A Dreamer’s Perspective: Looking Back on 2009, Looking Ahead to 2010

So 2009 was a very crazy year from the genre of hip-hop and urban music. A lot of newcomers made their debut and/or advanced to the forefront of the game, while others showed they're still relevant even decade into their careers. A lot of quality albums were released in 2009 that I personally was feeling. In fact, 2009 was the first time where it's completely necessary to include "mixtapes" and free project releases in a list of the best "albums." I also believe the 2010 will usher in the idea of the music industry dropping mixtapes and free music more commonly to be a lot more common (on an unrelated, but punny allusion, we need a lot more of Common the rapper in 2010 as well...lol). #PardonMeiHadToLaughAtThat <--- Oh yeah, by the way, that's my new Twitter thing for 2010. Spread it around.

So let's talk about some of my favorite albums of 2009. It's funny that Toronto made a big burst into the mainstream in 2009. One of those breakthrough artists went by the name of Melanie Fiona, the eclectic songstress who brought a jazzy, old school soul sound to the new school with her debut album "The Bridge". I really gravitated to it because it was some real refreshing R&B music in contrast to a lot of music that was coming out lately, especially this year. I was loving the singles "Give It To Me Right" and "It Kills Me". "Bang Bang", "Monday Morning" and "Please Don't Go (Cry Baby)" were a few other favorites. It's definitely an album you need to check out if you haven't and are fiending for something original.

Another album I was really digging this past year was from a hometown native Mally. Twin Cities' 23- year old emcee released his independent album "The Passion", fully produced by Miami-based producer Mydus (who has done work for artists such as 810 and The Black Sunn). Now, people can pop that noise and act like he makes my list because he's a personal homeboy of mine, but if you heard this project, I think you'd quiet that nonsense down and gives props where props are due. The production on the album were superb - Mydus is one of my favorite new producers. He embodies this throwback soul feel, and it's organic, something like a 9th Wonder production. I can't really put my finger on what is in the songs to make them sound the way they do, vintage and classic, but whatever it is, it's too dope. Mally goes in talking about the city of Minneapolis, his fight to be one of the greatest in the hip hop game and how he doesn't have a desire to conform to the clichéd outlets to make it. If you want to hear an album that embodies the soulful essence of the city I'm from, you should definitely go check out t"The Passion."

If you guys don't know by now, my favorite rapper is Mr. Wasulu Jaco, better known as Lupe Fiasco. In November he surprisingly served up a mixtape called "Enemy Of The State". I think I immediately digressed back to the way I felt when I first heard Lupe back in 2006 and started to feel like what everyone else in the industry was spitting or talking about was B.F.I trash. On a confident move, Lu released it as an MP3 cassette, knowing you weren't about to skip any of the track anyways. As I listened to how he annihilated each beat, the experience was unreal. Anybody on those original beats probably kicked themselves extra hard that day. Oh, and did you have to go back and kill Weezy on a 5-year joint called "Fireman" bruh? LOL. He went IN. If you're still sleeping on him, keep getting your Rip Van Winkle on so you can stay out of the way with your flawed music tastes. #YesShots.

There was another independent artist who I felt dropped one of the best projects this year and I really hope more people get to hear it. Miami-based artist QuESt (yes, spell it with the correct capital letters please) dropped his album "Broken Headphones" on July 28. He single-handedly shut down two of the biggest hip hop blogs online, 2DopeBoyz and Illroots.Com for that evening, garnering over 300 comments on the post and sparking heated debates about the project and his skills as an artist. Any publicity is good publicity right. He had people from both sides of the spectrum (Hate and Love) going in and concerning themselves with the project and giving their two cents and then some. Personally to me, the album was artistically a masterpiece. There wasn't really any tracks I skipped. The fact that it was quite a personal album that allowed you to look into who the artist was as a person made it even better. The across the board productions allowed for an diverse mix of sounds and vibes. My personal favorites were "A Little More Time", "Nothing's Real", "LavishLuxuriously" and the XV collab "One Night Out". The album stayed in heavy rotation for weeks following its release.

So in the middle of the decade, we saw the fall of one of the best labels and crews in modern hip hop "Roc-a-Fella Records". You know, the dynasty that was supposed to last forever like the diamonds they compared themselves too? Well, in 2009, a new era of this legacy emerged called "Roc Nation", a product of Jay-Z's deal inked with LiveNation. He apparently is going to try and do this whole thing again and his first recruit was a fresh emcee out of Fayetteville, North Carolina named J. Cole. J. Cole's mixtape "The Warm Up" was certainly one that had to end up growing on me. Once I tuned in fully, it became one of my favorite projects of the year. J. Cole's flow was quite refreshing and embodied the balance of intelligent lyricism, aggressive delivery and organic sincerity that reflected that of a Nassir Jones. "The Warm Up" is a proper introduction to anyone looking to capture the essence of him as an artist.

"I'm gon' make a million and one dollars and do it again!" One of G.O.O.D Music's newest additions who has (sadly) yet to make his big, big break into the industry, Big Sean, delivered a quality follow up mixtape to his 2007 release "Finally Famous: The Mixtape". 2009's "U Know Big Sean" mixtape put the Detroit lyricist into more and more ears as he began expanding his fan base and showing the world why Kanye West signed him to G.O.O.D Music.

One of the most anticipated albums of the year, Jay-Z's "The Blueprint 3", comes in at my #4 spot. I did a full review on the album there it first came out. (Which you can check out here). It took a couple listens, but things eventually grew on me and I had it in rotation a couple of times. I do believe that the first half of the album was much stronger than the second half of it, but overall, it was a quality album and simply better than most albums that came out in 2009. I loved all of the singles and some of my personal non-single favorites were "What We Talkin' Bout", "Thank You", "Already Home" and "A Star Is Born".

Mr. DC Chillin' himself made it in my #3 spot with "Attention Deficit". Though there are a lot of mixed feelings across the board about Wale's debut album and if I was good or not, I personally believe it was awesome. Frankly, I even tried to think really hard on why the album wasn't super dope to me, but I wasn't able to put my finger on it, because there simply wasn't a reason. It was one of those things where I know it didn't make me feel as excited like say "The College Dropout" or "Food & Liquor" when those came out, but I couldn't find anything really negative to say about it. My favorite joints "World Tour", the high energy joint with vocal assistance from my future wife Jazmine Sullivan, as well as "Mirrors" with Bun B, "TV In The Radio" (feat. K'naan, who by the way gained a WHOLE new level of respect from me with the verse where his opening vocals slightly sounded like Charles Hamilton's...lol), "Pretty Girls", "Let It Loose"....come to think of it, I think I liked EVERY track on the album. That speaks volumes. If you haven't checked it out or maybe spun it once and disregarded it, take another listen. I really think it's a quality album.

Scott Mescudi, better known as "Kid Cudi" came in the #2 spot for my 2009 favorites. As I mentioned a while back in the breakdown of my song "Success Is..." that in the beginning on 2009, I was really into Kid Cudi's "A Kid Named Cudi" mixtape. Some of my great fondness towards that project almost lead me to have a bias against the new album from him, just because I had loved the mixtape so much. On my first couple of spins, I kind of gathered that I didn't like the album much. But just like how I did to the mixtape back when I first was introduced to it in 2008, I listened to the album in the context and atmosphere, which really truly came on a nighttime ride from the suburbs to Downtown Minneapolis on the way to a show a couple of months ago...and the rest was history. My favorites included "Pursuit Of Happiness", "My World (feat. Billy Cravens)", "Soundtrack To My Life", "Cudi Zone" & "Solo Dolo".

Now, last but not least (obviously, because this is on the top of my list), Drake's "So Far Gone" mixtape. I almost feel kind of awkward because two years ago, "Comeback Season" was on my list of top projects and that was a little rare back then because Drake wasn't super famous and people were still sleeping on him. It was sort of a special moment (PAUSE). But either way, even if this is probably a mass majority of people's favorite album this year, I still have to keep it real and say that it's mine's too. Alluding again to the beginning of '09 and some of the influences I wrote about on my "Success Is..." breakdown, Kid Cudi's "A Kid Named Cudi" and this tape were basically the only things I listened to for a good amount of months. I've never really experienced a project with such introspective lyrics, on a darker vibe that can mostly be appreciated on late night 3AM drives (which I did almost nightly back and forth from work to 7-hour studio sessions and back home again. Regardless of how I feel about some of the content Drake is currently putting out as a part of features, I think "So Far Gone" was incredible and good reflection of him as an artist. The R&B and soul vocals were a nice touch and everything just meshed together. I could say the only songs I listened to the least were "A Little Bit" and "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off". The rest of the tracks received pretty good rotation, with my hands down favorites being "Successful", "The Calm, "Sooner Than Later, and the bonus track "Congratulations".

With all that being said, I am looking for great things in 2010. I think everyone is anticipating Drake's debut album "Thank Me Later", which I hope and pray will reflect the real him as an artist like his previous mixtapes (including "So Far Gone") has. I'm not hating on Young Money or even something getting your "swag" on with some tracks, but I personally DO NOT want to hear a bunch of music that sounds like the feature tracks he does with his label mates or Gucci Mane. I strongly feel that he personally knows in his mind how he wants his SOLO music to go, and he does the other style of features just to gain both sides of the fence. He personally worked too hard for his debut album not to be a classic due to collab tracks that sound like recycled Birdman garbage. (Yeah, I might be hating a little bit right now. *Kanye shrug.)

I am also sort of looking forward to Kid Cudi's new album. I only say "sort of" because I did hear that "Cudder" will be more of a fun album, and less dark, and I'm kind of a big fan of the darker, introspective and meditative records. But I won't throw the baby out with the bathwater yet. I'm going to just have to wait and see what he comes up with. Also, I hope Big Sean gets to start preparing his album release, and I'm also eager to get J. Cole's debut (probably more than anything besides "Thank Me Later"). In a recent interview, he said the album was done, so it shouldn't be too long until we hear it. I hope for some new stuff from Kanye West, which I'm sure will be the case, as well as some Talib Kweli and Mos Def. It should be an exciting year just like 2009 was, so I'm ready.

Let's also not forget MY album "Dreamer's Poetry", which drops digitally on Monday, February 8th, 2010 and for retail on February 9th, 2010, hosted by 2DopeBoyZ.Com and Refined Hype's sister site, DJBooth.net.

Expect much more great music and writing to come in 2010!