Best Of (And Worst Of) 2004: D&D Write-Off
Dec 23 '04 (Updated Dec 28 '04)
The Bottom Line This is the good, the bad, and the ugly in Music of 2004.
I might've bought less CD's in 2004, than I have in any year before since CD's came out. I guess that tells you what I thought about 2004 on a whole. But having a crappy music year can make for some fun lists. Here we go.
My Favorite 5 Albums of 2004
If Alicia Key's second joint was released about a month later, it'd be in the top five. But it wasn't, so it didn't count.
5. The Beautiful Struggle: Talib's follow up to Quality was a mixed bag by most, but I loved it. I thought he did a great job at trying to stay true to his audience while branching out to sell a few albums. Did it necessarily work? Well, he didn't sell as many albums as I'm sure he wanted to, but I still thought the CD was good.
4. The College Dropout: Hate him for being an arrogant prick now, but when Kanye West's rookie album dropped, I thought it was genius. He was a weak MC that fooled many people into thinking he was good. He used great subject matter, soulful and catchy samples, and stayed in my CD player for the first half of the year.
3. The Tipping Point: The Roots latest joint was a serious banger. And why is it that when people talk about best MC in the game, Black Thought's name doesn't come up very often? Really, it's Black Thought's album and he shines brightly. Actually made me buy all the old Roots albums that I didn't have. If that's not power, I don't know what is.
2. Confessions: Ursher, I mean Usher did it and he did it huge. The album was grown up, it had singles galore, and it was just the total package in R&B this year. To me, nothing in R&B touched it.
1. The Grind Date: I've never been a big De La Soul guy. I'm not sure why, but I never really had an urge to buy any of their albums. But when one of my fellow Shopping.com employees told me I had to check it out, I did and with glee. It's the most polished hip hop album I've heard this year. It's the best produced hip hop album I've heard this year. And it's the most effortless piece of work I've heard this year.
Crap That I Had To Endure As Well
I won't even rank these albums as they are all bad in one way or another. And I'm sure I'm missing a few.
Welcome Back: At least Harlem World was fun. At least there were songs that could get radio airplay. This was pure garbage. Mase also probably gets Worst Comeback award too as he made the tiniest of splashes on the music scene when he expected to be one of the bigger stories of the year.
Tical 0: The Prequel: It was tough listening to this album. After reading all the reviews I thought, "This can't be as bad as everyone is saying." It wasn't. It was worse. Sucks to see how low a priority music is to him nowadays. However, I know before the album came out, he said that what was going to be released and what he wanted to be released were two completely different albums, so I guess not all of it was his fault and label pressure can be blamed, but still, one can at least try to turn horse manure into ice cream.
To The 5 Boroughs: I'm sick of people giving the Beasties the easy way out. So what that they just make party music? So what that they're old school? Does that mean we just turn our heads at how bad they are on the mic? At how corny their rhymes are? Now I'm not going to make it a race thing and say, "If they weren't white ...", but if someone made that claim, I couldn't disagree with them. I heard some of the worst rapping I've heard this year from this album.
Best Of Both Worlds: Unfinished Business: Let's see. You do an album where Jay-Z and R. Kelly get together and have worse chemistry than that of the new LA Lakers. The first album had more of R. Kelly rapping than Jay-Z. It wouldn't have been as killed in the public eye had it not been for R's run in's with teeny boppers. But it would've been close. So you decide to do a sequel? I'm not sure I get it. This album was more of the same crap that the first album was. It might've even been worse.
Encore: While there were good things on this album, just the places he took it merit being on this list. It's understandable that he needs to cater to his MTV audience. Hell, they made him. But I think here, he alienated his truer audience more so than any other album he's created. I couldn't believe how immature the material was, and as someone who respects his talents, I felt he talked down to me. This leads me to something else.
Most Disappointing Artist
Eminem has MC Hammer before he went broke money. He's the one rap artist that has both audiences in his back pocket. The MTV audience, and the hip hop fan audience. He could really put anything on CD and sell it like hot cakes. But rather than bring his music back to where it belongs, he continuously goes more and more pop with every album. I could see if this was his second album. But it's his fourth. His true strength as an artist would be shown if he decided to take his music back to the pioneers and created a true hip hop record. If he did a 10 song CD with old school gritty beats and street like anthems that hip hop would be proud of, he'd sell just as many records as he did today. But more importantly he'd change the perspective of what hip hop is about. He'd change the trends. He'd change the minds of what really is good. He'd educate the masses on what the music started out as, rather than continue to bastardize it to what it is today. He has that power. Will he do it? I highly doubt it. And for that, to me, he'll always be disappointing. This last album just adds to that.
Biggest Surprise
Fantasia was the best American Idol contestant in the history of the show. She had the most personality and was consistently the best performer. But as is the case with Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, and Clay Aiken, you expected her to come out with a horrid first album. Big Rube's album was the worst of the three, while Clay's album could put you to sleep, but Fantasia wasn't going to be boxed in by her material. While it's not a stand out album in the sense of being blown away by it, it's very solid and that was surprising enough. She was given some very crappy material, but she made it her own. She put out an anthem for all the Baby Mama's that was definitely pushing the envelope considering all the conservatives folks in this world, and she turned it into a gem. She gets all the props in the world for putting out an album that was destined to fail and was actually something I enjoyed.
Quote Of The Year
Ja Rule has a problem with how he's perceived in the hip hop community. Just like Jay-Z said, "First they love you then they hate you then they love you again, the gift and the curse." Ja Rule blew up way too fast, spit at his audience, and then now is trying to get that audience back. But this quote was just hysterical to me. He was talking about how his bubble bursted and how the same people who loved him, now hated him. He mentioned that Biggie said that the same people who will love you on the way up, will turn their backs on you on the way down. Then he said, "How can I get hated on?" How can you get hated on? Maybe selling your soul to the R&B audience got you hated on. Maybe being at J.Lo's beck and call got you hated on. Maybe just being a bad rapper with marbles in his mouth got you hated on. Maybe just having a name which means Jeffrey Atkins Rules got you hated on. That last one would be my pick.
Song Of The Year
For me, it was simple. My Boo was as sweet as candy, and I still loved it. Usher shouldn't deserve to be on the same mic as Alicia Keys, but I still loved it. It blew up so quickly and was on every station but I still loved it. I guess for me, that was definition enough because today, I still love it.
Artist Of The Year
It's a pretty big deal to be compared to Michael Jackson. And this year, Usher was. Confessions deserved the hype. It was a good soulful record. It had great singles. He showed off a singing prowess that I didn't think he had. And through it all, he didn't show up on any sex tapes, didn't get caught with weed, didn't proclaim to be the baddest man on the planet, didn't cause any beef (Bobby Brown started it and I don't consider the Justin Timberlake thing beef), and didn't wh*re himself out to every rapper alive. For me, it was the year of Usher.
Big ups to Drew and the Demon for hosting 'DEMON AND DREW'S SECOND ANNUAL YEAR'S-END EXTRAVAGANZA'.
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