) but that’s probably more of a “It’s not you, it’s me,” scenario as there was plenty of stellar work in the genres throughout 2018. Black Milk’s FEVER demonstrated a new level of lyricism for the master producer and Cardi B.’s Invasion Of Privacy was top notch commercial rap with a sharp New York edge. Speaking of sharp, Telmary’s Cuban fuerza was like a cut diamond, Ghostface Killah’s Brown Album reveled in grimy beats and gritty raps, and Golden Chariots highlighted some exciting up-and-comers.

With Isolation, Kali Uchis delivered a deeply informed - and deeply funky - treatise on R&B and old school rhythm and blues and should have been nominated for at least three Grammys, Best New Artist among them. SIR dropped the subtle and witty November early in the year but it promptly disappeared, even though the TDE Championship Tour found the crooner sharing the stage with label-mates Kendrick Lamar and SZA. Hollie Cook’s Vessel Of Love put some rocksteady reggae in the Top 25 but Sly & Robbie’s collaboration with Dubmatix also echoed seismically. The albums mentioned above are represented at the top of the list with some call-backs to previous posts, followed by an unordered list of other standouts.

Record Roundup: One Day In 2018

SiR - November

Sly & Robbie Meet Dubmatix - Overdubbed 

Record Roundup: Hip Hop Hors d’Oeuvres

Black Milk - FEVER

Cardi B. - Invasion Of Privacy 

Ghostface Killah & Apollo Brown - The Brown Tape

Joey Gallo, Cole Hicks & J Clyde - Golden Chariots
Telmary - Fuerza Arara

Best Of 2018 (So Far)
Kali Uchis - Isolation

Various Artists - Black Panther: The Album Kendrick Lamar masterminded this collection of songs based on Ryan Coogler’s magnificent comic book blockbuster. Given the tear he’s been on for the last few years Lamar can be forgiven if this wasn’t quite the imperial statement I expected. I also imagine that all the money and cooks in the mix when you dabble in Marvel’s “cinematic universe” may be some of the cause behind some of the album feeling smoothed out and sluggish. Even so, it’s damned good, and if it’s the one hip hop album some parts of the film’s audience are exposed to, they’re getting a fair representation of the current approach to the idiom. The inclusion of some young African artists added intrigue and the the songs with SZA (All Of The Stars) and Anderson .Paak (Bloody Waters) fully lived up to all the promise. Also worth checking out is Black Panther: Original Score by Ludwig Göransson, which combined sweeping strings with trap rhythms, the voice of the legendary Baaba Maal and sounds sampled from an archive of African music. Fascinating stuff and actually edgier than Lamar's compilation. 

Kids See Ghosts - Kids See Ghosts Long after Kanye West's MAGA BS has died down and the holes he’s shot in his feet have healed over, we will still have to consider the run of five short albums he pumped out last spring. It’s almost universally agreed that Daytona was the strongest of all and his own ‘Ye the weakest (and the worst of his career), leaving the other three to jockey for position in the middle. For my money, while some of the songs on Nas’ Nasir hit home, they were too often sunk by the rapper’s poorly thought out rhymes. Teyana Taylor’s KTSE had some sweet jams but I was never totally convinced by her embrace of graphic sexuality on a few of them. She could take a few lessons on such things from Kali Uchis!

That leaves this collaboration between West and Kid Cudi, an artist who impressed me years ago with Night And Day before seeming to slide into Drake and Weeknd-style solipsism. Not here - both artists kick each other in high gear, with West injecting some spacious post-punk, dubbed out nihilism into his tracks and Cudi singing well and with emotional conviction. West’s raps hearken back to an earlier time, before he seemed intent on pissing everyone off. In short, it’s a solid album that delivers a few welcome surprises. If not for West’s red hat and the muddled thinking going on beneath it, Kids See Ghosts would likely have had a broader impact. 

Noname - Room 25 Coming out of the same rich Chicago scene as Chance The Rapper, Noname has been honing her style for the last few years. Room 25, her second album, finds her at her best, with her conversational, poetic flow swathed in lush, jazzy surroundings courtesy producer Phoelix. Listening to Noname (real name: Fatimah Warner) grow up in public should continue to be one of the most compelling facets of hip hop for a long time to come. 

Mick Jenkins - Pieces Of A Man Jenkins, another Chicago rapper on a mission, announces his ambition by cribbing a title from one of Gil Scott-Heron's classics. This album is a deep and rich display of his talents, giving us some "free thought" on many subjects, including a "red-hot case of dot-dot-did-it-dot-dot-dash, the re-morse code, the damned if I know..." or what GSH called the "Ghetto Code." Of specific concern is that "there are more and more things black people thought they had a handle on that they sorta seen slowly slip away from them." Those musings come in a track called Heron Flow, but don't worry that Jenkins is trying to be someone he ain't - this is a thoroughly contemporary hip hop album, which honors his hero's independent streak way more than if he tried to imitate him. Giving gritty voice to our moment, Jenkins earns the right to use that title over the course of the album, which is certainly not something you can say about other people biting titles of great albums (yes, Yo La Tengo, I'm looking at you). Keep your eye on Jenkins - his third album is bound to be a corker if he continues on this hot streak.

Saba - Care For Me This album has an uneven beginning, but by the time you get to Calligraphy, the third track, you will be convinced of Saba's abilities, especially the way he can inject furious emotion into his songs while still remaining in control. The heart of the album lies in its penultimate song, Prom / King, in which Saba confronts the murder of his cousin. It's an extraordinary use of hip hop as memoir and nearly singlehandedly reimagines the power and possibility of the music. But while I can't help but be thrilled by everything Chicago is giving us musically, it's more than a damned shame that so much of it is rooted in pain and tragedy. Here's to brighter days for Saba and all in the Windy City.

pinkcaravan! - 2002 Setting her childlike musing and reminiscing within a candy-coated laptop-generated universe makes every pinkcaravan! release a delight. It’s all sweet, so she also wisely keeps things short, leaving you wanting more rather than running off to the dentist. 

Anderson .Paak - Oxnard Malibu, Paak's last album was a joyful explosion of killer grooves (often with him behind the drum kit) and ultra-confident rapping and singing about growing up in L.A.'s environs. Oxnard continues the formula, with results that are nearly as good except for some muddled lyrical moments. The guy is massively talented but might want to take some more time writing his next batch of songs.

Mad Professor - Electro Dubclubbing!! This massive slab of sound proves yet again that, in the 21st Century, nobody dubs it better than this Guyanese-born British producer and vocalist. The rhythm sections are tighter than the clampdown and the chord changes and melodies are enough to inspire - or resolve - many emotions. Translation: this album will make you feel fantastic.

Various Artists - Snoop Dogg Presents Bible Of Love All rise: the "Rev." Calvin Broadus (AKA Snoop Dogg) has assembled a classy, splashy contemporary gospel collection, lavishly populated by some of the finest singers around, both sanctified (Rance Allen, Kim Burrell, Marvin Sapp, etc.) and secular (Charlie Wilson, Patti Labelle, Faith Evans, etc.). It's also a showcase for the family of Snoop's co-Executive Producer Lonny Bereal with no fewer than ten people bearing that surname involved in the project. Special note should be made of the contributions of Michael Lawrence Bereal who provides crucial support on bass, keyboards, tambourine and strings. At over two hours, it's certainly too long but the good stuff is as good as the good book deserves. Hallelujah!

Various Artists - Everything Is Recorded By Richard Russell On this eclectic collection by the head of XL Recordings (which releases everyone from Adele to Thom Yorke), he brings together some of his less-established signings like Sampha (whose excellent Process was my #8 album of 2017), the French-Cuban duo Ibeyi, British rapper Giggs, a singer named Infinite (also the son of Ghostface Killah) for mostly powerful night visions. Ghosts in the machine include Curtis Mayfield, Keith Hudson, Grace Jones, Peter Gabriel and Green Gartside of Scritti Politti. But even if all these names mean nothing to you, I can fairly well guarantee EIRBRR is going to give you something you can't get elsewhere. Standouts include Wet Looking Road with a supremely confident Giggs ("I ain't never going to need that click!") interacting with a glistening Hudson sample, Mountains Of Gold, which finds Sampha, Ibeyi and another rapper, Wiki, making hay over Jones' Nightclubbing, and Bloodshot Red Eyes, an intimate slice of starlit R&B with Infinite receiving subtle accompaniment from Gartside. Russell has the curator's knack - I wonder what he'll put together next time.

Chloe X Halle - The Kids Are Alright When I reviewed their 2017 mixtape/EP, The Two Of Us, I concluded by saying, "Reading around the web, I get the idea that Beyoncé fans are waiting for something bigger from these teenagers. I hope they maintain their delicate but intense minimalism, poetic lyrics, and vocal restraint, without falling into radio-ready convention." I'm happy to report that the Bailey sister are mostly sticking to their guns, layering their preternatural harmonies over spare tracks of synths and programmed drums. I never would have expected them to become go-to providers of theme songs for movies and TV, but the inclusion of Grown (from Blackish) and Warrior (from A Wrinkle In Time) doesn't interrupt the hypnotic flow of the album. Thank goodness their song from Trolls was left off! The soundtrack work can have the effect of making their lyrics a bit too general, so it's welcome that songs like Fake (with a feature by Kari Faux) and Down come from a more personal place. Considering they're both under 20, they still have a lot of living - and singing - to do, and I couldn't be happier following along.

Stimulator Jones - Exotic Worlds And Masterful Treasures Multi-instrumentalist Sam Lunsford has elbowed his way into the tuneful and retro-styled club populated by Remy Shand and Meyer Hawthorne, although he's odder than both of them. His colorful, mostly electronic R&B has hints of the 70's and 80's but also sounds slightly otherworldly, as though something was both lost and gained in translation. I discovered him on Sofie's SOS Tape - if you missed that tip, plug in here.

Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs That title strikes me as ironic as this short (15 songs in 24 minutes) album seems to celebrate the producer's art more than the rapper's. But since Sweatshirt (real name: Thebe Neruda Kgositsile, AKA randomblackdude) has his hands all over the sonics, I now have a new appreciation for his skills. Having so many short songs gives it the feeling of a collage (he considered releasing it as a continuous track) and it really is a fascinating conglomeration of murky sounds, with the voices, his and those of a few guests, just more textures from which occasionally arresting images arise: "We cellophane your story so it stays/Since birth mama raised and burped me, I ain't changed/I'm a man, I'm just saying that I stayed imperfect" (from Veins). I've often had my problems with the offshoots of the OddFuture collective (except Frank Ocean) but I seem to be finding more to love in Sweatshirt's imperfections. That could mean he has changed - or maybe I have.

MIKE - War In My Pen This intriguing character is one of Earl Sweatshirt’s main collaborators on the above album and this murky collection underscores how he might have contributed. However the lines of inspiration run, this is a feast of tightly edited electronics, fragmented sonics and MIKE’s slurred vocals. Like the Sweatshirt record, listening to it in one sitting (not hard, it’s under 30 minutes) is the way to go, rather than focusing on individual tracks. Both records make a strong case that the future of hip hop will sound something like them. Whether what follows is as artful, however, remains to be heard. 

Cypress Hill - Elephants On Acid The title is an accurate description of the marauding stomp of the beat-driven tracks on this, a remarkable return to near-form for a group a quarter century from their debut. DJ Muggs is the true star on this brawny slab, assembling narcotic grooves for B-Real and Sen Dog to spit their stoner tales over. While some of the experiments fail, there’s more than enough meat here for a mighty meal. 

Parliament - Medicaid Fraud Dogg Bad cover art and a digital-only release (CD is coming later this month) did not promise much for this overloaded album, the first under the Parliament name since 1980’s Trombipulation. But George Clinton is an atomic dog who never seems to entirely run out of tricks and the fact that so much of this is not only funky as hell but also memorable is quite an achievement. Even the most low-key tracks make you realize that not only have few people succeeded at reconciling funk with modern R&B and hip hop, not that many people have even tried. And for every song that has you marveling at the durability of the Parliament groove, there is another that takes you to a new place entirely, like the slinky, haunting Backwoods, which really shows off the vocal talents of Tracey Lewis-Clinton, George's son. Lewis-Clinton has been perfecting this sort of thing since the 90's (sometimes under the name Trey Lewd) and is a big presence on this album as a writer, producer and vocalist. Other members of the Parliament family are here, too, such as Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis and Gary "Mudbone" Cooper, which is a comfort when the "in memoriam" list (including Cordell "Boogie" Mosson, Garry Shider, Bernie Worrell and others) is so long. With our nation seeming less groovy all the time, praise and gloryhallastoopid to Clinton & Co. for reminding us that Sir Nose d'Voidoffunk may win a battle or two but he will never win the war!

Push play on the mix, which includes a song from all of these in an order suitable for your next rent party. You can also dig deeper into the year's releases in AnEarful: 2018 Archive (Hip Hop, R&B And Reggae). Did I miss something? P.S. Keep up with this year's output here.



You may also enjoy:
Best Of 2017: Hip Hop, R&B And Reggae
Best Of 2016: Hip Hop And R&B
A Vacation In Hip Hop Nation
Best Of 15: Hip Hop
Best Of The Rest Of 14: Hip Hop And Jazz