Top 5 Hip Hop Albums of 2018
Updated: May 21, 2019
1. Anderson .Paak - Oxnard
This is it. This is the best album to be released in 2018. Anderson .Paak gave me everything I love about music. The lyrics are there, the beats are there, but the most important thing is this an extremely fun album to listen. From the beginning I found myself hooked just from intrigue of what’s next. There’s so many flavors of music to choose from ‘The Chase’ which sounds like something that can go on a ’Shaft’ or ‘Black Dynamite’ soundtrack, to ‘Headlow’ which is funky groovy shit about get some neck in the car, to ‘6 Summers’ which sounds a little more traditional to Hip Hop than the other two I’d named. It‘s not just that it’s a fun album. There’s stuff you can take away from this album as a person. Cherish the people around you (Brother’s Keeper) and be careful when dealing with crazy chicks (Smile / Petty). I always say when the music is made for the sake of the art, it resonates a lot better than when made for any other reason. Everything about ‘Oxnard’ sounds like it’s supposed to be where it is. This album has had me singing and rapping embarassingly at stop lights since it’s November release and I’m 1000% sure that won’t change in 2019.
Standout Tracks:
‘6 Summers’
‘Anywhere’
‘Trippy’
‘Cheers’ R.I.P Mac Miller, Phife Dawg, my big bro Jerome and my Pops who I definitely think about every single time I sing this song. Each and one of y’all has contributed to my life in major ways, whether I lived with and grew up under you physically or not. Mac and Phife‘s contributions through music has been as important to anything anyone else could give me because they fed my soul. Tribe is forever Legendary and forever a measuring stick for greatness. Mac Miller helped me so much with dealing with my depression and my unwillingness to be here. Watching Mac push through his own issues and thrive and continue to give his all to keep moving forward, I will forever love and cherish Mac as if we grew up together. I miss my Brother and my Pops Andre every single day that passes and this list, this blog, the moves I can’t announce yet are all an effort to make them proud.