2007 will go down as the year that I finally embraced hip-hop.
If you know me this statement might come as a little bit of a shock. In fact the most pretentious thing I've ever said was hip-hop related, when I told a past sweetheart that my love for hip-hop wasn't some, "white boy novelty bullshit." I mean I've always loved hip-hop, but never like I have this year. Before this year hip-hop had been something I listened to in stages, two weeks at a time sprinkled throughout the year. This year though, it all suddenly became essential to my livelihood.
See the thing is despite the color of my skin and the quality of my upbringing hip-hop is sort of tailor made for me. I'm all about hyperbole, shootin' the shit, and awesomeness (see Murs, Ghostface, and pretty much any other MC you can think of). These are three things that hip-hop reeks of. On top of this, because of some of the inherent weaknesses of hip-hop production, producers have often had to fuck with their music to make it sound fresh, trying shit no traditional musician would even dream of. I've heard beats built off of the bouncing of a ping pong ball (Anti-Pop Consortium), dance-y shit that's actually cool (Spank Rock), and undescribable dirtiness (Clipse's "Trill"). This of course equals a lot of weird sounding shit, and being weird myself this just happens to be the kind of shit I really dig. In summation hip-hop let out the olive branch long ago and tried to embrace the fuck out of me, I for some reason turned my back and looked elsewhere.
This year I followed Pharoahe Monch's lead and finally embraced the light and honestly I'm not going to lie the whole years been amazing. If I were one to make lists (and I am) I'd easily say at least half (if not more) of my 10 favorite albums of this year would be hip-hop albums.
The early part was spent enjoying late 2k6's release of Clipse's Hell Hath No Fury (yes it was a 2k6 album, but I kept enjoying it well into 2k7, and as I said elsewhere on Bring Back the Hindenburg nothing represents basketball to me like "Trill"), finally coming to a more than superficial appreciation of Ghostface, and mentally flipping my shit over Spank Rock. But all of that was completely overshadowed by the amazing Clipse show I peaked at in February. Regardless of my feelings towards hip-hop, I've always been hesitant towards live hip-hop shows. Clipse showed me that if its possible to do hip-hop right live and turned in probably the most intense live performance I saw all year.
The middle six months of the year were spent converting to the church of Lil' Wayne. I'd always though of Weezy F. Baby as someone who I could appreciate and respect (in large part because of his prolificness) but never recognized him as the truth speaker he really is ("I need a bitch that can fuck right, cook right," really is there anything more genius than that). Although lacking a proper release this year, Lil' Wayne's mixtapes have had as much impact on my life as any music I've ever listened to. I know this is something that has been reiterated constantly by all of us who matter here, but Lil' Wayne really is one of Bring Back the Hindenburg's godfathers (and maybe it's most important). Overshadowed completely but worth noting was the release of Dizzee Rascal's Maths + English. While no where near Weezy's level, Dizzee again proved his worth and made me all the more sad that he might still be caught in obscurity's grasp. I pray that is not prove to be the case.
Even as the Lil' Wayne releases began to dry up the quality of 2k7's hip-hop didn't wane. The transition from late summer to autumn was marked by my (and pretty much everyone else I respected) repeated listening to Kanye's Graduation. Then there was the rediscovery of MF Doom and how awesome he could be and who can forget the amazing performance by Spank Rock at the otherwise shitty Neighborhood Festival. But as if that wasn't enough the year comes to a close with Ghostface's The Big Doe Rehab and Wu-Tang's 8 Diagrams, which despite somewhat lukewarm reviews is completely flipping my shit in every way possible. The production is atypical and out of this world in all the best ways and I suddenly have renewed respect for Mr. George Clinton and Method Man (dude, I'm almost able to forget about those Meth and Red years).
This thing sort of spiralled out of control about 400 or 500 words ago, so I'll bring things to a close with this: Hip-hop matters more to me now than it ever has, and I'm alright with it. In fact I'm thankful for it. Thank you 2k7, you're the best.
P.S. I hope 2k8 proves to be even better. It could be especially if Tha Carter III, new Spank Rock (more Amanda Blank as well, please), and the Cool Kids prove to be as awesome as they could.
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