ATG09: The Year In Hip-Hop [Songs]

40.
The Roots - "How I Got Over"

Who would've thought these guys had any reinvention left in the tank? After doing nightly gigs and singlehandedly keeping Jimmy Fallon on this side of relevance, ?uestlove,  Black Thought and the gang dug deep and came out with something more soulful, upbeat and smooth than any song they've ever made. It's difficult to believe we're saying this in 2009, but we can't wait for the next Roots album.


39.
Z-Ro - "Vince Young"

When Young leads Tennessee to a miracle 9-7 record following a dismal 0-6 start he had nothing to do with (just two more weeks), Texas will be bumping this whether or not the Titans actually crash the playoffs.


38.
The Cool Kids - "Jump rope"

In their 2+ years on the scene the Kids have slowly, quietly expanded their territory beyond that of the default hipster rappers with fresh sounds and a lower profile. "Rope" doesn't sound like anything on The Bake Sale, but it might be the most haunting and poignant song they've cooked up yet.


37.
Freddie Gibbs - "Flamboyant (Freestyle #2)"

Absolutely not freestyled, no way, too technical and mapped out. Yet it's a fresh, cold plate of revenge and a narrative and fuck freestyles anyway unless you're Weezy: "I ain't into internet bloggin' because a nigga really out here robbin'."


36.
DOOM - "Cellz"

You pretty much have to hear this one. Keep the lights on.


35.
Charles Hamilton - "The Penthouse Elevator"

I'm an apologist for this now reviled, fallen internet wunderkid. Beyond the terrible banners and inexcusable internet bragging and maddeningly gross, overwrought web site (everything you hate about blog music, in other words) lies a stone cold producer with a future.





34.
Theophilus London - "Hum Drum Town (extended version)"

With friends Mark Ronson and Sam Sparro, Theo expands on the most sing-along ready track from his epic, new-wave hip-hop mixtape. Play it in 2010, maybe someone will have caught up to him then.


33.
Elzhi - "Glow"

Producer Jake One sparkles as motormouth rapper takes chill pill and waxes to the constellations.


32.
Kid Cudi, Kanye, Common - "Pokerface"

Kanye pulls one of his favorite tricks, flipping the meaning of a sampled vocal, and turns the ubiquitous Gaga track into a fresh, funny G.O.O.D. Music posse cut. It's officially a Cudi single, but it would fit nicely on one of the early Freshman Adjustment tapes. The suits tried renaming this "Make Her Say" for the album, we're going with the title originally envisioned by Kanye when he posted this on campus.


31.
Lil Wayne - "Ice Cream Paint Job freestyle"

Rebirth is as terrible as we feared; prison draws near; Wayne lost his chokehold on rap. Just before Halloween, Weezy embellishes his iconography with a mixtape full of effortless flows over big radio beats. Thank you.


30.
Kidz in the Hall - "Flickin'"

Chicago Kidz with Ivy League pedigree deliver old school bounce with a new school twist. An irresistible hook.


29.
Erick Sermon - "Like Yeah Main"

One of those Nahright posts you overlook and listen to accidentally and one measure into the sped up modern rock sample you're like yeah, man, this is hip-hop, stupid.


28.
Blakroc - "Ain't Nothin' Like You (Hoochie Coo)"

On an album marked by the back-splatter of freewheeling experimentation, "Ain't Nothing Like You" is the purest product to emerge from the ether.  Jim Jones is in rare form and Mos Def and Dan Auerbach's mournful crooning mix magically with pleading guitar wails.


27.
Black Milk - "Set Go"

Under two-minute demo of textbook Motown samples layered with Milk's own, improving raps. A Dilla-Slum Village legacy pledge, Black Milk sets table for a monster 2010.


26.
Freeway and Jake One - "Know What I Mean"

Vintage fire from Philly Freezer with some help from streets favorite, Mr. White Van Music himself.


25.
Wale, J. Cole, Melonie Fiona - "Beautiful Bliss"

All Roc Nation, all glorious horns, strings and keys. The next gen heirs to the doomed Roc A Fella dynasty get philosophical over the sounds Jigga and Freeway used to wreck. J. Cole steals the show. Roc 4 Life.




24.
BK One featuring Phonte and Brother Ali - "Here I Am"

Mediocre beat, skippable second and third verses, Little Brother's Phonte lays down the year's finest flow with perfect zingers: "Don't want a little guac I want the whole avocado...I make you sing it like the alma mater...That bullshit is Maury Povic rap and I am not the father."


23.
Drake, Nispey Hustle - "Killer"

The best song Drake made that the radio never got a chance to wear out.
This leaked  unceremoniously shortly after early album recording sessions reportedly began. If this song, with a deadly cameo from neo gangsta Nipsey Hussle, is what got left on the cutting room floor, Thank Me Later can't come soon enough.


22.
Lupe Fiasco - "Fire"

Save for the cut and pasted Jimi Hendrix hook, a beastly night flare throwaway from Lupe Fiasco. Is it Lasers already?

 
21.
Raekwon, Ghostface, Cappadona - "10 Bricks"

Simply the most murderous beat and crime narrative combo since "Ride Around Shining." This one's more relentless. More fishscale than Fishscale.



20.
Clipse, Cam'ron - "Popular Demand"
 
The best Pharrell beats are the most effortless: one repeating phrase I could bump for hours.


19.
Fab, The Dream - "Throw It In the Bag"

A summer swag anthem of the highest quality. Type of shit for the 1st and 15th.


18.
Freddie Gibbs - "What It B Like"

Polow Tha Don passes down a knocking, structured, surefire hit, Gibbs (sounding like a faster Scarface) keeps up. You can take it how you wanna take it.


17.
Chip Tha Ripper - "Movie"

This beat is like syrup, and Chip Tha Ripper's baritone narration must be something like that "Ambien-induced haze" horny golfers are reportedly into. What makes this kid from Cleveland a cut above the rest is his knack for charming and imaginative storytelling. "Movie" takes that angle to its logical extreme.


16.
Big Boi, Gucci Mane - "Shine Blockas"

Like Andre 3000's fourth "Art of Storytellin'" installment in '07, a perfect MP3 that offers hope for future OutKast. Here's hoping this one actually nets an album. ATG misses Kast albums so much they'll spend 20 minutes at a dinner party defending Idlewild.




15.
Kid Sister - "Life On TV"

Sis cooks up a hit single every bit worthy of the Kanye-assisted "Pro Nails." She may be on MTV these days, but her sound still beats with the heart of hometown Chicago.


14.
Kanye West, Eminem, Drake, Lil Wayne - "Forever"

The moment we realized Drake wasn't inflated stock, the night we spent hours arguing who went the hardest. Only consensus: not Lil Wayne.


13.
Rhymefest - "Exodus 5.1"

Fest is a cantankerous, disgruntled dude. Ever read his Twitter? Still, it's easy to love him when he gets into righteous indignation mode over a sped up soul beat and a lectured intro from Cornel West.


12.
Wale, Freeway, Young Chris, Beanie Sigel - "Cypha"

Fuel for summer league hoops and I'm driving to the Rosewood Rec Center just jamming this 9th Wonder beat.


11.
Beanie Sigel - "I'm Not Your Average Cat"

Perhaps the most disturbing story in rap this year was the final nail in the coffin for the Roc Boys: Jay-Z's spirited, cred-carrying band of merry men basically broke up after a decade of major label busts and badass Hot 97 freestyles. The reason? Mixed business. Listen to this personal, raging diatribe for the details.




10.
Michael Jackson - "This Is It"

Hip-hop's heart stopped and broke in late June with the sudden, ultimately careless passing of Michael. For a few wondrous, ceremonial weeks we danced vibrantly and honestly to once discarded jams like "Why You Wanna Trip on Me."

Months later, after the covers and specials and televised send offs, the admittedly exploitative but worthy and triumphant concert film used this as its banner: dusty takes from the '80s written with Paul Anka, manifested via opportunistic strings and brought to life by new, heavy backing tracks by his brothers. 




9.
Das Racist - "Combination Pizza Hut/Taco Bell"

A summer jam you laughed with and immediately posted on your wall. Two degree-carrying smartasses say it all (a scathing indictment on fast food nation; a plea for peace in a war-torn world; that feeling of being high and hungry and lost; sociological burning at American gentrification) in one Abbott/Costello-inspired bit that repeats for three minutes:

"I'm at the Pizza Hut."

"I'm at the Taco Bell."

"I'm at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell."


8.
Rick Ross, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, T-Pain - "Maybach Music pt. 2"

I like when West brags about his real estate purchases in Austin, Texas. I love the millionaire spirit: three kings preaching the good life like scheming infomercial televangelists. I wish my crib needed custodians.


7.
Mayer Hawthorne - "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out"

One man retro show's crowning achievement is more falsetto. More falsetto!




6.
Drake - "Best I Ever Had"

The freshest, most acclaimed and ubiquitous single of the year plays it cool ("I can make that pussy whistle") and vulnerable ("Sweat pants, hair tied, chillin' with no makeup on: that's when you're the prettiest"), striking that rare cross-gender tone few emcees have captured post-LL Cool J.
Building on a smart, random ass AM soft rock sample (Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds' "Fallin' In Love"), the poster child for tomorrow, the golden boy, the Canadian Situation, owns it.


5.
Jay-Z - "Empire State of Mind"

The illest monster cut on the year's biggest blockbuster wasn't the street single or the radio crossover joint, but a by-the-numbers city anthem produced by some guy called Al Shux and elevated by the unlikely Alicia Keys. Hov's first #1 single ever. And 13 years in, somehow it seemed right on time.


4.
Ghostface Killah, Estelle, Vaughn Anthony - "Paragraphs of Love"

An aging, longing, prestigious gentleman meets a pregnant beauty and offers shelter, sautéed shrimp. The synths sing, John Legend's little brother steals show with not only heroic vocals, but a beautifully written bridge.


3.
Mos Def - "Casa Bey"

On The Ecstatic, Mos Def crafted a brilliant album no one expected, and he did it by going places no one dreamed. "Bey" is an expat's exclamation, a tour through global party funk on an album with more foreign influences then our Secret-Muslim-In-Chief.  Its inspirational chants to the power of self-determination and prayer are soul stirring.




2.
Jay Electronica - "Exhibit C"

The underground hero came down from the mountain with Justin Blaze at his right hand, and this is what the tablets read. Hip-hop has always searched for innovators, and Jay Elec seized the blogosphere with arresting rapped poetry that boasted more soul than his significant other (one Erykah Badu) and more authentic grit than his fellow New Orleans natives. And he did it without following any of the rules - an air of mystery and opaqueness where you would expect a Twitter account and mixtape to be. "Exhibit C" takes a Just Blaze banger and overlays it with Jay Elec's signature spiritual calm and wisdom. The next phenomenon from the streets isn't a rapper or a hustler: he's a shaman. A soothsayer. A mystic.





1.
Drake - "Successful"

Drake is the closest thing to Vince Chase our culture's real-life star-making machine has produced. The 23-yr-old rising superstar had a fairytale year with a little bit of help from his friends, and "Successful" was their anthem - their mission statement. In a lot of ways, it was ours, too. I want the money, the hoes, the clothes...I suppose. I just want to be successful by the metrics that define the genre because that means you motherfuckers are listening.

Contributors: Ramon Ramirez, Reggie Ugwu