And a Happy New Year!
Trylemma here to check in again for a special year-end post recapping my favorite projects of 2022. You may have heard all, some, or none, but the following are my picks for my Top 50 Favorite Projects of 2022. This year, I decided to just put them all in alphabetical order based on artist as it's getting harder to compare projects that simply fit different moods. (Small comments on select entries.)
1. Aceyalone - Ugmosis (Amazing that Acey is still putting out fresh sounding albums)
2. All City Jimmy - Westside Boy
3. Awol One - Happy Rebirthday
4. Backburner - Continuum
5. Blackwinterwells - Crystal Shards (A worthy project to be at the forefront of Hyperpop moving forward)
6. Blackwinterwells - Protector
7. BRavenous - Ghosts of Rockingham
8. Buck 65 - King Of Drums (After a couple weird releases out of retirement?, this finally sounds like a proper Buck 65 return)
9. Cities Aviv - Man Plays Horn (One of the densest albums of the year lyrically and musically - so much here to return to)
10. Claud Six - In Case We Shouldn't Make It
11. Cleen - Curb Servin' 22
12. The Cloaks - A Cloakwork Orange
13. Collective Efforts - The Long Way Home (Another amazing release from a thought-to-be-retired outfit)
14. CVE - We Represent Billions
15. D-Sisive - Knoblic Gardens (This is a late 2022 release, but it's already the second best project D-Sisive has ever dropped imo)
16. Death Dealers Anonymous - Salvo
17. Def-I & Smoke - Water Edges
18. Factor - Time Invested II
19. Fantasy Camp - Casual Intimacy
20. Fax Gang - Dataprism
21. Gepetto - Summer Tape
22. Homeboy Sandman - I Can't Sell These (Covid is real, anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers are dumb - Sandman still manages to kill these beats)
23. Kid Cudi - Entergalactic
24. Marrow - Fission Two
25. Memphis Reins & QM - Reign Clouds
26. Mixed Matches - Mixed Matches
27. Mixed Matches - With You (The prettiest sounding album of the year imo)
28. Moka Only & The SOULution - Midnight Sessions
29. Nan Fiero & Qnorapname - Attention Span (Also peep that Feo Faces EP that Fake Four dropped for free this month)
30. Open Mike Eagle - A Tape Called Component System (The best Open Mike Eagle album since 2015 - which is very impressive)
31. Oscar Goldman - Oscar Goldman
32. Paper Rose Haiku - Paper Rose Haiku
33. Pass - Flowers
34. RAP Ferreira - 5 To The Eyes With Stars
35. Rove - If Not Now (The mysterious Side Road OG finally drops an album, and it hits perfectly - I heard there's another one in store)
36. $imple - Peace Or Else
37. Sadistik & Kno - Bring Me Back When The World Is Cured (I wanted to not like this album, but I failed miserably)
38. Sahtyre & Left Brain - Gone Folder 22
39. Saskatoon Folk Rap Records - SFRR Tape (Best crew currently in rap)
40. SB The Moor - In Babylon!
41. Sick Aura - Give Thanks
42. Skizza - Bridge City Underdog
43. Swamp Thing - Noise Machine
44. Taylor Morgan - Nature Power (Taylor Morgan is lowkey becoming one of the best producers out there no doubt)
45. Thavius Beck - Leo (Thavius Beck? And rapping?!?!?!)
46. Topr - Gross
47. Wicca Phase - Full Moon Mystery Garden
48. Wool See - Cope Money (Tribute to a lost cat)
49. Wstdyth - Meltwaterpul5e
50. Z-Man & Tahaj - Animal Slavery
And for the beat-heads and instrumental lovers out there - here's my Top 50 Instrumental Based Projects of 2022:
1. A-Plus - Cigano Road Vol. 1
2. AG Flux - Summer In-Flux Vol. 3
3. The Audible Doctor & J57 - 8-Bit Beat Tape
4. Awkward - The Mighty Engine
5. Daedelus - Simmers Over
6. The Dirty Sample - Beats To Murder Rappers To
7. DJ Brace and Illdigger - A Time To Remember
8. DJ Day - Life After You
9. DJ Drez - Soft Electricity
10. DJ Eons & Bad Shane - 41st And El Camino
11. Drummachinemike - Artificial Environments
12. Duke Westlake - Lucia Lodge
13. Edison - Concave Rabbit
14. Elaquent - Long Drives To Nowhere
15. Elephant Gerald - Life Of The Party
16. Emancipator & Lapa - 11th Orbit
17. Endemik Remote Ensemble - They Fired With Their Lives
18. Fat Jon - Plaything Cipher
19. Filthy Fingers United - World Ablaze
20. Freddie Joachim - Hiding
21. Free The Robots - Kaduwa
22. Funky DL - Lo-Fi Blue Beats
23. Grainbin - Grainbin
24. Headnodic - Junk Drawer Vol. 2
25. Jason The Argonaut - Deep Time
26. M. Fusion - The Nobom Chronicles
27. Maki - American Road Films
28. Mestizo - Water, Breath, Flesh, Food
29. More Or Les - Beats For Bounty Hunters
30. Nickels - Duality
31. Nickels - Top Ten
32. Noblonski - Lazy Loops 4our
33. oddballTheatre - gumboTape
34. Omid - Yalda
35. Parallel Thought - Poly Rythmatic
36. Raz Fresco - Ice Cream Cake
37. Scholarman - The Rising
38. The Shaolin Afronauts - The Fundamental Nature Of Being, Part Two
39. SignOne - Signal To Noise 5
40. Sinitus Tempo - Journey 2
41. Sinitus Tempo - XXXIII
42. Sully - Beyond The Construct
43. Suff Daddy - Basically Sober
44. Theory Hazit - Lowkey LoFi
45. Thes One - Shelter In Place
46. Thndrthf - Witch Poison
47. Tone Definite - Sky Vibes Vol. 2
48. Uggish - And Now To Learn To Fish II
49. Yungmaple - Archive 1
50. Zoen - The Harvest
hope this gem didnt slip under your guys radar, cause its pretty dope https://sankofa.bandcamp.com/album/vltr-kmbt
ReplyDeleteNice list as always. I did a top 100 albums, here's the hip hop extracted as a top 10!
ReplyDelete1. billy woods - Aethiopes
2. Buck 65 - King of Drums
3. Elucid - I Told Bessie
4. Infinity Knives x Brian Ennals - King Cobra
5. billy woods x Messiah Musik - Church
6. Pip Skid - A Really Nice Day
7. Double Nice - The Last Dig
8. Akai Solo - Spirit Roaming
9. Roc Marciano x The Alchemist - The Elephant Man's Bones
10. DJ Moves - Pam Grier's Kids
Lunar C - Most High & K.A.A.N & Smuff the Quiz - Kaizen Pt 2
ReplyDelete