I'm happy to report that the music site everyone loves to hate, Pitchfork, has released their top 50 albums of 2006 list, and their hip-hop picks were nearly identical to mine. Our lists overlap on 5 picks (and my list was only 10 long).

They honor Ghostface with the best rap album of the year, putting his fantastic Fishscale at number four. Pitchfork rated my number one pick, Hell Hath No Fury at seven. T.I.'s King came in at 19. Also on the list was Timberlake and Timberland with Futuresex/Lovesounds, Jay Dee with Donuts and Lil Wayne's mixtape, Dedication 2. Unfortunately, though, Pitchfork also included the shitty Food & Liquor, a pandering album of questionable worth.

Anyway. Not to say I told you so, but I did.

brett at 11:18 AM on December 19, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have to revise my year end list one more time, because I happen to have stumbled across another fantastic album for 2006--and really, this is something I should have been listening to for months. I'm not sure how I missed this. I guess there's just too much good music out there.

The album is Donuts by the one and only Jay Dee. I was a huge fan of his collaboration with Madlib, Jaylib, and in fact picked it as best album of the year for 2003. In that context, I should have been all over this followup, but just wasn't.

It's amazing. Donuts is an instrumental album that Jay Dee put together on his death bed. He died three days after this thing came out, and it is just fantastic. More than 30 tracks of soul samples over some expertly crafted beats. Since discovering this, I've spent at least 3 nights in a row laying on my back just listening to it, over and over. This is an album that you have to listen to in its entirety to appreciate.

Man, it really is something.

Check it out, if you can.

brett at 08:11 AM on December 19, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

I stole a few photos from Hilary. They are all from last weekend, specifically Thursday night at O'Rourke's.

This is Jeremy and I, and the time is approximately 12:30 a.m. What you can't see in this picture is the seven pitchers of beer that Ryan ordered about 5 minutes prior. We certainly were in for the long haul that night. Anyway, more of the stolen photos over at Flickr.

brett at 01:45 PM on December 13, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, I've put together a best albums list for 2006, but I figure I should probably also give some recognition to the best mixtape of the year, The Return of the Yardfather:

This year, the best mixtape is courtesy of New York rapper Saigon, and put together by Clinton Sparks and DJ Kay Slay. This CD is absolutely fantastic, really showcasing Saigon's talent as one of the top 5 lyricists out of NYC right now. His debut album will drop next year, and if it's anything like this mix, it should be a classic.

If you're looking to get a hold of this, I found a torrent link here, but I'm not sure how well it's working. Let me know, or I can just burn a few copies if anyone is interested.

Update: Runner up goes to Crime Mob with their mix, Mob Sh*t.

brett at 10:29 AM on December 13, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

So a guy I work with put together a Quicktime VR composite of our office and cubicle farm. Now you can see just what my company looks like on the inside. Can you spot my desk? It's not too hard, if you look closely.

Update: Here's a second panorama put together by another guy I work with. My desk is also visible in this shot.

brett at 09:07 AM on December 13, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Walker and Eric had recommended this movie, and last night I finally was lucky enough to see it. Great stuff, it really was.

It's basically this hardboiled detective story that is set in a high-school, with all the main characters being students. The dialogue alone is enough to warrant a viewing.

brett at 08:29 AM on December 13, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (4)

Ugh. Runny nose and cough. Being sick is no fun. But I'm a soldier.

brett at 10:00 AM on December 12, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ah, the DN banquet. Another year of ridiculousness. It just never seems to end. This year's banquet weekend didn't exactly top the past banquets, but it was certainly interesting in it's own way. Love, loss, alcohol and drugs, it was a time for happiness and a time for sadness. The torch was passed and so was the beer bong. By the time morning came around, all that was left to show for the entire, mad weekend was a beer stained suit and a whole lot of garbage.

I think my date and I looked pretty hot. I mean just look at the glazed over eyes, the red cheeks; this is the face of the DN banquet.

I actually took it pretty easy this year, comparatively speaking, but part of that could be due to the fact that Thursday night was complete and total insanity: 40 people at my apartment, give or take, tons of alcohol, mayhem, music, stripping, dancing, passing out, and more. One for the ages, to be sure. A classic.

Three hours of sleep was about all I had on Thursday night before I worked 8 hours then returned to the alcoholic fold at 4:30 p.m., this time fully equipped with a good suit to drink in. As Ben Waler (whose birthday is today) often says: "The only thing better than getting drunk is getting drunk in a suit."

Amen.

Weekend awards go to: Ryan A., for stripping at the Q to LL Cool J's "Doin It" and for just generally being the pant-less man of the millennium. To Robin for peeing out my window. To Maggie for her stellar partying regimen that the rest of us mortals can only hope to compete with. Also to Kevin Z., just because.

I'll be adding more photos to my Flickr page as they become available.

brett at 10:51 AM on December 11, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Go buy the new Nas album. Stop thinking about it. When it drops on December 19th, go buy yourself an early Christmas present. Just do it. It's so good I've devoted three posts in less than 24 hours to it. And the thing is, this release just keeps growing on me.

The first seven tracks are unbelievable. Each one could be considered "Song of the year." This is a triumph for rap music.

Update: I'm revising my best of the year list, and putting this as co-number one with Clipse.

brett at 01:33 PM on December 08, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let's take a look at this year's Grammy nominations in the rap categories. There's some hilarious stuff in there--and by hilarious I mean that Yung Joc is up for song of the year. Ha!

The nominees for Best Rap Album include In My Mind by Pharrell, which is just great. Makes you wonder if anyone has even listened to the album--it's not rap!. Oh, and it sucks. And as much as I like Chamillionaire, his song "Ridin' Dirty" should not be nominated for anything, let alone Best Rap Song of the year.

More good stuff in the Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group category... somehow Outkast has a nomination here, and for one of their worst songs, "Mighty O." As for the Best Rap Solo Performance category, well, I'll tell you that two artists on my year's worst list are nominated here: Busta Rhymes and Mos Def. I love the two of them to death, but the shit they put out this year was garbage. Complete and total garbage. Busta and Mos were great rappers, in fact, both of their freshman LPs are certified classics (The Coming and Black on Both Sides). Unfortunately, another thing they have in common is that anything they have touched this decade stinks like a Monday morning turd.

Gotta love the Grammy's.

And also, I'm not gonna say I told you so (because I can't yet), but I will at least reiterate the claim I made way back in May about Gnarls Barkley having a shot at the top spot this year. They are nominated in both Record of the Year and Album of the Year categories, I expect them to win at least one of these, probably Record of the Year.

Place your bets. I'll put 5 on it.

Oh, and if Yung Joc wins Best Rap Song, then Nas was right, hip hop is dead. I mean, I love Yung Joc, but song of the year? C'mon. You put in his CD, get drunk and grind on some random women at a party while chanting "It's goin dowwwn!" and bouncing back and forth. You don't honor the guy at the biggest awards ceremony in your industry.

Update: As I was editing this post I reread the part about Pharrell getting a nomination. What a joke. The guy is a great producer, but man that album sucked. I mean, man. Words can't even describe how bad it is.

So right now, at full count, the Grammy's have nominated 3 artists on my worst of 2006 list, but what do I know?

brett at 12:53 PM on December 08, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I gave Hip Hop is Dead a few more listens. Probably about half a dozen, actually. This is really good. I'm somewhat angry at myself for putting together my year's best list without having heard this first. It's a masterpiece.

Nas has rebounded with probably the second or third best album of 2006, and definitely his greatest musical triumph since Illmatic. He shows his depth and creativity throughout, and uses hardly any filler, all while sticking to an overarching theme--that hip hop is dead. Though even Nas himself sounds a bit conflicted about it, and on some tracks seems very ambiguous as to his true feelings about rap music.

One of the more interesting moments in the album belongs to the track "Who Killed It?" which comes directly after the titular track. At first bizarre, it becomes clear that Nas is actually serious as he raps with not only a faux-1930s mobster mentality, but also a Dick Tracy-esque accent. A lot of heads in the hip hop forums online have been going crazy about this track, with opinions on the cut ranging the gamut: from Nas fell off, Nas is absurd, Nas has lost his mind... to Nas is a genius, Nas is brilliant, etc. I'm definitely with the latter.

Also, this album is going to have a ton of hype around it when it actually drops, just because Nas is calling out the whole genre. The subject matter is incendiary, and is already causing other artists (see Young Jeezy) to say some ridiculous things about Nasir Jones. Don't be surprised if he simply sits back while people are yaking and counts his paper.

The beginning of the song "Blunt Ashes" is worth quoting, simply because of how comedic it is:

Yo I wonder if Langston Hughes and Alex Haley got blazed before they told stories...

Ha, ha Nas. That would be funny. Anyway, good stuff. Pick it up. It's 1000 times better than Jay-Z's new album. And now for a final thought from Nas, off of the first track "Money Over Bullshit":

Rule one cocksucker keep my name from your tongue / Rule two, thought you knew, don't fuck with God's son / Rule three, see, matter fact, I just wait, if you reach top five then I'ma eat you alive / Each one of ya'll guys that claim hip hop is still alive / Like ya'll ain't in agreement with Nas, I said: IT'S DEAD MOTHERFUCKER. It's dead bitch.

brett at 09:29 AM on December 08, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

I got an advance of Nas's new album today. It's not bad. It's always hard for me to gauge his albums, though, as I tend to have a dislike for them at first, then months later rediscover them to great surprise at how good they are. Weird, I guess.

Yeah, and Nas also seems to be pretty angry at mainstream hip hop on this thing. He takes shots at everyone, and repeats the "hip hop is dead" mantra incessantly.

It's too bad that the track with Jay-Z was released before the album, it sort of left this release with few surprises. I think it would have been quite a bit more interesting to keep the Jay-Z/Nas track ("Black Republicans") on the backburner to hype the album, instead of simply tossing it out there to promote the thing. Overall, not too bad, but there's also a bit too much singing on this album.

brett at 09:21 AM on December 07, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I just purchased a board game today. Hopefully it will arrive by next week. I'm incredibly excited about this, and actually am beginning to think that it may be the best purchase I have made during 2006.

Yes, that's right. This board game is called "War On Terror: The Board Game," and it looks absolutely fantastic. From their website:

It's got suicide bombers, political kidnaps and intercontinental war. It's got filthy propaganda, rampant paranoia and secret treaties... and the Axis of Evil is a spinner in the middle of the board. You can fight terrorism, you can fund terrorism, you can even be the terrorists. The only thing that matters is global domination - err, liberation.

For 2 to 6 players. They only made 5,000 of these babies, and I've got one in the mail. I'll let everyone know when it arrives so that we can have a little board gaming fun this holiday season. Also, the art on this thing is just fantastic. I can't wait to see it in real life.

brett at 12:14 PM on December 06, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is a short, short story that Walker and I wrote in 5 minutes last night by each writing a line, and passing the paper back and forth between one another.

I feel a dull pain in my chest when I walk, sometimes I'll stop and find a bench to sit on, but typically I push onward, ignoring the stinging barbs in my heart. Once I asked a doctor about it. We were at a bus stop and he told me I should make an appointment at his office if I wanted help, but he was taking a bus, so how good of a doctor could he have been?

I often think back to that day, and how my life would be different had I somehow connected with him--taken his advice and had my chest checked--but here I am now, bound to this wheelchair, legless and blind.

The two things were completely unrelated, the chest pain and my current ailment, but the doctor was one of the last things I saw, one of the last people I kicked, so it's natural to think back to him and also the bus ride that stole my mobility.

"Hey, I'm a doctor, you should get that looked at!" he said as I was standing nearby, clutching at my chest through my shirt.

"Fuck you!" I said back, gritting my teeth hard against the immense pain and then landing a swift blow to his kneecap with my left leg.

The bus pulled up right then. The door opened and the doctor said, "I am a doctor and I demand this bus be rerouted to the hospital." He clutched his knee and the driver saluted him. I'm still not sure why I got on the bus.

brett at 08:14 AM on December 06, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3)

It's time. Albums of the Year, 2006. In order. But first, a bit of a preface to let you know how I came up with this lineup.

The major factor determining an album's place on this list is it's staying power. Am I going to play this again in three or four years? Is this a CD that actually brings something new, or is it just repeating tired, old hip-hop motifs? Is it stale? So much of the hip-hop we have been given in 2006 was stale--risking absolutely nothing and thus providing the listener with only recycled beats, unoriginal flows and little reward for their purchase. Simply put: these types of albums will be forgotten, quickly.

What I'm hunting for is the album that will last, the album I will be playing 10 years from now.

This has been a major issue for me when looking at current hip-hop releases. It's as if there has been a drought in terms of "classic releases," albums that are so powerful and overwhelming that even within a few years they ascend to the hallowed ground of "classic," to be constantly referenced and re-referenced by other artists. The late 90s and early 2000s seemed like an endless well of this kind of material, though when I look back on last year's "Best of 2005" list, I am underwhelmed. The two albums that seem to have the most replay value, the most staying power, are Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101 and The Documentary. The rest are, well, lukewarm.

I'm constnatly asking myself if the new albums that I consider to be good are actually good or if they are simply better than the other trash that has come out this year--that is to say that my current rating system is diluted by the massive amount of shit being pumped into my ears. I want albums that are not only good, but good in comparison to their predecessors. Can these albums stand on their own, next to the classics of the previous decade? If not, they shouldn't be on the list.

So here's my list for 2006--a list I've put at least a marginal amount of thought in to. I've stuck almost entirely to rap; though I have been listening to a lot of other things, I feel more comfortable reviewing and rating albums within a genre I understand well. This means that if I omitted your favorite indie-rock band, it's not personal. Send me your personal recommendations, and also let me know your opinions on the following picks of my own.

2		E-40 - My Ghetto Report Card - The hyphy movement has arrived! "Let me direct traffic for a minute!" E-40 delivers the most creative flow of the year, and maybe of the decade, completely reinventing his classic nasal delivery over beats that are sparse, spaced-out and just unbelievably sick. He reminds us that rap music can really be a whole lot of fun. The album could ride on the strength of it's singles alone, but has no need. E-40 saw what everyone was doing in the rap game this year, and went in the opposite direction. We'll see how long it takes for copycats to pop up, because, "It's real walkie-talkie mane!"

3		Justin Timberlake - Futuresex/Lovesounds - This is the new Michael Jackson. Justin isn't just making pop music anymore, which becomes apparent in a quick glance at the track listing: only one song shorter than 5 minutes. Timbaland and Timberlake have come together in perfect harmony with memorable songs that take risks and yet can all move a crowd. From beginning to end, Timberlake has truly shown that he's come of age. Here's looking forward to what's next.

4		Birdman & Lil Wayne - Like Father, Like Son - Lil Wayne is clearly the lyricist of the year, having fully matured from Hot Boy into viable competitor for "Greatest Rapper Alive." Of the two album he released this year, this team effort with Birdman proved to be superior--Weezy's raps are finally held together by the complete production package. Wayne is so brash on this record, he spits a verse while chewing on a bag of potato chips, and it sounds great.

5		T.I. - King - This was probably the best summer album of the year, courtesy of DJ Toomp's fantastic, rolling "What You Know About That?" though this is album is hardly built on the strength of one single. T.I. shows some of the finest lyricism coming out of Atlanta, and utilizes a sundry of producers all with great success.

6		Dr. Octagon - The Return of Dr. Octagon - Of Kool Keith's four releases this year (or was it five?) this one was probably his most experimental, with Keith hardly rapping over anything and instead doing a kind of free-form poetry over deep, bass-heavy beats that are anything but familiar to rap fans. The album is characterized by rapid tempo switches and lyrical play that will leave most listeners scratching their head, and nodding it at the same time.

7		AZ - The Format - This is New York hip-hop at it's finest. Even a decade and a half after his guest appearance on Illmatic, AZ manages to keep a grimy, street sound to his lyrics. He supplements his story raps with beats by the likes of DJ Premiere. If you want to hear the best thing out of NYC this year, AZ, not Jay-Z, is your man for 2006.

8		Ghostface - Fishscale - Increasingly a pioneer, Ghostface has come through with another album demonstrating his commitment to more complex sounds, and much more intense rhymes. Ghost is completely off the hook with his storytelling here, from the hilarious "Whip You With a Strap" to the fantastic verse on "3 Bricks," a retelling of Notorious B.I.G.'s classic "Niggaz Bleed." Ghostface does it all here in his finest album to date.

9		Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere - I didn't want to include this on the list, but how couldn't I? And what can be said that hasn't been said already? The only comment I have is that this is hip-hop music for people who hate hip-hop. That said, it's excellent.

10		Spank Rock - YoYoYoYoYo - This is one of the best experimental albums of the year, from newcomers Spank Rock. A great blend of misogyny, fun and spastic rhythm that will have listeners up out of their seats in no time. This is 2006's answer to the party album--not that we are all tired of Southern bounce, but it's just time for something a little different. "What you know about the women with the legs up? Stop actin' like a bitch and throw your hands up!"

So there's the list. I wish that it could be a bit longer, but I decided to limit it to ten albums as anything longer would make things too easy on me. Narrowing it down was the hard part. There was a lot of interesting music out this year, and though it might not be on par with some of the great efforts we've heard in previous years, there were still some gems. Below are a few secondary lists:

Close Calls
The Game - Doctor's Advocate
A.G. - Get Dirty Radio
Young Jeezy - Thug Motivation 102: The Inspiration
Gwen Stefani - The Sweet Escape
Aceyalone - Grand Imperial

Worst of 2006
Gucci Mane - Hard To Kill
Busta Rhymes - The Big Bang
Jim Jones - Hustler's P.O.M.E.
Lupe Fiasco - Food & Liquor
Youngbloodz - Everybody Know Me
Diddy - Press Play
Parrell - In My Mind
Kanye West (I know he didn't release anything, I don't care.)

I wanted to give the underground a bit more love, but it was dry. J-Zone's best effort was only an instrumental. Jedi Mind Tricks came weak. Most of the rest was just garbage as well. The best, as I listed above, was probably A.G. and Aceyalone with their respective albums. Nothing groundbreaking, but good music that you should treat yourself to nonetheless. I'd love to hear opinions on this list, as well as lists of your own (hip-hop or otherwise).

Update: I'm revising this list to include Nas's album Hip Hop is Dead as co-number one with The Clipse. It's just that fantastic, but came out after I made this list. Go get it.

brett at 10:17 AM on December 04, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2)