Written by Real HipHopHead
So far, 2011 has been a fabulous year. And judging by what’s coming (see: Real’s Top 25 Most Anticipated Albums/Projects: 2nd Half Of 2011), it’s only getting better! Wrapping up the first half of the year (I’m late, I know!), here are 50 of the finest Hip-Hop tracks from 2011.
I’ve tried to highlight a number of different projects and artists, but more or less, it’s a collection of my favorite songs thus far. There has been a tremendous amount of great music, and it was very difficult to narrow this down to 50 songs and near-impossible to order them. I had to leave off songs from a lot of very good projects and albums. I could have easily turned this into a Top 100 or even Top 200 list! But I’m happy with it, and I hope you enjoy it.
#50. Apollo Brown – The 11th Hour (Instrumental)
#49. Pharoahe Monch – Black Hand Side feat. Styles P & Phonte
#48. Blu – DooWhop (Prod. The Alchemist)
#47. Pete Rock and Smif-N-Wessun – Monumental feat. Tyler Woods
#46. Common – Summer Madness (Prod. No I.D.)
#45. Astronote – Make Moves feat. Journalist 103
#44. Co$$ – Pot Ash (Prod. Exile)
#43. Rapsody – H.E.R. Throne (Prod. Nottz)
#42. Curren$y & Alchemist – Scottie Pippen feat. Freddie Gibbs
#41. Pusha T – Alone In Vegas (Prod. Nottz)
#40. Talib Kweli – So Low
#39. Kaimbr & Kev Brown – Songs
#38. Dom Kennedy – When You See Love
#37. Big K.R.I.T. – Free My Soul
#36. Co$$ – Through The Flames feat. Blu
#35. eLZhi – Halftime
#34. Wu-Tang Clan – Legendary Weapons feat. Ghostface, AZ and M.O.P.
#33. Saigon – Oh Yeah (Our Babies)
#32. KRS One – Stand Up
#31. Roc Marciano – Slugs Thru Ya Papaya feat. Killah Priest
#30. Pete Rock and Smif-N-Wessun – That’s Hard feat. Styles P and Sean Price
#29. Skyzoo – The Definitive Prayer
#28. Hassaan Mackey and Apollo Brown - Elephants
#27. The ILLZ – To Know Your Place in The Universe
#26. A.G. – Where You Been
#25. Ridla - Life
#24. Reks – Mr. Nobody
#23. Jay-Z & Kanye West - Otis
#22. Pharoahe Monch - Still Standing feat. Jill Scott
#21. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis – Wings
#20. Blu - Jesus (Prod. Madlib)
#19. Raekwon - Rich And Black feat. Nas
#18. eLZhi – Life’s A Bitch feat. Royce da 5’9 and Stokley Williams
#17. Reks – 25th Hour (Prod. DJ Premier)
#16. Has-Lo - Fiber Optics
#15. Hassaan Mackey and Apollo Brown - Something
#14. Dela - WhatUWanna feat. Blu
#13. Big K.R.I.T. – Another Naive Individual Glorifying Greed and Ecouraging Racism
#12. Kendrick Lamar - HiiiPower
#11. Raekwon – Masters Of Our Fate feat. Black Thought
I am in love with the jazzy, trumpet-laced production from No I.D. and Kanye West. CyHi Da Prynce’s unique sound blends perfectly on the track and Big Sean is suitable on his guest spot. Instead of glorifying the materialistic lifestyle that most rappers promote, CyHi says, “Woopty doo…”
Two Hip-Hop legends come together to tell stories of hood love over an ill No I.D. joint? The Hip-Hop Gods are good. Very good. It looks amazing on paper, and sounds even better on wax. Common comes correct, but Nas steals the show with the final verse.
This track is an ANTHEM. Pharoahe Monch is a revolutionary. His message is bigger than music. The production on this joint is huge, and the a-capella finale is nothing short of spectacular. “Police, eat a dick, straight up, you know?”
People often say, “he murdered that beat,” or something to that end. Kendrick Lamar really does murder this track. There is this intangible; a passion, an emotion, a charisma; I’m not sure it can be pinpointed. Kendrick Lamar has it. And no song better exemplifies this. Phenomenal.
THE standout track from Big K.R.I.T.’s Return Of 4Eva. Wow. Over a simple, yet powerful self-produced backdrop, K.R.I.T. unleashes some beautiful and deeply personal poetry. “Most people stop for signs, but I’ve driven through it / If it don’t touch my soul, then I can’t listen to it / the radio don’t play the shit I used to love, or maybe I’m just growin’ up / Never seen a star on a red rug, if I wanna see stars I just look above… to the heavens.”
When Blu and Exile come together we always get something special. This may be one of my favorite productions I’ve ever heard from Exile. I love the extra long intro, just letting the beat ride out. MED and Blu sound fantastic together, both dropping personal and introspective verses.
Nas is back, and the flow matches the title of the song. His sound on this is reminiscent of Illmatic days. Utilizing a bare, stripped down (and perfect) production from frequent collaborator Salaam Remi, Nasir needs no chorus. Classic record. This September, Life Is Good.
Apollo Brown provides a gorgeous and epic backdrop for my favorite song from his Daily Bread LP with Hassaan Mackey. Mackey’s vocals and smooth delivery vibe perfectly with Apollo’s production throughout the album, and there is no better example than this standout track. Finale, one of Detroit’s illest and most unrecognized emcees, drops by for a dope guest verse.
eLZhi drops one of this year’s finest verses on this tribute to Nas’ Illmatic. Over Will Sessions wonderful recreation and slight re-working of DJ Premier’s original classic, eLZhi catches a “mental train” and goes back in time to visit old friends and relive fond memories. It’s one of the most touching verses I’ve heard in a very long time. And he ends it like this: “So now it’s time to go / I threw the deuces up to Dilla, dapped up ‘Tin and then I hugged my mama slow…”
blog comments powered by DisqusAn exercise in phenomenal delivery, wordplay, flow, lyricism, punchlines and depth, to a beautiful and haunting production from Exile. This left me speechless the first time I heard it. “So phenomenal with mics, I don’t like myself / sadomasochist emcee, I bite myself (ow!)” — Damn. By far my favorite song of 2011, from my Album of the Year thus far (W.A.R.)
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