It's been going around for a few weeks. "I'm almost ready to call this as album of the year." "What's your pick for album of the year?". Around this time of year, all sorts of awards are being tossed around. I figured I'd throw out 7 hiphop albums that touched me in some way. What is an "Album of the Year"? I dunno, I just know I liked these seven releases. No order, no ratings, just good cds. Read on for a bit more depth:

Sage Francis - Personal Journals: I put this album first on the list because people need to check it out. Not everyone will like it. It's not uplifting, and much of it is downright depressing. But Sage Francis is perhaps one of the most incredible lyricists in the world today. He won Scribble Jam 2000 and prior to this album, he had four non-albums out, with something like 80 total tracks of varying quality. He also had an incredible post-9/11 track called Makeshift Patriot that gained him a fair amount of attention. Now he's finally got a full length studio album, and it's fantastic. Crack Pipes, the opening track, is always my favorite, but everytime I listen to this album, I hear a different incredible song. In his own words, "I'm different...in a different way/The only thing that stays the same is change." And on his rise up the underground scene:
"Poetry struck a nerve in the listenership/Spoken word then got 'em all interested
Now I don't have to serve ice cream to little kids/I get to serve emcees who think they're rippin' it
And poets who think they're somehow significant/Meanwhile both are loud and ignorant
And don't know how to speak to a crowd in an intimate environment." Incredible rhymes coupled with incredible emotion make for an incredible album.

Talib Kwali - Quality: You know Blackstar. You love Blackstar. If you don't, something is supremely wrong with you. But even if you like Blackstar, it may have been possible to not enjoy Talib's first solo effort with Hi-tek, under the name Reflection Eternal. Hi-tek and Talib are both extremely talented, but their match wasn't perfect musically. With his new album, under his own name, he rhymes incredibly, and it gives you a bit of that old Blackstar feeling. If you did listen to Reflection Eternal, you might recall the incredible hidden cover/remix/rewrite of Nina Simone's "Four Women" called, aptly "For Women". This album's first single, "Get By" features an incredible sample of Nina Simone's heart-wrenching wail from "Sinnerman", as well as the best lines on the album:
"This morning, I woke up/Feeling brand new and I jumped up
Feeling my highs, and my lows/In my soul, and my goals
Just to stop smokin', and stop drinkin'/And I've been thinkin'
I've got my reasons/Just to get by."

Eminem - The Eminem Show: Yeah, he's the angry white rapper you love to hate. But he can't be ignored. And with this album, he steps up and really spits nails. He's always been pissed off, but now, he's pissed off at the right things, including the government and the people who won't leave him alone. He's ingenious, he's well-produced, and hell, he even seems to have toned down the homophobic slurs to a near-acceptable level. One other thing to note, the single "Without Me" may well have been the weakest song on the album.

Rjd2 - Deadringer: Beats. It's all about the beats. Without quality beats, all you've got is spoken word. Spoken word is great but it doesn't get you moving. Rjd2 does. Whether it's the persistent beat of the headnodder Ghostwriter or the near-Propellerheads sound of The Horror, Rjd2 brings the noise, he brings the funk, and he brings an incredible album of beats to the table. There are also three tracks with MCs including the excellent cut "June" featuring Copyright. Yet another Def Jux release. Get it while it's still (barely) underground, and you can be the cool kid on your block.

Atmosphere - God Loves Ugly: I got my first listen to this album just this week, and it's awesome. I'd grabbed a few singles off other albums including the anti-autobiographical track "Nothing But Sunshine", but I just never got around to finding this album. I didn't know what I was missing. Slug spits well, with personal lyrics which anyone can relate to. DJ Ant spins a style just right for Slug, and it's easy to see why this duo has such a huge underground following. The top track for me was F*@K You Lucy, which I can't get out of my head. Other tracks to listen for are Onemosphere, The Bass And The Movement, Godlovesugly, and One Of A Kind. Nearly 70 minutes and 18 tracks of all killer, and no filler. Of the albums on the list, this is the must-have.

The Roots - Phrenology: Are The Roots hiphop? Who knows? Who cares? This album is superb. It's more than a little different from their last album, and their last album was more than a little different from the one before that. They never bring the same style to a cd, which keeps things loose. This album is their most hiphop/rock, a definite departure from the "neo-soul" label they've had before. Stand out tracks include "Thought At Work" (Try to find the pre-album version which featured a Beatles sample they weren't allowed to use. The reworking is still excellent, but inferior to the original), "The Seed 2.0", a reworking of a Cody Chestnutt song, and the biting track "Quills", featuring the line "I hit the studio with a pen and a vendetta/Sippin' an ice cold bev, huffing the tenth letter". Rockin' Hiphop that'll get you moving.

Aesop Rock - Labor Days: Alright, alright, this album came out in 2001. But I didn't pick it up until this year, and I'm hooked. Aesop spits over beats quickly and clearly, with lyricism and style. Best of all, this album is about more than just the state of hiphop. Sure, he boasts battle-rhymes ("Keep me posted as to when you grasp something mature to sit and soak about, Mister, and I'll consider picking up your record."), but the overall theme of the album is labor, working the 9-5 scene and keeping your soul in the rat race. This album turned me on to Aesop and Blockhead, his DJ, and I'm now working towards finding all his old albums from before he got picked up, that's right, by Def Jux. This is definitely one for the headnodders.

   That's it for the year. There were other albums that could have made this list, but nothing that so consistently found it's way into my ears. The Def Jux label had 2 of my top 7, as well as good stuff from Mr. Lif and El-P's debut solo. What other groups and labels did I miss? Email and let me know.