2010: A Year in Review

The staff of 100GoMW,YLS debating this year's top 10. Jim from marketing really pushed for that T-Nutty song

Note: I just looked back at this post and realized it is a fucking mini novel. Just print this post out and read it in a robe by your fireplace while smoking a cigar and drinking brandy or something and enjoy.

Another great year in Bay Area raps, here are some of the important things that happened:
-Coming off releasing the album of the year last year, The Jacka continued his reign with the release of 4 duo albums this year with Laroo, Lee Majors, Ampichino and Andre Nickatina and they all were really good.
-Yukmouth and C-Bo released their first Thug Lordz album since 2004 and it was pretty tight.
-Andre Nickatina came out with Khan! The Me Generation, his first full length album since 2007 and it was pretty damn good.

-Husalah came out of jail in late 2009 and spent most of 2010 doing features. I was really hoping he'd drop an album this year, considering his last album from 2007 was a modern Bay classic, but oh well. I bet he's getting hella guap to do all these features, so hopefully he's saving up for a top notch album.
-J-Diggs teamed up with Kansas City's Rich the Factor to release two solid Street Ballin' albums.
-J-Stalin (or J. Stalin? or J Stalin?) came out with Prenuptial Agreement, which garnered a lot of national attention and reaffirmed my belief that Stalin really needs to stop trying to be like R. Kelly, singing about freaking ladies, etc.
-Roach Gigz released his Roachy Balboa mixtape and became pretty popular in the Bay.
-Young Gully continued his ascent after a DJ Fresh Tonite Show album late last year. He released the Definition of Gas mixtape and Grant Station Project and quickly became the Bay's most promising new artist.
-Lil B continued to release a ridiculous amount of music and became kind of a big deal. He got an article written about him in The New York Times and released the solid Blue and Red Flame mixtapes. I think no rapper has made better use of the internet than Lil B, his constant barrage of new material from multiple sources (digitaldripped, youtube, his blog, etc.) has really made people excited about his music, including me. It's pretty crazy to think about how huge Lil B has become in this past year.

-Messy Marv continued to be weird and released a handful of mixtapes along with launching his own website trying to sell posters of himself (including these, LOL), which promptly went down after a couple weeks.
-Livewire continued to release tons of good music.
-Spice 1 reemerged at the end of this year after not really hearing anything from him for years. He's been pretty quiet since getting shot at the end of 2007, so it's good to see he's back at it.

-E-40 came back strong with the excellent Day Shift and Night Shift albums.
-Main Attrakionz came onto the scene and became kind of a big deal on the internet with their tight, off-kilter, sample-heavy music.
___Of the Year Honors:
-Comeback of the year: Brotha Lynch Hung. To be honest, I didn't think Brotha Lynch had another good album left in him, but Dinner and a Movie proved me very wrong. The album was easily one of the best of the year and proved that if a truly talented rapper is given the proper label support and production he can make a great album.

-Remix of the year:
Lil B ft. Messy Marv "Pretty Bitch Remix"



Messy Marv hops on one of my favorite Lil B songs to compete with him over who can say the B word the most in a verse. Ridiculous nihilistic raps at its finest.

-Song title of the year:
Husalah ft. Pretty Black "Go Silly on Ya Bitch"



If someone could inform me on exactly how one goes about going silly on one's bitch that would be very helpful.

-Album cover of the year:
Lil B's Blue Flame. I genuinely miss the ridiculous Cash Money and No Limit album covers of my childhood, so this cover is retro brilliance in my mind.

-Favorite nonsense line by Lil B: "Hoes suck my dick cuz I look like John Stockton/ hit them with the chopper/ Luke I am your father" From Lil B's "Insane."
-Album of the Year:

E-40's Revenue Retrievin': Day Shift and Night Shift
I know these are two albums that were sold separately, but they are one album in my mind. I'm kind of surprised these discs didn't get more love, everywhere I looked on the internet all I saw was lukewarm reviews and "fans" complaining about everything from the beats to the lyrics. All of this is pretty hard to understand for me, because this is really E-40 at his finest. The thing about E-40 is that he's never been one to stick to a particular style for a long period of time and he's always been trying out new sounds and trying to be on top of the latest trend. This has worked to his benefit at times and to his disadvantage at others (you guys remember the hyphy movement?). What has resulted is different people wanting different things from the Ambassador of the Bay, but instead of trying to please every type of listener E-40 looked back to his earlier mob music days while updating his sound for 2010. On top of that he enlisted just about every significant rapper in the Bay to do a feature. The results are a Bay Area rap fans dream with songs that are ridiculously catchy without ever losing their edge and real hard gangster songs that are still fun to listen to. The sheer quantity of high quality music that 40 Water was able to release with these two discs is crazy, I mean there's only one song I skip out of all of the songs. There's a reason why E-40 has been the most recognizable figure in the Bay Area rap scene for so long and will continue to be so, no one does it like him and no one ever will.

Top 10 Songs of 2010 (in no particular order):
1.) San Quinn & Kafani "Whip Diz Color"

This song is stupid catchy, the chorus has been repeating itself in my head for the better part of this year. In fact, this song is the most played song on my iTunes right now. Even though it came out in May I've heard it has been getting some spins on KMEL recently, which I'm real happy about because this song is perfect for the radio. I've never even really liked Kafani and San Quinn's attempts at pop music have not always been too good, but this song is perfect. The two of them go back and forth rapping about the different colors of their cars for three and a half minutes, which sounds pretty fucking stupid, but trust me it works.

2.) E-40 "Prepared"

To me this song represents what makes Bay Area rap so special. The song is real hard and raw, but at the same time fun. No other region can make fun rap music that doesn't come out kind of goofy and also make raps that are hard as shit that are still entertaining to listen to. Trying to decide which song off the Revenue Retrievin' albums to put on this list was hella hard, those discs have so many modern classics. The futuristic slap in this beat makes me want to do a drive by in a spaceship.

3.) Brotha Lynch Hung "I Tried to Commit Suicide"

Brotha Lynch's Dinner and a Movie was amazing and this song is the strongest cut on the album. As entertaining as raps about eating people are, it's moments like this when Brotha Lynch really shines. The painful honesty that he pours into this song is something few rappers are capable of as he laments about the misery in his life. The beat has the type of theatrical melancholy that fits Brotha Lynch Hung perfectly and when the pianos come in for the chorus it's beautiful. This is some real shit and shows Brotha Lynch Hung is really on another level compared to most other rappers.

4.) Husalah "You Neva Know"

I was hoping 2010 would be the year that Husalah just took over the scene with non-stop classic releases...but that didn't really happen. As much as I enjoyed a lot of the features he did this year, it sounded like the musical progress between now and before going to prison was nonexistent. Like his verses sounded like they could have been unreleased bars from '05 or something. But that wasn't entirely the case, such as songs like this one where Husalah shows that he has something real special and is capable of releasing music that's just downright perfect Bay Area raps. I like the fact that the mood of the song hints at real introspection, but is teamed with lyrics essentially about shooting people. The melody that come in for the chorus gets me every time. Props to you if you recognize the sample. Husalah at his finest here.

5.) T-Nutty "Criptonite"

Sometimes I think that DJ Fresh might be a little overrated as a producer, but then I hear songs like this one. This beat is so tight, it has a celestial feeling that reaches a climax with some subtle cymbals and ever present gang vocal chants. It's just so rich and complex, I could listen to the instrumental version of this song forever. But T-Nutty's raps on this song are great and fit the atmosphere of the song perfectly. Plus clever gang-related word play! The Tonite Show album with T-Nutty should be incredible, he is the future of Sacramento rap.

6.) Lil B "Blue Flame"
To choose one Lil B song is real hard, because he's released so much weird/interesting/creative music this year, but in the end I had to go with this one. This song has such a unique angular beat that grinds away and sounds so different from everything else. Lil B spits some surprisingly coherent raps that are real raw on top of the disjointed production. I remember reading a post somewhere that this song sounded like if someone was told what rap music was and then asked to make a song without ever hearing rap music before. That's a pretty weird description, but Lil B's music is so unlike anything else it totally makes sense...Thank You Based God.
7.) Cam City "Bounty"

Cam City is a rather elusive figure in the Bay Area rap scene. While previously just being that guy who had released an album with a cover that had the most unattractive women possible on it, he had by far the best song from the highly anticipated Thizz City compilation with this cut. This song honestly has the hardest lyrics out of this selection, but are delivered with Cam City's light and weightless voice. The beat has richly layered synths and a nice melody that make it sound like a million bucks. I hope Cam City starts releasing some more music especially if it sounds anything like this.

8.) Smoov-E "Pocket Full of Gold"
Are you familiar with Smoov-E? If not let me give you a quick lesson; he is a really weird dude who raps almost exclusively about sex with underage girls...The guy has a lot of talent, but usually ends up wasting it on weird experimentation and lyrics that make me feel like a bad person for listening to it. Luckily for everyone, Smoov-E comes with some real focused raps on this one and teamed with the deceptively simple beat driven by a piano loop, this is the slickest rap song of the year. The smooth flow works perfectly with the subtle beat that continues to evolve (listen for the whining synth that comes in towards the end). If Smoov-E made more raps like this rather than acoustic guitar songs about his penis he would be one of my favorite artists.

9.) The Jacka & Lee Majors ft. Freeway "Real Hood"

This is probably the hardest song of the selection. The beat is a slightly modified version of Big Tuck's "Not a Stain On Me" which is an incredible song in itself. The Jacka and Freeway make a perfect duo, but the real surprise here is Lee Majors. He absolutely kills this song and delivers the best verse of the trio. The way each of them flow as the beat trudges along will have you bobbing your head while mean mugging everyone in your sight.
10.) Fed-X "Cheese on Da Bread"
2010 was a relatively quiet year for Fed-X. He always has been the Mob Figa (?) who received the least attention and his limited output hasn't helped, but every once and awhile he comes with songs like this one that are damn near perfect. The beat slowly evolves as horns come in, increasing the tension within the song and creating a wall of sound complete with steel drums over Fed-X's crime story rhymes. Anyone who doubts the Mob Figaz greatness should be pointed towards this song.

BONUS: Best non-Bay Area rap song of 2010

Ampichino ft. Rich the Factor, Young Bossi & Boi Big "Bricks"
There are very few non-Bay Area rappers that are covered on this site, but Ampichino, Young Bossi (also Freeze) and Rich the Factor are exceptions because not only do they collaborate with artists in the Bay frequently, they are also some of the best rappers active today. This song has been played constantly by me since the release of Ampichino's album Da Krazies earlier this past summer. This song is so damn catchy, it makes me feel like I'm in a speedboat off the port of Miami moving hella keys. Ampichino and Rich the Factor are supposed to come out with an album together this next year which should be amazing.
Here's those 11 songs zipped up:

DL: 100GoMW, YLS Best of 2010

Enjoy the best of 2010!

Things to Look Forward to in 2011:

Holy fuck I can't believe they made these glasses, there's no two zeroes in the year anymore goddamnit.

-New album from the Mob Figaz tops this list for me. The group was saying that they'd have an album out by this past summer, but that clearly didn't happen. Hopefully 2011 will be the year it happens, they are all out of jail right now, (which is not that common) so now is the time!

-Husalah coming out with a new album, hopefully this will finally happen. If it's anything like Hustlin' Since Da 80's it will be another modern Bay Area classic.

-The Jacka's duo albums with Paul Wall and especially with Freeway, all their collaborations that I've heard have been tight, so these albums should be amazing just like all of Jacka's other duo albums.

-This song being released

-AP.9's double album Relentless is supposed to come out early in this next year. The tracks leaked from the album have been real solid, so I'm expecting this album to be great.

-Speaking of double albums, E-40 is supposed to come out with two more Revenue Retrievin' albums in spring of 2011.

-Midwest Whales by Ampichino and Rich the Factor. The best non-Bay Area rappers doing an album together! Should be a classic.

-A duo album from Messy Marv and Lil B, if this actually happens it will be absurdly awesome.

Thanks to everyone that reads the site, here's to another year of good music! Happy New Year!