2016 was no doubt a great year for urban music, from start to finish. In this post, we will each be having our say about our favourite albums of the year.
Travis Scott – Birds in The Trap Sing McKnight (Bijan)
The second album to be released by Travis Scott, it was released September 2nd of last year. The album includes some quality features including Bryson tiller, The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar, 21 Savage, Young Thug and many more.
The album includes the three hit singles, Wonderful (ft. The Weeknd), Pick Up The Phone (ft. Young Thug), and Goosebumps. During the debut, Scott’s album hit number one in the Billboard top 200, selling 53,000 copies in the first week.
Prior to Birds in The Trap’, Travis Scott released Rodeo in 2015, and is set to release his new project in 2017, ‘Astro World’. But will the album live up to the artist’s latest success?
Chance the Rapper – Coloring Book (Medphill)
My favourite album of 2016, in a year of greats, must be Coloring Book by independent recording artist Chance the Rapper. He has been recognised by many notable artist as an up and coming artist in the genre.
Chance had a lot of pressure to be successful with this project after the success of his mixtape Acid Rap released in 2013, which received critical acclaim it debuted 63rd on the billboard top R&B/Hip-Hop charts and reaching over 1,000,000 downloads on mixtape site Datpiff alone. Also with features from artists like Childish Gambino, Kanye West and Action Bronson the expectations were high. Despite all the pressure Chance did not disappoint with coloring considering it was only available for streaming and was not up for commercial sale it gained global success, even resulting in Chance the Rapper winning a Grammy for his achievements this year.
Furthermore, he brought big name features such Kanye West, Justin Bieber, Jeremih, Future, Lil Yachty and many more, in this project he managed to bring in aspects from Acid Rap while being a breath of fresh air for the industry and consumers through his use of different production style reminiscent of old school Kanye West. Chance the Rapper is going to be a dominant force in the industry in time to come.
Tory Lanez – I Told You (Eugene)
For me, it was a hard decision to make, but I would have to choose Tory Lanez’ debut album – I Told You. The album, released, August 19th reached 2nd in the US top Hip hop and R&B albums (Billboard, 2016). The Toronto born rapper had no features on the album which is rare to see nowadays, with his single ‘Say It’ being awarded with platinum certification.
What I think made this album special was the innovation in it being a concept album, meaning that it told a story throughout with the skits. This added to the effect of Lanez’s work, leaving us with an audio masterpiece. It is evident that Tory has been busy in the studio with the recent double mixtape release of Chixtape 4 and The New Toronto 2. What has he got in store for this year?
Honorable Mentions:
- The Weeknd – Starboy
- Drake – Views
- Kanye West – The Life of Pablo
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