ARTISTS (10 each)
1. Lupe Fiasco - The Cool
2. Wu-Tang Clan - 8 Diagrams
3. Messy, PSD and Keak Da Sneak - Da Bidness
4. Turf Talk - West Coast Vaccine
5. Prodigy - Return of the Mac
6. Oh No - Dr. No's Oxperiment
7. Madlib - Beat Konducta 3 & 4
8. 2 Tall, Dudley Perkins, Georgia Anne Muldrow - Beautiful Mindz
9. UGK - Underground Kingz
10. Saigon - Moral Of the Story

TRACKS
1. El-P - Tasmanian Pain Coaster
2. Turf Talk - I Got Chips
3. Bus Driver - Sunshowers
4. Swizz Beatz - It's Me, Bitches
5. The-Dream - Shawty is the Shit
6. Keak, Messy and PSD - If She Know Me She Owe Me
7. M.I.A. - Bird Flu
8. Prodigy - Rotten Apple
9. Sean Price - Hearing Aid
10. UGK - Swishas and Dosha

REISSUES
1. Sly and the Family Stone - The Collection
2. Aretha Franklin - Rare and Unreleased
3. Anthony Hamilton - Southern Comfort
4. J Dilla - Ruff Draft
5. Betty Davis - They Say I'm Different

COMMENTS
A good but not great year for hip-hop in that there were a lot of good-but-not-great albums. It seemed as if the genre was a bit restless. The mid-decade formulas (d-boy to b-boy) grew stale, and no one was sure whether the genre should pivot to the left (Lupe), right (Soulja Boy) or to the center (Kanye). New York decided to just back the fuck up, and we got a few good albums out of that (Statik, Prodigy, Styles P). No one was sure whether Jay-Z regressed or returned, but he still managed to squeak out the #2 spot (behind Kanye, of course) on year-end, token hip-hop best of lists. Big Doe Rehab felt like a Greatest Hits comp without much of Ghostface's greatness or any hits. 8 Diagrams would've made it to the Idolator top 5 if Madlib would've produced it.

"Umbrella" was in the lead for most of the year, but "Shawty is the Shit" became the most hated song I love. Not because of any guilt/ cred issue, but rather because I just couldn't get the damn thing out of my head.

For a fad /culture / lifestyle/ sub-genre that was dead, hyphy produced two great albums (Da Bidness and West Coast Vaccine).

I was tempted to put Draught 3 in my top five, but most of its beats were from other years. I was tempted to put Sharon Jones in my reissues list, but thought the joke was kinda corny.

There were a lot of really great and weird indie hip-hop releases (Busdriver, El-P, Dudley/ Georgia, Shape of Broad Minds, Artdon'tSleep) but nothing really caught on in the greater scene.

I asked Pitbull what he thought about nue-school, vaguely ironic Bass shit like Spank Rock and Benny Blanco, and he was like 'who is that?' I'm none the better for knowing the answer.

Todd Haynes should've put Anthony Hamilton on his I'm Not There soundtrack.

Best concert I saw was Darondo's first show in 35 years at the Rickshaw in SF. But I just saw that two nights ago, so who the fuck knows what I'll think in two weeks.

Ike Turner invented rock n' roll, but "spousal abuse" is still on his cultural tombstone. I got married this year!

R.I.P. Pimp C