Earl Sweatshirt: Top 5 Best Songs

On a lyrical level, Earl is the best Odd Future has to offer. He’s sharp and witty, and though his delivery could use some work, he knows how to tell a story and put together a song well. Here’s Earl Sweatshirt’s top 5 songs:

Top 5 Best TDE/Black Hippy Collabs

The hottest crew in hip-hop right now. Jay Rock used to be the leader in their early days, then Kendrick made his way to the forefront of not only the group, but today’s hip-hop as a whole. ScHoolboy ended up being the second breakout star, with successful singles and his Billboard-topping album Oxymoron. The four of them work well individually, and arguably even better when they collaborate. Here’s the top 5 best Black Hippy collabs:

Jhene Aiko: Top 5 Best Songs

The talented west-coast singer’s career is on the high-rise right now. She has a soft, melodic voice, and she gets extra points from me since she writes her own lyrics, and that her songwriting ability is one of the best in the business right now. Here are the top 5 best Jhene Aiko songs. This also features rankings.

Frank Ocean: Top 5 Best Songs

When the conversation is songwriting, Frank Ocean is a cut above most in his genre these days. He always has interesting topics in his music, is very versatile, clever with his lyrics, and has a soulful appeal in his vocals. nostalgia ULTRA and channel ORANGE were both great projects, and his fans are really looking forward to what he will release next.

American Wedding

The Eagles had some beef with him for using their instrumental of ‘Hotel California’ to make this song.Frank tells a sad tale of heartbreak that came from the hasty decision of marrying a college girl. He thought it would last forever, but she wasn’t on the same page. It ends in divorce, and overall, a message to take from the song is that marriage in America isn’t held in as high a regard as it once was. To some people, a marriage is just a relationship with a piece of paper attached.

Novacane
Like alot of people, this was the first song I heard from Frank. On this song, he tells a story of a girl he meets who strives to be a dentist, does porn to pay for her tuition, and smokes novacane to ease her mind. They end up smoking it together, and Frank then experiences the general theme of the song, numbness. The lyrics cover him being numb to emotions, love, and bring on a feeling of emptiness.

Pyramids

My favorite song off of channel ORANGE. The first half of the song is cool, but it’s the second half that made this song so great and worthy of this list. Frank plays the part of a pimp he sleeps with one of his hoes. This girl is also a stripper, who works at a club called ‘The Pyramid’.  Produced by Frank himself and Malay, the 2nd instrumental is smooth, spacey and incredibly easy on the ears. Frank uses imagery to cleverly paint the picture of the song’s story.

Super Rich Kids

Another standout track from channel Orange. There is a general theme of ‘Money can’t buy happiness.’ This song covers the life of a spoiled rich kid that takes many things for granted, does drugs, drinks alot of wine, and sees the maids alot more than his own parents. Some hollow feeling that alot of rich kids most likely have in real life. Earl Sweatshirt had a witty verse that compliments the song as well.

We All Try
One of, if not the most relatable song he’s ever made. This covers his beliefs, religion, and the fact that we all try to be better people. Some have given up on humanity, but he says he hasn’t. Frank doesn’t think that humans are wicked. We sin, but we learn from past mistakes and improve on who we are as individuals.

Big Sean: Top 5 Best Songs

It’s always good when talent from my city go on to accomplish great things, (Waddup Em and Royce). First saw this guy on the BET Hip-Hop Awards in the GOOD Music Cypher and been a fan ever since. Here’s my pick on Big Sean’s top 5 best songs.

First Chain
This may be my favorite Big Sean song. A standout from an album that was otherwise average af. The track was very upbeat, had a feeling of victory to it, a catchy hook, and some great verses from everyone that was on it. Sean killed it, especially with his second verse, Nas provided my favorite verse on the song, and Kid Cudi had a fun verse on here too. I get hype on the part where Cudi says “My life is fucking AWESOME!” every time I hear it. Nobody sounded out of place on this joint.

Whatever You Want                                                                                                                                                                                                   One of his lesser known songs. Sean tells a story of his mother’s younger days, how she gave up on becoming a famous actress to give birth to and raise him. She even considered getting an abortion; she didn’t, and now her son’s rich. Sean promises to give her whatever she wants, hence the title. I love the piano keys on the beat, Kanye had some tastefully done autotuned singing that added more feeling to the song, and the message on this is a great one.

So Much More                                                                                                                                                                                                 My favorite song from his Finally Famous album. The choir singing on here added a dope vibe to the song. Sean celebrates that he finally made it and became a star in the rap game. He talks about when he took the risk of not going to college, and in the end, it all worked out for him.  His mother and grandma see him on TV and the cover of the Detroit Free Press, and being very proud of his accomplishments. You can tell that he’s really grateful for where he’s at because of the lyrics in songs like this.

Higher
The intro track from his Detroit mixtape, which is, to date, the best project he’s ever released. No chorus needed. He had some dope wordplay and delivery on this joint, and it just has quite a bit of replay value. I find myself playing this song alot.

Memories (Part II)
One of Big Sean’s more serious songs. Another beat with piano keys that I thought was well done. John Legend provided some soulful vocals on the chorus. On the song, Sean reflects on his life. The part that hits the hardest are the lines where he talks about his bestfriend developing a drug addiction.

Drake: Top 5 Best Songs

Light Up

The best track on his debut album, Thank Me Later. A simple, yet hard-hitting beat, started off with some piano keys. Drake had a dope verse on here with some quotables. I think Jay Z had a great verse on this, and I’m not really a Jay Z fan. It’s hard to deny he can be nice on the mic when he really tries though.

The Calm

This ended replacing “Too Much”, which was a song I originally had on this list. Drake has quite a few good venting songs that don’t come off as corny, “The Calm” being a great example. 40 made a good beat, and Drake complimented it well his verses. I really like that “Women need attention, therefore women will complain, develop hatred for men, and say that you’re the one to blame.” line on here. Now ain’t that the truth….

5AM in Toronto

Bars nigga…. bars. No hook, no singing, just bars. This is better than just about every song on Nothing Was the Same, which makes me wonder why this song wasn’t on the album. I like when Drake leaves the “I’m tryna save these hoes” gimmick at home and showcases his rapping ability. He had aggression, and overall just very good presence. This is one of my favorite songs to drop this year. “Without me, rap is just a bunch of orphans. But if I stay , then this shit is a bunch of corpses.”

Say What’s Real

I like this WAY more than Kanye’s “Say You Will”. Drake put alot into this song, and is actually my favorite Drake song. Like “The Calm”, it’s another one of his venting songs that don’t come off as corny. He put emotion into it, which added alot of feeling to the track. He talked about his frustrations with the music industry and his personal life.  “I’ve always been something that these labels can’t buy, especially if they tryna take a piece of my soul.”  Great track.

Pound Cake

The beat for “Pound Cake” is just heavenly. Shoutout to Boi1da. Phenomenal instrumental. This was a really good way of closing out Nothing was the Same. This and “Paris Morton 2” sounded like it was the closing of a chapter. Drake had the confidence that I enjoy hearing from him, and once again shows that he’s not just interested in whining about relationships. The only issue I have with this is Jay Z’s verse. This nigga wasn’t even trying, which is a shame because my expectations for his feature on here was high because of his “Light Up” verse. Drizzy beat you on this one, Jigga.

Top 5 Best Childish Gambino Songs

Gambino’s one of my favorite rappers of the new-school generation. His voice used to annoy the shit out of me when I first heard him and I thought his rap-name sounded kinda homosexual, but the dude’s music grew on me after a while. He’s witty, charismatic, and got those kinda bars that make you say “Damn, rewind that shit.” Next on the top 5 series, I list my Top 5 Best Childish Gambino songs.

Not Going Back
The first song I ever heard from this dude. He had some really dope lines on here, the beat sounded kind of dramatic, but not overly dramatic, and the song had a cool concept. And I love the “I refuse to going back to not liking who I was” line. That’s real, everybody should like themselves. For some reason though, I always tend to skip to another song as soon as the girl starts singing. It’s not that she can’t sing, she’s decent, but it kinda just messes up the song for me.

Bonfire
My favorite song off of Camp. Crazy wordplay on this one. The nigga was just going hard on a go-hard style beat. It’s filled with quotables, and I love the energy this tracks brings.

Hero
This one of the motivational songs I listen to before I take math exams or race cheetahs. The horns and the drums on this beat are epic, and the overall message I got from this song is “I have arrived, get used to it.” This and “Bonfire” and the two songs I definitely wanna see performed live by him.

The Last                                                                                                                                                                                                              This a dark song, and to my knowledge, was one of the first songs where he really opened up about his depressing past. Dude felt like an outcast for the early half of his life and lacked the slightest bit of confidence. The instrumental sounded like the nigga was rapping off of a simple, sad sounding 80’s dance beat. Dope song tho.

That Power                                                                                                                                                                                                        This was the perfect way to close out Camp. A well-sang hook for Donald Glover standards, and this is one of the most confident-sounding songs of his. On this one, it’s like he’s saying “Fuck all you niggas and my critics. I’m doing me.” I tend to skip the story he tells at the end after I heard it about 5 times, but at the end, he says that he feel like he truly hasn’t grown up yet, which is basically the idea of the album as a whole.

Kendrick Lamar: Top 5 Best Songs

Bar-for-bar, Kendrick is the best the new school has to offer. Great lyricist, a storyteller, and knows how to put together amazing albums, with Section.80 being my favorite. Here are my top 5 Kendrick Lamar songs:

I Hate You One of Kendrick’s earlier songs. In this he’s writing a letter to the Grim Reaper, explaining his hatred for him and how he takes the lives of his loved ones. He knows that they will one day meet, and that terrifies him. The last verse is Kendrick playing the part of the Grim Reaper and writing a letter back to K.Dot, explaining why he does what he does. Dope track.

HiiiPower This is one of the main songs Kendrick will be remembered for. He talks about “Visions of Martin Luther staring at him”, his issues with the government, and rising up as people.  J. Cole produced the dope beat to this, and Alori Joh (R.I.P.) Came through with a nice singing feature. Very well done, and a great way to close out Section.80.

ADHD Sounwave outdid himself with the production on here. The beat provides the song with this chill, atmospheric type vibe. K.Dot discusses “fuck that/fuck thought” mentality and how people use drugs to avoid using thought (Shoutout to RapGenius), and other issues plaguing his generation.

Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst The standout track on Good Kid, M.a.a.d. City. It’s a 2-part song, with the “Sing About Me” part being a friend telling about how he respects him and the mark he’ll make on hip-hop and the black community, before the friend is shot dead mid-sentence. The 2nd verse is Keisha’s sister discussing her frustrations towards Kendrick for making “Keisha’s Song”. Then it’s some other shit I don’t feel like explaining.

Keisha’s Song In this one, he tells the story of a prostitute he knows, and what she does to avoid being thrown in jail. In the end, she meets her death with “A knife in the bladder, and left dead raped in the street”. Definitely influenced by Tupac’s “Brenda’s Got a Baby”, and I think K.Dot really made a song better than his idol did.