2015 LHHS Charts 10 | #LHHS10
It's been a while since the last LHHS Charts update. A busy start to 2015 but never too busy not to put on some new music to start a day or close the night. It's February 2015 now, and after hearing the latest from Raw Poetic and DJ K-Def from ReDefinition Records I felt it would be a good time for an update. Their record, Cool Convos in Quantum Speech set off 2015 for me. In thinking about that, it also had me reflecting on what came out at the close of 2014 that I've been listening to lately.
This begins with talking about Good Morning Vietnam III, The Phoenix Program by MF Grimm and Drasar Monumental. For me, I'm not sure I can be convinced of a better 2014 record than GMVIII. Whether we're talking about wordplay, production, the creative process attached to this record as the conclusion of a trilogy, and everything else connected to why we consider what we consider great or better than the other... for me this record is in a Hip Hop conversation of its own, that perhaps is better left for people to listen to and absorb over time, rather than expecting for others to pick up on it. I don't know. What I do know, is as I change my top records list for LHHS (featured to the left of this write up), I got GMVIII above it all. I can't even think of what it's going to take to replace this record from that spot. While I listen to everything as its own project, if I'm asked, "what was your favorite record of 2014..." I'm going with GMVIII. Let's see what 2015 delivers.
The next record is from an MC that deserves continuous praise and that's Junclassic. Especially in his involvement with producers and what he's connecting through his music. On his latest masterpiece, Words are Weapons, we got Maniac on the beats. This record waste no time from one track to the next and with each feature. Everything about it to me, is dope. And if its your first time listening to Junclassic's music, its a perfect place to start as I encourage that listeners retrace their ears back to a discography worth listening to, sharing, and talking about. Jun's also hard at work with the visuals providing fans with his physical presence if you look him up on YouTube.
Other records I've enjoyed include the remix project by Ali Shaheed Muhammad with Souls of Mischief on the There is Only Now, originally produced by Adrian Younge, who's also attached to the real dope Phryme record between the legendary production of DJ Premier and Royce Da 5'9. In addition, really loved the interview on The Combat Jack Show with J Cole and what we learned about his latest effort with the 2014 Forest Hills Drive record. Other mentions that I want to get into include what I've been hearing from MC Melodee of La Melodia through multiple projects she put out in 2014 including the Crunch Time EP and of course the Zion I crew who's latest EP The Sun Moon and Stars is on my list to check for. People been active these days on EP projects.
On top of that, I missed out on a lot of other records I hope to hear soon. But this is where I'm at for my charts and what I've enjoyed in the past few months. You can see the lists to the left of this message (scroll down). Having just got my hands on the Lord Finesse SP1200 Project, Large Pro's touch on the Mega Philosophy record, Apollo Brown's .38 project, and one I've got on repeat by the incredible production of IV the Polymath, When and Where, I've decided to separate a top 10 exclusively for instrumental projects called #HHbeAtz10. I've accumulated a few projects to kick off the top 10, including some incredible work I've been listening to via the Fresh Produce camp with the Beatphonics crew.
This post if anything, is also a note of thanks to all artist, groups, producers, eMCees that continue to bless our troubled times with the peace, joy, and creative therapy of music. As Malcolm X said, "history is best qualified to reward our research"... this includes our music.
Peace.
