2022 was a STRONG year for Hip Hop music; with highly acclaimed releases from legends like Nas, Black Thought & Black Star. Long awaited returns from underground stalwarts such as Lupe Fiasco, Earl Sweatshirt, and Smino. The 5th coming of Rap Heavyweight Kendrick Lamar. Pusha T proving that his solo success is no fluke with the number 1 debuting It’s Almost Dry. Rap’s new school made plenty of noise with incredible projects from the likes of JID and EarthGang. and And so much more. Hell even Drake was able to bounce back from the critically derided and musically stale “Dance” album Honestly Nevermind with the fresh and inspires sounding collaboration project Her Loss.
I’ll leave it up to each individual poster to decide for themselves which rap albums released in 2022 qualify as classics, but now that we’ve got a fresh slate and a new year is officially here; who do YOU ALL think is going to drop the first classic or near classic album of the year?
My vote goes to Jay-Z. Its now been FIVE years since he’s released a solo album. Yes he’s dropped two collaboration albums since then, the Husband/Wife duet album Everything Is Love with Beyonce and the surprise “Hell has OFFICIALLY frozen over” debut album from Jay Electronica, A Written Testimony (on which Jay appears on 8 of the album’s ten tracks) but its high time that Jay drop an album that he can officially call his OWN in the current decade.
I think Jay WILL drop an album this year. And I think it’ll be in either Summer (June) or Fall (September). I think he’ll wait for Beyonce’s buzz with her Renaissance album to run its course (Grammys in February. Tour starting in March) and then he’ll go full steam ahead with his own project.
I also think Jay knows he HAS to deliver with this album, and he’ll definitely do that lyrically. I’m not sure if he’ll follow the current trend of hunkering down with one producer to go for a unifying sound or if he’ll spread the love across a variety of beat-smiths. One person you can bet on NOT showing up for the party is Kanye West, for obvious reasons.
Either way i’m expecting no less than a 4.5/5 effort from Jay in 2023
I’ll leave it up to each individual poster to decide for themselves which rap albums released in 2022 qualify as classics, but now that we’ve got a fresh slate and a new year is officially here; who do YOU ALL think is going to drop the first classic or near classic album of the year?
My vote goes to Jay-Z. Its now been FIVE years since he’s released a solo album. Yes he’s dropped two collaboration albums since then, the Husband/Wife duet album Everything Is Love with Beyonce and the surprise “Hell has OFFICIALLY frozen over” debut album from Jay Electronica, A Written Testimony (on which Jay appears on 8 of the album’s ten tracks) but its high time that Jay drop an album that he can officially call his OWN in the current decade.
I think Jay WILL drop an album this year. And I think it’ll be in either Summer (June) or Fall (September). I think he’ll wait for Beyonce’s buzz with her Renaissance album to run its course (Grammys in February. Tour starting in March) and then he’ll go full steam ahead with his own project.
I also think Jay knows he HAS to deliver with this album, and he’ll definitely do that lyrically. I’m not sure if he’ll follow the current trend of hunkering down with one producer to go for a unifying sound or if he’ll spread the love across a variety of beat-smiths. One person you can bet on NOT showing up for the party is Kanye West, for obvious reasons.
Either way i’m expecting no less than a 4.5/5 effort from Jay in 2023
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