[RATE ANNOUNCEMENT] The ‘Lost to Macklemore at the Grammys’ Rate: good kid, m.A.A.d city vs Magna Carta… Holy Grail vs Nothing Was The Same vs Yeezus - HipHop

[RATE ANNOUNCEMENT] The ‘Lost to Macklemore at the Grammys’ Rate: good kid, m.A.A.d city vs Magna Carta… Holy Grail vs Nothing Was The Same vs Yeezus
Bizzy Banks Arrested for Drug, Weapons and Money Laundering Charges in SWAT Raid
T.I. ft. Young Thug - About The Money
Sunday General Discussion Thread - January 9th, 2022
What are the best songs that contradict anyone that says that rap is all about “drugs, sex, and gang violence”?
Cavanaugh (Open Mike Eagle and Serengeti) - Typecast feat. P.O.S., Hemlock Ernst, and Busdriver
[DISCUSSION] Rick Ross - Rich Forever (10 Years Later)
Lupe Fiasco - Double Burger With Cheese
Logic - I Am The Greatest
Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, Pharrell (Child Rebel Soldier) - Don't Stop
Wiz Khalifa - Still Wiz
Lil Uzi Vert - YSL
Bodega Bamz - Bring Em Out ft Flatbush Zombies
Diamond D - Its Magic(ft. Alchemist, Evidence)
Kelis ft Too $hort - Bossy (Oficial Video)
[FRESH] Emcee Graffiti X Ab The Audicrat - Served Up EP
Curren$y - Champagne Reign
[FRESH] Baby Stone Gorillas – STL Caps & Jay Hats

[RATE ANNOUNCEMENT] The ‘Lost to Macklemore at the Grammys’ Rate: good kid, m.A.A.d city vs Magna Carta… Holy Grail vs Nothing Was The Same vs Yeezus

Posted: 07 Jan 2022 09:01 AM PST

Happy 2022 /r/hiphopheads! Hope you all enjoyed your holidays and are ready to get back into it with our third official rate.

We're kicking off the new year with a best of losers rate, to see which of the four albums we have here can reach the closest to the highs of The Heist. Whether you had wanted Kendrick to win the first HHH rate or maybe you just hate the Grammy's in general, I hope to see you all participate as we revisit some well-loved, critically acclaimed albums from 2012-2013 and Magna Carta.

If you're new to rates, welcome! A rate is essentially an event where we pit a few albums with a common theme against each other (try to guess this one's). Everyone listens to them, scores every song out of 10, and sends those numbers to myself. In about a month, I'll tally everyone's scores and host a reveal where we'll see how each song stacks against each other, from the lowest to the highest averaged scores. Rate reveals are a fun time all around, we joke, we roast, but we also talk pretty passionately about the music we're into. Check out the past two reveal threads for a feel. And if you have any more questions, the Rate 101 tab on this Google Doc is a great resource, although feel free to ask in the thread as well.

Now let's get into the albums we'll be rating over the next few weeks.

Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city

I live inside the belly of the rough, Compton, USA, made me an angel on angel dust

Spotify | Apple Music | Tidal | Youtube

For his second studio album and major label debut, Kendrick Lamar wanted to a sound that was different from his prior project, Section.80. So he looked back to roots of growing up in Compton. What led was an album that not only influenced by his hometown sonically, but also thematically. good kid, m.A.A.d city was billed as an autobiographical short film; just a glance at the album cover will tell you so, note the censorship of everyone's eyes except a young Kendrick. Lyrically it's a dense and at times a dark narrative, following the rapper through his adolescence in his city, as he deals with issues of lust, family, and gang violence. It's an album that manages to combine the intense, unfiltered storytelling in songs like "Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst" with the more atmospheric, catchier tracks like "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe" into one cohesive, concept album. GKMC has been universally applauded since its release, it's been taught academically, and dubbed a classic; many fans, including myself, will call it their favorite Kendrick album still.

Jay-Z - Magna Carta... Holy Grail

You in the presence of a king, scratch that, you in the presence of a god

Spotify | Apple Music | Tidal | Youtube

With the longest time between his last solo project and the one being rated, Jay-Z had a lot of expectations to meet with his twelfth studio album. And did he meet them? Well commercially, Magna Carta... Holy Grail was a roaring success. A release deal with Samsung allowed their users to receive the album for free; it also smashed expected debut numbers and broke Spotify streaming records at the time. All fitting for an album full of Jay's braggadocious lyricism over Timbaland's luxurious production. But the album doesn't fill its runtime with just mentions of fame and fortune. There's quite a lot of mention of the significance of family, especially fatherhood since Jay's first daughter was born quite recently. More so than the other albums included in the rate, Magna Carta features an all-star list of guest spots— artists like Justin Timberlake and Frank Ocean shine on tracks "Holy Grail" and "Oceans" respectively. Despite all this, the album left a lot to be desired from both critics and fans, so we'll see if time has changed this perspective.

Drake - Nothing Was The Same

Who else making rap albums, doing numbers like it's pop?

Spotify | Apple Music | Tidal | Youtube

While Nothing Was The Same couldn't win a Grammy for Best Rap Album as its predecessor Take Care did, the third studio album by Drake did solidify his imperial status in not just the hip-hop sphere, but beyond. Met with critical praise and remarked by fans as one of his most consistent works, this album is classic confessional Drake and all his inner musings on heartache, family, and the complications of fame. But don't box this as just a rap album. The title is an allusion to his musical evolution, moving away from solely rapping to incorporating R&B and synthpop such as on songs like "From Time" and "Hold On, We're Going Home". The whole project feels sincere, nostalgic, and essential; there's definitely a NWTS track for every listener out there.

Kanye West - Yeezus

Yeezy season approachin', fuck whatever y'all been hearin'

Spotify | Apple Music | Tidal | Youtube

What do you create after you've released your magnum opus? If you're Kanye West, well then... Yeezus. West's sixth solo studio album was born under a vision of creating something more freeform and minimalist, no doubt a reaction to his grandiose attempts at perfection with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and the creative restraints he was facing in his fashion endeavors. The result is a project that melds the aesthetics and sounds of his hometown of Chicago with his current lodging in Paris, touching on genres like drill, acid-house, and industrial music. It's abrasive yet sparse, but not too unfamiliar. With tracks like "Blood on the Leaves" or "On Sight", we see it's the same Kanye just dialed up, continuing his audacious sample work, but with unmatched levels of megalomania and lewd punchlines really only he can get away with. While Yeezus had near universal critical acclaim on release, between its unconventional release strategy and drastic departure from sound, it's still polarizing to the general public so it'll be interesting to see its performance here.

Rules

READ ALL OF THESE BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR SCORES

Listen to every song from the standard versions of all four of these albums and assign a score to them between 1 and 10. If you're feeling specific, decimals are okay to one place. Do not use any more than that since they'll break the program used to generate results. So a 6.5 is okay, but a 8.25 is not.
You have to listen and score each song on the ballot! If you miss a score, it'll again break the program and your ballot will not be counted, but I will most likely reach out to you if this is the case.
Your scores are not a secret, feel free to discuss them wherever you feel like, whether that's in the thread or in Daily Discussions. I've seen people comment to try to rally people behind their 11s, which I should also explain…
You may give ONE song an 11 and ONE song a 0. Note one 11 and/or 0 in TOTAL, not for each album. Please reserve these for your most favorite and least favorite tracks, excessive sabotage ruins rate results and generally makes things less fun.
You can change you scores at any time— feel free to PM me at any point after submission and before the deadline and I'll update those for you.
As mentioned, the program used to calculate results uses a specific format, so everything needs to written a specific way. Please use the submission link below to send your scores (there's also a pastebin copy if needed), it's already formatted for you. If you need to work on the ballot over multiple days, you can copy it and save it on a notepad app, but please just make sure to keep the formatting intact, it'll make it easy for both you and me.
You are encouraged to leave comments on as as many songs as you like. If you would like to include comments with your scores, just make sure they are formatted the proper way.

This is correct:

I Am A God: 10 I can't wait for this to be the least controversial song

These are incorrect:

I Am A God: 10: I can't wait for this to be the least controversial song

I Am A God:10 I can't wait for this to be the least controversial song

I Am A God: I can't wait for this to be the least controversial song 10

I Am A God - 10 I can't wait for this to be the least controversial song

I Am A God - 10 - I can't wait for this to be the least controversial song

I Am A God: 10 (I can't wait for this to be the least controversial song)

You can also leave comments on complete albums by adding a colon after the album name and then your comment (without a score), like so:

Nothing Was The Same: and not in a good way

That's all from me! I can't wait to get your ballots, which you should

SUBMIT HERE

(Pastebin of Empty Ballot in case submission link is down)

Scores are due February 26. The reveal will be March 3-5.

submitted by /u/cremeebrulee
[link] [comments]

Bizzy Banks Arrested for Drug, Weapons and Money Laundering Charges in SWAT Raid

Posted: 09 Jan 2022 10:24 AM PST

submitted by /u/AlexToThe
[link] [comments]

T.I. ft. Young Thug - About The Money

Posted: 09 Jan 2022 06:10 AM PST

submitted by /u/HakeemTheDr34mStan
[link] [comments]

Sunday General Discussion Thread - January 9th, 2022

Posted: 09 Jan 2022 10:51 AM PST

How was the first week of 2022?

submitted by /u/HHHRobot
[link] [comments]

What are the best songs that contradict anyone that says that rap is all about “drugs, sex, and gang violence”?

Posted: 09 Jan 2022 12:02 PM PST

What are the best songs that contradict anyone who says that rap is all about "drugs, sex, and gang violence"? I constantly heard this growing up. They also complained about the cursing in songs. But there's so many meaningful songs so I'm curious which songs would you play as a "rebuttal"?

submitted by /u/MacJennings
[link] [comments]

Cavanaugh (Open Mike Eagle and Serengeti) - Typecast feat. P.O.S., Hemlock Ernst, and Busdriver

Posted: 09 Jan 2022 08:48 AM PST

submitted by /u/temporary_whatever
[link] [comments]

[DISCUSSION] Rick Ross - Rich Forever (10 Years Later)

Posted: 09 Jan 2022 05:16 AM PST

Didn't see any anniversary threads for this one, so decided to make one.

10 years ago, Rick Ross released his second mixtape Rich Forever.

I personally think this is might be Rozay's best work (although Teflon Don comes pretty damn close) and also one of the best mixtapes I've heard. In fact, I think this could've easily been a commercially released album.

The feature list lacks no starpower and delivers some gems here - notable examples being still-hungry Drake dropping one of his better verses and Nas hijacking an entire track and taking us back to them Escobar days with an incredible storytelling guest verse.

And of course, the production of this tape fucking knocks, as expected from a Ross project. Nothing but back to back bangers.

Stay Schemin' feat. Drake & French Montana

MMG Untouchable

Holy Ghost feat. Diddy

High Definition

What are your favorite tracks? How does it hold up? How'd you rank it within Ross' discography? Is it a classic or not?

submitted by /u/housequake225
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Lupe Fiasco - Double Burger With Cheese

Posted: 09 Jan 2022 04:30 AM PST

submitted by /u/martonx
[link] [comments]

Logic - I Am The Greatest

Posted: 09 Jan 2022 10:33 AM PST