Best Of 2008: Top 25 Albums (Entries 10-6)

Previous Midwest Broadcast Best of 2008 Posts:
Non-Hip-Hop Albums
Top 15 Mixtapes
Top 25 Albums (Entries 25-21 + Honorable Mentions)
Top 25 Albums (Entries 20-16)
Top 25 Albums (Entries 15-11)


Intro: I have little time for additional commentary right now. I'm up north in Two Harbors, MN, at an internet cafe that is closing in about 5 minutes. I'll be back in the cities tomorrow afternoon, and will play some serious catchup in the blog game, and will post the top 5 albums of my best of 2008 list. Stay tuned!

10. Mike Mictlan & Lazerbeak: Hand Over Fist
My expectations for the Doomtree collective in 2008 were rather modest. I had variably kept track of updates from individual members of the posse, mainly P.O.S. However, I grossly underestimated the rest of the group’s ability to reliably make above average music. Although multiple Doomtree members released solo albums in 2008, none shined more brightly than the collaboration album between rapper Mike Mictlan and producer Lazerbeak, Hand Over Fist. This is an album of hard-knocking beats and intricate lyricism — a tried but true formula. Some of Mictlan’s rhymes are among the best of the year, as are some of Lazerbeak’s beats. I was able to find few weak spots, and don’t have much to gripe about. Lazerbeak, his real name escapes me at the moment, is also a guitarist for the Plastic Constellations. I have a feeling he plays the guitar himself for a number of these tracks, instead of relying on sampling. If true, that’s pretty cool. Key Tracks: “Hand Over Fist,” “Suicide Jimmy Snuffa,” “Clam Casino,” “Wolf Tickets,” “L.A. Raiders Hat,” “Prizefight”

9. Johnson & Jonson: Johnson & Jonson (Review)
Blu’s “other” album of 2008 was also one of the year’s better releases. Johnson & Johnson pairs the Cali emcee up with mysterious producer Mainframe, a person for whom even a thorough Google search session turns up little information. All I know is that, without exaggeration, Mainframe had one of the best rookie production debuts in recent memory. Johnson & Johnson intro track, a song that can often make or break any album for me, was one of my favorite songs of the year. Mainframe looped a grunge guitar riff, layered in some snyths, a flute (yeah, really), and some ill drums and let Blu do his thing. This album was superior to C.R.A.C. Knuckles’ The Piece Talks because it had more general structure, but was still free-flowing and creative. And while I’m talking about the better tracks of the year, “The Only Way” needs to be included in that discussion as well, in which Blu absolutely raps circles around a repeated vocal sample about the struggles about escaping ghetto life. Key Tracks: “J&J,” “Up All NIte,” “Wow!,” “The Only Way,” “The Oath,” “Hold On John”

8. Doomtree: Doomtree
Minneapolis group Doomtree’s debut full-posse studio album is the crew’s second appearance in the top 10, and rightfully so. Let me explain the group dynamics of Doomtree for those of you that are not quite familiar. They are composed of five rappers and four producers. Usually, between two and three rappers appear on a single track, while either one producer does the beat himself or two producers collaborate on a single track. The rappers all have varying backgrounds: spoken word poetry, hip-hop, punk rock, etc. Basically, everyone in the group has a somewhat unique style, and they somehow had to find a way to bland that all together for a single album. So, for Doomtree to not be in complete disarray could be considered a resounding success. But for the album to be great, which it was, should be attributed more to divine intervention. I have no idea how it worked, but it did. Key Tracks: “Drumsticks,” “The Wren,” “Dots & Dashes,” “Accident,” “Twentyfourseven ft. I Self Devine,” “Pop Gun War”

7. Common Market: Tobacco Road
Many people know of Common Market because its producer, Sabzi, is also in the more popular group Blue Scholars. This may or may not be fair, but regardless of how one discovered Common Market, their 2008 release Tobacco Road should help catapult them to the forefront of the Northwest’s underground hip-hop scene. Rapper Ra Scion is mistakenly underrated sometimes. Perhaps it’s the Freeway-esque beard that, because he’s white, make him look more Amish or pro-wrestler than rapper. Perhaps his slightly more famous beatmaking partner overshadows him. Either way, Ra Scion, with a voice occasionally eerily reminiscent of Talib Kweli, spit some of the year’s most intelligent verses. Still, the lyrics only formulate one-half of the album. Ra Scoin’s counterpart, Sabzi, delivers on his end of the bargain. Tobacco Road is beautifully crafted, with melodic, soothing, and harmonious beats and surefire yet elaborate lyrics, it holds the highly coveted crown for 2008’s most underrated album. Key Tracks: “Trouble Is,” “Winter Takes All,” “Nina Sing ft. Funklove,” “Crucible ft. Geologic,” “Tobacco Road”

6. Elzhi: The Preface (Review)
A lot can be said of Black Milk’s production on The Preface (he crafted beats for 14 of the 16 tracks), but in all reality, his work for Fat Ray and his solo project were superior efforts. The production on The Preface was still great — Black Milk’s usual ear-splitting snare hits and quick choppy loops are plentiful here — but this album was Elzhi’s lyrical showcase. For anyone who has followed Elzhi’s career, this project was a long time in the making. Elzhi is no stranger to the rap game, but with his first solo album, he needed to craft a record that accurately displays his unmatched knack for rhyming. In fact, on The Preface, Elzhi may at times get too carried away, overcompensating by making his rhyme schemes and delivery unnecessarily complex. Yet if the album’s biggest drawback is the fact that Elzhi is too good at rapping, then little concern should be expressed regarding the quality of The Preface. Elzhi has a lyrical gift that he is not shy about demonstrating, and The Preface accurately affirmed his status as one of rap’s best lyricists. Key Tracks: “Intro (The Preface),” “Motown 25 ft. Royce Da 5’9”,” “Brag Swag,” “The Leak ft. Ayah,” “Hands Up,” “Growing Up ft. AB”