3. Kanye West – Untitled
Kanye West shook up the world of hip-hop in 2013 when he released Yeezus, his most polarizing body of work to date. The album was both applauded for its boldness and hated for its lack of ‘College Dropout’ soul. While Yeezus divided its audience, fans around the world are in unison with their questions about what the hell is Kanye going to do next. With his marriage to Kim Kardashian and the birth of their daughter North, it is safe to say that Yeezy is in a ‘happy place’. The release of the Paul McCartney-assisted “Only One” could certainly be a sign of things to come, but truthfully speaking there are no surefire predictions which reveal what Kanye’s next album is going to sound like. But if we have learned anything about Ye over the years, it’s that doubting him is never a wise choice. Whatever Kanye has up in his sleeve, it will be something you need to hear.
2. Drake – Views From The Six
While there can be a healthy debate of who reigns supreme as the best ‘emcee’ in hip-hop, there is no question that Drake is the hottest rapper in the game. The Toronto superstar’s 2013 effort Nothing Was The Same saw great success, and Drake effortlessly stayed relevant last year from both a musical and pop-culture perspective. Artists now blow up from a Drake co-sign and Drizzy can release SoundCloud freebies that materialize into Grammy nominations (“0 to 100”). With Drake already scheduled to headline a number of big-time music festivals this year, we have some assurance that Views From The 6 will be dropping sooner than later. And judging by the title, the city of Toronto is sure to be a key theme on the album, an influence which has resulted in some of Drake’s best work in the past. A legacy-cementing body of work could definitely be on the horizon from the ‘6 God’.
1. Kendrick Lamar – Untitled
How does one follow-up perhaps the most celebrated hip-hop album within the past decade? That task is assigned to Kendrick Lamar and the Compton emcee has been in the lab crafting his next potential masterpiece for quite some time now. Although his 2014 single “i” was received with mixed reviews, the track is powered by a positive message that is impossible to deny (plus one can only wonder how the song will fit into the concept of the album). However, K Dot’s most recent offering “The Blacker The Berry” has a drastically more aggressive tone, and the racially empowered concept behind the track certainly commanded our attention. Between these two songs, his magnificent performance of an untitled track on The Colbert Report, and reported collaborations with the likes of Flying Lotus and Thundercat, the TDE representative appears to be a man on a mission with the best yet to come. The test of time has proved that GKMC can be classified as a ‘classic’, and Kendrick has both the influence/talent to create another genre-defining album. Whatever musical direction K Dot decides to pursue on this next project, we are confident that it will be worth the wait.
– By Eric Bernsen & Navjosh
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