biggest rap songs on urban radio 2011

this list is only half awful, which is kinda better than i expected

'look at me now' is def my favorite beat IF ONLY CHRIS BROWN WASN'T ON IT >:|

I don't want to reward any of these but the ones that kind of jump out are hustle hard, bring it back

"i'm a boss"

would have been grove st party but that was an '10 song for me, i basically played it out too much by the time the new year rolled around

lotta garbage up there

my top ten:
grove st. party
bring it back
ima boss
moment 4 life
super bass
john
work out
out of my head
she will
look at me now

lloyd banks has staged an impressive late career resurgence. who would have thought

i'm not gonna hate on al's list

"grove st party" easily

i hate "look at me now" even more than "grime_rollerskates.gif" i think

your top 3 = A+ probably my top 3 also

"She Will" is better than I remember

top 15

1 marvin's room (tho calling this a rap song is kinda pushing it)
2 hustle hard remix
3 bring it back
4 grove st party
5 super bass
6 i'ma boss
7 otis
8 roll up
9 racks
10 headlines
11 i'm on one
12 john
13 work out
14 my last
15 that way

"she will" has dope chorus + beat but unforgiveable wayne verses

bad 'deep' wayne verses are basically drake verses, dude

i guess "did it on em" is the biggest rap song of the year with no singers or singing of any kind, which is pretty weird to contemplate.

bad 'deep' wayne verses are basically drake verses, dude

― some dude (Mr. Stevenson #2), Friday, December 9, 2011 8:46 PM (47 seconds ago) Bookmark

oh please -- bad 'deep' wayne verses are the same tired cliches about fucking the world and the world being a woman that he's been peddling for years, + drake wouldn't rap something as dumb as "hang you out to dry like a towel rack" or w/e wane says on this song

yeah you're right, drake would never say "like"

oh c'mon

drake is BETTER than wayne's drake impression sure but i just don't feel like it's by a huge margin

listening to 'she will' for the first time, drake's voice actually sounds hard on this

that's drake on the chorus right?

drake is totally above cliche, true

on this note, i never followed up on my own qn in the rap threads but i thought one of the biggest failures in sfj's review of the drake album was him giving drake a free pass for being too self-absorbed to provide worthy perspective to his moanings about life's emptiness, or awareness that he seems to embody all he claims to loathe - i guess the latter precludes the former

this is what i was going to post in response to j0rdan a few minutes ago and then decided not to, but since you're on the subject:

they both do lame superficial 'introspection' but the difference is wayne seems to have a dark inner life he'll never write honestly or interestingly about while drake is fearlessly plumbing the depths of the most mundane polite life a rap star could ever have hoping to will it into a fascinating tragic narrative

like on "headlines" drake is practically masturbating to fantasies of someone in his entourage shooting a hater so he can sit in a courtroom for their trial feeling all cool and dangerous and dramatically conflicted

some dude otm

like on "headlines" drake is practically masturbating to fantasies of someone in his entourage shooting a hater so he can sit in a courtroom for their trial feeling all cool and dangerous and dramatically conflicted

― some dude (Mr. Stevenson #2), Friday, December 9, 2011 9:12 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

i mean yes, you're right, but if you can stump for the following in any capacity i think you need to figure some things out

[Verse 1]
I tell her now gon' pop that pussy for a real nigga
I already know that life is deep, but I still dig her
Niggas is jealous, but really I could care less
I'm in Hell's Kitchen with an apron and a hairnet
Devil on my shoulder, the Lord as my witness
So on my Libra scale, I'm weighing sins and forgiveness
What goes around comes around like a hula hoop
Karma is a bitch? Well just make sure that bitch is beautiful
Life on the edge, I'm dangling my feet
I tried to pay attention but attention paid me
Haters can't see me: nose-bleed seats
And today I went shopping and talk is still cheap

i mean that's seriously some of the worst writing i can even imagine

we're falling into an iatee rabbit hole of "how are those not-good lyrics any less good than any not-good rap lyrics?" now

you're right -- that said, i stand by my assertion that those wayne verses are some of the absolute worst of the year, bar none

there is worse rapping on better songs on these lists (like nicki on "moment 4 life," which is also one of the only times drake has ever sounded like a halfway believable rapper type person)

yeah that's still maybe his outright best rap verse

i remember back when "hustle hard" and "john" were out that i thought weezy might not put out a pile of horsecrap this year

voting "bring it back"

"She Will."

i like "oh my"

'look at me now' is def my favorite beat IF ONLY CHRIS BROWN WASN'T ON IT >:|

^^^ this

also I fuckin hate "She Will."

my dog could have made that beat

when diplo hears your dog's beats he'll def offer him a milkbone in exchange for a co-production credit

"look at me now" is fine, but it's not like busta's and wayne's verses are classics or anything anyway

yeah seriously

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lofuvgzfgR1qzqrouo1_500.jpg

what are wayne's good verses this year?

anything of his prior to 2009 that you decided to revisit

busta doing a mediocre busta verse is still better than most of the traxx on this list

otm

yeah, that's not true

clearly I was speaking of an objective "truth" than can be disputed

busta verses in 2011 are just sad to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK-9h4SzFqM

I'm a G-A-N-G-STIRRR
take it to the streets, say when he's scurrrred
T- streets slimmin see ya makin Z scurrr
feet feet gone lace the weed with the syrrp
Weezy, Don of the squad, N**** bow down
excuse yourself from the table, we 'bout to chow down
We bust up in this bitch with our smiles down
oh how wow glock glock fo fo pow pow
we've got a lion in the engine with a loud growl
little kids and pets run from the ROW ROW
say ROW we 'bout to bring it back to our town
man, shit bout to go down, down, super got that brown now
and little snacky's got the pounds now
loaded, we've got money from the flo' to the ceilin
homey talkin slick, we've got money on the flow
we bout to kill em with money i'mma throw it i'm bout to win it
weezy out
fee i got us papi, u could sit back and put ya feet up
i'ma make sure we all eat my nigga feed up
and u could catch me g'd up
at the stage at the club tosssin g's up
or at the table wrappin' keys up
they tell me i could make it rappin put them keys up
but i'm like 25 keys up
the streets is tuff,
man i gotta get these peeps they stuff, it's a hot summer
u could still catch me and stunna in a 4 door lexus
it's only weezy baby no more extras
and u know he bout to buy me a 4 door testa
just cuz he's impressed wit my solo effort
i show no care for, those who left us
fuck those fellas i'm so rebellious
i show no remorse
when u see me hold ya thought's or we gon' hold court
and i know u don't wanna hold court
i bust up in this bitch wit a k and bang out the whole court

that's why the video kept getting pulled down

i dunno i dont want to rag on a-banks more than i already have bcuz i think my initial ire was a bit ott -- i think all the comparisons to rappers-i-like was real off putting when i heard it & everyone's saying BEST SHIT OF THE YEAR -- its closer to lily allen than trina imo

ummm she's not really close to either

Reema Major's single was better anyway

I see mostly shtick in Nicki Minaj, though I’m thrilled to see a woman break apart the boys club and sexualize men in her hit video.

didn't Salt & Pepa spend half of the 90s doing this

yeah but every time a female comes along and raps about sex and men being sexy, every time people act like no one's ever done it before (which is where we return to azealia banks)

I mean, I get why Missy wouldn't be a good avenue for comparison because IIRC the vast majority of her videos have ppl in borderline skiwear up until "Lose Control" so it's not like the videos themselves were objectifying dudes but didn't S&P paw shirtless guys in practically every single one of their post-"Push It" videos?

ummm she's not really close to either

― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Friday, December 16, 2011 11:23 AM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

idk precocious cutesy theater kid is kind of her steez
i was actually going to say that one chick critics were into 5 yrs ago who did theatrical 'hip-hop'-esque showtunes but i couldn't remember her name for the life of me

nellie mckay?

thats the one

allen and mckay aren't really "rappers" as such, they just experiment with it. banks can actually rap really well.

also, press and image aside, i don't think banks' theatre-kid thing actually comes across on record at all

i dont know why that sess 45 / keedy black song we both like doesn't have similar levels of label interest, if its just down to rapping skill; but it isn't, of course, its her theatrical irony & general indie-ness that gives her coverage

also, press and image aside, i don't think banks' theatre-kid thing actually comes across on record at all

Really? My reaction to "212" was the overwhelming impression that someone had played a Betty Boo single for her and said "okay sound like this, only more arch".

archness is a better word for what i'm thinking than 'theatrical irony & general indieness' thnx

i dont know why that sess 45 / keedy black song we both like doesn't have similar levels of label interest, if its just down to rapping skill; but it isn't, of course, its her theatrical irony & general indie-ness that gives her coverage

or reema major, or brianna who does that "marilyn monroe" song, or yeah many others. so many others.

this happens all the time though! "why are you paying attention to this and not that" is like, something i whine every month. odd future, the weeknd, frank ocean, asap rocky, yadda yadda yadda. at least this time there's a legit great pop song, in terms of hooks and earworminess, that feels somewhat ~alive~ and not just like someone's mumbled something intp their laptop at 3am

i really don't hear archness in it though...and usually that's a real turn-off for me

I don't see how you can listen to the switch from flat-affect robot to overly conversational verging on surfer girl verses to the sung part to the shouty part without imagining her stopping each take in the studio to change her hat and sunglasses to better get "into character" for each voice.

I don't think it's a bad song but it absolutely is dripping with artifice for me, in much the same way as a good chunk of Nicki's material.

i should say, i don't even think its 'bad' just very slight, which feels almost more opposed to the arguments made in its favor than if i actively disliked it like that

like there's a sense of a small group of ppl willing it into importance

"the thinking man's Alexandra Stan"

ha i was thinking about all the vocal switch-ups the other day - they absolutely make the song for me, but it's so recognisably her every time that the idea of them being minajian characters never crossed my mind. they seem to flow into each other quite naturally.

i did think "212" was slight when i first heard it, then it earwormed me - admittedly it only grabbed me totally after i googled the lyrics, which i couldn't really make out before. once you can rap along to it it's completely different.

like there's a sense of a small group of ppl willing it into importance

which makes azealia banks different in what way to any other rap/r&b act that critics stan for?

like would it legitimise her if "212" ended up being a hit? it's not like odd future have had hits either

I don't think it's slight in terms of popularity, I think it's slight because it really reminds me of "Mr Saxobeat". Its hit potential isn't even on my radar; if anything, I think it has a shot because of the combo of filthy lyrics + frothy beat + cuet rapper/singer, but then again I also thought ppl were going to go for Janelle Monae as a pop star rather than "a respected musician" so I am not a good barometer for these things.

i'm not trying to 'delegitimize' her though. i'm just trying to describe her stuff in a way that i feel is accurate. i dont think there's much hit potential in this song, i have no idea what to think abt her long-term prospects. i do feel like she'd do better in britain than here.

minaj is all schtick at this point but it kind of seems useless to knock her for that -- when she leaves aside the schtick you just get horribly bland platitudes like "right thru me" or the verses on "moment 4 life"

I don't think "212" will be a hit but the buzz around it is reminiscent of the buzz around "Galang" (only it's been faster b/c these things travel faster now).

and like MIA, we end up discussing her in ilx threads about radio rap for some mysterious reason

"212" is interesting but breakout pop single? gtfo. hook isn't strong enough.

it wouldn't go straight to radio playlists if they just tightened up the chorus, though

the song's fun is all in the bleeped out parts

this is just gonna be a song that hipsters play a lot at hipster house parties

how dare they

what kind of craft brew do they drink while listening to it

good results

HAM got rob'd

isnt that song widely considered a flop

i mean, i don't like it either, but i thought the general consensus was 'WOW' followed by 'eh'

i just assumed that post was sarcastic

wow I would like "Ima Boss" a lot more if it wasn't for the videogame strings/horns

dunno why you would think a post made by poster 'gayfish' was sarcastic tbh

http://theremixbaby.tumblr.com/post/14643521667/unpopular-opinions-super-bass

kinda sums up my feelings about 'super bass' (except I wouldn't rank it that low on PF)

wow I would like "Ima Boss" a lot more if it wasn't for the videogame strings/horns

haha I love shitty fake synth brass sounds in rap songs

I mean why shouldn't I feel like I'm playing Lufia when I listen to Meek Mill

sawce all over me

haha I love shitty fake synth brass sounds in rap songs

― that wiener from Emearlds (step hen faps), Thursday, December 22, 2011 6:46 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

seriously!

fake brass is awesome

"ima boss" is my favorite song on here, but if anything it would be better if the beat was varied for like even a few bars. it's hard as hell but it's soo repetitive.

i have zero issues w/ that album

er, song