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Staff Picks: Abel Shifferaw’s 16 Best Albums of 2016
Staff Picks: Abel Shifferaw’s 16 Best Albums of 2016

Staff Picks: Abel Shifferaw’s 16 Best Albums of 2016

Staff Picks: Abel Shifferaw\u2019s 16 Best Albums of 2016

Ahh, 2016, 2016. I ain't gonna front 2016, you was not that cool. You were the year that fascism made great strides into our political system via a racist orange blob of expensive synthetic hair with abnormally petite hands. You were also a year of exciting and marvelous music that exceeds the phrase “every cloud has a silver lining.” These clouds happen to be gold. In the case of a few of the albums I will soon list, they are (or probably will become) platinum. From the explicitly political to the joyously uplifting to the tear inducing, these albums evoked emotion, thought, and groove. Below you’ll find the aforementioned list, my personal top sixteen albums of 2016. They are the albums I listened to the most, the ones that blazed in my headphones as I travelled through the city’s subway system or listened to as I briskly walked in the biting cold or blasted along with the AC during the summer heat. These are by no means the “best” albums of the year, though many will easily fall into the category, whatever that highly subjective classification means. They are rather the albums that, whether in full part, or due to a few stand out tracks, meant something to me as I went through 2016. Without further ado, I present to you my 16 albums of the year in the order of their release. Oh, and yeah the music was good, great even, but you still ain't off the hook 2016.

1. Archy Marshall – A New Place To Drown

Released on December 10, 2015

The first album on the list, as you may have noticed, was released at the tail end of 2015 ( a simpler and more quaint time) and I felt, by the time the New Year rolled around, was largely forgotten, so I'm just gonna go ahead and include it in the list. It’s an album I played through the winter and into the spring, the summer and fall. Archy Marshall who is also known, perhaps better, as King Krule, released a gorgeously bleak album with impeccably dark production that reverberated with its sharply emotive lyrics and vocals and made my emptiness feel full. The specter of hip-hop haunts every twisted jazzy note, every odd sounding crackle, every fluttering and sputtering sound, and every murmured yet stunningly shattering shadow of a poem hidden within song. The highly talented Marshall, who is British, channels youthful frustration, the apathy, the pain of our particular time, this post modern, deindustrialized landscape we wade through into the reverb heavy drums and ethereal chords that are expertly littered in the album’s post apocalyptic landscape. A New Place 2 Drown, which eerily mirrors the feeling of drowning as melodies beautifully crash against one another, is a cathartically crafted album, an album simultaneously brimming with fullness and despair that leaves the listener with hope for life and ultimately the future of music.

2. Anderson .Paak – Malibu

Released on January 15, 2016

I was first hipped to Anderson .Paak years ago as Breezy Love Joy on the track P.Y.P. In the video for the song, .Paak shaking a tambourine begins singing over a funky guitar riff, his unique and full and bright and raspy voice soaring, an orange sun shining brightly sweeping across the screen. A feeling and sound .Paak would perfect and bring to the world as Anderson .Paak. Since the initial introduction I fell off, only to be reacquainted with .Paak’s incredibly soulful album Malibu. From the opening track “The Bird” and onward .Paak holds the groove cementing himself as a musician that will be here to stay. Not too mention Paak’s energetic and impressive live performances. His meteoric rise, one that is rightfully deserved, is very, very much welcomed.

3. Kanye West – The Life of Pablo

Released on February 14, 2016

This is the album that made me sign up for TIDAL. Which I still have btw and should probably cancel. Despite being a polarizing figure, Kanye knows how to make an amazing album. The Life of Pablo is no different in that regard. Stepping away from the highly cohesive album formula Kanye has played with and perfected on his past six musical outings such as Yeezus and College Dropout, TLOP has a jumbled quality, that itself, is arguably, in a weirdly planned way, coherent. It’s a splash of musical genius that opens with a gorgeous track that is ridiculously uplifting, a gospel song with a memorable verse that introduces fellow Chicagoan and Kanye’s prodigal son Chance The Rapper as having arrived. TLOP twists and turns touching on fame, family, wealth and excess squeezing a wide and disparate array of ideas together to dizzying and impressive effect. The album perfectly encapsulates Kanye West and 2016.

4. Kendrick Lamar-Untitled Unmastered

Released on March 4, 2016

Kendrick could have just chilled. His masterpiece To Pimp a Butterfly, which was released a year prior, was more than enough to hold us over for much longer with it’s complexity, breadth, and sheer force, lyrical power, and importance. But, as we all know, instead of chilling Kendrick came back with a compilation album of cuts that didn’t make the TPAB. The tracks, although sketches, feel complete and not only act compliment TPAB, giving a kind of inside look into the previous project but stand firmly on their own. It’s filled with quiet fleeting thoughts and beautiful sounds that aren’t over produced the complete opposite of the big and packed TPAB. Untitled Unmastered is being in the next room and witnessing through a slightly ajar door with small windows, one of this generations best rappers do his thing.

5. Kamaiyah - A Good Night in the Ghetto

Released on March 23, 2016

Divorced from my home of the Bay Area and living in NYC, Kamaiyah’s triumphant, straightforward ‘90s and Too Short influenced record is a breath of fresh air that gleefully reminded me of my town. A Good Night in the Ghetto is at many times simply pure smooth braggadocious that sounds great. It’s the album I play as the sun sets, whether getting ready to go out, with the homies pre-gaming, or at the crib with no plans of leaving. Getting on tracks with YG, Drake, and E-40 Kamaiyah’s future is undoubtedly looking bright.

6. Chance The Rapper - Coloring Book

Released on May 13, 2016

A deeply gospel record nestled within hip-hop, Chance The Rapper's Coloring Book presented unrelenting joy in a time of despair and grief. A devout atheist, even I was feeling it, had my arm raised in the sky grasping for the Lord's hand. The record, which opens with "All We Got" featuring Kanye West is an extravagant affair that effortlessly leads into "dread head niggas in yo' lobby." The album (or mixtape) marches onward, taking everything down with a feature from Jeremih and Francis and the Lights, only to build it all up again. Coloring Book is about hope, it is a glorious album that politely but adamantly refuses to put its head down in the face of the oncoming storm threatening to envelop it. Outside of the amazingness of the record itself was the fact that Coloring Book, one of the year's biggest and most anticipated albums (ahem, mixtapes) was released independently and received multiple Grammy nominations. An important feat and precedent for a rapidly changing musical landscape.

7. YG – Still Brazy

Released on June 17, 2016

YG’s second studio album Still Brazy oozes with unadulterated G-funk for the 21st century and particularly 2016. The record thumps, is punctuated by gun shots, low-riders, the warm Southern (B)California sun, palm trees, and indignant and justified black anger. The song, FDT, which stands for Fuck Donald Trump, is perfect. It’s a highly political call to action that goes harder than hard. It’s a song we’ll be revisiting again and again over the next four years, god forbid 22 years (because he'll do away with term limits). YG expertly navigates each song, slowly (b)cruising, with top down of (b)course and blunt in hand, through the funky album. YG’s less is more lyrical approach drives the essential point he is attempting to (b)convey (b)concerning his gangsta turned (b)celebrity story. It’s the album you bump loud in your vehicular in 2016 and beyond.

8. Blood Orange – Freetown Sound

Released on June 28, 2016

Dev Hynes’ Freetown Sound, released during a summer of reinvigorated attention and a glaring national spotlight on police violence and terror on black communities, is a record for those abused, exploited, and hated. It’s triumphant in the ability by which it is able to express in a climate of violence and hate, to distill in musical form, brilliant musical form at that, the pain and exhaustion of dealing, witnessing, and suffering at the hands of white supremacy and racism. Freetown Sound, which is named after the city and capital of Sierra Leone, the country Hynes' father is from, through its mix of R&B and Pop, is simply terrific, haunting, and marvelous.

9. Schoolboy Q – Blank Face

 Released on July 8, 2016

Quincy has proved, once again, that he is still indeed groovy. Blank Face, Q's fourth studio album, is a hazy and heavy bass drum filled affair that knocks. It paints a vivid, sometimes horrifically frightening and often dark picture, a rumbling portrait of Los Angeles, the side of town too often ignored or forgotten, and when attention is finally given, well it ain't good. Tracks like "Black Thought" do just that, with excellent production by TDE mainstay Willie B. Q also provides funky tracks that bump such as "Big Body" featuring Tha Dogg Pound. Although filled to the brim with features from Kanye West, Miguel, Jadakiss, E-40, SZA, and more the album doesn't feel crowded and Q is able to maintain his distinctive voice perched above all. The soundscape on Blank Face has evolved from Q's previous records, allowing a warmer sound, production wise to enter. The record cements even further the explosive crew that is TDE.

10. Noname - Telefone

Released on July 31, 2016

Noname's Telefone, the Chicago MC's first mixtape, long overdue but also perfectly timed splashed onto 2016 stronger than the lullaby-like production might suggest. A youthfulness, a kind of nostalgia can be found throughout the record's soundscape of jazzy playfulness of ethereal pianos and bouncing xylophones. Noname's lyrics charm and endear, they seem effortless, natural, they seem to speak you, both delicately and forcefully about black pain and struggle, life, love, and her hometown of Chicago. Telefone is an introspective record that is able to look inward into the past, 2016 and outward to the future.

11. Frank Ocean - Endless

Released on August 19, 2016

The album that took forever and a day to finally arrive and was then quickly forgotten by it's younger sibling Blonde. This is the album or visual album that made me sign up for Apple Music (I really need to slim down how many streaming services i'm subscribed to). Frank Ocean's Endless is so good I still put up with the extremely frustrating method of accessing the record (if you can call it that) via Apple Music to listen to it. Endless was the album that freed Ocean from the icy grips of Def Jam. Endless was the album that made me pull out a few of my luscious black curls waiting for it to arrive. Endless was the record that saw a AWOL Frank Ocean appear in doubles. Triples even. Vocals compounding upon each other, in conversation and argument on tracks such as "Alabama," Sampha's gorgeous and unique and heartbreaking voice entering the frame begging, "What can I do to know you better than I do now?" Endless is an amazing record, a stunning art project, one that seamlessly flows into one another, that refused easy and pushed music forward with bare hands, step by step.

12. Frank Ocean – Blonde

Released on August 20, 2016

Two versions. Twooooo Versions. Blonde's emotive and minimal sound, R&B and Pop, avant-garde, melodies that sink and stay, slowly put you on to their genius. The album continues the quiet, subdued and hazy atmospheric of Endless but slightly more in focus, although the camera that was trained on Endless zooms out Blonde remains tightly insular. It is not an easy record, it's one that requires effort to enter, but once in the record's expansive and airy atmosphere envelops. Blonde is a sharp departure from Channel Orange, though songs like "Pink + White" bring the warm and fuzzy orange, although a bit dulled and more melancholy, back. Frank's melodies flutter throughout, bright and stirring, his lyrics sweeping between precision and the mysteriously poetic. Blonde is a grey day with the sun barely peeking out but for whatever reason that sliver of sunshine is not only enough, it's ideal, and nearly perfect.

13. Isaiah Rashad – The Sun’s Tirade

Released on September 2, 2016

TDE has been killing it this year, and years prior. The same goes with the release of Isaiah Rashad’s latest project, his debut studio album The Sun’s Tirade is no different. Effortlessly picking up where Cilvia demo left off, Isaiah Rashad, who recently battled an addiction to alcohol and Xanax, returned in full form releasing a stellar hip-hop record with head bobbing beats and equally great raps. Rashad’s spits honest and deeply introspective lyrics over dark glittering boom bap. The project boasts excellent features from label mate Kendrick Lamar and SZA and others such as the Internet’s Syd and Kari Faux. It’s a fantastic album and a fantastic addition to the musical landscape of 2016. 

14. Solange - A Seat at the Table

Released on September 30, 2016

Solange’s A Seat at the Table is beautifully powerful, it is art elevated to it’s highest peaks, bridging the personal and political into one coherent and gorgeous record. A Seat at the Table succeeds beyond the realms of music, it is an essay, an expertly crafted one that provokes thought and solidarity while raising the hairs on your arm. A Seat at the Table, which is Solange's third album, features wonderful contributions from Q-Tip, Sampha, BJ the Chicago Kid, Kelela, Tweet, and more. Much has been said and written about this project, not much need for any more. It's just a really, really good and beautiful and rich and necessary album that I cared about deeply in 2016 and will continue to do so in the coming years.

15. Childish Gambino – Awaken My Love!

Released on December 2, 2016

Gambino’s Awaken My Love! was an unexpected game changer, the unexpectedness raising the record’s impressiveness. I put my proverbial Gucci bucket hat over my mouth and yelled the first time I heard the psychedelic and funkadelic “Me and Your Mama,” with its slow build up and sudden outrageously beautiful burst. Then the Bootsy Collins influenced "Redbone," made me grab that proverbial Gucci bucket once more. Although the sudden and dramatic change in sound direction from what many have dubbed a type of hipster rap, Gambino's unexpected record was more than welcomed. The sheer musicality, the vocal refrains, the everything. Awaken My Love! was and is the funk I needed.

16. J. Cole – 4 Your Eyez Only

Released on December 9, 2016

Admittedly, J. Cole’s 4 Your Eyez Only left me with a lot to be desired. With every new Cole album, I hope more experimentation was taken, more leaps in sound direction. It feels that Cole has been painting on the same exact canvass he has for the past few years. As the canvasses become more and more crowded with similar sounding beats, lyrics, and even cadences they blend together into undistinguishable boom bap track, an amazing track, but one that Cole has done three too many times. What I'm trying to say is Cole needs a new canvass and different paint brushes. Nonetheless there are a few songs on the album that I keep coming back and suspect I will continue to do so into 2017. Tracks like "Neighbors" and "Change" will get plays in the new year. The songs "False Prophets" and "Everybody Dies" although not on the album, feel like primers that are hard to not associate, however loosely with the album due to their release proximity. They act as a break from the album's strong narrative thread that one can cleanse their palette with. Cole is masterful at telling stories through rap and he does so once again on 4 Your Eyez Only. He speaks on mass incarceration, police violence, racism, love, fatherhood, and the contradictions within. Cole creates a sometimes bleak and heartbreaking portrait, one that is redeemed with the infinite love of a parent for their child.

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And that concludes the list of albums I've been rocking with hard during 2016. Don't @ me.

P.S. I doubt 2017 finna be a year that makes up for 2016. It's going to be difficult. It will most likely be a year of pronounced struggle. We can't let the forces of hate, greed, environmental destruction, and white supremacy succeed. Remember to fight the power and all that good stuff. The earth is very literally depending on us.