I believe that right now we are in the Golden Age of Hip Hop and Rap so I wanted to share what I loved this year specifically from that genre. Now that I’ve written the post, I’m even surprised at the number of albums here, but I could honestly go back and listen to all of these in their entirety again.
Theophilus London- ‘Timez Are Weird These Days’ - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WRuDAasz-8
Most underrated mixtape of the year:
http://hypetrak.com/2011/06/justice-league-hypetrak-present-laws-paul-mccartney-yesterdays-future-mixtape/ …if you don’t want to download it, hear a sample here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86nNvynzVes
Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover from the show ‘Community’) had a breakout year:
From his mixtape: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otPxoVQiIGo
From his critically acclaimed album CAMP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL1B_r9nC9k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6dCufvUCxA
Common released an amazing album, including ‘Blue Sky’ http://hypetrak.com/2011/10/common-blue-sky-2/
Pusha T- ‘Fear of God’ mixtape http://grooveshark.com/#/album/Fear+Of+God/4700164
Big Sean- http://hypetrak.com/2011/06/big-sean-finally-famous-full-album-stream/
Big KRIT- ‘Rise and Shine’- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DembK6LdV_Q
J.Cole - the mixtape was better than the album in my opinion, but both were amazing
mixtape:
http://www.livemixtapes.com/mixtapes/12664/j_cole_friday_night_lights.html
album:
http://fistintheair.com/2011/09/20/j-cole-cole-world-the-sideline-story-full-album-stream/
the weeknd has serious talent, covering MJ’s ‘dirty diana’ here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKEghPZQAEQ
and one of my favorite remixes of the year was done to his track here:
http://hypem.com/item/1dn3c/The+Weeknd+X+Grandtheft+-+Rolling+Stone+(Grandtheft+Extended+Dub)
More mainstream, L’il Wayne’s album was pretty good, but disappointing overall http://fistintheair.com/2011/08/25/lil-wayne-tha-carter-iv-full-album-stream/ [I recommend ‘Nightmares on the Bottom’ but tracks 12-15 are excellent too]
And the most obvious mainstream success, Watch The Throne, my favorite track was http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8S5PN1FnFk
..and last of all, if you want to see what I’m listening to and liking in an ongoing basis.. http://hypem.com/thepursuit
haruka kojin’s “contact lens” exhibit - she hung a ton of varied, borderless lenses in a room, and it looks awesome.
Greenwich ave and west 10th
32 by 46
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(in)famous downtown NYC bar getting taken down, the graffiti covered walls inside are getting sectioned off to be sold at a later date
(via diptnyc)
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