2018 was Janelle Monáe’s biggest year in her musical career yet, and rightfully so, as not only was her phenomenal Dirty Computer one of our top 20 albums of the first half of the year, but it’s up for many deserved Grammys. “Screwed” was easily one of the best bops of the year and if the video looks familiar to you, that’s because it was part of her much larger, self-directed narrative that accompanied the album. She’s wildly talented and we love seeing her kill it! While it’s not the much anticipated lead single off The Weeknd’s long new rumored album, “Lost in the Fire” is a dope collaboration with Gesaffelstein that continues his undefeated streak of working with French DJs. They may share the top billing on the song but it feels almost entirely like a Weeknd solo offering, right down to the enigmatic and dark aesthetics of the video. Sounds like another surefire hit. Victor Oladipo the R&B artist. Yes you read that correctly, NBA All-Star and last year’s most improved player moonlights as a singer on the side, and I gotta admit, he’s got pretty good voice. The song and video are about as traditional R&B as you’ll see these days however and you’ll probably have a hard time getting past the fact that it’s Oladipo singing at you, but it’s dope to see him living out all of his dreams. Besides, we can’t get any lower than whatever it was Kobe was going for.
Rich The Kid was one of the biggest surprises of last year, in that he quite possibly had the best album to come out of Atlanta and this new rapper wave. Now, whether he can he follow that up with something on par or better is yet to be seen but while “Splashin” is no “Plug Walk” it is a strong single that operates in that same lane, and unlike a lot of his peers he knows how to embrace the fun and absurdness of being a rapper (as evident in the video), making him a more likable artist. At this point it’s hard to argue that the Nasir saga was anything less than strange – from the manic shadow of Kanye hanging over everything, to the convoluted roll out, to the almost non-existent follow up, it’s no wonder people have so many mixed feelings about it. I do think everything surrounding Nas’ last album tainted the way people took in his music but with enough distance from that strange period, now could be as good a time as any to try to change the narrative with a sort of re-release of visuals for 3 of the better songs off the tape.
Check out everything I rounded up below and let me know which ones were your favorites.
