Albums I Bought in 2012

 Instead of posting my top albums of 2012, I thought I'd just briefly review the albums that I bought in 2012.  Certainly, my music buying wasn't limited to the below albums.  However, my purchases of new releases were restricted to the following 2012 LPs.  I'm very interested in the albums that all of you recommend so feel free to comment with your recommendations.  Contrary to popular opinion, a lot of quality music is being released.  The problem is that the abundance of new music and the ease in which it can be purchased leads to the cheapening of the artform.  As many have already articulated,  music has now become very disposable.  Perhaps, we can best describe it by calling it the Ikeafication of music.  Because music is now so disposable, I hesitate to buy anything new at all because it just feels that none of it is being made to "last."  Doing my own searches through various year's best lists, Killer Mike's "R.A.P. Music" and Kendrick Lamar's "Good Kid..." albums are consistently mentioned.  Anybody want to vouch for either of these?  In any event, here's what I bought.


1. JJ Doom - Key to the Kuffs

It's very hard for me to pass on a Doom release.  This album got heavy burn the first few weeks after purchase, but I haven't given it much of a listen since.  Maybe I'll come back to it later and develop a new appreciation for it (happens all of the time to me),  but Doom's latest effort gets little play of late.  All in all, still money well spent.

2. Roc Marciano - Reloaded

Roc Marciano is like the Greg Popovich of hip hop.  Nothing too flashy, but he continues to provide consistent, quality music.  The album's strength is also it's weakness.  Roc's grimy flow riding sampled looped beats is the foundation of his music's appeal.  However, the album's inability to change pace can make for a snoozy experience toward the latter stages of an otherwise quality effort.  Money well spent.

3. Nas - Life is Good

Nas is like an alcoholic father.  You want him to sober up.  You ignore your wiser self and believe him each time he says he's sobered up.  You fall for the "rehabilitated" act every time because you want him to be sober.  You know how wonderful he could be if he would just sober up.  However, time and time again he shows up to your parent-teacher conference drunk and breaks your heart all over again.  With Nas, the formula is always the same.  Each album begins with him dropping a white hot street single (Nas is Like - I Am, No Ideas Original - Lost Tapes, Made U Look - God's Son, Thief's Thems - Street Disciple, Black Republicans - Hip Hop is Dead, Sly Fox - Untitled, Nasty - Life is Good) that makes you think "Nas is Back!!"  But in the end, his albums always disappoint.  I know that many have praised Nas' latest effort.  To be clear, I'm not exactly calling it horrible.  It's just that I regret spending $10 on a song that I could have bought for 99 cents.

4. Quakers - Quakers

I remember being very excited to buy this album to the point that I bought the instrumental on vinyl.  I have no idea what caused this excitement because I have yet to listen to the entire album.  That isn't to say the album is bad.  It's just the first few tracks I heard didn't really inspire me to hear more.  I guess you can chalk up this purchase to the power of an effective online marketing campaign.

5. DJ Premier & Bumpy Knuckles

Some of Primo's best production in years can be heard on this effort.  In my opinion, Bumpy is at his best when he refrains from screaming at you and just raps with his slow, talk-rhyme flow.  Solid, but not classic.  No regrets with this purchase.




14 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks for that! I dont know if pipo likes that kind of music, but I thought that the french dj crew C2C made a very nice album with "Tetra"
http://www.c2cmusic.fr/en/

hope you will bless us with the same love for music in 2013 than you did in 2012.

Anonymous said...

I'll vouch for R.A.P. Music. One of those rare collaborations that brings out the best in both artists. Killer Mike raps his off about important stuff and El-P makes beats that are at once decidedly "his" without overwhelming the vocals and feel of the album. I also think El-P's Cancer 4 Cure is pretty great but El-P is definitely an acquired taste.

Thanks for all the great mixes over the last year. Looking forward to your new one, too.
Peace,
Ben

dj ian head said...

I dig the concept of "albums you bought." Totally in agreement with you on Nas. I'd vouch for the Lamar album - it took a couple weeks to grow on me, but it's great. Similar with Killer Mike. I'd also say of the album I bought and played most often this past year was The Physics "Tomorrow People" - check it out.

The Dynamic Hamza 21® said...

I have no clue why so many are praising Kendrick. From the style of his music to his voice he sounds no different than any other Lil so-so or Yung whoever. Makes no sense to me the guy's pretty forgettable. He definitely doesn't have what it takes for longevity.

In 2012 Destruct's album The ID is one of the best I heard all year and it's free.
http://www.destructmusic.com/album/the-i-d

Gavlyn's album From The Art was ill too. It's refreshing to hear an Hip Hop album that actually has scratching on it.
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/gavlyn-from-the-art/BCGVL1201CD/

One of the biggest disappointments was Ron Artiste (Roc C & Chali 2una).
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/ron-artiste-rids-riot-in-da-stands/KRE003CD/

Most the album was nothing but lackluster horrible beats. I wouldn't thought Chali 2una would make a wack album. Well at least due to being threatened by lawyers for Ron Artest they released the album for free. I definitely wouldn't pay money for it but for free it's worth a listen.

http://www.mediafire.com/?5nld9vxr2cqih74

Neither Brother Ali's nor La Coka Nostra's album were as good I expected but Public Enemy's Most Of My Heroes Still Don't Appear On No Stamp is banging! PE came back hard. Their second album Empire Of Everything had a few choice joints but nowhere near their first album of 2012.
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/public-enemy-most-of-my-heroes-still-dont-appear-on-no-stamp/EALK2CD/

You can't forget Pos & Dave released an album this year First Serve. Not a classic but worth a listen for De La Soul fans.

pipomixes said...

Thanks for the recommendations. I just finished listening to Killer Mike's R.A.P. and I am very impressed. I'll peep the other that you all suggested.

In terms of Kendrick Lamar: I haven't listened to Good Kid yet because I'm not impressed by the snippets I've heard. With that said, I did like Section 80 a great deal.

Anonymous said...

The latest album by Chino XL-Ricananstruction: Black Rosary and the Heist - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are two other albums to check out, especially the latter.

pipomixes said...

Chino XL is still rapping? I thought he we full-time porn star. Hey, can't knock the hustle

Rudy Martinez said...

"Cartoons and Cereal" by Kendrick Lamar is the best track I heard this year. It might even be old, but i heard it this year, so it's new in my mind, lol. Whoever thinks he's like any other so so rapper needs to listen to his second verse on that song.

I'm late to the party nowadays when it comes to new stuff. I'd never even heard of JJ Doom until I read this yesterday. Thats why I peep this blog.

Anonymous said...

DJ Formats - Statement of Intent was must have for me. With Sureshot La Rock, its an old school dream.

Deathhop

Anonymous said...

Pipo make sure you check out the latest Action Bronson mixtape produced by Alchemist. It's been on rotation in my whip for the past few weeks.

p76 said...

agree on the action bronson stuff, go check that out. Same goes for sean born ft brown behind the scale, i think a lot of people missed that, which is really bad because of good beats and substantial lyrics.

TH said...

Oddisee - People Hear What They See

I love the production on this album.

I'm not sure if the Kendrick Lamar album is overrated or if it's just going to take longer to grow on me. Same thing happened with section 80.

Anonymous said...

Pipo....hands down you gotta peep these, their my top LP's/Projects of 2012 "Epidemic - Monochrome Skies", "Public Enemy - Most of My Heroes Still Don’t Appear on No Stamp", "Sene - BrooklynKnight", "Apollo Brown & O.C. - Trophies", "Funky DL - Nane", & "Apollo Brown & Guilty Simpson"

You won't be disappointed, trust me, all have hella dope productions & context!!

Godzilla Jr. said...

Blu & Exile' "Give Me My Flowers..." is my favorite album of the year closely followed by KL's "good kid, mAAd city".

The good kid album doesn't lend itself to snippets or singles. It's meant to be digested whole.