20. Pusha T – DAYTONA: What a year Pusha T had in 2018. In addition to proving that nobody is untouchable with “The Story of Adidon,” he released an exceptional hip hop record in DAYTONA. Kanye’s production is a match made in heaven with Pusha T’s voice and his flow. Both of their contributions make for a tone of confidence that makes it easy to latch onto several of the tracks here. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few years time, the beat for “The Games We Play” will become one of those instrumentals that morning DJs will pick for rookie rappers to freestyle over. The Kanye praise on “The Games We Play” isn’t even to downplay Pusha T’s performance on the track, the meat of the lyrics is full of clever word play, innuendo and plenty of braggidacio lyricism that you can come to expect from a rapper with the kind of clout that Pusha has. The line that sticks with me the most in the project is from the first verse of “The Games We Play” “This ain’t a wave or phase, ’cause all that [expletive] fades/This lifestyle’s forever when you made”. I find that this pair of lines captures where Pusha T sees his career right now, he no longer has anything to prove, it’s time to make a legacy. Lucky for him DAYTONA is just another addition to an already impressive resume.

Notable Tracks: If You Know You Know, The Games We Play, Infarred

19. Saba – CARE FOR ME: Saba’s sophomore album, CARE FOR ME, is a heartfelt collection of diary-like confessionals surrounding his anxieties, vices, and several illuminating stories surrounding his relationship with his late cousin Walter. Saba’s staying power on this album lies in his ability to evoke a precise mood from track to track; it gives this project a multifaceted, raw, and genuine quality that I find myself coming back to time and time again. “LIFE” is the perfect example of what I mean; Saba opens the track composed with well written bars delivered over the sounds of a string bass from his backing band. As the song progresses, the instrumental builds, swapping the string bass for a louder, thumping bass line, and likewise, Saba’s delivery becomes more aggressive, his lyrics become more raw, as if he loses composure under the pressure of his survivor’s guilt; it’s a masterful blend of acting, audible queues, and writing to evoke a genuine response from the listener. “PROM/KING” serves as an emotional core to the project as Saba recounts his prom night experience, all to the tune of a nostalgic, haunting piano track. At first it feels relatable, full of awkward but universal experiences (IE: being rejected, feeling ashamed of one’s virginity, the ever looming embarrassment teens feel towards their parents), up until Saba gets jumped by his prom date’s older brother. The prom story is a prelude up to the songs inevitable conclusion, it shares the blossoming of Saba’s relationship with his cousin Walter, up until his untimely demise. CARE FOR ME plays like a home video mixed with a superhero’s origin story, and the leading man of that story is its superstar Saba.

Notable Tracks: BROKEN GIRLS, LIFE, PROM/KING

18. Quit the Curse – Anna Burch: Anna Burch continues the long-standing singer-songwriter tradition of singing about the one universal message: unrequited love at the hands of a former lover. While I joke about this road being well-tread, Anna Burch approaches the theme with a perspective that will likely remind you of her contemporaries (while not completely analogous, I keep thinking of Margaret Glaspy’s Emotions and Math), without losing any bit of authenticity. Throughout the project, Burch airs out the personal details of a relationship where both individuals have differing levels of investment. Lines like “You scare me with your indifference, I like you best, when you’re a mess,” on “2 Cool 2 Care,” or the verse on the song “Asking 4 a Freind,” in which Anna details feeling more vulnerable than her unnamed partner (in spite of the fact that he was the one that cried when they were high), or the lines on “What I Want” where she resolves to getting a new lover because her previous one has moved on and she wants to prove that she won’t “play the victim”. When all’s said and done, Anna Burch paints a picture of the petty and desperate people we are prone to becoming when we still have feelings for those who won’t reciprocate them in kind. The story she tells, while at times is a bit vague, it’s one the listener will have no trouble inserting themselves in, at least those who have ever found themselves on the losing side of a rejection.

Notable Tracks: 2 Cool 2 Care, Asking 4 a Friend, Quit the Curse, Belle Isle

17. (((echo chamber))) – MC Paul Barman: If you want to listen to lyrical, miracle rappers, very few did it as well as MC Paul Barman on (((echo chamber))). Most of the time, rhyming for the sake of showing off your ability to rhyme is so boring to me, but Barman transcends the egotistical, fake deep hobby and turns it into an admirable art form. To really get an idea of what I mean, I’d just recommend that you check out the first verse of the opening track “(((echo chamber)))”. Luckily, this isn’t just a 48 minute slog of heady rhyme schemes, there’s plenty of depth and humor to the tracks that makes for a rewarding album for those who stick with it. One of my favorites here is “Youngman speaks on (((race))),” wherein the narrator of the song gets mad about the fact that white people are only given one type of skin color. Barman goes on to take this silly set up and turn it into a thoughtful criticism of white people that would use the phrase “race baiting” whenever they read an article about Black Lives Matter. The flow on “(((happy holidays)))” is equal parts inventive and frustrating, the beat is a sample of that earworm of a Christmas song “Sleigh Ride”, and every time you anticipate Barman rap with a similar cadence to the song it’s inspired by, he breaks away from the expectation and uses a completely different flow. It plays off like one of those videos where a DJ trolls his audience with a long buildup, only to give them a fake drop. MC Paul Barman’s work on (((echo chamber))) is a unique, dense, inspired approach to hip hop that fans of lyricism will want to dig into.

Notable Tracks: (((echo chamber))), Youngman Speaks on (((Race))), (((commandments))), (((happy holidays)))

16. Judas Priest – FIREPOWER: Judas Priest is back? AND they sound like vintage Painkiller Judas Priest? Good lord this is a triumphant return for a group that many assumed would never return to form after K.K. Downing left the group in 2011. FIREPOWER is familiar without feeling tired; it’s aggressive without feeling sloppy. All in all, it’s a project that serves as an excellent introduction to the band, or as a nice reminder to old fans that they’ve still got it. We waste no time at all as Rob Halford kicks things off on the opening track “Firepower” with a patented wail into the mic that he’s done countless times throughout his fifty years as a musician! Dude’s 67 years old and he sounds like he hasn’t lost a step. Without missing a beat, the next track “Lightning Strike” keeps the momentum going, Scott Travis is relentless on the drums, Richie Faulkner rises to the occasion on the lead guitar, everybody brings their A-Game, making for a major highlight on the album. A Judas Priest album, especially one of this caliber, was one of the biggest surprises of the year for me, and I for one was blown away by the aftermath.

Notable Tracks: Firepower, Lightning Strike, Traitor’s Gate

15. Earl Sweatshirt – Some Rap Songs: Your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper is back after a multi-year hiatus with a surprise album at the end of the year. Some Rap Songs is a project that’s well worth the wait and a reflection of the circumstances with which it was released. Some Raps Songs comes out in the midst of Earl mourning his recently deceased father, as well as his uncle Hugh Masekela, in addition to all the internal baggage that you can expect on a traditional Earl Sweatshirt outing. All these anxieties blend together into a distinctly choppy and “dusty” sounding project (listen specifically to the song “Peanut” to see what I mean by dusty). Earl wanders from concept to concept, not staying on any one particular thread for too long, as if he’s just beginning to unpack and sort through his emotions for the listener. Traditional Earl fans might be frustrated with a project that has a heavier emphasis on the production (or they might be like me and just be happy that there’s new Earl), but this avant garde style felt like the natural next step for the artist that made I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside: An Album by Earl Sweatshirt. As if it were ever possible, we get an even more intimate look into Earl’s tortured mind for better or worse. While there is plenty to love on the front half of the record (“Cold Summers” feels like classic Earl, and that beat switch on “Ontheway!” is pretty magical), the heart and soul of the project are the final three songs, specifically where Earl surrenders the floor to his mother, father, and Uncle Hugh. Between the duet Earl made of his parents on “Playing Possum” and the track “Riot!” that samples his Uncle Hugh, it’s a cathartic tribute to figures that were clearly influential to Earl. And while he thinks he might never be good enough to carry on his legacy (as outlined in “Peanut” with the lines “Family saw you on that stage, left it not amazed”), the best he can do is revere them through his own artistic pursuits. While Some Rap Songs might not have the neat and tidy ending that one would hope for Earl (IE: The lyrics “Flushin’ through the pain, depression, this is not a phase”) I hear the album’s conclusion as a man who at least takes comfort in the shoulders of the giants that he stands on.

Notable tracks: Cold Summers, Ontheway!, Playing Possum, Peanut, “Riot!”

14. Eric Taxxon – The Killer: This album will without a doubt be the weirdest one I recommend on the list this year. Not necessarily because of the content (I actually find it to be pretty accessible as an ambient album on its face, save for “Cowardice” and “Hot Club Swing”). The Killer is the soundtrack/companion album for a YouTube video essay about a webcomic (reread that sentence, there’s no mistake there). Normally I wouldn’t recommend soundtracks, let alone one for a YouTube video essay, but the work that Taxxon put into this project is worth of any and all recognition. I’m amazed at how much content Taxxon is able to pack into an album that is little more than 30 minutes. Every track is layered and packed with more samples than I can reasonably keep track of, you’ll hear everything from video game sound effects, old-timey swing samples, some singing that I can only describe as Tiny Tim’s performance on “Living in the Sunlight,” sirens, synth chords in virtually every sound you can imagine, and of course the eerie whisperings of a madman threatening to harm somebody over videogames. Two highlight tracks for me are “Four Panels and Zero Words” and “Hareton’s Dream.” While they are completely separate, they both share a lot of the same qualities (the warm, exaggerated synth chords, a gradual build up to a major, emotional, payoff) that give them a tone of triumph. Fans of ambient synth music will have a fun time unpacking this one.

Notable Tracks: Four Panels and Zero Words, Hareton’s Dream, Sonic

13. Punken – Maxo Kream: One of the things I struggle with the most with the current wave in hip hop is a lack of authenticity that a lot of the younger wave seem to exhibit. This is in no way the case with an artist like Maxo Kream. His debut studio album Punken depicts the full picture living the life of a modern gangster using the most effective evidence at his disposal, his own personal testimony of growing up in the Houston slums. What I love most about this project is Maxo Kream lets his personal story do the talking, there are moments when he’s sympathetic, and others where you might find him frightening. The most comprehensive view we get of Maxo is on the second track of the album “Grannies”. Amidst the relentless, steady flow, Maxo recounts his flawed family and the terrible living conditions he grew up in, particularly on the hook:

“Wake up in the morning, load my pistol, can’t leave home without it
Come from where you see a lot of bodies, but don’t talk about it
Hard to find the plug, I middlemaned that package on consignment
Hookers, strippers, crackheads, robbers, trappers, all in public housin’
Uncle Bo was stealin’ from my Granny, can’t leave shit around here
Roaches, rats, and ants inside my pantry, can’t leave food around here”

In spite of it all, Maxo ends the track with a line of gratitude “Grinding with my family through the struggle, hold ’em down regardless”. The decision to end “Janky” with an audio clip from a local news report on Maxo’s criminal history serves like a corroborating testimony, it lends an air of legitimacy to all the stories you hear in the project, and not just as standard rap braggadocio. While Punken wraps up with “5200 (Bonus),” I consider the real conclusion to this project to be “Roaches,” the melancholy piano is the perfect backdrop to Maxo’s recounting of how Hurricane Harvey impacted him and his family not but 4 months prior to the album’s release date. It brings to the fore a vulnerable family man who has deep ties to where he comes from, in spite of all the hardship that he displays throughout Punken (especially with the spoken word section that final reveals the true meaning behind the album’s title).

Notable Tracks: Grannies, Capeesh, Janky, Roaches

12. JID – Dicaprio 2: Since his distinct honor as the strongest rapper in this year’s XXL Freshman edition, hip hop fans have been waiting with baited breath for JID’s next move. Several months later JID answered with his 2nd studio album Dicaprio 2, a collection of thirteen (fourteen if you count the 50 second intro) tracks packed to the brim with bars and an eclectic selection of flows that makes for one of the most technically sound hip hop albums of 2018. I think of this project more like a highlight reel of JID’s talents than I do an album with a common thread from start to finish; which I’d say is perfect for an artist whose career is just getting started and needs to turn heads. The album kicks off with a bang with the content dense “Slick Talk”. There’s plenty to unpack on this track, but what stands out to me is the extended metaphor of JID’s relationship with rap and where he seems himself now, specifically in the “post-honeymoon phase” of the relationship. “Off Da Zoinkys” is another notable effort on this project, the steady building beat towards its chaotic finish works well with JID’s nasally delivery to sell this song as a desperate anti-substance plea. Meme name aside, “Despacito Too” is probably my favorite track on the album if only for the following series of lines

“They saying, ‘What you wanna be J.I.D? What you wanna be kid?
A doctor, a lawyer, exploring the coral reef shit?
A football player, a track sprinter, I know you run fast
Oh you gon’ be a rapper with your dumbass’”

I love JID’s point here, suggesting that these other careers are just as much of a pipe dream as the one he’s chosen, yet only one of them is ridiculed. All in all, Dicaprio 2 shows the clear talent and ability of one of the music industry’s rising stars.

Notable tracks: Slick Talk, Off Deez, Off Da  Zoinkys, Just Da Other Day, Despacito Too

11. boygenius – boygenius: If there was a Marvel like team up of indie sadgirl singer/songwriters, it would likely look something like boygenius. “boygenius” isn’t so much an experimental triumph of three formidable musicians creating something unique, but rather the obvious showcase of why these three should have been working together much earlier. “Bite the Hand” serves as the signature punch in the gut that you can expect from a Baker or Dacus track, the echo of “I can’t love you how you want me to” plays us out at the end as the ultimate conclusion of a broken relationship, it’s haunting tone lingers with me, making up what I would say is one of my favorite moments in music from 2018. “Stay Down” is another entry in Baker’s series of songs about self-harm and boxing metaphors that I fall for as vulnerable but bold. To me, “boygenius” is at its best when group gives one another the opportunity to take front and center, while the others support by setting a backdrop that will allow their temporary lead to shine.

Notable tracks: Bite the Hand, Stay Down, Ketchum, ID