Worst-to-Best Albums: Mac Miller

Mac only has two albums, so only listing his albums would be boring. He came up with hot mixtapes, so they’re getting listed too, starting from his breakout project, K.I.D.S. And I remember he put out a tape in late 2011 called I Love Life, Thank You, but that mixtape flew under damn near everybody’s radar, including mine. I didn’t pay attention to it, and I don’t know anybody that did, so that’s not getting mentioned. Let’s go.

5th Place: Blue Slide Park

I was excited to hear his debut album, and when I heard it the excitement was mostly replaced with disappointment. This album wasn’t necessarily bad, but it was extremely average. The whole partying white boy thing just got old at this point. There was no real growth from the mixtapes. It felt like he was beating the dead horse with this one. Some joints were cool, like ‘Missed Calls’ (best song on BSP), ‘Man in the Hat, ‘Under the Weather’, ‘Diamonds and Gold’, and ‘One Last Thing’. Other than that, eh….no thanks.

4th Place: Best Day Ever

This tape was dope. It only got 4th place because I can name 3 Mac projects I like better than this. The production on here was better than what I heard on K.I.D.S., and the songs were entertaining. ‘Get Up’ and ‘In the Air’ were my two favorite songs on here. They were chill, and Mac came through with the lyrics and the flow. ‘I’ll Be There’ was a great song too. He showed love to his mom on it, which is always respectable, and it featured a soulful hook from Phonte. Can’t leave out that this featured his breakout track, ‘Donald Trump’. Overall, Best Day Ever was pretty well-rounded.

 

3rd Place: K.I.D.S.

This is what made alot of people pay attention to him. We didn’t really talk about anything world-changing, but this tape is just so chill and enjoyable to listen to. The laid-back production on here complimented Mac very well, who also had a very laid-back delivery. ‘Nikes on my Feet’ and ‘Kool-Aid and Frozen Pizza’ were those type of songs you could ride around and vibe to, and the song ‘Poppy’, which is dedicated to his deceased grandfather, was a heartfelt standout from the tape. Definitely one of my favorite tapes that have dropped in recent years.

2nd Place: Macadelic

When I first heard this tape, I was like ‘Fuck is this shit?’ then didn’t listen to it for some months. Back then, I just thought it was weird. A friend of mine was really heavy into it, so I decided to give it another try. I’m happy that I did. This tape was a departure from Mac’s earlier music that alot of people weren’t really taking seriously. I was tired of that type of music from him, and this showed that he was evolving. He had a dark, introspective feel to Macadelic. He was lyrically sharper than his previous music, like on ‘Desperado’. Also, alot of the topics that he covered were just very interesting, like his drug addiction, failing relationship, our purposes in life, and depression. I loved ‘The Morning After’, and ‘The Question’, and he still managed to make fun, upbeat songs like ‘Loud’ and ‘Lucky Ass Bitch’. It’s been said that artists make great work when in depressed, dark mindsets, and Macadelic is an example of that.

1st Place: Watching Movies with the Sound Off

His most recent album is the best thing he’s ever made. He still made introspective music, and balanced the album out with a bunch of different kinds of songs. It felt fresh and diverse. Some of his best material is featured on this album. ‘I Am Who Am’ is my favorite song of his, and I also loved joints like ‘REMember’, a song he dedicated to a friend of his that passed away, and ‘Objects in the Mirror’, a well-written singing song. The instrumentals were a step in the right direction, and it’s cool that he made some of the beats himself. Having Pharrell, Alchemist, Flying Lotus, and Clams handle some of the production definitely doesn’t hurt either. It’s evident that he’s grown even more past Macadelic, so hopefully his next album manages to top this.

The Weeknd: Worst-to-Best Albums

I f/w The Weeknd’s music pretty heavy. His tunes lead toward the alternative R&B genre, and his music just sounds different than most artists in that genre. He doesn’t really talk about love like most singers do. Instead, he sings about getting as high as possible. Dude’s a great singer, and a pretty good songwriter when he puts in the effort. Here’s the next installment of the “Worst-to-Best Albums” Series.

4. Kiss Land Last place goes to the most recent thing he’s dropped. Anybody that read my review of this album already knows what I think about it. In a nutshell, it disappointed me. The songwriting and the hooks on here were pretty lackluster compared to his older projects to me, and I just couldn’t get into it. Other than “Professional”, “Love in the Sky”, the album’s title track, and “The Town”, this project bored the shit out of me.

Favorite Tracks: Professional, Love in the Sky, Kiss Land, The Town

3. Thursday So the concept of this is that he only gets to fuck a certain girl, I’m assuming Valerie, on Thursdays due to him being on tour. This is the most OK project I’ve heard from him. Thursday had some great high-points, like “The Zone”, which is my favorite Weeknd song and had a very dope verse from Drake, and “Rolling Stone”. Overall though, this was nowhere near as good as House of Balloons, the project he dropped right before this one. His singing and the instrumentals were awesome, but once again the songwriting was only decent. He said he freestyled a couple of joints on here, and it ain’t hard to tell. It’s like he was saying the exact same shit a bunch of times on each individual track. Still got some replay value though, cool vibe music.

Favorite Tracks: The Zone, Rolling Stone, The Birds (Part 2)

2. Echoes of Silence This shit right here was excellent. To date, The Weeknd’s best songwriting is on this project. Alot of lyrics on here are kinda dark and depressing, but in a really dope way. Illangelo did basically all of the production on his own, and he did a fantastic job. None of the songs are skip-worthy, their very well constructed. I loved this album, start to finish.

Favorite Tracks: Outside, Same Old Song, XO/The Host

1. House of Balloons Sometimes you can’t beat the original. This is one of the best albums to drop this decade, so far. Abel debuted his dark music equipped with a great singing voice and spacey, atmospheric production from Doc McKinney and Illangelo. I never heard anything like it in the R&B genre. What I like so much about House of Balloons is how fun and entertaining it is. If I listen to one song, I end up listening to the entire album right after. Even though I got tired of hearing “Wicked Games” after it kept getting played on the radio, it’s still one of his best songs, no doubt. Overall, great album.

Favorite Tracks: Wicked Games, Coming Down, The Knowing

Eminem: Worst-to-Best Albums

Eminem is definitely my all-time favorite rapper. He’s viewed as a living legend, has sold more records than any other rapper breathing, and has some classic songs and albums in his catalog. The only rapper who I believe is a superior lyricist is Nas, who’s one of his biggest influences. With the Marshall Mathers LP 2 dropping in a couple months. I decided to make the next “Worst-to-Best” post about Em.

6th Place: Relapse

You know an album is bad when whoever made it said it doesn’t count. This album just pisses me off. Em came out of “retirement” in 2009 to bring the world his 1st album in 5 years. While something great was expected, that sure as hell wasn’t what the fans got. Instead we have the hip-hop abortion that is Relapse. I have no idea how this won the Grammy for Best Rap album.  I didn’t like any song on this thing (except ‘Beautiful’, that shit was awesome. ‘Deja Vu’ was cool too.) For the most part, his lyrics were trash compared to his earlier albums, and he kept using those stupid accents.

5th Place: Encore

2004’s Encore wins 2nd worst Em album. He disowned this one too, and it’s not hard to see why. This album caught me off guard, because he dropped such a good album before it. Eminem’s drug problems were starting to get the best of him around this time, and it was definitely affecting his work. His lyrics showed a noticeable decline, and his song construction just wasn’t good. I used to love “Just Lose It” when I was a kid, (fuck Steve Harvey), and I still like “Mockingbird” and “Like Toy Soldiers” alot, but none of the other songs on here get my stamp of approval.

4th Place: Recovery

Recovery is when Eminem went back to being a good rapper. The start of the return was his standout verse on “Forever”, and it’s been good shit ever since.  This was a very mature album, and he talked about his personal struggles and his road to recovery, hence the title. This was a good album, but not one that I’m particularly crazy about. It was an improvement over the two albums before it, but this still isn’t Em at his best.

3rd Place: The Slim Shady LP

The winner of the bronze medal is the album that made Shady a star. This album cover is still cool as hell to me. (That’s his wife in the trunk.) Eminem made a name for himself in 1999 as the ignorant, shit-talker that could lyrically out-rap anybody in the game. The hit “My Name Is” is still one of his most memorable songs. His wordplay, flow, and overall lyricism was unarguably dope. “Role Model”, “97 Bonnie & Clyde”, “Brain Damage”, and “Still Don’t Give a Fuck”  just showed how talented he was, but he still had some growing to do as an MC.

2nd Place: The Eminem Show

’02 was a fantastic year for Em. He starred in 8 Mile, dropped the classic, Oscar-winning song “Lose Yourself”, and dropped this gem of an album. This album started off with a bang with “White America”, and kept the fire going straight through it. He talks about more social issues in this one (“White America”, “Square Dance”), and had the very personal “Cleaning Out My Closet” where he took shots at his mother. This was the last great album Eminem’s put out.

1st Place: The Marshall Mathers LP

No surprises here, right? This isn’t just my favorite Eminem album, it’s also my all-time favorite rap album. He showed the growth from the preceding Slim Shady LP, out-doing himself by a mile. This was the best he has ever been on a lyrical level, and the emotion he shows on these tracks is epic. “Kim” still creeps me out when I hear it, and he made “Stan” such a believable song, making it appear like those events caused by an obsessed Em fan really happened. I actually don’t want him to make a sequel to this, because I don’t think it’ll be better than the first.