For the first two years of Plug One’s existence, I offered a somewhat exhaustive list of all the great hip-hop albums that had been released. In 2006, I made a list of the 40 best albums, and in 2007 I one-upped myself with a list of the 50 best.
But in 2008, as I enter my third year of publishing this site, I believe that critics and fans need to do more filtering, not less. So much of this year’s output was mediocre, with the majority of artists relying on the same sonic cues (a little Jeezy here, a little T-Pain auto-tunin’ there). For every bracingly original talent like Blue Sky Black Death, there were a thousand artists copying each other, albeit with diminishing returns. Individuality is always at a premium, even in the best of times. But it seems like music in general, and hip-hop in particular, has been overrun by the Joneses.
I’m not one of those old-schoolers who pine for the so-called golden age of hip-hop. I remember 1990, when everybody was trying to sound like the Bomb Squad; 1996, when everyone was trying to sound like Tribe or Wu; and 1999, when everyone (especially in the underground scene) was trying to sound like Premier. The point is that mimicry is a part of the maturation process, and hopefully a few of 2008’s freshman class will grow into true innovators. In the meantime, I want to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, and concentrate on the handful of the albums that truly stood out for me.
I’m not going to pretend that my list is different from anybody else. This year, I happily discovered several sites and blogs that cover independent and alternative sounds with the same passion I do, and I expect that they’ll rally around the same albums. However, don’t be surprised if your favorites are missing. Lil Wayne’s The Carter III and Black Milk’s Tronic (pictured above) are here. The Roots’ Rising Down and the Foreign Exchange’s Leave Them All Behind are not. Those two titles in particular probably would have made a “top 50” list. Over the past several months I stopped posting reviews, partly because they take so much time to write (although I recently managed to finish a few). That will change next year, because I want to explain in detail what moves me and what does not. Perhaps at some point I’ll even review Rising Down and Leave Them All Behind. But for now, all I can say is that they didn’t make the cut.
So why have I called this year’s list “The Plug One 50”? Well, today I’m posting my top 20 albums. Tomorrow, I’ll post my top 30 songs/tracks/singles. Then I’ll post a special “bonus beats” with some of the year’s top stories, artist of the year, and that kind of jazz. It will be fun. Unfortunately, I didn’t listen to enough mixtapes to make an authoritative list. Perhaps that will change in 2009.
Finally, I want to give a special shout-out to all the publicists and labels who continued to send me product during a tumultuous year. (How tumultuous? I changed mailing addresses three times.) I know journalists rarely give props to publicists (with URB magazine’s masthead being a rare exception), and major labels are, like, the devil, right? But I want to give praise where it’s due. You are appreciated.
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