Aboveground Mix
Lots of pop this year. This was one of the hardest cut downs. Here are the songs that didn't make the cut:- Mark Ronson - Uptown Funk. Liked the song, but it felt like it would get old quick.
- Jennifer Lopez & Iggy Azalea - Booty. I just don't like J Lo, and adding Iggy after the fact - while a nice admission that no one likes Pitbull anymore (if in fact anyone ever did) - rung a little hollow.
- Jesse J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj - Bang Bang Bang. Just didn't like it as much as their other songs.
- Ella Henderson: Ghost. One of the final cuts.
- Usher f/ Juicy J - I Don't Mind. Good song, but not exactly fresh material.
- Drake - 0 to 100/The Catch Up. One of the final cuts. It just didn't really vibe with the rest of the mix.
That's a lot of cuts. I usually struggle to round of the mixes with songs I like, but this year I had way too much. Then there was also D'Angelo. I know a lot of people have praised the album, but his voice makes it hard for me to hear what he's actually saying, and while I pick it up more on subsequent listens, it bugs me enough that it ruins the whole thing for me. Sorry, D'Angelo.
Let's get to the mixes.
1. Kid Ink - Body Language f/ Usher & Tinashe. I fell in love with this song, so much that I wanted to lead off with it. It's kind of a classic 90s throwback, with the heavy hitters on the hook. You might not think of Tinashe as a heavy hitter yet, but she put out one of my favorite albums this year, and I expect big things from her.
2. Taylor Swift - Blank Space. TS' version of "I Get Around," this narrowly beat out "Shake It Off" (which is her version of "Dirt Off My Shoulder"), mostly because Summer asked me to pick "Blank Space." She gets one request per year, and this was it.
3. J. Cole - Wet Dreamz. Topic selection is everything, be it baseball analysis or music or anything else. This topic definitely stands out, and the beat knocks as well.
4. Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass. The Massachusetts girl makes good.
5. Iggy Azalea - Fancy f/ Charli XCX. Love her or hate her, and I understand both viewpoints, this is an awesome, awesome song.
6. James Newton Howard - The Hanging Tree f/ Jennifer Lawrence. Yes, Jennifer/Katniss, I am coming.
7. Shakira - I Can't Remember To Forget You f/ Rihanna. Most people probably forgot this song came out in 2014, since it debuted on January 13th. But it did, and it's about as superstar a collabo as you can think of.
8. Ariana Grande - Break Free f/ Zedd. It is a little harder to appreciate her songs since she does legit look like a 12-year-old girl, but she definitely can sing. She doesn't quite have Mariah's range or charisma though, so let's knock it off with those comparisons.
9. Calvin Harris - Summer. This joins the semi-long line of songs with my wife's name in them, and it was a smash hit to boot. Easy pick here.
10. Kendrick Lamar - i. Another easy pick. Hope we get more K. Dot in 2015.
11. Selena Gomez - The Heart Wants What It Wants. I couldn't believe it myself when I realized how much I liked this song.
12. Migos - Handsome and Wealthy. I learned of this group when Q-Tip called them "tha truth." That doesn't happen often.
13. Trey Songz - Touchin', Lovin' f/ Nicki Minaj. Trey basically plays second banana on his own song. Nicki crushes her verse. It really was her year. And her outro on the song leads beautifully into...
14. Nicki Minaj - Anaconda. There was a lot of social media fuss around the cover art and video and with good reason, but it's also a damn good song, and I can't really remember anyone having the stones to flip Sir Mix A Lot's beat, so bonus points for that.
15. Charli XCX - Boom Clap. Infectious.
16. Future - Benz Friendz (Whatchutola) f/ Andre 3000. This is the one song I really cheated on. It wasn't one of the six singles from Future's monster album, but since four of the six landed on the Hot 100, I can only assume that this one would have as well had it been chosen. And since this was the one with Andre 3000 on it, it gets the nod. Outkast 4 lyfe.
17. YG - Who Do You Love? f/ Drake. I had heard about YG for awhile, and this song didn't disappoint.
18. Tinashe - 2 On f/ Schoolboy Q. Like I said, Tinashe rocked my world this year. And the Schoolboy Q feature puts it over the top. It also served as Schoolboy's one appearance this year, as I just didn't like his album as much as most.
19. Clean Bandit - Rather Be f/ Jess Glynne. This song doesn't really fit, so it kind of got pushed toward the back, but it was one of my favorite songs of the year.
20. Sam Smith - I'm Not The Only One. Hard to deny this guy's talent, even with a boring name like Sam Smith.
21. Michael Jackson - Love Never Felt So Good (Original Version). I sort of cheated here too, because I believe the version of this song that charted was the one with Justin Timberlake, but that strikes me as unnecessary. The song was brilliant on its own.
Underground Mix
Lots of stuff left off this as well. Jhene Aiko, Boldy James, Gangsta Boo, Ab-Soul, Pusha T, Luke James, Prince, the 1978ers, Ghostface and Lauryn Hill all had songs that didn't make the cut. I'd like to say Wu-Tang Clan and G-Unit also were close to making the cut, but their comebacks were mostly depressing. Oh well, nothing lasts forever.1. FKA Twigs - Pendulum. I still don't exactly know what this song is, other than a song I'm in love with. And that's enough. Perhaps my favorite song of the year. I don't really make that distinction because who cares, but this song would be in the conversation for sure.
2. Run The Jewels - Blockbuster Night Part 1. I had at times five different songs from this album picked. I probably could have just pasted in the whole thing and called it a day.
3. Lil' B - No Black Person Is Ugly. The Based God puts out so much material that it's basically impossible for me to keep up with it all, but this one cut through it all this year.
4. Statik Selektah - Get Away f/ Joe Scudda and Colin Munroe. Another hard selection, as SS' album had a lot of great choices. This narrowly made the cut over "Alarm Clock" featuring Ab-Soul, Jon Connor & Logic?.
5. Isiah Rashad - Heavenly Father. This album got better every time I listened to it, which is good, because I was initially underwhelmed, especially with the hooks.
6. The Social Experiment - Sunday Candy f/ Chance The Rapper. Chance is barely established and is already trying new things. That's an encouraging sign, especially when the result is awesome music such as this.
7. Vince Staples - Limos f/ Teyana Taylor. Oh my, this beat. I'm in love with this song.
8. Big K.R.I.T. - Mt. Olympus. There were a lot of responses to "Control." This was one of the only ones worth even noting.
9. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - High f/ Danny Brown. "Pinata" is on the short list for album of the year. This was yet another album where I had a hard time picking just one song.
10. Mobb Deep - Dirt. To be honest, I thought their album was pretty uneven, and there weren't a lot of standouts. This was one of the few.
11. DJ JS-1 - Show Shockin' f/ El da Sensai, Tame One and Reef the Lost Cauze. A great throwback beat, with three unheralded but awesome lyricists who are very at home rapping over it.
12. Cam'ron & A-Trak - Dipsh*ts f/ Juelz Santana & Dame Dash. Cam retains his belt for "funniest rapper alive." Not that it was really in dispute. The Dame Dash outro is also hilarious, though probably not in the way Dame intended it to be.
13. Flying Lotus - Never Catch Me f/ Kendrick Lamar. I don't like FlyLo as much as most do, but this song is hard to deny.
14. Ray West & O.C. - Lovers. Another great concept album, and this song was my favorite topic chosen on the LP. The recent rash of producer/rapper collaborations has been great for hip-hop, and this album is a prime example of why.
15. Azealia Banks - Ice Princess. I fear that her legacy will be as the brat who can't shut up on Twitter, which would be a shame, because she makes great music...when she gets around to it.
16. Prhyme - Dat Sound Good f/ Ab-Soul and Mac Miller. The DJ Premier and Royce da 5'9" collabo is another great example of the producer/rapper team up, and here they produce that classic Premo sound, with two (relative) newbies along for the ride.
17. Drake - How 'Bout Now. Drake and K. Dot are so good that they can rule the roost even in years when they don't put out albums. Pretty impressive.
18. Cormega - More. Another of my favorite albums of the year, and this is one of my favorite cuts off of it. The album gets a little preachy at times, but 'Mega has earned that right at this point.
19. Pharoahe Monch - Losing My Mind. This album, and this song in particular, were incredibly revealing.
20. The Roots - When The People Cheer f/ Modesty Lycan. Anything The Roots do is close to an automatic selection. They may not put out albums that frequently anymore, but since they still play together all the time, they haven't really lost a step.
21. Ras Kass & Apollo Brown - Bon Voyage. Nearly picked "How to Kill God" but I felt like this song was a better fit to close out the mix.
Bonus Christmas Track. Fabolous - I Don't F*ck With Christmas. I had a hard time picking a hip-hop Christmas song this year - record more Christmas albums, rappers!!! - but this one came along just in the St. Nick of time.
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