5. (tie) "Personal OG" - Freddie Gibbs
(tie) "Supply" - Wiz Khalifa ft. Nesby Phips
Yeah, this may be cheating, but I really couldn't decide between these two songs, so I decided to group them together, as they both share a common theme (hats off to whichever genius can figure this one out). The first, "Personal OG," was released on 4/20, and features reverb drenched guitar and an inspired performance by Gibbs. My favorite things about this song: 1) The entrancing slow-mo intro; 2) "UH!"; 3) The awesome and catchy chorus which finds Gibbs singing about different strands of chronic and harmonizing with himself in a pretty hilarious falsetto.
The second track, "Supply" is the closing track off Wiz Khalifa's Kush & OJ and is a master class in the art of simplicity. The song begins with a drum beat, soon accompanied by the dulcet tones of Nesby Phips. About 20 seconds into the song comes a sublime two-chord keyboard riff which repeats throughout the song. That's it. Wiz is wise never to overshadow the echoing riff, which elevates a pedestrian rap to fantastic heights.
4. "Tightrope" - Janelle Monáe ft. Big Boi
A highlight from her massive, sprawling epic concept album The ArchAndroid, Janelle Monáe's "Tightrope" is an endlessly inventive and remarkably catchy track that both echoes soul hits of the 60s and 70s and paves new innovative ground. Monáe's voice is a powerful and versatile instrument and she uses almost her entire vocal arsenal on this one track. Featuring "the funkiest horn section in the metropolis" and a guest appearance from Sir Lucious Left Foot himself during the irresistible guitar-driven bridge, the track is an absolute winner. "Tightrope", like the rest of the album, is impressively layered, rewarding repeat listens by revealing new sonic elements each spin. It's a damn shame that this song isn't more well known.
3. "Nobody" - DJ Quik ft. Suga Free
There's no producer like DJ Quik. He combines Dr. Dre's G-Funk with Timbaland's Asian-influenced electro. "Nobody" falls cleanly on the Dr. Dre side of the spectrum, with its laid-back guitar driven groove combined with a falsetto chorus and some DJ scratches. Similarly, there's no rapper like Suga Free. Free's rapid fire free-associative flow is completely unique. He doesn't ride the beat, but merely treats the beat as a suggestion, fitting as many syllables into each measure as he deems necessary. Free is also frequently hilarious, rapping about John Mayer, Michael Jackson and the Dos Equis guy. Quik fits Suga Free like a glove, providing the perfect backdrop for his ramblings, using staccato synth stabs to accentuate Free's eccentricity and to give his somewhat arrhythmic flow a leg to stand on, tacking an interpolation of "It Takes Two" to the outro for shits and giggles. It's unlikely that any song released this year or in the near future will be as delightfully funky and deliciously weird as this one.
2. "Shutterbug" - Big Boi
The shorter half of Outkast has been making great music for fifteen years, but has come into his own recently, as every single released in advance of his new album (finally getting a release this week) has been unique and brilliant, proving that Big Boi could flourish without his more famous partner, Andre 3000. 2008's virtuosic "Royal Flush" and trippy 2009 jam "For Yo Sorrows" were classics in their own right. "Shine Blockas," featuring Gucci Mane, may have been the best Hip-Hop song of last year. "Shutterbug," however, may be the most creative and best of them all. Big Boi rides an impressively layered beat (produced by Scott Storch, of all people) featuring a vocoder and a Soul II Soul sample. While in lesser hands, the song could be cheesy and the chorus could be forgettable, but in the sure hands of Sir Lucious Left Foot, "Shutterbug" is a fantastic summer song, even if it never catches on with the masses. Bonus points for the trippy and hilarious video.
1. "Gangsta's Glory" - Bone Thugz-N-Harmony
Passion of the Weiss said that "Gangsta's Glory" sounds like it could have been released any time in the past 20 years. This is true, but the song's brilliance runs deeper than that. "Gangsta's Glory" is the first song in over decade to feature the original Bone Thugz lineup, and they've never been better. Every member of the Cleveland collective jumps on the track, using their trademark rapid-fire delivery to wax poetic about the dangerous life of a gangster, advising a young wannabe to really consider whether he wants to adopt their life. The beat is simple, driven by a two chord piano hook and an Eazy E sample in the chorus, but the chorus is as poignant as it is catchy, reflecting the short lives of ordinary gangsters, but also echoing the career lifespans for most rappers. The sheer quality of the verses and old-fashioned production gives this song a slight advantage over the futuristic "Shutterbug" to take pole position in Hip-Hop this year.
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