He's a man as conflicted as any other, he just says it with a smile. On 'Cute' he flirts with an Instagram crush on the slow jam 'WiFi' he duets with Erykah Badu, using a wireless Internet connection as a metaphor for human connection and on 'Password' he's the cheating lover whose infidelity is discovered when his girl gets into his phone. is a modern romantic concerned with love, lust and the technology that mediates them. 'You said that you aaare celibate well, let's celebrate the first time youuuu get this pipe,' he sings in a jovial timbre on 'In a Minute.' More than a rap Cheshire Cat, D.R.A.M. On his debut LP, the Virginia native talks as greasily about flirtation, seduction and sex as any of his hip-hop contemporaries do, but unlike them, his dirty talk is sung and rapped through an audible smile. So does the knowledge that, as he explains on 'Letter to the Free,' he's still standing despite the fact that, 'We staring in the face of hate again/The same hate they say will make America great again.' M.R.ĭ.R.A.M., the ebullient voice behind 2015's 'Cha Cha' and 2016's bubblegum-trap hit 'Broccoli' is well aware that it's not what you say, but how you say it. The boom-bap classicism of Karriem Riggins and Robert Glasper's production holds him down. It may have not yielded much radio support – programmers didn't know what to do with its main single, 'Love Star,' just like they underplayed its 2000 predecessor in neo-soul romance, 'The Light.' But his call to arms on 'Black America Again' resonates, as does his claim, 'We need Avas, Ta-Nehisis and Cory Bookers/The salt of Earth to get us off of sugar/And greasy foods.' 'The Day the Women Took Over' is a fantasy about 'Michelle, Oprah and Rosa/The mayor of Chi is Liz Dozier.' 'Joy and Peace' is a lyrical fever dream 'Pyramids' is a throwback to the Afrocentric attitudes of golden-age rap. Black America Again arrives during a year when his usual intensity seems timely.

candidate, is at his best when he's as serious as cancer. T.A.Ĭommon, whose talent for composing understated gems makes him a perpetually overlooked G.O.A.T. But this album is more than a 10-track eulogy: It's a well-executed meditation on love, loss, fatherhood and being black in America. 2'), all the while wrestling with his own conscience and plotting his exit from street life ('Foldin Clothes,' '4 Your Eyez Only'). 1') and becomes a doting father ('She Mine, Pt. The friend struggles for survival ('Immortal'), finds love ('She Mine, Pt. Not some one-dimensional street tale, Cole humanizes the protagonist by presenting him as nuanced man, not a stereotype.

The album tells the tragic story of Cole's childhood friend, a young man whose stint as a drug dealer ultimately lead to his murder. On his fourth studio album, 4 Your Eyez Only, Cole pulls off the unlikely feat of satisfying those fans while quieting critics who are wary of his penchant for regrettable punchlines and moralism. Though Cole is often maligned by critics and Twitter's peanut gallery, he's also loved by legions of IRL fans who see earnestness where his detractors see sanctimony. 'Ostensible,' because he's able to move millions of albums and sell out shows at Madison Square Garden despite his dark-horse positioning. Not nearly as ubiquitous as Drake or as acclaimed as Kendrick Lamar, J. Little more than beats that sound good through cell phone speakers (D-Jay the Dance King's 'Aspect Sploosh' already sounds like it's playing through some) these raps, chants and dance cues gather the magic of pop without the tyranny of 'verse chorus verse.' Import it into your own playlist and add Rae Sremmurd's 'Black Beatles.' C.W. Songs like Silentó's, 'Watch Me,' M-City J.R.'s 'Addicted to my Ex' and iLoveMemphis' 'Lean and Dab' capture the minimalism of mid-Aughties crunk, snap and ringtone rap – often biting it wholesale. This streaming-only collection gathers the soundtrack to the last few years of viral Vine and YouTubes, literally beginning with the sound of confused old people (see the intro to of Zay Hilfigerrr & Zayion McCall's year-dominating 'Juju on That Beat'). We call them 'viral crazes,' but these gloriously stark funk bites are just the new 'Land of a Thousand Dances.' We call them 'memes,' but it's just American folk tradition blasted through the ADD velocity of cyberspace, all playing like modern reboots of the Isley Brothers' 1962 'Nobody But Me': Nobody can do the dab like I do, nobody can do the stanky leg like I do.

Best hip hop albums of all time 2016