Kanye West, J. Cole, Drake, Eminem, Wale, Jay Z, Pusha T, 2 Chainz, Big Sean, A$AP Rocky, French Montana, Juicy J, Kid Cudi and Lil Wayne— what do these rappers all have in common? Each of these heavy-hitters dropped full-length studio albums in 2013. The crazy part is, this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Other young artists on the rise such as A$AP Ferg, B.O.B., Tyga, Tyler the Creator, Earl Sweatshirt and Troy Ave all put out full-length projects; while Joey Bada$$, Kid Ink, Problem and Stalley each dropped EPs last year. Have a penchant for nerd rap? Childish Gambino and Danny Brown also dropped albums. Want more lyricism? Joe Budden and Talib Kweli filled that void. Looking for more traditional gangsta rap? Yo Gotti and Freddie Gibbs had you covered. You smoke? Wiz Khalifa and Curren$y put out another mixtape together. Are you an old school hip-hop head? Bun B, Snoop, The Lox and Ghostface Killah had something for you. MMG and DJ Khaled both put out collaboration projects. Gucci Mane and Mac Miller each put out two albums (one of Mac’s was a live album) and E-40 put out three albums at the same damn time! All in 2013!
Sidebar: And there were still names left off this list! Not to mention many rap fans (such as myself) were listening to work put out in the second half of 2012 by Nas, Rick Ross, Lupe Fiasco, T.I., Game and Kendrick Lamar well into 2013. And then there was Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.
In retrospect, 2013 was truly a banner year for hip-hop. Sooner or later though, fans would have to pay for this bounty of music produced last year. And so far, they’ve payed dearly for it in 2014. It’s sort of like the 2013 & 2014 NBA Drafts, but in reverse.
During a recent conversation I had with Kenneth Hicks — author of the upcoming book Natural Life — he posed the question to me, “what was the most memorable or significant moment in hip-hop this year?”
My apprehensive response: “Boosie coming home??”
The streets got what they wanted.
Aside from that, the altercation between T.I. and Floyd Mayweather and the Kimye wedding (I really hate that I just used the phrase “Kimye”), there really hasn’t been much for rap fans to cling to this calendar year. In fact, from a strictly musical standpoint, fans have only been able to sink their teeth into the brief back & forth between Jay and Drake, which really wasn’t much of anything.
Schoolboy Q’s solid debut Oxymoron hit number one on the charts in its first week, however it failed to truly capture the public’s imagination. Perhaps Q was unfairly expected to fill his labelmate Kendrick Lamar’s shoes after his debut album took over hip-hop like Jordan vs the Blazers, but even Schoolboy himself admitted in interviews that he was still waiting on his one big hit, and that was after he finished recording his album. Pharrell’s solo project G I R L features the biggest hit of the year, and one of the biggest of the 2010s, but “Happy” isn’t a rap record and G I R L isn’t a rap album. We’ve also seen releases from Cudi, Kid Ink, Iggy Azalea and YG, none of which came close to setting the streets ablaze.
YG’s project was heavily produced by DJ Mustard, the one beatmaker who appears to be closest to owning 2014. You see, producers are a lot like defensive backs in the NFL. Every few years, there’s a new jack that breaks through and reaches top-of-mind status within the football community and is universally recognized as the league’s best DB. Just a few short years ago, it seemed inconceivable that Darrelle Revis would relinquish this imaginary belt anytime soon, but Richard Sherman managed to usurp the title. Prior to Revis, Nnamdi Asomugha was supposed to be the man, but he got exposed the second the ink dried on his huge contract with the Eagles. After signing a one-day contract with the Oakland Raiders in December, Nnamdi is now “retired” at age 32 (it was all good just a week ago…at least he’s got Olivia Pope to comfort him). Champ Bailey and Asante Samuel held the crown too, and even toda,y some will argue Aqib Talib, Joe Haden and Patrick Peterson are more deserving than Sherman. But Sherman’s got the juice now— that is until he gets hurt or the talent around him falls off. Then the torch is passed again.
DJ Mustard appears to be the premiere producer of the moment (hence, he closed the show at Summer Jam last night), the way Mike WiLL Made It was each of the last two years and Lex Luger was in 2011. Although, Mustard hasn’t completely wrestled the belt away from Mike WiLL, as the Atlanta’s producer “Move That Dope” is on par with anything Mustard has put out of late, which raises another interesting point.
What would most rap fans classify as the top top song of the year so far? Is there one record that has both the streets and the charts on smash? “Trophies”? “Fancy”? Something by Pitbull??? Nope, Pitbull is discualified from this discussion just off general principle.
The point is, fans haven’t had a song to hang their hat on in 2014, just like they have yet to have an album to hang their hat on in 2014. The closest might be Rick Ross’ decent, but far from great Mastermind LP. Ross’ March release outsold every other hip-hop album in first week sales this year, but Rozay failed to produce a song that cracked the top 85 on the Billboard Hot 100. In fact, no song off Mastermind even cracked the top 14 on the Billboard Top Rap Songs chart.
So where does that leave us? It’s already June 2nd!!!
There’s several headliners set drop in the second half of the year. The problem is so many albums get pushed back these days, we don’t even know when most of these albums are coming, or if they’ll ever come out at all for that matter. We know 50 Cent is dropping this week (and are people really checking for 50 all like that? I’m not convinced. There appears to be a lot of fake buzz centered around the Animal Ambition release, including last night’s G-Unit reunion) and it’s a safe bet Nicki Minaj will drop in the second half of 2014. But what about Andre 3000? What about Kendrick? Will Fab, Lupe, Tip, Common and Wayne all put out albums this year? Keep in mind NONE of these artists currently have release dates.
You get the feeling having your record pushed back is a pretty agonizing and embarrassing experience. Imagine you were once one of the headline rap acts on a major label. You get a huge advance from the label, an extremely generous budget for the album and everybody in the building supports your project and your vision. But then some years go by, some new artists take the spotlight that once kept you warm, the label sweeps your record under the rug and something once as simple as booking studio time now becomes a hassle. You roll the dice and go public with a release date just to queer any speculation that you can’t get your record put out. But now your back is against the wall— maybe the record isn’t done in time because you didn’t get the necessary support from the major. Do you go forward and put out an album prematurely at the risk of damaging your brand? Or do you push the album back and deal with the speculation that A) you no longer possess enough juice with your own label to get your record out or B) you simply can’t hack it anymore as a writer?
It’s also easy to imagine there’s way more to this process than one could speculate on in an article. Suffice it to say many of our lyrical heroes will find themselves facing similar conundrums between now and December 31st, and nobody wants their record to get Detox’ed. Hopefully, we’ll see some of them navigate these waters and throw hip-hop heads a life preserver before 2014 drowns in the residual attrition that followed 2013.
Until then, rap fans will have to live off of Drake’s random one-track releases to satiate their need for excitement in the game.
Sidebar: “The Catch Up” >>> “0 To 100.”
Either that, or hope that Jay or somebody drops a surprise album out of the sky…like, today.
Whatever. Just know, Hip-Hop, that time waits for no man. And it’s cold in the winter.