clipping. – "Splendor and Misery"
Label: Sub Pop (Experimental Hip Hop) (37:02)
Highlights: "All Black," "Air 'Em Out," "A Better Place," "True Believer," "Break the Glass"
If you're familiar with the dude who played LaFayette in the “Hamilton” play that blew up last year, he also produces some scary good experimental hip-hop music.
Clipping is a relentless three piece comprised of lightning-fast emcee Daveed Diggs, noise musician William Hutson and film score composer Jonathan Snipes. As you can already illustrate with that information, it's a villainous squad of crazed artists.
With "Splendor and Misery," Clipping has constructed a twisted afrofuturism narrative detailing a slave ship traveling through space, delivering human cargo between planets. To reflect this, the noises are nauseating; they're harsh, stabby and resemble the metal ambiance an empty, decrepit space ship would sound like.
The protagonist, a single slave that survived civil war between the captives and the transporters, raps to himself using the ghostly environment as beats. Daveed sings about going delusional, such as falling in love with the ship's AI in “All Black” and having a drug overdose; power tripping and spilling bars with over-confidence (“Air 'em Out”).
"Splendor and Misery" is a difficult listen only because of how lonely and desolate it feels, especially compared to "CLPPNG" (2013). But once you finish it front to back, it feels more like a book than an album; a thrilling read by Diggs, edited by Hutson with a foreward by Snipes.
Glow Mechanics – "Glow Mechanics & The Other Element"
Label: Lame Pun (Hip Hop)
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Highlights: "Same Haunts," "I Can't Not Groove," "T.L.A.D.M," "50/50"
The epitome of everything Atmosphere, Mos Def and Binary Star have influenced hip-hop's adolescence, conveyed through the rhymes and beats by three nerdy white dudes from Minneapolis. Glow Mechanics utilize a back-and-forth conversational style of rapping over samples of old school 1920's swing music — and oh my, does it work.
All the ingredients are here, and they're laid back; smooth flow, clever lyrics and vintage beats all crafted so cohesively, meticulously, it washes the soul — it makes the people clean!
Lyrically, Glow Mechanics are on another level. They come up with all these funky, abstract zingers and thoughts, their ideas such a treat to experience:
“An apple and a basic scraping of the social matrix,
every day will keep your for-profit doctor at bay,
and keep you staying ageless.”
What is even the thought process behind such an odd, cohesive, substantial lyric?
This band has an arsenal of them. Bev's cloudy thoughts are so intricate and weird, applicable to a wide range of mindful whimseys people have in their everyday lives. Ghostmeat is the one that uses a more aggressive tone, and rhymes more about himself being a pretty darn good rapper. It's like how OutKast used their contrasting styles to convey so many more angles and perspectives.
Just how 3K was more conscious and abstract with his lyrics, similar to Bev, Ghostmeat is more material and proves his worth not by lyrics but rather speed and flow, like Big Boi. It's a fantastic combination that adds more than just rhythm and beats, it's a conversation.
God knows the formula's been working since 1992. Oh, and Es El's beats. They're so lo-fi and groovy, man. Seriously I can't recommend this album enough. Glow Mechanics are hardly known outside Minneapolis and they deserve all the ears they can get.
A Tribe Called Quest – "We Got it From Here...Thank You 4 Your Service"
Label: Epic (Golden Age Hip-Hop) (60:18)
Highlights: "The Space Program," "Dis Generation," "Solid Wall of Sound," "Conrad Tokyo," "Whateva Will Be"
I remember laying down on the couch the first time listening to "We Got it From Here..". and just reflexively grinning from ear to ear 30 seconds into “The Space Program."
Q-Tip's flow off the get-go is such a good album opener. It sets things straight right off the bat: Tribe has still got it. As it turns out, they never lost it. They jumped back on top of the game and no one can do anything about it.
"We Got it From Here..." is a perfect blend of golden age and modern hip-hop; nostalgia 2.0, like the McRib combined with a seafood bowl. The production is really loose and I love how free everything feels; it's not overproduced like some modern hip hop records, nothing feels quantized or anything (probably is though).
The contributors to this record alone are worth writing home about. 3 Stacks, Kendrick, Jack White, Elton John and Anderson Paak all show up to the show. Surprisingly, all of their tracks are really, really solid. “Dis Generation” is a total ode to the '90s — a time when everyone thought things would just get easier.
Busta Rhymes and Consequence throw down so hard on their tracks they might as well just be members of the group at this point. The album's best tracks are where Busta just completely slams the beat out of the water — Exhibit A: “Solid Wall of Sound," wherein the rhyming pattern is so bouncy and quick.
It's a powerful double album, considering the climate in which it came out. If the Tribe are packing it up for good this time, at least Phife got the proper outro he deserves.
Injury Reserve – "Floss"
Label: Las Fuegas (Alternative Hip-Hop) (42:05)
Highlights: "Bad Boys 3," "S on Ya Chest," "2016 Interlude," "All This Money"
This album barely caught the tail end of 2016 but it destroyed the contest by 15 days. I had never heard of the Arizona hip-hop trio until, literally, the first day of January — but they flat out might have the best hip-hop album of the year.
Every song vomits glitch and power beats that lays the concrete for the lyrics to punch you across the face. "Floss" will bind around your ears and have you yelling to yourself from point A to B on any given day.
From beginning to end, this album is merciless, even at the slow points where the beats forray into jazz it's something to bounce to. One track, “All Quiet on the West Side," is an awesome example that you can rap about pacifism over a dreary, pissed off beat.
Flatbush Zombies – "3001: A Laced Odyssey"
Label: Glorious Dead Recordings (Hip Hop) (60:51)
Highlights: "The Odyssey," "R.I.P.C.D," "Trade-Off," "Good Grief"
The album opens with a cinematic exposition:
“In a world full of haters stands a single group who clearly separate themselves from the rest.
These 3 men scale the ends of the Earth searching for truth and triumph.
Meechy Darko, Zombie Juice and erick the architect.
These are the flatbush zombies and this 3001: a laced odyssey.”
And I'm mostly on board with that.
Flatbush Zombies definitely don't innovate or anything, but after listening to this album you instantly recognize whose voice belongs to who. ZJ is the high voice, Arcitect is the middle voice and Meechy Darko is the one that: “Sounds like the devil”.
Which is pretty spot on, he has a pretty intimidating flow. "The Odyssey" might be the single best rap track this year – it's the best opening track to an album this year. Right off the bat it exemplifies how well Flatbush can flow over heavy instrumental boom beats. Architect is a fantastic producer, he crafts beats for his own flow to glide over across so you know they're meticulously cut out.
They sound polished in that way, at least. Other tracks like “Trade-Off” and “Good Grief” are sit back, relax and take a deep breath, kind of rhymes. In the meantime, songs like “Ascension” are absolutely brutal, with a heavy power choir chorus that will probably incite listeners to skip the song on the first listen.
But there's something here for everyone, and that's what Flatbush have proven to us. Also, shout-out for having one of the best album art pieces of all the artists on the list. It depicts a Disney-inspired animated siege, and the more I admire it, the more I can see the parallels with the art and the tracks. Spoiler: they enjoy drugs.
Audrin Baghaie is the music editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at dailylobomusic@gmail.com or on Twitter @AudrinTheOdd.
