We counted down, watched the ball drop, and entered 2016 eagerly seeking to devour some of the most highly anticipated rap albums in recent memory. We all clammered for any top secret *DJ Khaled voice* intel on Swish, I mean Waves, I mean,The Life Of Pablo. We also wondered how Drake could eclipse running through the 6 with his woes on IYRTITL. One thing was abundantly clear: 2016 Hip Hop would be championed by the biggest stars in the game. Or would it?
Well my friends, we’re half-way through the year and here are my favorite moments/events in 2016 rap so far. (No Particular Order) What’s most fascinating is that most of these we could have never seen coming. Perhaps, that’s why they struck us all so profoundly.
1) Schoolboy Q’s Super Original and Visceral Flow on Groovy Tony
In a rap world filled with copycat flows, the last groundbreaking flow anyone can remember is the Migos flow. Rappers have been beating that horse to a bloody pulp and it’s probably no exaggeration to say that almost every rapper has used this flow at some point since my favorite ATL trap-rap trio burst on to the scene. That makes Schoolboy Q’s in your face, disjointed, bite your head off flow on Groovy Tony that much more impressive. Schoolboy’s flow mimics the snare drum pattern and it’s simply thrilling. Each verse is a crescendo and decrescendo of intensity. The cadence rises and falls with hypnotizing energy and it’s the best thing a rap flow can be nowadays: ORIGINAL.
2) Chance The Rapper’s Beautiful Gospel Inspired Hip Hop
By most people’s standards, Kanye’s The Life Of Pablo did not disappoint. However, the very best moment on the entire project didn’t come from Kanye himself, but rather it was Chance’s show-stopping verse on Ultra Light Beam. Now I’m not using hyperbole when I say that this verse is perhaps one of the 10 greatest rap verses of all time. It gives me chills every time I hear it. If you’ve been living under a rock like Spongebob’s best friend, I won’t tarnish its perception by typing the lyrics here. Stop reading this and go listen to it now. Little Chano let us know through his Zane Lowe interview that he spent a considerable time listening to Kirk Franklin while helping Kanye craft TLOP. The gospel influences are evident and Chance executes it much more effectively on his Coloring Book album. With overwhelming critical reception and streaming numbers, Chance broke ground on this independent project featuring everyone from Lil Wayne, and Justin Bieber, to Lil Yachty. The project was so well received that the Grammy association changed their rules to take stream-only free albums into consideration for their awards. Perhaps Chance forced their hand here when he rapped on Ultralight “they say you gotta sell it to snatch the Grammy// well let’s make album so free and the bars so hard that there ain't no gosh darn part you can’t tweet” OR quote in an article, because I promised I wouldn’t a few sentences ago, and well… Here I am.
3) The Rise of Lil Uzi Vert
Hip-Hop heads love to bash these young colorful headed, melody driven, weirdo swag rappers. To be honest, they make themselves pretty easy targets. However, if I had to pick one rapper out this bunch to vouch for it would undoubtedly be Lil Uzi Vert. I’ll do you one better and flat out admit that I LOVE Lil Uzi Vert. His charisma and rock-star energy are just as infectious as his delivery and melodies. Uzi is managed by DJ Drama and Don Cannon and he has quickly emerged as one of the most sought-after young stars in music. At any given time you can open your Apple Music search and the Philly by way of Atlanta rapper is likely to be in the top searched artists on the entire platform. Some of my favorite gems are Money Longer, Hi Roller, You Was Right, and All My Chains On. Something special about Uzi is that you have to take in his visuals along with the music in order to develop a true appreciation for it. The cover art and music videos play a huge role in understanding what the purple-haired maestro is doing creatively. Some of the biggest names in rap are biting his flows *cough Kanye cough*. The kid is dominating the playlists of teens and millennials across the country and it doesn’t appear as if he’s going to give up that griplock anytime in the immediate future.
4) Vic Mensa’s There’s A Lot Going On
I’ve been a Vic Mensa fan since he hooked me with his brilliant lyricism and songwriting on InnanetTape. The Kanye assisted U Mad was a sharp departure from his earlier work that it left members of Vic’s core fan base slightly confused, myself included. In no way am I saying that U Mad was a subpar rap track. However, I don’t think anyone thought it was nearly as creative as the Chicago native’s prior work. The gap between signing to Roc Nation and Vic Mensa’s recent release gave us such sparse information on where Vic’s been personally and creatively that I honestly started to worry for the guy. Thankfully, all of our fears and prayers were quelled and answered. There’s A Lot Going On is nothing short of phenomenal. I even enjoyed the auto-tuned assisted singing tracks like New Bae and Danger. 16 Shots is definitely the project’s pinnacle and Vic’s choice to address police brutality and race relations in his music so eloquently could not be any more timely.
5) Gucci Mane is Free… And Reformed His Life So Much That People Think He’s a Clone
Now you just can't make this stuff up. Gucci Mane had been imprisoned since 2013 and we didn’t expect him to be released for almost a whole nother year. That all changed when we were alerted about his early release through Snapchat. That’s when the world went bonkers. Gucci La Flare has emerged from his incarceration such a changed man that people can not even accept that it’s him. Big Guwop now uses a more expansive vocabulary, wears vintage designer shades, eats fresh fruit, and oh yeah he shed his famous codeine belly for a 6 pack. I won’t lie and say that this new reformed Gucci hasn’t caught me off guard. However, people sincerely believe that Guwop has been cloned and I feel foolish for even typing that.
There you have it. That’s my take on the 5 most interesting things in Hip Hop for the first 6 months of 2016. I can not wait for what other madness awaits us. Chances are it will be even more unpredictable than what we’ve experienced so far, and that is precisely what makes this game so fascinating.
