Best in Hip Hop 07

Now that '08 has officially begun it seems like as good a time as any to rank the best hip hop 2007. Despite a lot of bad music trends ("Ay Bay Bay" "Pop Lock and Drop It" "Crank Dat") there was a lot of great music that came out. Here are my definitive lists for '07

Most Dashing Awards '07

Best Mixtapes

5. Saigon - Moral of the Story
4. Joe Budden - Mood Muzik 3
3. Bishop Lamont - Ni##er Noize
2 Lil Wayne - The Carter 3 Leak
1. Little Brother - Separate but Equal























Best "verse for verse" MCs of 2007
(with standout verse)

5. Phonte - "Sirens"
4. Jay-z - "Success"/"Ignorant Sh*t"
3. Lil Wayne - "I am the Future"/"We Takin Over"
2. Lupe - "Dumb it Down"
1. Andre 3000 - "I Choose You"/ "Art of Storytellin (part 4)"


Best Producers of 2007

10. 9th Wonder - His first year as a free agent proved to be a good one as 9th produced bangers for Bishop Lamont's street albums and reconnected with Little Brother for "Breakin My Heart."

Also honed his skills dropping Dream Merchant Vol. 2 (anyone remember a volume 1??) with appearances by Mos Def, Saigon, Jean Grae, Memphis Bleek, Royce da 5'9 and others.

9. Soundtrakk - The man principally responsible for the production behind Lupe's modern classic The Cool. Nuff said.

8. Mark Ronson - Along with Salaam Remi, Mark Ronson is primarily responsible for Amy Winehouse's new sound. He also proved he could carry an album on his own with the release of Version, an interesting mix of covers that he reinvented.

7. Polow Da Don - Showed serious crossover appeal with hits for Fergie("Glamorous") while still keeping it hood producing Rich Boy's "Boy Looka Here" and Young Buck's "Get Buck."

6. The Runners - Could be heard all over the radio producing DJ Khaled's"I'm so Hood," Beanie Sigel's "All of the Above" and songs for T.I, Birdman, Rick Ross, and a host of others. Proved themselves to be beyond "the guys that made 'Hustlin'."

5. Exile - The self-described "Pete Rock" to Blu's CL smooth, he produced Below the Heavens in its entirety recreating and updating the timeless sound of early 90's hiphop.

4. Badboy's Hitmen - Produced most of Jay-z's "comeback" CD American Gangster, including the smash "Roc Boys"

3. Kanye West - What can you say about this guy that he hasn't already said about himself? He keeps doing it. This year was no different. Starting off this year with the purist's anthem, Common's "The People" and closing out with a bevy of hits of his own, most notably the commercial smash hit"Stronger." The rest of Graduation wasn't too shabby either.


2/1. Danjahandz and Timbaland - These dudes are certified hit machines. Hard to pick one over the other for 1 and 2 especially considering that they work so closely together so they collectively get the 1 and 1 slot. Starting with Danja, this year he established himself as a great producer in his own right working with T.I, Trey Songz, Lil' Wayne and others. On top of that he with made the smash "We Takin Over" for DJ Khaled. He also succeeded in a Herculean feat, making Britney Spears' Blackout actually listenable producing the first single "Gimme More" along with nearly half the album. Timbo continued to be the hitmaker we've known him to be dropping three hit singles off his album Shock Value, the latest "Apologize" is number 3 on the charts eight months after the album was released. Add to that another hit with Bobby Valentino's "Anonymous" and the string of Timberlake/Furtado hits that carried over into '07 and you've got the biggest producers in the game right now.


Best Hip Hop Albums

10. T.I - T.I vs Tip


Why: Though it's not as impressive as King, T.I's last offering this album still boasted a bevy of hits and offered the creative concept of T.I fighting his alter ego T.I.P. And it worked. Add that plus a bunch of A-list features (Jay-z, Eminem, Busta Rhymes) with knockin' beats and you've got yourself a hot album.

Standout Tracks: "Big Things Poppin" "Hurt" "Tell Em I Said That"


9. Little Brother - GetBack

Why: Like, T.I, not quite as impressive as their previous offerings but impressive nonetheless.
From the outset there were skeptics since 9th Wonder departed. People wondered if they could maintain their sound. The truth is they didn't. Sometimes it worked("Sirens") and other times it didn't ("Two Step Blues"). Bottom Line though, even a good album by these cats is still great.

Standout Tracks: "Sirens" "Good Clothes" "Dreams"

8. Common - Finding Forever

Why: Much like T.I, Common figured he would try to redo the success that he had with his previous effort. Also, like T.I, it falls a bit short and lacks creativity. That being said the album still boasted a whole lot of heat. His hard tracks hit with fury but unfortunately his introspective ones didn't hold much weight.


Standout Tracks: "The People" "The Game" "Southside" "Start the Show"

7. Ghostface - Big Doe Rehab

Why: While I don't agree with the many who believe this is Ghost's best offering since Supreme Clientele, I can see the argument. BDR is loaded with straight up grimy hard Wu tracks and unapologetically neglects crooning to the ladies (see "Never Be the Same Again" "Back Like That") Couple that with great verses from Wu brethren Method Man(bout time you represented) and Rae and you got a new Wu Banga.

Standout Tracks: "Yolanda's House" "Toney Sigel aka The Barrell Brothers" "Slow Down"

6. Freeway - Free At Last

Why: No Kanye? No Just Blaze? Only one Rocafella feature? Still hot? Yes. Freeway proved to the haters that he can make great albums for the second time. This time by his lonesome. He's one of the few rappers that can convey pain, regret, anger and jubilation effectively from track to track while keeping consistency on his albums. His crazy rhyme scheme is as impressive as ever and he still manages to keep some soul in there despite Kanyeeze and Just Blaaaze.

Standout Tracks:"Baby Don't Do It" "When They Remember" "Nuttin on Me"

5. Kanye West - Graduation

Why: Ok, so "Drunk and Hot Girls" sucked and Lil Wayne did not exactly impress on "Barry Bonds" but Kanye still managed to put together a great album. This album confirms that he will be a huge player in hip hop for a long time as he continues to push the envelope creatively with each new album. Do you remember when people said all he did was make chipmunk beats? How ridiculous is that now?

Standout Tracks: "Stronger" "The Glory" "Good Life"

4. Talib Kweli - Ear Drum

Why: Because I'd written Kweli off. His voice is kind of annoying and I was not impressed with his last two albums and my expectations were pretty damn low. Then guess what? This happened. Easily his best album since Reflection Eternal. From the opening verse of the album, you notice that Kweli has added swagger. That's right. Swagger. From Kweli. Who knew? He smoothly blends the jazz/soul with the hard rhymes and beats and doesn't run for radio hits and it works perfectly.

Standout Tracks: "Soon the New Day" "Everything Man" "Hostile Gospel" "The Perfect Beat"

3. Jay-z - American Gangster

Why: Because Jay-z fell off, right? Jay-z never fell off. He was sleep in Beyonce. Well, apparently he's back and with a vengeance. You need only keep reading my blog to get my full review but needless to say American Gangster is among Jay's best. Arguably right beneath Black Album. So ignoring the abyssmal "Hello Brooklyn" and the bonus tracks (though at least they grew on me) the album is damn near flawless. Diddy's hitmen blessed him with the beats and Jay hit them out the park.

Standout Tracks: "Fallin" "Success" "Pray" "Ignorant Sh*t"

2. Blu and Exile - Below the Heavens

Why: Because I wasn't expecting it at all. Sure, I'd read some reviews from underground purists saying it was good but then again these guys also swear by Aesop Rock, Dilated Peoples, Kenna and other stuff that when I eventually download I'm deeply disappointed by. Blu and Exile, however, is a different story. This is Nas's Illmatic. This is Mos Def's Black on Both Sides.

No exaggeration. An intelligent creative lyricist (with flow) over sample-heavy beats that are a blend of Premo, Pete Rock and 9th Wonder. This new cat is the truth and he woulda been number 1 if not for this next cat. . .


Standout Tracks: "Cold Hearted" "The World is" "So(ul) Amazin" "In Remembrance of Me"

1. Lupe Fiasco - The Cool


Why: Where do I start? For starters Lupe is the only one on this list who managed to make their best album this go round. Let's ignore the obvious. The kid has lyrics for days. The kid has flow for days. The kid has concepts for days. We knew about that on the first album. But what this album has that Food and Liquor didn't have is risk. Sure, there were some very creative concepts but this album takes serious risks. And as we all know, great risk often gives great rewards. Examples, you say? Sure.


"Go Go Gadget Flow" starts the album off with an old-school Timbo style beat where Lupe channels Jet Li in Unleashed and just goes off on the track.


"Paris Tokyo" is a straight up Native Tongues inspired cool out jazz track (perhaps an ode/apology to Tribe for Fiascogate) that he pulls off effortlessly with old school flow and lyrics complete with obscure reference to Charles de Gaulle.


"Gotta Eat" is an appetizing track about a hustler who will do whatever it takes to keep eating, complete with a food metaphor that he maintains throughout the whole song. "Twice the bread like he had two buns, and he had a whole lotta seeds, even his kids had meals(mills) For reals some rich small fries wrapped in paper since they was little, ketchup nigga" The wordplay is on a whole nother level.


"Hip Hop Saved My Life" is a third-person story that doubles as an ode to hip hop, which forgivably borrows from Hustle and Flow.


The truth is I could go on and on pointing out,"Little Weapon" "Streets on Fire" "Put You on Game," all intricate tales over diverse beats that step outside the box. Where this album succeeds the most is that you have the lyricism of a Nas, with the clever wordplay of a Jay, the production diversity of a Kanye with concepts like no other. And you know? It all works perfectly.

Technorati Tags: Hip-Hop Lupe+Fiasco Jay-Z Kanye+West Talib+Kweli Common