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Here are the best songs streamed in 2019 in the Rap/Hip-Hop genre.
In the 2010s, hip-hop music formally turned into the most overwhelm classification in America. Furthermore, in the mean time, the line between hip-jump and pop has become nearly non-existent, as popular music received the creation, composing, and vocals of rap. In any case, this year denoted when the wide impact of hip-bounce went significantly more extensive.
Rosalia and J Balvin pushed the hints of flamenco and Reggaeton further into the front line of American standard music, Lil Nas X is testing prevailing sort marking and obscuring the lines between hip-jump and blue grass music. This is the thing that makes rap the most energizing style of music today. Now and again it very well may be underground rock, it tends to be political, it tends to be worldwide. It’s been an energizing year as of now, and these are the best hip-bounce melodies of 2019 up until this point.
Earl Sweatshirt — “MTOMB (accomplishment. Liv.E)”
It’s incredible to see Earl Sweatshirt completely reject popular hip hop music. After his breakthrough solo album, Doris, it seemed that he was primed to be the next big star in hip-hop. But, throughout this decade, he’s rejected that possibly trajectory more and more, with his music becoming more strange, more experimental, and increasingly more unique. His latest collage of creativity comes in the form of Feet of Clay, a 7-song album that clocks in at less than 15 minutes. It’s a fascinating, and brief, collection of music. And throughout the expressionist rap and R&B, “MTOMB” might be its most approachable—a little over one minute of Alchemist production with a slowed down 70s funk sample. There’s no chorus outside of the “Pray for the people” sample floating hauntingly in the background while Earl speaks a single verse on his own tempo, with lyrics like “Guess I was right, 25 was a quarter to life / I’m on it, I strike, trials.” —Matt MillerRico Nasty — “Time Flies”
Rico Nasty
Twenty-two-year-old Rico Nasty is a force to be reckoned with. Her 2019 album Anger Management (her fourth!) is an unstoppable adrenaline shot, a relentless release of energy, personality, and a rapid-fire flow. But, her early summer single “Time Flies” turns down the heat of her scorching style, with a more pensive, near ballad-esque rumination on her stunning rise to fame, as she sings “I live every day like I’ll die by the night time/It took me so long getting back to my right mind.”Young Thug — “The London”
Young Thug
Youthful Thug is crazy. The rapper involves an undefined spot in hip-bounce and general late-2010s notoriety. His music is an ideal epitome of the music ruling diagrams of his time, however his methodology and his sound is so exceptionally his own. Also, on “The London,” Thug unites Travis Scott and J. Cole for a heavenly trifecta of hip-jump virtuoso for a serene banger.
Pusha T — “Manikins” (Succession Remix)
It’s the crossover of the Succession theme song with Pusha T that no one expected or knew they needed. Who would have thought that affluent orchestral opening to the genius HBO show would make for a perfect hip-hop remix? And, who better to do this than Pusha T, a rapper who has long written about the gritty means of fighting your way to the top. Sure, lyrically it’s not his most subtle work—listing off themes from the series like, Family, fortune, envy, jealousy—but the overall package is just too perfect of a match for both Pusha T and Succession fans to covet. It’s the type of song that Kendall Roy wishes someone like Pusha would make for his family, but never would within the fiction of the show. But, in our real world, where Succession is the best show on TV, this is the most ideal intersection of an HBO Shakespearean drama about a Murdoch-type family and one half of Clipse. —Matt Miller
Chance the Rapper — “I Got You (Always And Forever)”
Seven years after his first mixtape and three years after Coloring Book (his third mixtape, which won Best Rap Album at the following Grammy awards) catapulted him onto the A-list, Chance the Rapper has finally released his debut LP. The Big Day dropped in the second half of July and at 22 songs and 77 minutes long it frequently sags under its lengthy runtime, but the first half highlight arrives in the form of this ebullient love song. Featuring En Vogue, it’s an irresistible tribute to the rapper’s wife, Kirsten, and the ‘90s R&B Chance grew up on. —Madison Vain
Stormzy — “Crown”
With the crossover success of his debut album Gang Signs & Prayer here in the states, Stormzy has become the biggest new voice coming out of the UK grime rap scene. With a headlining performance at this year’s upcoming Glastonbury, he’s currently on his way to being one of the most powerful new rappers in the game. That’s what he’s wrestling with on the gospel rap of “Crown,” a surprisingly melodic and beautiful turn for the young rapper. Stormzy compares his own success — “They sayin’ I’m the voice of the young black youth / And then I say “Yeah, cool” and then I bun my zoot” — with world leaders abusing their own power — “The irony of trappin’ on a Boris bike.” It’s a beautiful track that ensures Stormzy will not be giving up his crown any time soon. – Matt Miller
Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus – “Old Town Road”
Oh this one brings so many memories back. What a banger.
There’s probably no song that better defines 2019 than Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road.” Like the random word generator that our current times have become, Old Town Road brings together an unknown rap star, Billy Ray Cyrus, and a shit-load of drama about Billboard genre distinctions that has evolved into a conversation about race, hip-hop, and the very nature of country music. When Billboard refused to classify the track as country music, Billy Ray Cyrus miraculously stepped in to sing on a remix of the song, thus elevating it to something the meme-lords of the internet could only dream of. As such, the song took on a viral life of its own, eventually even beating out Taylor Swift for the No. 1 song in the country.Flume feat.
JPEGMAFIA — “How to Build a Relationship”
A prolific mixtape rapper who gained notoriety on Soundcloud, JPEGMAFIA has defined himself as hip-hop’s purest form of anarchy with “Does This Ski Mask Make Me Look Fat?” and “I Cannot … Wait Until Morrissey Dies.” But, that doesn’t mean he’s not open to collaborations—in fact, it’s just the opposite. As he told the LA Times last year, “I want to be an example of a true new age artist. I want to work with Danny Brown but also Cannibal Corpse and Maroon 5.” And now, he finds himself working with Australian producer Flume, who is able to reign in JPEGMAFIA’s personality and energy in the new track “How to Build a Relationship,” where the rapper’s sense of humor is on full display with references to both Game of Thrones and professional wrestling.
Slowthai — “Doorman”
Leading up to the release of Nothing Great About Britain, Bajan-British rapper Slowthai labeled himself the Brexit Bandit. “What does it matter about us being part of a union when we can’t resolve the issues in our country?” he told the New York Times. “Look at the rest of it, what we’re actually forgetting by taking so much time to look at this one thing.” The result is an album that acts as a scorching critique of his country—an urgent and necessary work of art in times that demand it. Of these tracks is the stand-out “Doorman,” in which, over a searing bass line, and punk drum beat, he tells a story of the gaping class divide in his country. “Doorman, let me in the door / Spent all my money, you ain’t getting no more wages / Sure Sir, Sir, are you sure?,” he raps.
Maxo Kream — “Meet Again”
“I’d rather be carried by 6 before I’m judged by 12” is the opener on “Meet Again.”
12 = police. 6 = amount of people needed to carry a dead body.
The Houston rapper is one of the most concise new writers in hip-hop, and this line serves as a primer for a song that tells a vivid story about the horrors of mass incarceration that continues to tear apart at-risk communities. At a time when the issue has become a dominate conversation in hip-hop, Kream takes a complex systemic issue and narrows it down to its simplest, most powerful pathos. “The only time I wear a suit and tie is at a funeral or a courtroom for trial,” he raps on the track. His tone is hauntingly matter-of-fact as he weaves a personal narrative of friends who are either dead or in jail.
James Blake – “Mile High” (feat. Travis Scott, Metro Boomin)
Though in recent years James Blake has worked to align himself more as a hip-hop producer than an experimental dance artist, it’s on his latest album, Assume Form, that he fully digs into the genre. On an album that features both Andre 3000 and Rosalia is “Mile High” with Travis Scott & Metro Boomin. Production-wise the track has Blake exploring the low end in fascinating ways he’s done his entire career, while lending his sound to a more trap-focused beat. It’s a perfect blurring of production between Blake and his collaborator Metro Boomin. Meanwhile, Blake and Scott trade off vocals for a formula that helped make Astroworld one of the most seductive albums of 2018.
Lizzo – “Juice”
Lizzo is so amazing!
Lizzo’s ascendency to pop superstardom has been a long time coming. By 2019, it’s all but inevitable. So it makes sense that Lizzo kicked off 2019 with one of her most fabulous bangers yet with “Juice.” The song—which opens with Lizzo singing “Mirror, mirror on the wall / Don’t say it ‘cause I know I’m cute”—comes with a statement that the rapper and singer has been making her entire career. As she told Vulture earlier this year, she’s learning to embrace some of her labels as a “body-positive rapper.” “Even when body positivity is over, it’s not like I’m going to be a thin white woman,” Lizzo says. “I’m going to be black and fat. That’s just hopping on a trend and expecting people to blindly love themselves. That’s fake love. I’m trying to figure out how to actually live it.” With “Juice” among a number of refreshing and ravishing singles Lizzo dropped in the last few months, she’s all but primed to be the artist we need in 2019.
Denzel Curry — “RICKY”
As Denzel Curry told The FADER about his new album, ZUU, “It goes from the sounds of where I grew up, to what I was raised around, to the people I was raised around, to the sounds that pretty much shaped the person I am.” That theme of his native Carol City neighborhood in Miami Gardens resonates most clearly on “RICKY.” In a tight two-and-a-half minutes Curry is able to pack a sweeping narrative of his own upbringing.
Tyler, the Creator – “EARFQUAKE”
After an early career defined by the horrorcore rap of “Yonkers”, Tyler, the Creator returned last year with a brighter outlook on life on Flower Boy. More introspective, more thoughtful, and melodic, Flower Boy marked a turning point in the rapper’s career—one that expanded the scope of his music. And now, he returns to explore that space on IGOR, an album that makes heartbreak sound surprisingly sweet. On “EARFQUAKE,” Tyler pleads with a lover not to leave over soaring harmonies. But there’s nothing tragic about the song. Instead, the melancholy of the song has a surprising clarity, as if Tyler has realized what he’s had, what he’s lost, and come to terms with his own mistakes. That self-awareness isn’t depressing—it’s beautiful and refreshing.
Rosalia, J Balvin — “Con Altura”
With 2018’s excellent El mal querer, Rosalia successfully jumped from a flamenco-adjacent Spanish singer-songwriter to in-demand pop in the States working with Pharrell, James Blake and more. The same can be said for Colombian superstar J Balvin, whose collaboration with Cardi B was a certified Summer 2018 hit (and earned him a Grammy nomination). Together on “Con Altura”, the two combine their musical forces—and sounds dominating western pop at the moment—for a Spanish language hit. The song is proof that neither artist needs an American star—or English lyrics—for a radio banger in the USA.
What songs did you listen to the most this year?
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