Not much to add that the title doesn’t explain. All in all, a fair quarter for rap albums: two great ones (UGK 4 Life, Born Like This), one great mixtape (Superbad), and a half dozen solid to very good efforts. For better or worse, contemporary hip-hop is about keeping up. Product is increasingly disposable. It’s hard to care. I get it. But if you dig, it’s out there, the onus is just on you (I do what I can, but time + outside interests are a motherfucker.)
Yes, I wish that the names Rick Ross and Asher Roth conjured jello-eating, high-waisted, Floridean retirees, rather than the two biggest names you’re supposed to like. And yes, I often spend days like yesterday–flashing back to ’93 Yo! MTV Raps and the video for Da Youngstaz’s ‘”Crewz Pop.” But I’m going to Coachella today, and for once, not in any mood to complain–now off to cop a Hadley’s Date Shake.
LA Times: The Quarterly Report–The Best Rap Albums of the First Quarter of 2009
Download:
MP3: DOOM-“That’s That”
MP3: UGK-“Swishas and Erb”
ZIP: Boosie-Superbad: The Return of Mr. Wipe Down (Left-Click)
MP3: Camp Lo-“Gotcha”
MP3: Exile-“The Sound is God”
MP3: Finale-“One Man Show” (prod. by Black Milk)
MP3: Blu-“Amnesia”
MP3: Del-“Get It Right Now”
ZIP: Tiron-Ketchup (Left-Click)
MP3: Harmonic 313 ft. Elzhi & Phat Kat-“Battlestar”
