Dissect - Our Favorite Music of 2024

Episode Date: December 17, 2024

Cole and Cam award their favorite music of the year across a number of categories, including Favorite Album, Favorite Song, Favorite Underground Album, Most Surprising Album, and many more. Listen to the playlist of songs featured in this episode here. Host: Cole Cuchna Guest: Camden Ostrander Audio Production: Kevin Pooler Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome everyone to Dysect. I'm your host Cole Kushna. Today is our annual favorite music of the year podcast episode. I'm joined with Camden Ostrander. I think this is our fourth year doing this. This is year for Cole. This is a lot. That's crazy. Yeah, that's pretty wild. This has been an exciting music year to say the least. We had our part one of this episode that the year was so packed with great stuff that I decided to do two episodes. One, if you missed it last week, was focused specifically on hip-hop. We went through the Drake and Kendrick Lamar battle, and we also highlighted our favorite rap lyrics of the year and dissected those. It was a great episode, so check that out if you haven't. But today is our traditional episode where we're going to cover our favorite music

of 2024, including our favorite musical moments of the year, our favorite songs, our favorite albums. We're going to do some underrated albums, some Lucy's. We've got a bunch of categories we're going to go through. But let's just open the conversation. station up cam with uh and for those that don't know i should introduce you properly camden o'estranders here he was the co-rider on because the internet season which is celebrating its 11th anniversary today as we record this um but also you helped with the igor season the mac miller season and the mf doom season so long time front of the show our fourth year doing this annual episode and we were just talking before we started recording of just how jammed pack this year has been for music,

and we were reflecting on last year's 2023 episode, where we were kind of struggling for picks. And this year, it was like, man, how am I going to talk about everything that I loved this year? You had the similar experience, right, Ken? I did, last year we had like a bit of a talk that was kind of sad. There wasn't enough good stuff. And then this year, it's too much. Yeah. Like, I guess all the artists didn't talk. They didn't, at their union meeting, they weren't conversating and planning this out very well for us, I guess, was what happened. But this year's been incredible. Yeah, it's been a special year for a number of reasons.

We had this kind of pinnacle kind of trademark event of the year, which was Kendrick and Dreyf, that kind of centered music conversation of which I feel like, you know, as ugly as that conversation has gotten. And especially now where the remnants of it feel like kind of gross, where the, it's, just the Stan culture on either side still talking about it in a real combative way where analysts of course are going to talk about it because it was a historic music event but I do feel

like the conversation around that battle has kind of trickled around and led to like just great music conversations in general and kind of got us active actively thinking about lyrics analyzing music again

and it also happened to be that we just got incredible projects from just a handful or more than a hand. Yeah, everybody dropped. Every single person. Yeah. So we're going to get into a lot of those in detail later. But I thought the first category we should probably go into was our favorite musical moment of the year. I feel like I haven't remembered a year like this where we're going to talk about songs and albums,

but there are so many kind of tangential experience, experience driven moments around the music that were just, like visceral and exciting and you know group text threads and YouTube reaction videos or just so many great moments this year I was curious to hear I know we got a few each we can just kind of if you want to just talk about all your moments and kind of nominate those I don't know if you have a favorite but just kind of talk about some of the music moments that you enjoyed this year I mean okay so we're gonna we got to not start with the Kendrick winning all year thing because it was amazing to see him win yeah all year long like every time. That was great. I really liked, based on my fandom and my taste, Tyler the creator and Childish Gambino, their years, starting off, like, for the two of them when they performed together at Coachella. And like, they finally came together after so many years of just like a weird, maybe a little tension or anything like that. Them coming together was amazing. And then we saw like them kind of keep working and give us little hints of eventually getting Gambino on Tyler's album.

And I mean, as a big childish can be no fan, that also came with like Gilgo Radio, which we had like a few episodes of Donald Glover like putting us on to a bunch of music, teasing a bunch of new content. Like there's a cartoon with Zach Fox that we're going to get that we have like a teaser from that. And just like he was having so much fun with like fake ads and a bunch of songs. Like that was so fun. Like that was so engaging for me.

At least like I'll remember that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I had, yeah, the roll, there's just been great rollouts. I guess I'll start in that vein. I'll start with the chromocopia rollout, which was, I think Tyler's best rollout. We're talking about, I think, I would say Tyler has the best rollouts of the decade so far.

And this one was felt like his best. It was the most engaging. I felt like the clean, I mean, all of his rollouts have been so clean and strategic and everything dropping. You know, he has everything planned out ahead of time. but this one just felt bigger in a way. I don't know if it just had to do with the visuals feeling so grand. It was sick. I walked around DC and I saw Chromacopoeia at my feet like spray painted on the sidewalk.

Oh, that's sick. It was insane, man. It was crazy. Yeah, the shipping containers. And even like the post rollout, the post album drop, surprise pop-up shows where he was just performing solo on top of the chromocopia shipping container. I thought it was really great to keep the momentum of the rollout going. to ship those actual containers around as kind of these spectacle things where people got to go and touch it and take pictures with it. It was just so we've never seen anything like that.

We've seen versions of it, but it just felt really unique. And then I think probably the biggest statement of all was that the music lived up to the rollout. To have a rollout so grand to have a flop of an album would obviously be an ideal. but the album is fantastic and I'm going to talk a lot more about it this episode. So that was definitely just so fun. Of course we get right after, essentially right after Tyler, we get Kendrick's, I guess, rollout. He didn't really have a rollout, but we got hit.

The whole year, 2024 was a concept. Yeah. It was a Kendrick concept. It really was. Honestly, it was. So we had that. Another highlight for me was the Not Like Us video. Um, that dropping on 4th of July was so perfect.

All the Easter eggs. Like, you talked about a little bit last episode, but that song was already a smash hit before the video. And to have the pressure of what's he going to do, how is he going to visualize all this stuff? How is he going to add even more to this? And then to just hit it out of the park in the way that they did was just phenomenal. Um, so that was definitely a memory of, of watching that for the first. I mean, all the surprise drops, because obviously, He's not telling us anything and he's just dropping.

And it's like the excitement of just, oh, shit. Like there's something here and you got to like scramble to go watch it. Okay. Another musical moment for me was Dochi. One, the interview that I did with her was, of course, really special for me. It was the first artist interview that I've done on Dissect. And I couldn't think of a greater artist to do it with than Dochi. She was such an incredible interview behind the scenes before.

after the interview, she was so sweet and genuine. And you can just tell she's like a great person. But also her concert. I got to see her in concert a couple months ago in Oakland. And she's, her tour for Alligator Bites to Never Heal was these really small venues. I mean, the venue I saw her in Oakland was like essentially a bar that had two stories and maybe held 150 people. maybe 200 at most. And the level of performance that she gave was special.

She had a whole set design on stage. Her outfit changes. The DJ was phenomenal. And you can just tell the connection she has with her audience is so real and genuine. There was a woman that I was sitting up on top of the balcony. So I got to overlook the stage and the lower, I guess, just the general admission seating or not seating standing kind of the pit area which was the only area because it was such a small venue and i just got to watch those you know fans in the front row

and there's this one girl i kept going back to over and over because i could tell she just was so connected to the music and on one song she started to cry and it was just a cool experience seeing that relationship in person there's really nothing like it so that was i would maybe to be honest out of all the moments this year with that that concert was like okay this is something I'm have a privilege in witnessing because she is not playing then she is on a rock she's on an incredible ascension again she is not going to play a 150 you know person venue ever again so to be able to witness that was phenomenal so and then of course we talked a lot about it last episode but I have to mention the weekend quote unquote the weekend which was the weekend the

Friday, Saturday, Sunday of the battle and just getting all those songs and such a rapid fashion and everything that went around that is a musical moment that I don't think anyone's going to forget if you're in this kind of culture. So I feel like we're cutting that even this category short because there are so many other incredible moments this year. So let's move on to our next category. We're going to talk about our favorite song that is not from. our favorite album nominations. So these are the... A little Lucy.

Yeah, we call this the Lucy's. So again, it is our favorite songs that are not from... Because we know that are probably our favorite songs are from our favorite albums, we're trying to shine some love on some other songs and albums that we love this year. So why don't you go first? All right, so the first one, I'm going to go with Cole. This is a song and a project that is very up our dissect alley. Okay.

It's Image by Magdalena Bay off of their album Imaginaldisc. I don't know if you've spent much time with this. I had spent some time with this album earlier in the year, like listening, really enjoying it. I love this song. Like, I think it's just so catchy. And I love the song. And then, like, in the last, like, month or so, I was like, man, this song is really good. There's a part where she's singing about in 22 minutes she's going to change.

Okay. And I was like, wow, that's really cool. I wonder why she's singing that. I guess was just a thing. But if you look at the album and you do the dissection, there's a narrative on this album. They put it together online with their music videos. And like 22 more minutes into the album,

there's a key beat switch. Oh shit. Okay. And there's a key like this is the next act of the album. And it's about this like the main character is like transforming. The album title, Imaginaldisc is like a double entendre for like an imaginary CD that's being marketed to the main character.

But imaginaldisc is also apparently like a thing in bugs that makes them like metamorphosize and transform. So it's like this double entendre for like this transformational thing. Image is early in the album, sets everything up. And like this, again, I wish I'd been able, like I've dissected this more. And it's got everything we like. And the song's incredible. So yeah, that's my like loose one.

I want to shout out right now. Okay. So I just got turned on to this. I want to say, I can't remember when it was released. I don't know if you have it pulled up, but I don't know. Yeah, I heard about this project just loosely, maybe, I don't know, whenever it came out, it made some noise. And then when I asked people on Twitter what their favorite project was, this one kept coming up.

So I was like, oh, shit, I need to. It makes sense for our listening. Okay. So then I listened to, I just this, just this past couple of days before we recorded this, I played it. I have, image was the song that stuck out to me. I put that on repeat. It's such a...

You can play forever. Yeah, it's insane. It's really, really good. And that groove is just so addictive. And so I was impressed with the project and now you're hearing... It's got our stuff. I was going to say this. It's like dog whistle.

I'm like getting excited. So I'm definitely going to listen even closer now because that sounds... Because it sounded fantastic. And if it has that kind of stuff, then I'm even more excited to keep listening. So great shout out there. were you going to do more than one or is that the one yet? No, I'm just, for the Lucy, I'm doing the one. Okay. How about, how about you?

I just had, I all just not even describe these, but I had to just meant, like, we're not going to mention them later. Let me just say the name and the song because I just wanted to be acknowledged. Right. Because one, I just want to, but also I don't want people to get on our ass about not acknowledging all they are. You're right. All the great stuff that everyone loves this year. So I got to say either on or off the drugs by JPEG Mafia. incredible song.

I mean, if you want to talk about how to use AI correct, like that song is like a master class. And it's a tool that could be used for better or for worse. And JPEG Mafia, I think, made it a great song using an AI vocal of future. But just which is just kind of crazy to say. The project is crazy. My favorite is it's dark and hell is hot with the Brazilian sample. Okay, yeah.

That one's the last. But yeah. We'll talk about more in my honor. I'll mention, I'm going to be talking about that album. A little bit more. Okay, sweet. Sweet.

Well, we'll talk about Boney Verre. I was re-listened to the album today in preparation for this. And that song, I remember loving it when I first came out and it just hit so hard today. I love the, it's kind of corny, but it's also just fantastic and sweet. Crazier by Absol and J.I.D. I called that out on our hip hop episode last week, but that was definitely one of my favorite hip hop songs of the year. Blue Slides by Schoolboy Q. Incredible song. Incredible album. Of course, got to mention, not like us, Euphoria, like that. All the Loo. that Kendrick dropped that we talked about kind of at nauseam last episode.

Girl so confusing by Charlie XX and Lord. I know we're going to talk about that more, so I'll save, but I had to acknowledge it on my own. And then here is my favorite Lucy, officially my favorite Lucy, is I Think About It All the Time by Charlie XX. Brat is a phenomenal album. It was early on my list as it was kind of the album to beat for a long time. of my favorite album this year. But this song is such an anomaly on the project

and it's so perfectly placed because Brat is this like 24-hour party thing and high-energy songs for the most part and just kind of just serving us all these different kind of musical looks all kind of aesthetically in the same box of like fun, energetic, just great music. But then we get to, I think about it all the time

and it's just one of those songs that kind of like take the mask off. It's like after the party, you take your makeup off, and you're getting into your pajamas, and it's like you get into bed, and you're kind of buzzed, and you're thinking about life. And this is that song to me,

because the song is about her, visiting one of her friends that had just had a child, and it kind of making her reflect on her own choices, should she have a child, and her kind of clock is ticking. and she talks to her partner about if she should stop her birth control. And it's just such a like honest and raw song.

The melodies are great. The musical landscape is super intimate. And it's just, I don't know, there's just like, you know, Tyler actually ends up talking about similar things on chromocopia. But I remember thinking like when I first heard, I think about it all the time. I was like, I've never actually heard a song like this. And I'm sure it's been done. but to put it on this album by this artist,

it really stood out in a way that I'm like, every time I listen to that song, I actually tear up because it's like, I can feel how genuine those. It's like, there's only a few decisions that you get kind of like these major decisions. And it's like, yeah, they are, you get to an age where it's like you kind of have to pull the trigger one way or the other. And someone just being super honest about it and such a beautiful song,

I thought was just really impressive. and again, its placement on the album is so perfect. So I had to shout that one out. So next category, Cam, let's go to album that surprised us the most. So this is one that just for the listeners, give them context. This is something that maybe we put on based on a recommendation or just had a certain kind of expectation going in. And we were surprised by how much we enjoyed the project. So what do you got?

All right. So for me, the album that's a prodigist to me the most, it came out of left field both in the quality and in like the style of the album as Mika's Laundry by Matt Champion. Matt Champion was a part of Brock Hampton. He was usually just regarded as like, this is one of our rappers. he's just going to come in with bars. He doesn't really talk that much

in a lot of the Brockhampton interviews. And like sometimes they alluded to like some of the stuff he would do behind the scenes. But, you know, he was just a rapper. At least that's what I thought. And then it comes out with this post-Brockhampton album after their breakup. And this thing is incredibly creative.

It is incredibly weird. He's like just playing with weird motifs. He's going into strange places. Like if you think of like dank moss and like weird organic material. It's like he's like harnessing that. He's got a bunch of different styles on the album. He's stretching his voice.

He's obviously influenced by some of the artists who he worked with like Dijon, who he's talked about in songs before. So we thought, oh, they were just friends. Like when he comes across with all these different styles on the album, it's amazing. And then the other thing is he's kind of kept going with this project all year. It came out early. He's like been like publishing these like short stories that seem to be. some of like the characters on the album.

He has this small project he released recently, which is like one of the characters has like four favorite other songs. And those four other songs came out. So he's working with these very interesting concepts. And it's just like it's because if I was going to say who after Brock Hampton is going to make the best album, who's going to. I did not. I'm sorry, man.

I didn't expect it to be. Like I did not think this was coming. And like I've been playing it all year. And my Spotify wrapped, it was like all of the songs from my top 100. I couldn't believe it. Like, I love this thing. Okay. Yeah, I just briefly got that you gave me a heads up on this album before we record and I just got to kind of skim through it.

It sounded definitely like not what I was expecting for sure. So I'm going to spend some more time with that. And we should just as a reminder, we're going to put all the picks. What's your highlight song from this album you're going to put on our playlist? I would say A-Fid featuring Dijon. Okay. Yeah. So all the picks.

We're going to put all of them on a playlist. You can find it linked in the episode description. So my album that surprised me the most was by Willow, her project Empathogen. So I was turned on to Willow by actually Dochi. So in the interview, I asked her, you know, what's a song or an album that you've been really enjoying in this moment? And she named Willow, Willow's album. So I was like, oh, that's interesting. I've never really, you know, I think maybe I just fell in.

to the perception that she's Will Smith and Jada Pinkett's daughter. There's a nepotism thing. Maybe she has some talent, but she's also like getting a treatment, you know, getting some privileged treatment, which is probably true. But the one I listened to the album is just like really, really good, just genuinely awesome. And the musicality is what really struck me. She's working. I haven't done the deep dive on her band, but I also did a deep dive on her, on her.

and it seems like she's very talented has really taken the study of music very seriously. And you can tell in the music, it's like, she's working with odd time signatures, her melodies are incredibly unpredictable. It still is like weirdly accessible for how weird and strange it is or like just how different the music is. But it was like,

talking about being surprised, I was like incredibly surprised with just how just the musicianship, alone was great and still being kind of accessible. And she's only 24 years old. So it's like, okay, if she's already at this level, just wait like five more years. And I feel like, yeah, she should, if she continues this evolution, I mean, yeah. So it's wild that she was sort of in like a pop punk realm with like some of her releases and like the anxiety, like the band with Tyler Cole.

like then to do this again like out of left field i don't know for me at least um yeah i mean i think it's one of those things where it's like she had a lot of attention early and that's never i mean i wouldn't say it's a bad thing but it's never who you if you're whatever music you're whatever music you're making at 18 is typically not the music you're going to end up making at 28 or whenever you actually fully come into your own and so i think yeah maybe the early perceptions of her her music kind of shadowed over what she's doing now for some of us. But obviously she has a pretty solid fan base. So I'm going to put Big Feelings, which was the bigger song from the album on the playlist.

But I would definitely just suggest everyone just check out the actual album. It's really phenomenal. Okay. So next category is going to be our favorite quote unquote underground album. I don't know what else to call this, but essentially it's like an artist with less than one million Spotify listeners. you know, just a smaller artist that we wanted to put on and talk and highlight here. All right. I want to go first with this one.

I really love this album that I'm about to talk about. It is called Please Give Your Body a Break by an artist named Nico Tripodi. This album came out like at the beginning of the year. And I'm going to talk about Nico in a minute. But essentially, as I understand it, like this album is in the realm of if people need other artists like Mickey, de Jean. Like it's in that kind of realm of. of style.

He's mostly like a producer. I've seen him producing some other work this year. I think the album is incredible. It is informed apparently by he kind of experienced like massive heartbreak and then like loss at the same like a double triple whammy happened in his life. And then this album was sort of like the response to that. And the album title, please give your body a break combined with the material on all the songs. This coming out at the beginning of the year just struck a really direct chord with me

and like really kind of directed the way that I lived for like the first half of the year as far as as just like taking rest, like trying, doing my best to calm myself down after stuff I've gone through. That was incredible. The only reason I know about this, Nico, I think used to work for pigeons and planes. Okay. Which is like a music blog. They've covered dissect. I've followed their stuff for like a very long time. When, because the internet, when we did the dissect season on because of the internet, Nico was like, he reached out to me, was like, oh, it was really cool. And like, we had some conversations about it.

Oh, cool. So I just knew him as a guy. I'd be like, oh, this is cool. Yeah. And then, like, I saw that he put out an album and I was like, oh, I'll listen to that. Yeah. And I just was, I was just blown away. That's really cool.

I can't. It's an amazing piece. It's only like seven songs, but it's like, I think the thing is beautiful. I love it. Okay, great. I can't wait to listen because, yeah, I haven't got a chance to listen yet. But that sounds really special. Yeah. And that backstory's crazy. I know.

Does he still work there? Is he doing music full time? Do you know? I think he's doing music full time. Okay. Because he's been, like, constantly like production on other people's albums is what I've been seeing this year. Amazing, yeah. Yeah. Okay, so I wanted to highlight an artist named Quadri. He is a rapper out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

He has a project called Asca Magnolia. Straighten up that soldier for they gun you down. You don't feel the rounds yet whizzing by your head. Here the whistle's still official. This the ghost of brandy wine hunts to all springs. It's really strong. I think, yeah, for like a comparable artist, I would say like Vince Staples comes to mind in terms of like,

just kind of just in terms of maybe approach to like cadences and like their voice kind of shares a similar. high-pitched nasally quality in a good way. And a little bit like Kenny Mason-ish, like not so much like of the singing, but just like in tone of voice when they rap. But yeah, it's kind of like lo-fi,

MF doomish in terms of just like their shorter songs. Some of them don't have choruses. But he's a really gifted rapper. Really great beat selection. Just kind of hits every mark that I'm looking for in like an up-and-coming rapper and artist who seems to be playing with concepts and actually talking about stuff and, you know, rapping about real things and his music.

The song that I'm going to put on the playlist is called The Ghost of Brandywine. But every song is great on this project. So he was the one I think he has like, I can't remember how many listeners. Not enough listeners. I think people that listen to dissect, if you don't know about him, already like you're 100% going to like what he's doing. So check out quadries ask a magnolia. Okay, so let's, we're going to start getting into the major category.

So let's take a quick break and we'll come back with our album of the year and our song of the year. All right, we are back. It is time for the big category album of the year. So we're going to start with some honorable mentions. I know we have a couple each. So why don't we go back and forth, one each of our honorable mention, and then we'll get to our album of the year. Albums of the year, I guess.

We're going to nominate three official album of the year with one overall winner. But let's start with some honorable mentions. Sweet. I guess I'm going to start, for me, two of the people that I wanted to talk about here are people who released two albums this year. I'm like, I wish they had been together. Like, it's impossible to talk about. Kenny Mason is who I want to talk about first He released an album called 9

And then I think a mixed... I don't know what he's calling it called Angelize I think these things were amazing Angelize is probably my preferred one Even though it seems like something put together after 9 Like it seems like because it was the second release And it seems like something he just put out But like Kenny Mason is building narratives

He's got hits on these like Hoodrat And Angel Eyes off of Angel Eyes And then jumping in off of 9 And like these songs are incredible. I could listen to them forever. So Kenny Mason, and I think we keep talking about it. I know.

I think he's come up on like three out of the four. Yeah. He's building, he's building. He's building. The narratives are building. Oh, yeah. It feels like one of those artists that are just like,

why isn't he big yet? And it's just, it's bubbling. It's bubbling. It's going to take one song and then people will discover the back catalog and he'll be well. I mean,

he's already well on his way, of course. But I think we both have seen, a promise in him that hasn't been fully realized that should probably be realized soon if we're betting. So I'm glad he gets another shout out on Dissect third year in the row probably. Okay, so I'm going to start with a album called Ritual by John Hopkins.

So John Hopkins is a electronic artist, producer. He had kind of a breakout record in immunity, I think was the first one. and this was like 10 years ago or something. And then since, I wouldn't say they're like traditionally classical electronic albums, but he has veered for a few years away from more like beat-oriented music

into like music for meditation and music for like psychedelic trips. And then ritual was kind of a return to kind of maybe somewhere in between those, more ambient driven kind of vibe oriented experiential kind of music and the more traditional electronic approach

ritual though is like a it's a I think a 45 minute piece I would call it it more akin to a symphony or something than a than an album because all the songs, it's just one song they're broken up in a track list just for

streaming purposes but it's all one 45 minute piece and it's like a journey. I would say if you, if I would say save this album for like a drive where you're going to be able to listen to it in full. I listen to it in full. I've only listened to the album once and I'm recommending it

because I'm like, I'm not going to listen to this unless I have a full 45 minutes to experience the whole thing. I can't just really describe it. It was a musical experience listening to the, I was driving on, driving home at night from somewhere. Maybe it was actually from,

from Dochi's con. concert. Oh, okay. And good headspace. Yeah, it was just incredible. It like just sucks you in. It's like very hypnotic. And it's like, I think he said something.

It's like a piece of music that it's supposed to kind of expand your consciousness and inspire thought. And that's what it really. And I didn't know that going in. And I had this experience and then I read about what he was trying to do with it. And I was like, oh, that's the exact experience that I had. So I don't, I can't really describe it. except that it's like, it really does put you in this state of consciousness that feels very connected to like everything somehow. Okay.

It's just like, it's beautiful. Yeah, it's like, I really can't recommend that experience like highly enough. I think it's really, really, really great. So next time you have a 45 minute drive or you want to just sit down with some music and lay in your bed and just listen, like this is, I'm telling you, it's incredible experience. So, sweet. What's your next one? The next one is again, like a double project. Black Star Kids is kind of like alternative hip hop kind of pop.

They've released like a lot of projects in the last like five years. But this is their final project, which kind of sucks. Oh, really? That this is their final, they're done. So like they're kind of, I think, splitting up. And like they had each individual member has projects coming out this next year, I believe. But the two albums, Saturn Days. and then heaven on Earth.

Earth spelled kind of like Tyler would say. Right. U.R.F. The albums are really strong narrative concepts. Saturn Days being this woman named Maggie, getting abducted or having like a trip and going to Saturn with the concept being that Saturn is a planet

just for black people. And then like all the songs kind of cover different situations that she goes through. And the songs are great. like the concept is great and then in heaven on earth which is like a follow-up project Maggie has passed

but like the story as it's told is like that she became like an author and she got a bunch of people to like learn from the things that she learned and like the impact that she made on the world but the thing for me that's amazing about these albums is something that Black Star Kids has done their whole career

which is like the music to me at least really solidifies like finding the joy and the mundane stuff of life like Saturn days is about Saturday. We go through that slog of the week and then how do you still find joy in the weekend? With all the stuff going on,

with all the stuff that you're going through, that the world is going through, finding these joys. Because, like, Black Star Kids' first hit was just like that life with somebody else sounded like fun, it sounds like fun. And like that they've kept such a strong concept at the core of their stuff

and kind of reach this with the final project. Like, I love these two things. And I love that they had to do two projects. Like, they had to do like the narrative follow up. Yeah. I just loved it. Yeah.

Yeah, I got to skim through this. Again, it was like, you put me on to it before, and I just got to kind of skim through it before this episode. But it sounded incredibly interesting the way that they're moving through genres. And it feels like,

like, a line that I'll talk about again this episode, I talked about it last episode is I'm Everything by Dochi. And it's just, live that. I was going to say, like, it's like,

it really describes so much of what's going on. with these like 20 something year old artists that are been influenced by just all these different types of genres and just feel no pressure in boxing themselves in musically and just switching between genres seamlessly where it doesn't feel like a gag it just feels like a very organic expression and that was that was something I thought about when I was skimming through it was like oh they're fluidly switching from more R&B melody to 90s hip hop to like just every single thing you can think of it felt like it was hitting and it's really sad to hear that they're breaking up how long have they been a group it's I guess like

five or six years um but like the the the babe Gabe she has talked about like she has a project coming out again and then like Thai who's another one of the members he has like a production alias and he has stuff coming at like they're incredible yeah I yeah. I'm just happy they like made so much stuff in such a tight time frame. It's crazy. Yeah. Okay. So the next one I'll highlight is let's go brat. We don't need to spend too much time on it. We're going to do brat. Because we talked about, I think we did our like our mid, I think we did an episode earlier this season. Halfway through the year. This was my kind of one to beat and it got, it got beat sadly, but it's still a great album. It's so fun. It's incredibly well produced. It kind of

broke through culture in a really fun way. It seemed really important for her as an artist. I know she had spoken about, I just wanted to make an album that wasn't worried about singles. And then she made her biggest album of her career, which is, I love seeing that from artists that take the risk and just do the art. And they get rewarded for kind of going against

what they've been trained to do as pop stars. And it's only going to embolden her to do even more stuff like this in the future. So I'm really glad that to see the moment that it had. I hope it feels like that out of all the ones that have been nominated for Grammy of the album of the year at the Grammys, like it feels like, I would hope. We can't be Taylor Swift again. It just like, it just cannot be. And like, Cowboy Carter's great album. Like, Beyonce has been deserving of that award for, so obviously, if Beyonce get it, it gets it, it's fine. But like Brat, if anyone's going to be Beyonce, Brat feels like it has the best case.

Brad is like a unique, uniquely culturally ubiquitous thing. Yeah. I can't. It's so awesome that we have this. Yeah. Okay, you want to highlight something else? I mean, honestly, you're going to talk about all the other ones that I wanted to. And then I was going to say Brad.

So like, we'll get to him. We'll get to him. All right. Oh, go ahead. I think you had one. How many more? Yeah, blue lips. I talked about this again at the earlier of the year.

Incredible body of work. I'll re-listen to it again in preparation for this. Production, insane, introspective, braggado. It just hits all the marks, all the, you know, all the, all the, the categories I want from him as a maturing hip-hop artist. So definitely wanted to shout that again. And then also JPEG Mafia, I laid down my life for you.

Another incredible project from JPEG Mafia. It's like the fifth year in a row. He's released something great. You like this album too. I love it. Like he's, first, he's just remarkably consistent.

Yeah. The whole thing is crazy. I love that like he did find some new space on this. Initially, I would say I was like a little concerned because like, lyrically I wanted him to go more places. But like the more I listen to the album, like,

I think it's very strong. I really like like his more, I don't know how to say this. His moral code. Like to me, the like the theme and like the core and I lay down my life, really helps me understand scaring the hose and really helps me understand Peggy, just like how committed he is, how he believes that like having a personal code then drives your life and like how

important that is and him criticizing those who would not have that. It does feel Kendrick as. I was going to say, yeah, this is the year of moral code, I think. Like it's, it's this one thing for me this year is discipline. And we'll talk about that when we talk about Kendrick more. But like, that's what this is. And I love it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Beautifully said. Yeah, it's a, I had the same critique if I'm going to give any critique about the album. It's like, yeah, lyrically, I mean, lyrically, the subject matter is, is consistent, but also, I do want to hear some more things from him in the future. And also the way he wraps.

I think it's him relying so. I can't get enough. Oh, really? Just the triple flow. He relies on the triple flow. Okay. I think just a little too much where I know he has more in his bag. Then I'm just like, show us a little bit more variety in the rhythms.

But small critiques on a great album. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so yeah, I'm looking at your other honorable mentions and we're definitely going to be talking about this. Okay, so let's get into our official top three albums of the year. Why don't you start with your number three will work backwards. All right, sweet. We're going to do it. I'm going to go ahead and admit my number three pick is also informed about

the fact that I knew the three you were going to say. Okay, yeah. So I was avoiding it a little. But for my number three, I'm going to go with Charm by Clero. I love it. It is so sweet. I think this is her best album. Like, I've been a long time Clero fan.

I am like the core demographic as far as like age goes for Clero. So like, I think it makes sense. This is her strongest piece. Musically, lyrically, I think she's found such a strength. I was really concerned after. her second album sling that like she was getting too beat down by everything around her and by like the pressures of industry and everything yeah but i love charm like charm is so sweet it helps it's like it's like she's obviously dealing with like social anxieties but she works through them on charm in a way

that helps listeners work through them like i love it's like lovely there's like a stretch there's a stretch from tarapin to juna to add up my love which is like an incredible three track run of just like, I could listen to that forever. And then, to be honest, like, what the big, like, standout lyric, I think from Juna, which is the big hit song from the album is, you make me want to try on feminine. This makes me want to try on feminine. Like, this gets me in that energy. And I feel that.

And it's, like, so lovely. I love it. I love this. Yeah. It's so sweet. Yeah. Yeah, I listened to it again because I listened to it when it came out and I listened to it again a couple days ago.

Yeah, it's beautiful. It's, I think her music has. it resonated as deeply as it has for what I can tell her fan base. But they love her. Yeah, it's very enjoyable and yeah, very sweet. Good, good. There's some really great, like, I don't know if she does her arrangements or if she has help with that.

She's involved in it, but yeah. She has some really great, like, musical details that I was really picking up on, just a little instrumental. It's been pointed out that, like, this is rife with samples. Okay. Like for the first people that are going to flip this, this. Oh, right. Right. Okay.

That's what I'm saying. Okay. It's going to be weird. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to be weird. We're going to be 20 years from now talking about people sampling Clero.

Clara. I remember that song. Okay. So my number three. Oh my God. I can't believe I'm about to say this. Dude, you have to decide. I had to decide between all three of these could have been number one.

All three of these could have been number two and all of them could be number three. So in this moment. in this moment, I'm going to say my third album, my number three album of 2024 is GNX by Kendrick Lamar. Which is crazy to say. Any other year, any other year, but 2024, GNX is easily my hands down favorite of the year. It's an incredible album.

We talked about it. I've talked about it a lot. We talked about it last episode a little bit. actually let me I haven't got to talk to you about it though so let me let me hear your thoughts on GNX as a Kendrick fan but not to the degree that probably I am

look I'm I bow at the altar of coal but like look man GNX this year this Kendrick this gym discipline change like actual moral code like I cannot believe the discipline like the way that I feel it from this album

I put this thing on a lot. This thing has been on a repeat since it released. I can't believe how much I love it. I can't believe how much every single song has moments. Like, you usually with an album like one song will go big on the internet. Every song. I know. Every single song.

And the fact that like this is happening with GNX, which is so focused and like in that sound, I love it. Kendrick is the greatest rapper of all the time. Like this is, I can't. Yeah, I've been. Genix is amazing, man. I don't want to be a prisoner of the moment, but it's just like, we talked about this on. It's tough because it's so recent.

It's so recent. So we're like still in it and we're feeling that momentum and we're feeling the energy from the public and everything he's about to do with the stadium tour and Super Bowl and possibly another project. And it's like, it feels like he's going to on a very focused multi-year run as his kind of, here's, my resume, I'm submitting my resume for the greatest of all time. This is my official submission of like, there we go. I'm building on this classic. I've already have like three to four classic albums, depending on who you're talking to. Uh, and here goes my like popular culture, undeniably.

I'm just, I am everything about every, I'm what everyone's talking about. I'm going to go on a tour, a tour with Siza, a stadium tour with Siza. You know, it's just like, he's just checking every single box for the, in a serious kind of quote unquote goat conversation. It's as a, you know, I've been a huge Kendrick fan for many, many years now and to experience this moment with my favorite artist of, I mean, I say that my favorite artist. I say that very specifically of this, of my lifetime so far, you know, of someone I've experienced. real time like kendrick is the artist of my lifetime so far so to he to to see him now taking it to new heights is absolutely incredible but g and x as an album yes it's hard to even talk about the album without talking about the year right like the 2024 was the concept that was an album

kesea kloch klamas i think it's just yeah it's it's thrown some of us for a loop that have been so in and i kind of uh enveloped in his work conceptual work that the lack of a concept is like confusing, but I've learned to allow, I've kind of let that now go. And okay, it feels just like an album. Most people don't have multi-layered conceptual album. And it's like, it's actually really great to have a Kendrick Lamar album that you just put on. And it's really relistenable. And you don't have to like use that side of your brain. Yeah, exactly. And I think that was part of the strategy of this year was like, I can do all that. And I can still, I can knock the I can knock the top guy off

with my lyrical skill I can make hits I can I can literally do everything and I think he's gonna continue to show us how he does everything and so it's so weird to be talking about it as my number three album how is that three

it's crazy it's great maybe yeah maybe it's just imagine it was one of those things like am I a prisoner of the moment because it's the most recent album but what I have it up against you'll see I mean it's It's hard competition. Yeah, I think Dissects particularly.

We had a trifecta release this year. And we're going to talk about it. We'll talk about more. All right. So number two. Number two that I want to talk about is Two Star and the Dream Police by Mickey. This album is beautiful. Mickey is a guitar player.

He was probably most well known for being a massive part of, Dijon's album Absolutely. He was massive part of that production. Look, I'm not the musical theorist, so I'm not able to address specifically what it is about the album

that feels so special. I just know that, like, I can't stop playing it, that this was the top of my, like, I can't believe this was the top of my Spotify wrapped. It was. This album. It was, I think in part because it came out so early, but I can't believe the beat Gambino. Right, yeah.

that I play this more. So I have to be honest, like I played this more. I think he's described the album in a couple of ways, kind of as like a series of fables, which I really enjoy, like him talking about it, like weird little fables. He also talked about like, today's moment in culture makes no sense.

So why won't I be honest and have an album similarly expressed like the honesty of right now? because it's very difficult to find actual threads through culture right now, like what should we be learning from this moment? So it's not as if there's like a clear narrative through this album. Then, I mean, it has really strong point. Like there's so many, are you looking up, D&M, Candy, Elisis, and then one of the one, the dream play song from the end.

Like I love all these songs. You can just like stay in them forever. I want to talk about one of these songs later, so I'm going to save that. But like I just love the dreaminess, the fantasy. Like he's like a little elf. This is an elvish, beautiful guitar out. Like, I don't know, man. And then live, I saw it twice this year.

Oh, cool. It's just immaculate vibes. Okay. You couldn't, I can't even believe it. Yeah, I was trying to describe the album to myself as I was listening to it this morning, actually, revisiting it. And it's such a unique sound. It's like bedroom quality recording. Like it's like a little rough around the edges.

He says he specifically uses crap. Okay. Makes sense. So it has that like, but also makes it really intimate in that way because it feels like your next door neighbor recorded it or something. A little bit, yeah. But then there's all these like electronic glitches and stuff in it. Yeah.

So there's this weird textual layer of like, okay, he knows how to produce, obviously. He's producing all of it. Yeah. And so it's like, okay, there's the skill sets there. This is not just, this is someone doing this for an aesthetic purpose, not because I don't know how to not do, you know what I mean? I don't have the skill set to do this polished. So yeah, I can see why it's hard to describe, even as the music theorist guy here, it's like,

there's a weird quality to it where it's, yeah, I don't know, like BoniVare was the one comparison point that I had. Yeah. Boni Vare's his favorite album. And they opened. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah, yeah.

There's the one, what's like the more electronic Bonnevere album? I can't. The one's like the black and white cover. Yeah, exactly. Is that the one? It's, uh, it has eye on it. 22 a million. Okay.

Yeah. 22 a million. It reminded me, it's not I. Yeah. 22 a million, which is a more electronic experimental album from Boni Vair was the only point of comparison. I was like, oh, that kind of sounds like in the same lane, but I would, I mean, even to compare it to that, it's kind of undermining the uniqueness of the sound.

The question I wanted to ask for you was like, why do you think he's broken through an almost, I don't know, I wouldn't say like a mainstream way, but he's on SNL. It feels like he is bigger than I would have guessed given his sound. Here's like the one thing that I can think of when it comes to this. In my personal life, the coolest people that I know love the sound. And I'm not sure to say I'm cool. No, that's not what I'm saying. But I'm saying like, if I think about the coolest people, like, I'm like, damn, they got, everything about their life is cool.

Like, I love that person. They all love this album. So there's something about like maybe tastemaker, something, like, something about that is hitting in a way where everybody kind of realizes like, oh, something is special here. Right, right. I think it's something to do with that. I don't know. I can see that.

But it's so difficult to put into words. Yeah. Yeah. It's weird because I can, I know exactly the kind of person you're talking about. And it's like his music feels like a soundtrack for their outfits in some weird way. Like I can see the aesthetic of the today's coolest people and how they dress. The people at the concert, are you kidding? All dripped out.

Yes. I've never been in such an immaculate place. I was going to say at Dochi's concert, everyone was. Because she kind of had a dress code, like a suggested dress code. On her Instagram, she had put some like looks to be inspired by. And so everyone abided, because everyone there was like heavy Dochi fan, again, intimate audience. And so everyone was dressed so cool. And then she picked out the best dressed person from the crowd and brought them on stage and they danced, which is incredible.

That's sick. Okay, so my number two, I love the McGee album too. Thank you. Really, really great. So, but my number two, speaking of Dochi, it's got to be alligator bites and ever heal. 19, nice clean, nick of demigier than Andre. Took a scroll through his IG just to get a DM from his wife. So this album has just been so special to me this year.

You know, I think maybe if we're talking about GNX, I think Kendrick-Kamar is a better songwriter at this point. But there's something about alligator bites never healed that the album itself, her rise this year and witnessing even now in this moment, her performance on Colbert, her tiny desk performance, which was one of the best tiny desk performance I've ever seen. If people haven't seen it, go check it out immediately. And seeing her in the concert and just obviously getting to talk to her, but even seeing

her on other platforms talking, it's just like she's checking every single box. And I haven't really felt this invested in a new artist in such a long time where I'm just genuinely like become a stand, just genuinely. interested in everything she's doing because everything is done with so much intention and vision. And she's restrained by her kind of financial constraints right now because she is a smaller artist at this moment. So she doesn't get these huge budgets to do exactly what she wants to do. But when she does, she's going to be so ready for those moments.

Like it's going to be incredible. Like I hope she performs at the Grammys. That seems like a no-brainer. and if she gets that, like, watch out because I think that could be really a moment and a big way for her. I'm hoping fingers crossed that she gets to open for Kendrick

on the stadium tour. But the album itself is just, I mean, if you want to hear my thoughts on it, go listen to the interview we did because we dissect it in detail, but. You dissect it with her. With her.

That was crazy. Yeah, and she's a fan of the show, I'll just say, which was really cool. No big deal. No big deal. No big deal. No big deal. No big deal.

No, we do. Just, just one of the best rising artists in the world. This is a terrible artist. But the album is just phenomenal. There's a freedom present that someone really finding themselves and committing to themselves, blocking out outside noise and just really discovering who they are as an artist. And you can really feel that kind of battle and the catharsis that comes with, like really finding that confidence in yourself and then running with it and just never looking back.

and we're kind of experienced. What's cool is that the album helped her to like formalize that to herself. And now we're seeing the fruits of that labor in everything she's done since the album, which are these performances and all, you know, her outfits. And she's just moving in a way that you can just tell like she's an artist who knows herself. And this album is what helped her kind of find herself in that way. So I think number two for me, Alligator Bytes.

never heal dochi i haven't really have we talked about this album together what are your thoughts on it we haven't been able to talk about it as much dude as far as like the artist after this like first generation of the ones that we have become so excited about in our lifetimes like dochi being like a post tyler post game like as much as we can say that incredible like this is the best we have post our got like our folks so far you know it's the yeah it's the she's the she's yeah she's one of the what she grew up on the, odd future, the early 2010s to, the early 2010's post that generation because they're still around right now. Right.

And they're still making great stuff. But don't you as far as like a post one? Yep. To take some of the concept. Like the fact that she, like some of her concepts are straight out of early Tyler. Yep. And always. And then I'm like, but they're like elevated.

Yeah. And they're, it's pulling it off better. Yeah. And like when I heard it the first, I'm like, whoa. Like, yeah. Man, it's cool. Yeah. Yeah, which is amazing.

Okay, so number one album of the year. No surprise this year. All right, look, there is no surprise here for me. It is Bando Stone and the New World by Childish Gambino. I can't believe I got two new Childish Gambino albums this year. I don't count out of vista for this exercise because it was kind of like a remastering retooling. Band of Stone and the New World is an incredible album that is so jammed. impact. It is like a core. It is a maximalism is a full cornucopia. I am overjoyed every day that I

have it, like that I can listen to it. I can't believe it. I can't say enough good things. The fact that he is capping off Child Dish Gambino, he was very intentional about this is the end of Child Dish Gambino. Right. I'm making this for the fans. He said that about the tour and about the album. It really did feel that way. I am beyond grateful that that this. thing exists. I love it so much. I know that I'm going to be listening to it forever. I love feeling the way that Gambino albums grow with me as I spend more and more time with them. Like, that's just been happening. And like, I'm not going to sit here and say, yeah, I can dissect it right now the year it came out because I can't. Right. And I don't want to necessarily.

Right. But like, this thing helps me feel better about the future. This thing helps me accept things that I have been afraid of, like an unknown future, like things that I think are going wrong. like the new world is coming and just as we have loved the old world we can love the new is very strong to me it is also killing me that childish gambino has not released the movie i know i was going to ask you about that is there any news about it look i so donald glover during the the new world tour which i do want to talk about in a moment but during the new world tour he had to cancel the rest of the tour because he appears he got ill he had to have a surgery he didn't say specifically what happened, but he had to cancel the whole tour. That meant like half of the

country didn't get the tour and all of Europe did not get the tour, which is devastating. That sucks. There's a possibility, though, that he'll do it again? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. I don't know. Like, he canceled. Like, they're getting refunds for everything. So it's over. It appears he has had the surgery. He has made a couple of public appearances without saying, like we've seen that he's walking around. So I don't know how he's doing. I hope he is doing well and recovering and all of that. I don't know what that movie is in limbo now.

I hate every time somebody points out that he did a trailer for a 21 Savage movie and then didn't give us the movie because people point that out to be like, yo, Bando Sone's not happening. Oh, right. And maybe Bandozone won't happen. Maybe the movie was the friends we made along the way. It's fine. It really crushes me, but it's fine.

But like the, when he did the New World tour, I'm like devastated that that was cut short because like that was a narrative experience. Like there was a narrative to the performance. There was an opening that happened before even came on stage or parts of the stage were appearing to fall apart. Oh, cool. And like a actual welder came on and like did like a pyrotechnic thing. Oh, wow. There were these weird sounds happening. And then he's moving between places.

He has an alien costume. Then like this weird flight suit. then he like transports him like it was a narrative performance if i can only imagine that if we had the movie and if we had the full tour we would be able to make better sense of it right so like it's difficult for me to like talk about it dissect it in the way that i want to and the way that like my natural inclination is right given that it is limited by the fact that it's almost broken like it's like bando stone is almost broken i still love it I'm still going to like listen to a very, like, and I'll talk more when we get to the songs,

but like, I love band of the new world. I'm happy to be in it. Yeah, that's my, that's my favorite album, 2024. Yeah, I re-listen to it this morning. I was struck by how, yeah, exactly how you said, there's, there's dark elements to it, but there's so much hope, genuine hope. And I can feel his sentiment as a father. There's like, there's even like real love, I think is like really encapsulated.

it's like that song. That song says, do you know real love? Can you feel real love? And it's like, I think in my children. And I think in my wife. And I think about these beautiful things we have in the chaotic, amongst the chaos of CEOs getting assassinated. And certain people being elected to president of the United,

you know, just like where the world seems like on one hand, just in total weird chaos and just surreal thing happening after, a real thing, but also to have the grounding of love and genuine sentiment. It's just like, I felt that on the re-list in this morning of like, yeah, this really does articulate a lot of the moment that we're experiencing right now and the kind of dichotomy of it all. So I feel for you, though, I was wondering about the movie. I know, I know. I was it, I mean, and it did feel like a soundtrack. That was the thing that struck me again. It's a soundtrack. It's got movie clips. I know. There's a clear man. Please just put it up. Yeah. So, but yeah, it stands on its own, though. The songs are great. The songs really are great. And he's experimenting. He's nailing it. I love the electronic kind of tinge of it all.

Great pick. I can't say I'm surprised, but great pick. It was going to be it. Yeah. But I am surprised that my album, number one album is not. even on your top three list. It is. I cheated because I knew. Okay. What is it? What is it? So my number one album of 2024 is Chromacopia by Tyler the Creator.

I think it is the most complete work to date. Whether it's my favorite, time will tell. I love Igor. Igor has a special... My eyes just bugged out of my head. I think technically you can make the case that chromocope easily make the case that chromocopia is his most complete and best expression as an artist. As much as I love Igor and as much as that just kind of felt like it was released at the

perfect time, chromocopia is an elevated Igor to me. It's Igor where it's like he's leaning. into the songwriting and the melody and barely rapping, Chromacopia has rapping and, but equally as much melody and songwriting. And I just feel like he's doing everything at a higher level on chromocopia. Again, whether it's your favorite, that's personal, but I just, as a musician, I'm just like,

this guy is fucking continues to get better as a producer, as someone writing chords and making arrangements. And it's like, you think of a song like Sticky. like he's never made a song like that and as far as accessible and fun as it is like listen to the production on that thing like that is insane those are all real instruments he's bringing in all these different components

and you can pretty essentially every song is like that and you forget something I've been thinking about is just I don't think we give enough credit to him as a producer we think of him we put him in the same boxes as let's say even a Kendrick you know And as much as Kendrick is a producer in terms of like an orchestrator, like Tyler's got his hands on the fucking keyboards. Like he's the one playing the piano.

He's giving us those incredible synth solos. He's arranging all the songs. Again, the chord progressions, the bridges. All this stuff is coming directly from him. He's recording himself doing all of this stuff. And I just feel like we're overlooking that aspect because he's such a great rapper, because he's such a great now storyteller and lyricist and even getting better as a singer

that it's like, no, let's not forget he's touching every single part of every single song and it's coming from him. So I just feel really strongly about him as an artist and him just continuing to get better as a musician has been just such an inspiring part of his kind of musical journey to witness. You know, we'll talk about some of the songs in a second

But overall, man, chromocopia, it was actually kind of an easy number one, as much as I love Dochi and Kendrick Lamar as a complete project, as an album that sounds like a world that is cohesive, that has the narrative, has the through line. It has diverse songs, but it all feels like a part of the same world where I think that's kind of my knock on Kendrick's album, where it feels some of the songs do feel a little bit individual. It's like Tyler still gives us the diverse sound where they each has its own identity and it's not like the same song over and over yet they all feel a part of the world and it's seamless one song to the next even if they're sonically coming from different

perspectives like I think of Darling Eye kind of like more of like a pop song versus sticky or like him or even Ratata it's like all these songs are very different but they all feel so cohesive. So Chromacopia, easy number one for me. Easy number one, I think.

Like, I'm so impressed with this album. Him as an artist, it's a privilege to watch him evolve. Absolutely. No, I agree with what you're saying. For sure. Yeah, yeah. This thing is incredible. We talked about it when it came out.

But like, one thing I'm mad about this year, I haven't had enough time with chromocopia. Yeah. Because there's been too much. That's one thing I was thinking about when I was like reviewing the year. I'm like, Chromicopia is incredible. Why haven't I been able to like listen to it every day? Because I have to listen to all those others. Like, God, we're spoiled. I know that specifically the second half of this year was just release after release, it seems like. And I haven't even listened to like Denzel Curry's new project, which I hear is really good.

But I'm like trying to save that to when I can actually give it my full attention. there's a couple of albums that I just haven't listened to you. Like Vince Staples released a very good album and like when I'm thinking about I'm like this is a great album it's not near the other 25 I know like what are we doing?

Yeah it's been incredible Yeah was there any other projects that we should just name we're going to get to our favorite song or song of the year as the ending portion of this episode but I'm just trying to think of like Okay, Rhapsody, please don't cry, great album. Corday, the Crossroads, great album. Vin Staples, Dark Times, great album.

Soul Burger by Absal, great. Samurai by Lupe Fiasco, great. We Don't Trust You by Metro and Future was pretty historic. Yeah. And I'm probably missing a whole bunch of other ones, but it's just too much, too much greatness. Too much. I'm sad that, like, this is, like, legitimately one of the best years of music of, definitely of the 21st century so far. I feel like excited, but also it's coming to an end, whether, you know, whatever a year

kind of demarcation means, who knows, but hopefully it's sustained, but it's like, I think we both know this has been special. The year has been special. Okay, so let's get to our song of the year. Do you want to go three to one? Three to one. Trade off. Trade off.

Let's go year number three. Do you want to put your caveat? Do you want to go ahead with that or, or no? Your little... Yeah. I just don't see a world where not like us is not the song of the year. Right? Am I right?

Yeah. No. If you're right, yeah. Turn on your objective brain. Objective brain. And give me a case for any other song being the song of 2024. I don't want. It's not possible.

It's not possible. Hop out and show niggas, certified buggy man. I'm the one that up to school with him. Walk him down whole time. I know he got some horn. Not like us is the song of 2024. End of discussion. Whether it's our, this is our favorite.

Is our favorites. That's the thing. That's the thing. We didn't make that demarcation, but is it not us saying these are the best. These are our favorite, but not like us is the best song of 2024. I'll say it. Okay. So, no, it's your third favorite song of the year.

All right. So for my third favorite, I'm going to go with what I think is a fascinating pick in light of the rest of it. of this year, I'm going to go, Girl So Confusing, featuring Lord by Charlie XX and Lord. I think it is so fascinating that in the beef, if you would call it that between Charlie XX and Lord, it gets resolved by working it out on the remix in the year when Kendrick Lamar and like, can you imagine? Can you imagine? No, never.

Like, man, I just, I just felt like I wasn't accepted. And that's why I wanted to make the pop so. Like that. It will never happen. It's never going to happen. It's never going to have. It's never going to have. It's never, not in 20 years.

It's never going to happen. It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. I think the only case that. I don't want it to happen. I don't want it to happen. It's very Drake. Unless Drake, yeah.

I think unless Drake has like a moral kind of 180. You have to have them. Exactly. Yeah. Because you know. what the difference is, is Charlie X-CX and Lord are both phenomenal artists who are doing beautiful work and trying to better the world. They're both trying to make the world a better place. That's the difference. I love this song. This is a audible gasp moment when this song comes out.

Like, what is happening? Because like, when girl's so confusing, like, I thought that Lord was who Charlie was talking about. And it was correct. And it was correct. And it. It was Lord. And Lord is one of the best writers of her generation. Her pen is so strong on this song, like, reminds us all, do not forget about Lord, even though some of you didn't like solar power for some reason. Right? She's coming.

She's coming. She's coming. And I think she's out. It's going to happen. She's out for blood in terms of like, don't forget about me. I, I love this song so much. It speaks to like what art can do, to what honesty can do. Like when we talk about how special Brad is, when you talk about everything we've said so far, like, it has the pop, it has the party.

But like the honesty that Charlie put into the album is what makes it special. Yeah. And like, we cannot forget that in how culturally ubiquitous it has become because it's so actually powerful and beautiful. Yeah. And I think girl's so confusing. Like, and this kind of also setting off the whole remix album. Yeah. Right.

Like that Charlie did, like, I love this song. This song is something that. We need to remember from 2024. It's going to be my three favorite. And I love Lord. And I'm so happy that she had just like one showing this year. And it was a show stop. Like that was it.

Yeah. Good point. Yeah. Really. It was her only release, I think, right? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

Yeah, it was incredible verse. The story behind it is beautiful. I was surprised it was not on my top five played songs on RAPT. They are all just dominated by the beef. But this must have been number six or something because I played this a lot. My kids loved this song. And as like someone who, just for them to express like just the title umbrella, Girl's So Confusing, them trying to work out this weird tension that doesn't seem like either of them really wanted,

but we're just was like just kind of. It happens. But it just happens. We get pit against each other all the time. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And then like finding the space to work it out publicly, I thought was really important in terms of just, yeah, two girls, two women, trying to just be vulnerable and honest, you know, because trying to.

Charlie, it's like, she's not sucking up to Lord in that song. No. She's just being exactly honest about what she feels about their relationship. And then Lord comes on and does the same thing. And, you know, her talking about like, the reason I didn't want to go to dinner with you is because I was afraid of taking pictures because I've been struggling with my body and my weight. Like, how much more vulnerable are you going to ask an artist to be? And, like, you just see, like, that insecurity and that. thing playing out in these decisions and then causing tension where there should you know what

mean like and then getting to like be like when do you actually share that deep of a truth with someone so difficult to be that brave to be that yeah especially on a public you know on a huge album to do that that response like and then i didn't i think didn't uh lord text charlie her response Like the verse as her response as... Yeah. And then... It's like... Yeah.

Lord, what do you think? Like, how are you this good? I know. Like, what are we talking about? It's really... It's such a special song. It is truly a special song. Okay.

So let me go then... Because that would have easily made my list. So I'm glad we got to talk about it. So it's kind of a reverse order here. Because my third favorite song is going to come off of chromicopia. it's my favorite album of the year, which it makes sense, actually, to me.

Where it's, ChromaCumbia doesn't have my favorite songs, but altogether it's my favorite, where GNX and Alligator Bites have my favorite song. So let me say, I can easily nominate Darling Eye, Take Your Mask Off, Like Him, or Balloon. I'm just going to go with Take Your Mask Off.

I want to be seen as a bitch, cuss, and then them Face Tats, gonna have the fact that you sad, bro. You ain't a thug. You was a drama club. You's an actor, but now cuds getting valid. That was my, that was a standout track for me when it first came out and it's still,

every time if I'm forced to choose one song as a representative of the album, it feels like that's a great statement, individual statement piece because it gives you kind of both sides of the album, which is Tyler kind of looking around him and being judgmental and braggadocious, but then also being equally scrutinized, turning the mirror around and placing it on himself and kind of going out his own flaws. And in that way, kind of unites the sentiments, right? Like, he's being critical of everyone else. Equally is critical about himself.

And so we're all sharing those critiques of ourselves, working to be, working to take our individual masks off and be expressed closer to who we are, closer to that authentic self. And just have that's such an ongoing journey. And so much of the album is about, yeah. how do you like, you know, the motif of the light is the centerpiece of the album, it being like this pure thing that Tyler had as a child. You know, my take on chromocopia is that it represents like his childhood home. That's why his mother is a huge prominence.

And he says, what he says on the first song, he says back in chromocopia, talking about his childhood. So it feels like the album is him, yeah, how do you maintain the light that is chromocopia as you age? and take your mask off is a perfect encapsulation of that concept being, yeah, we put all these different masks to kind of appease certain people or just get on get on in life. But each one of those masks kind of mask our light and our authentic true self. And yeah, it's a really deep album. Like the concept is simple, but it feels very truthful and very relevant.

And the way that expresses it is very, I think, something that everyone relates to as we're getting older with Tyler. And as we're trying to make sacrifices to build a better life, just trying to stay true to who we are. And I think, yeah, take your mask off. I think it's a great encapsulation of that. So I'm going to go number three, take your mask off. That's sweet. What's your number two? Number two.

Okay, so now we're going, these songs are off my favorite albums. Number two, I'm going to go with Elis by Mickey. This is my standout song from the album. And I kind of want to think and talk about this a little bit. So I think this song is infinitely readable in that like I have heard this song and interpreted this song in an infinite amount of ways when I've been listening to it. Like I cannot believe how applicable it is when I think about different things. It's fascinating to me. the title of the song, Elisis, and correct me if I'm wrong, but like,

Elysses is a music technology production company, like an electronic mostly. Yeah, the name sounds familiar. Yeah, because, and I think I'm remembering this from Doom, the Golitan Elysis. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? And so, like, it's about, and in my understanding is it's kind of like a budget company. So for that to fit with McGee's concept of, like, using the budget materials to create, I think is beautiful. and I think that the song's infinite interpretations come from like you have to create. So like the some of the things he talked like I'm in another body like I've thought about that in like a gender dysphoria sort of way and in a body image sort of way.

And he's critiquing himself and other people at the same time. And he asked the question, don't you want to get a move on? And I've just heard this so many times and thought of this in so many ways. And it just, this song inspires creation and activity for me. Like, it's one thing I connected it to is like Fast Car by Tracy Chapman because there's like, we don't have enough money to leave. But it's Fast Car if it was all in one person. So in Fast Car, there's like the relationship and the father and all these things going on.

This is McKee all interior. And if like look at the verses and everything that he's discussing, like, it's a. internal conflict, resisting his own impulses to just escape conflict or put it off, calling out his own lies, calling out his own stagnancy, and like asking himself and asking us, don't you want to get a move? Like, I think this thing is beautiful. And the first time I saw it live, I like, I cry. Because like, I cried. Because like, I cried a lot. And the song was so beautiful in the studio version, but like there was something about the live, like they added the instrumentation.

This song is, I can't believe, A, I can't believe this is only my second favorite song of the year. Yeah. B, like this thing is infinite to me. Yeah. At least this is infinite. Like, as far as like creativity and the push. Yeah. I love it.

Great. It's truly special to me. Yeah. It was the hit song too, right? Quote unquote, like it was a bigger song from the one of the, it's one of the two. It's this and I think, are you looking up? Okay. Are the big ones?

Yeah. Yeah. He's, I haven't even like thought about his, lyrics. That's where I am with his music. Because you know, that for people that don't know, and he muddles it. Yeah, yeah. And he hides it in the magic of all the, yeah. So I'm like, I'm one that does, I listen to lyrics last usually. So I haven't even really got to that layer, but I'm like, I just pulled them up as you're talking about it. And it's like, yeah, I'm in another body who's in somebody else, both of the

headless and the heartless dancing with themselves. Like, well, yeah. And the description of like looking around in the apartment, like, I think of looking for a certain. substance. I think of just like fighting amongst yourself. I feel like quarantine probably informed this in a definite way. Like how much do we have to like push ourselves out of our shells and out of our stupid excuses for why, I don't know, man. Yeah. Again, and like every day I could think of something new to frame the song. So I love it. Beautiful. Okay, so I'm going to go with my second favorite song of the year. It's going to come off of G&X. I don't even have one picked out yet. Well, let me say euphoria would probably be, I've just talked about euphoria so much this year.

But that's kind of my one B would not like us for the song of the year. So I'm just, I'm skipping over euphoria. I'm basically skipping over all the battle songs. We just spent two hours on them last episode. But just no, not like us, euphoria. Those are the ones for me. But for the sake of conversation. Man, GNX has so many good songs. What I love about this, the album is that I have a new

song every other day, it feels like. It started out with reincarnated just because, or sorry, squabble up. But because I was waiting for that song, we're all waiting for that song. So when we got it, it was so

kind of euphoric to get it. But then I really got attracted to Hey Now, which is the fifth song. super dark. I've never heard Kendrick's voice so low. And then, you know, of course, reincarnated. Heart Part 6 is incredibly sweet. My current favorite song is Picaboo,

which is so, so fun. It's like a meme song. Every single part of Kendrick's verses in chorus is like a memeable, TikTokable, but he's also like the greatest rapper alive. It's just cool to hear him, like, have fun. So I can really just, I haven't really landed on the GNX song. I think it just, no, I think conceptually I just have to go with reincarnated.

I have to go reincarnated. TV off might be the, it's so hard at this point. It's only been out. TV off is the one I would decide upon. Yeah. My six year old is screaming mustard now, by the way. Let's go. So it's reaching, it's reaching that level of ubiquity.

but let me just go reincarnated number two as my representative off GNX because conceptually there's just every single layer you want I'm not going to rehash it because we spent so much time on it with Femi and then last week we even covered it on our best bars of the year and I covered it on the rap latte podcast that I was just on with those guys king grain and Torre but I could really have picked any song really off of GNX almost but but let me just say Euphoria slash reincarnated going to be my number two slot

I got this fire burning from within concentrated thoughts on who I used to be I'm shed him skin Every day a new version of me a third of me to mint it's a minute And in pain juggling

So let's go into your number one Okay So for my number one song of the year We are gonna go It's obvious I think it's obvious This song is We Are God by Childish Gambino

To me this is the most childish Gambino, childish Gambino has ever childish Gambino. It is a culmination of so many things he has done over the years. I'm going to try and break him down, but I'm also going to say at the top,

like, I'll probably forget something, and this is what I mean when I'm so grateful he made this for the fans because this builds on so many of the things he has said over the years if we've been paying attention. Like if you listened to season seven of Dissect, you probably already knew the We Are God song.

Like you knew it inside all right is what I would say. So first off, it is a retooling of what was the initial 0.00 off of 31520, which then became Atavista. And on that album, it was just We Are, We Are as this kind of chant to bring you into the album. I for years have loved that song and thought like, okay, this is a great meditation to get to the album, this hyper repetition of the word that allows for freedom of thought and meaning with the interpretation of the song. Like, I loved it as an intro.

And then Atavista came out and it was gone. And we're like, no, oh, the song's gone. Like, where did it go? Like, shoot, this sucks. And then a couple months later, we got it back. He gave it back to us, but now retooled and added and fleshed out. And it's like, I mean, it's an old friend coming back.

it is the very childish Gambino thing of like everything has to die because the song died, it was gone and then it came back. It's that type of thing. So it's from that album. It's also a continuation of ideas he put forth on because of internet and so on Mount Kauai with the idea of we are becoming God. And so as people like learn to code and as we build humanity like and become more and more connected, the act as Gambino talked about at the time, like the act of creation is the

spark of God. And so the more connections we create and the more we create, the more like, that is the spark of God. That's what that feeling is. And so this speaks to that. And then in my mind for some reason, and I still can't figure it out, but it sounds like the end of Awaken my love, like the last few songs like Stand Tall and Baby Boy, like it just feels in that vein and a little bit like Flight of the Navigator with some of these like standout Gambino songs where he's speaking almost in this universal perspective. I love it. I can't like,

this song was not on my rap because I can't listen to this song and have a normal rest of my day. Because it is really overwhelming. And that's maybe stupid to say, but like, I am overwhelmed by this song. Every time I hear it, it's just a flood,

a complete flood. Yeah. All of my favorite songs of all time are those kind of songs where it's like, I can't actually just listen to this. It's impossible. I can't. I can't hear it like in the car regular.

Yeah. Like, no, I'm sorry. We're skipping it. I can't have this moment. Yeah, exactly. You know what I mean? Exactly. Yeah.

So I cherish it and that's my favorite song of the year. Beautiful. I'm happy for you that you got that. Yeah. Okay. So I got to go again with the caveat, not like us, slash euphoria. Those are my favorite songs.

Those are my song as the year. But as my one C, let's say, I got to go boom bap off of Dochie's alligator bites never heal. So this is my introduction to Dochi, really. I think I heard, I definitely heard like what it is, which is her big like pop song that doesn't really give a complete picture of who she is. As does, I think that was always the thing with Dochi. It was like she had these singles. She had one EP. persuasive was a cool hit

persuasive yeah it's but it's like that did in retrospect that clearly didn't give us the full right picture of who she is as an artist and so once we get alligator bites never heal it comes into focus a little bit more although I think she's still still fine-tuning it and we'll kind of I think it's she's gonna what she's doing now is gonna be amplified

times 10 in the future if I'm right about her but boom bap is what really caught my attention and of someone just doing something so different in a world, at a musical world in which it's so hard to stand out. There's so many albums coming out every single week. It's so easy to kind of just fall into the mix and not really stand out. Boombap was a song, same with like Denial as a River off the same album, a song that I've just never quite heard.

You know, I've never heard what she's doing on the beginning of the song. the fun she's having. It's fun, but it's also very serious because what she's talking about and the fun that she is having is a cathartic expression of like all these entrapments that she felt artistically. And she's kind of just being so free on this song in a way that I've just rarely ever hear with the speaking in tongues and the blowing raspberries and mocking hip-hop at the same time clearly beloveding it, but also kind of feeling boxed in in a specific lane of hip-hop

and people's expectations of what she should be rapping about or sounding like as a female MC and just kind of encapsulating all that with so much freedom and joy. And then we get the line that I've talked about numerous times on the podcast of like every time I talk to her about her is I bring up the I'm Everything line because it's such a condensed articulation of her as an artist. It also expresses so much about the moment and what kind of artists that all the artists that we talked about today are kind of doing some version of this where even like a Tyler chromocopia is it.

He's everything. He's not just a rapper. He's not just a singer. He's not, you know, he's expressing this full bouquet. And I think Boombap is just such a unique song. that I have to go as my kind of song of the year, my 1C, the caveat being, of course, the Kendrick stuff,

but I think it's such a great representation of her as an artist. And I've just really never heard a song like it, frankly, which is really saying something, I think. So it's very inspiring. Yeah. It's so fun. It's literally everything, you know, in a song about being everything. It gives us everything.

So Boombap, song of the year for me. All right. Man. This has been a good year. It's been such a good year. Oh, my God. Well, thanks for joining me, Cam. Again, we're going to put all these picks on a playlist that you can find linked in the

description. Is there anything else that we didn't get to that you wanted to just mention? Because I know we just had to skip a lot. We had to skip a lot. Like, I obviously wish we could have talked about Meg the Stallion probably starting the beef with his. Oh, right. Yeah, right.

Yeah, you know what I mean. Like, go on, credit. Glorillas. Yeah. Glow is. Yeah, man. There's so much good stuff. Like, to me, seeing the Kendrick cultural win.

Yeah. Seeing Dochi and Gabino and Tyler. Yeah. First off, like, that's a very interesting dissect trifecta into the next. Right. And then just the ideas of discipline, the ideas of like our ability to change for the better with all the stuff that I think we've been talking about. through like conversation, through creativity, through being you,

like being everything. I think this has just been a really beautiful year for music. Yeah. Which is incredible given everything else. Yeah. I'm so grateful that we get this. Yeah. I can't believe it.

I know. I never really, I never really thought about, I guess, specifically the Kendrick stuff as it like, yeah, there's something there about what he is saying and the kind of demeanor in which he's carrying himself

throughout this whole thing that is resonating culturally in a way that might be reflected of of something larger that we all feel like we should be doing in this moment because of the chaos, because of just the noise of everything, the rapid way that technology seems to just be advancing every single day and we're kind of on the precipice of something we could all feel like something's about to change in a huge and fundamental way in the same way that the onset of the internet, if you're old enough to remember what that, we were kind of wondering what it would be. And it's like, we know that it's not going to be anything we can imagine. Yet we know it's going to be something significant.

And there's a fear there. There's also an excitement there. And then there's all this noise around it. There's the noise of the election and how just gross that got, of course, like predictable, but still somehow found a way to live up to the grossness of the, expectation. And just the, yeah.

But when I like listen to us, I believe in us. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. And that's what this year feels like the music. The music. Yeah.

Exactly. It's like we all understand this isn't quite right. There's something weird, but there's also something beautiful and there's potential. And like the people I talk to every day are seem to be with it. So it's like what we're experiencing. I don't know, it's this weird dichotomy of like, yeah, this is scary, but also like there's really just great, beautiful people around and like we can do this type of feeling, you know,

and it's like, we can make this better. I experience it every day with the people I interact with, and it's like, that has to win, right? Like, that has to win. And I think, yeah, that's an interesting point that I'm going to be thinking about it now, of Kendrick being reflective of that in some way, but also just all the music as well. And it's just great, it's like maturing with some of these artists. I think we talked about this with Tyler. I know we've been talking about this.

Yeah. But just like the way some of these artists have evolved in the right way and are kind of reaping the benefits and the rewards of doing it the right way. And I really love seeing that. And then, yeah, and then getting someone like Dochi, who is clearly the next seed that we're about to witness kind of blossom. And the excitement of that and what that means. and like, yeah, we got one. It's going to be, it's like, amongst all the kind of worry of like,

even like specifically about the hip hop genre, which has been a point of conversation, it's like, man, we really might have someone. The future really might be in like good hand, someone that understands the history is respectful, wants to honor the legacy of hip hop, doing it the right way. It's just like, yeah, it feels like things are really just kind of clicking on all levels this year. So yeah. Beautiful, man. Well, thanks for joining.

Thanks, thanks everyone for listening. Check out the playlist if you're interested. And I'll probably post, I'm always interested to hear our listeners, top albums and songs of the year. So for the social media posts, for this episode,

I'll have kind of a survey. Just drop your favorites in the comments. I always love reading through those. So give us your favorites, your explanation if you want. And we'll talk to you soon. I should say just for the people that are listening are probably the bigger Dysak fans.

Season 12. Is this 12 or 13? I always forget. Whatever the next season is. I think it's 13. It's 13. It is coming. You'll see why it's taken so long.

The key word being C. What? So there's some stuff coming. Also, like, I was thrown off of my script writing for so many times this year. I was like, okay, I got to get this season off the ground. Distracted. But then Tyler drops, Kendrick drops, the battle. Like I was just pulled so many different directions this year that I haven't been able to focus and lock down as I usually am.

But it is coming. So I did want to say that because this is the last episode of the year. So next time you hear from me is either because Kendrick dropped again or it's going to be the launch of season 13, which is going to be coming soon in January. So thanks everyone for listening. Thank you, Cam. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks.