Video Kiddos 2020 #9: Tkay Maidza "Shook"

This is by far Maidza's best since the unjustly slept-on banger "U-Huh" back in 2014. In "Shook," a bunch of kids do a big post-apocalyptic dance party in a junkyard. A great example of a dope song elevating what might have been a mediocre video in different hands, it also includes a cameo from a beardo who is sadly not Stephen Root's character from HBO's Barry. But we thought it was for like 5 seconds.

The Return Of "The New Shit Radar" (June 2020)

Also the return of the ellipsis...

No one missed The New Shit Radar since the last time we did this in March 2016. We're not sure why it disappeared, but whatever. It's back.

The newest news. The hottest jams. Let's go...

Useful links...
BLM Chapters: https://blacklivesmatter.com/chapters/
Bail Funds: https://bailfunds.github.io/
Justice For Breonna: https://justiceforbreonna.org/
Democracy Now! on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/democracynow

Hatchie Did A Collab With Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
They covered JAMC for a 7-inch out on July 20th. [Edit: It actually came out June 5th, and the vinyl is out June 20th.] Proceeds benefit The Movement for Black Lives and The Loveland Foundation.


Year Of The Knife and Mindforce Both Already Sold Out Their Dope AF Racial Injustice Themed T-Shirts
YOTK's is here and Mindforce is here, benefiting Reclaim the Block and the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund, and Minnesota Freedom Fund respectively.

We Saw Some Dude In A Geld Shirt Yesterday
New track alert, and new album on July 3rd...


New Tkay Maidza Video For "Shook"
If George Takei and Tkay Maidza had a kid, it would probably not be named Tkay Takei. New video tho...


Twice Eyes Shares New Track "It's On"
Mikey J's new track is now on Soundcloud.

Ritual Clearing's Debut Self-Titled Demo Tape Is Straight Fire
And they're from New Haven!


We Unironically Enjoy A Song By The Weeknd
That new hit. We forgot the name.

A New Obnox Record Is Basically An Event
Double album for double the fun.


Chris Cech's New Record Is Called "Sloth"
For some reason, we thought the band was called Sloth, but it's actually the name of the LP.


Deftones Might Released Eros Later This Year
Deftones tour with Poppy and Gojira got cancelled along with literally every other tour in 2020, but in the downtime they've been working on the next record and considering an EP release of their incomplete 2008 record Eros. An Eros-era song called "Smile" made its live debut in November of last year, increasing the possibility of its completion and release. We hate the NME but they reported on it so here it is: https://www.nme.com/news/music/deftones-update-fans-on-status-of-previously-shelved-eros-album-2688643

Dirty Projectors Drop New Video For "Inner World"
Future MTVZ content is here...


New Ringo Deathstarr Is Finally On Bandcamp, Vinyl
RDS's new record is one of their very best to date.


ThatBIRDDid Posts A New Run The Jewels Video For "Yankee And The Brave (Ep 4)"
It took us until only about 6 weeks ago to finally catch They Live, and we've heard references to it about twice a week ever since. So that's either a bizarre coincidence, or we were already existing in a world with multiple weekly They Live tributes without realizing it.


Disheveled Cuss LP Gets A Bandcamp Release
No word on vinyl yet, but it's a thoroughly great record.


After Hours Top 10 Most Played -- Week Of June 16th
Some cross-branding cross-marketing here, but After Hours FM just celebrated its first birthday with some new Mixcloud streams.

We'll start posting the After Hours Top 10 along with new editions of the New Shit Radar...

WXCI AFTER HOURS TOP 10 (Week of 6/13/20)

This week	ARTIST Title	Links
1	MINDFORCE Hope Dies In The City	bbbrecords.bandcamp.com/ track/hope-dies-in-the-city
2	RINGO DEATHSTARR Once Upon A Freak	ringodeathstarr.bandcamp.com/ track/once-upon-a-freak
3	VANITY Anticlimax	vanitynyc.bandcamp.com/ track/anticlimax
4	CCR HEADCLEANER Half A Tooth	ccrheadcleaner.bandcamp.com/ track/half-a-tooth-extra-pound-edit
5	CORIKY Too Many Husbands	coriky.bandcamp.com/ track/too-many-husbands
6	NO AGE Turned To String	noage.bandcamp.com/ track/turned-to-string
7	THREE KNEE DEEP Mosherz Anthem	bbbrecords.bandcamp.com/ track/mosherz-anthem
8	DISHEVELED CUSS She Don't Want	disheveledcuss.bandcamp.com/ track/she-dont-want
9	FU MANCHU Takin' It To The Streets	fumanchuband.bandcamp.com/ track/takin-it-to-the-streets
10	NOTCHES Sober Souls	notchesrocks.bandcamp.com/ track/sober-souls
11	NUDIE MAG Pet	bbbrecords.bandcamp.com/ track/pet

THICC AF 2018: #100 - 81

| Follow "THICC AF 2018" on Spotify |

| 100 - 81 || 80 - 61 || 60 - 41 || 40 - 21 || 20 - 1 |

| All 100 Songs |
This is by far the longest it's taken us to finish one of these, and it's technically incomplete in case no one has noticed yet. Most of the entries have no description. The photo editing is now at peak stream-of-consciousness, perhaps reflecting the chaotic, nonsensical, anarchic, apathetic, nihilistic nature of human existence throughout 2018-2019.

#1 2018 was a much better year for albums than singles/tracks/non-album-trx/etc, and the decline has left us disheartened, discouraged, and unmotivated to praise a year of songs that simply weren't as good. We really tried our best to make this feel like a solid representation.

#2 We have already written about many of the artists in this Thicc Mix, especially ones whose tracks represent album highlights. For example, No Age or Uncle Acid or Beak's consistently dope string of releases feels like a no brainer for a list like this -- but we're not good enough at writing to think of anything different to say than what we said last time.

#3 Not as much time as we used to have. Maybe BDE Mix 2019 will all happen throughout January 2020 though. Let's hope so.

So now finally the whole thing is here. The lower quantity of dopeness reflects the drop from a 200 song list down to 100, chosen from a much smaller than usual pool of eligible jams. (On the bright side, it became easier for legit dope jams to shine and place higher than they would have 3-4 years ago.)

Now who's ready to party down???

100. Kali Uchis f/ Tyler the Creator & Bootsy Collins “After the Storm (Pete Rock Remix)” / Kali Uchis "In My Dreams"


99. Gulch “Burning Desire to Draw Last Breath”


98. Sleep “Leagues Beneath”



97. Cash Rivers and the Sinners “Cheap Truck”
Should we just upload this one ourselves? Robert Pollard's weirdo country band released a 69 song album last October, as if there weren't enough 69 song albums in the world. But just to make it all the more frustrating, it's not streaming anywhere. The chorus goes like this "Would you like to take a ride with me in my cheap truck?" The world of streaming media could use some of this.
https://www.guidedbyvoices.com/more-news/2018/9/12/cash-rivers-and-the-sinners-do-not-try-to-adjust-your-set-i-am-the-horizontal-and-the-vertical

96. Sunwatchers “Loop #2”
Typically described with tags like avant-jazz, free-rock, psychedelic, and the like, Sunwatchers chose to close out their 2018 odds-and-sods collection with the year's most enticingly strange meditation. It's incredible that this song exists, but how did this happen and why is jam-rock heading in this direction? Our theory all but rules out the possibility that one band members' 7-inch copy of "Too Drunk To Fuck" became scratched to the point where a skip in the vinyl aligned just perfectly enough that Jello Biafra's lyrics change to "I got diarrhea today-hay." With the groove locked in, Sunwatchers' ambiance hovers over the loop as it repeats over 100 times. Thanks to word-association, we can't help but think of frequent diarrhea victim Wesley Willis who released multiple LPs on Jello's record label Alternative Tenticles between the late '90s and early '00s.


95. Ella Mai "Trip"
What would have been one of the decade's most beloved one-hit-wonders became a two-hit-wonder by December as "Trip" hit #1 on Billboard's Rhythmic chart and secured a nice little area in the lower 20 of Billboard's end-of-year Hot 100 (where the generally strongest charting songs of the past few years have hid). Can she turn her streak into a two-album stride? We'll likely find out by the end of 2019. In the meantime, it sounds like "Trip" still gets mad radio spins. So iHeart did at least one thing correctly in the past year. For more info, Ella Mai did one of those Genius annotation videos that we weirdly don't hate yet.


94. Deerhoof “Live to Tell”



93. Blues Lawyer "Charity Case"
Unjustly missing out on the Grammy for "Best New Band Name."


92. Drake “Nice For What”

Drake: "What's a dick for? Oh, wait. I get it."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9BwWKXjVaI

91. Lil B “Keke That’s My Kitty”



90. Cut Chemist “Moonlightin’ With Biz”


89. Baked “Good For You”
We tried to find a gif of Gilbert Gottfried and Beetlejuice yelling "Goo for you" at each other to no avail.


88. Kanye West “Lift Yourself” / Kanye West & Lil Pump f/ Adele Givens “I Love It”
The imaginary 2018 Kanye album that included these and 10-12 other similarly bizarre, unfinished experiments (that likely exist on an external hardrive somewhere) might have been a more appropriate follow-up to the lone artifact from his "disjointedness is cohesion" era -- the sprawling, possibly unfinished, and predictably underappreciated The Life of Pablo. Rap's answer to Third/Sister Lovers right down to the uncertainty in its last minute title changes, Pablo is now probably his most unheralded since 808s following a pattern of musical influence more clearly defined in hindsight; 808s was ultimately proven as the single most influential record of the past decade.

More recently, his attempts to subvert modern album-length restrictions feel ripe for the streaming era. With release dates and frequent media assets as overemphasized as ever, releasing 2016's scrapped Turbo Graffx 16 as a rushed double-LP would have only wasted resources. Why not spread out the public's attention with five release dates instead of one? Make them all EP-length, 20 minutes each, but call them full-length albums anyway. The brevity encourages not only listener engagement but repeated plays. Even better, labeling them full-length dissuades Billboard charts, music writers, and fans from brushing them aside as anything less than a complete artistic statement. And then just for fun, why not bookend these five releases with two extraordinarily bizarre teaser singles that all but reflect any lack of silliness these records might hold? Very few other artists have tried this "extended release period" tactic just yet, but the idea is out there, and there's no reason not to. P.S. Sorry to disappoint, but facts are facts: "Lift Yourself" had 2018's most memorable verse (accurately described in the song itself as "these bars"); meanwhile, the kids on the playground who knew anything about "Story of Adidon" forgot about its existence within weeks.
Lift Yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fbyfDbi-MI
I Love It: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwQgjq0mCdE

87. Bruno Mars f/ Cardi B “Finesse (Remix)”
This one actually pisses us off because it proves that Bruno Mars LLC (and his team of thousands) could single-handedly assist the long-awaited comeback of "fun music getting played on FM radio" with just a few easy phonecalls. As for Cardi B, we don't really get the hype surrounding LP1. But we like her, and we suspect her next record might be cool if she doesn't go all fairweather on us like Katy Perry --- which likely wouldn't even be her fault if it did work out that way. Welcome to the machine, Cardi B. This is your life now. Hell awaits you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsoLEjrDogU

86. Fritz Welch “The Donal Judd vs Elmer Fudd Inner Space Crisis”



85. Kodak Black “I Get Lonely”

We incorrectly lost hope long ago for emo-trap's eventual dabble in accidental left-of-spectrum outsider-ness. Kodak Black proves us wrong again; like one lost little star, his radiance shines closer to Lil B than Lil Peep. 100% worth the hype.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7bo6batUH4

84. Roseblood “Black Veil”
Still no word on when this full length is due, but the handful of preview songs in their live sets kick serious ass. Get ready.


83. Hoodboi f/ Tkay Maidza “Glide”

2018's best song about bagel bites. Welcome back Tkay. This is probably her 2nd best song after "U-Huh."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJG6DFdkqSQ

82. Heele “The Paper Sky”
Godzilla continues his brooding lonely journey. He applied to 5 or 6 veterinarian schools, but still no acceptance letters. He's been swiping left and right for months, but still no matches. Godzilla stays out of everyone's sight because they assume he wants to attack, even though he just wants what we all want.


81. Pusha T “If You Know You Know”
Unpopular take: We were kinda unimpressed with Daytona?? And it's not like Kanye's production doesn't always work with Pusha. Afterall, that was the exact team who killed it with "Numbers On The Boards" five years prior. But something feels different here. Maxi-singles used to occasionally run as long as seven songs, and Daytona starts to feel that way by the end. The rigid deliberate blueprint of "If You Know You Know" might be Kanye's only 2018 music resembling The Blueprint. But then it's follow by six uncooked ideas that might have sounded amazing without the record's loose, wobbly architecture.

And how about that horrific album art?? Did all parties involved seriously think people would just be like "oh cool, that's a great idea for an album cover?" Its embarrassing context should never have been promoted as a selling point. Next time, try keeping it a secret for as long as possible.


| Follow "THICC AF 2018" on Spotify |

| 100 - 81 || 80 - 61 || 60 - 41 || 40 - 21 || 20 - 1 |

| All 100 Songs |

The NEW SHIT Radar: Aug 2015 (Tenement, Beak>, Potty Mouth, Palehound, Tkay Maidza)

Summer's not over yet! In fact the last month of summer is frequently the hottest time of year for summer jams. In fact it's now almost exactly 20 years since Mariah and ODB formed like Voltron for one of the alltime great late-summer jams.

And what do we have here? More good shit:

That Tenement Tape Is On Bandcamp
We had this new 5-Song Tenement cassette thing a few months back not realizing it hadn't been available to all that many people. But apparently it hadn't actually been released yet. Or at least it wasn't available digitally until this weekend. But no big. It's out now and it rules. Very good late-summer driving jams. Take it from us.


Beak Scored the Soundtrack to Some Movie
Here's a trailer for the movie or something:


The Long-Awaited Potty Mouth EP Is Here
Turn this shit up:


Palehound Hits The Road This September
Congrats to Palehound for their huge 4-star review from Rolling Stone! (Holy SHIT!) Also, their new tour poster might be a joke/goof, but if not then it actually (really) is called the "Fuck You Larry" tour (as a possible nod to Susie and every time she yells "fuck you Larry, bullshit motherfucker you are such a bald asshole I can't believe it").


New Tkay Maidza Video Goes Boom
It was almost exactly one year ago that the Singles Jukebox contributors introduced us to Tkay's "U-Huh," which ultimately became our unofficial late-summer jam and 2nd favorite hit of 2015. However, the Jukebox isn't always the most reliable source for consistent recommendations, which is why we're taking their glowing review of "M.O.B." with a grain of salt. We love Tkay though, so we're hopeful it'll evolve into a grower. Check out the video here:

Hot Mix 2014: #10 - 1

It's kinda tough to quickly think of meaningful stuff to say about 100 songs.

We were hoping to wrap it up by the end of January. And we failed, but whatever. We're just happy that this has given us incentive to keep TMK alive and active. While we're pretty excited to post about stuff that happened OUTSIDE of 2014 (imagine that), we'll also get around to much easier stuff within the next few weeks: "Hot Mix: The Big List," including the stuff that placed lower than 100, our "Big Boner albums of 2014" or whatever it's gonna be called, and MAYBE a "worse of the year" even though we don't really care about stuff like that anymore.

We've been trying to think hard if the past month has revealed anything that should have placed here, and the only one we can think of that possibly had a shot was "I'm in Love With the CoCo."

Wow, amazing video. And we're kinda shocked that he doesn't look like Fat Joe or Big Pun. Dunno why but we expected him to be a fat-guy rapper.

Yeah anyway... Let's wrap this up.

Playlist is now updated with all 100 songs!
| Hot Mix 2014 on Spotify |

| #100 - 91 | #90 - 81 | #80 - 71 | #70 - 61 | #60 - 51 |
| #50 - 41 | #40 - 31 | #30 - 21 | #20 - 11 | #10 - 1 |

10. Ex-Breathers “Auto-Correct”
Hashtags and clickbait and ad revenue are literally everything. Content is nothing. Is the world prepared for technological armaggedon? The digital dark age? Literal #breaktheinternet? Imagine the ensuing chaos. "Well, what do you mean 'it's all gone?' Get it back then." "No, you don't get it. It's gone. The internet is gone. Forever." Riots, looting, violence. The stock market plunges to unforeseen depths as the dollar itself no longer contains value. "Auto-Correct" begins a few moments after all 9 billion of us learn of this catastrophe. Pissed off punk rock hormones explode as the tempo surges. Warning shots are fired: "Dude, you might wanna get the fuck out of here right now because mad bitches is about to get fucked," and within mere seconds everyone's eyes roll into the back of their heads. The world starts projectile vomiting and spontaneously combusting in unison.


9. Vertical Scratchers "Pretend U Are Free"
"How's it goin' ya little shit?" Grandpa bugs the whippersnappers at 1AM, all dazed and woozy for a drunken "good night, kids." They're all like, "oh god, not this shit again." The long-distance marathon runner gets a brief moment of sunshine in between two passing storms. Basically, we're trying to suggest something about how "Pretend U Are Free" fits into Vertical Scratchers' Daughter of Everything, a record that was probably one of the most underrated of 2014 and should be considered worthy of reevaluation. For one thing, its sequencing kinda rules. "Pretend U Are Free" is one of the 3 or 4 calming, breezy, refreshing changes of atmosphere strategically inserted among the rest of the album's 11 or 12 quirky, melodic garage jams. It's the cool down moment. Let the pores breathe in some Fender Rhodes blissfulness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlZ2onNYcNk

8. D'Angelo “1000 Deaths”
There's one moment towards the end of "1000 Deaths" when D'Angelo lets out an impassioned howl, not unlike the great classic howls in "Family Affair" or "Tired of Being Alone." It's arguably the crowning achievement of Black Messiah, resonating as powerfully as the 45-second chord at the close of "A Day in the Life" or the closing guitar solo in "Paranoid Android." Framed only within the warmth of the analog and peaking UV meters, it's also an incredibly vulnerable moment, capturing a burning intensity so severe that it communicates just as many words as those within the entire lyric sheet of Black Messiah itself. It's a reflection of "1000 Death"s forcefully bold, raw emotion that does all the talking for us, giving purpose to the underemphasized lyrics and obscured vocal hooks. This might be the only instance of a behind-the-beat funk-bass as heavy as "Boogie On Reggae Woman." You might not want to play this dead in the center of the party, but it's there for when the pent-up frustration has nowhere else to go. It's a rough, long, intense crawl, and there may be no end in sight, but we're in this together. We'll get through this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2r5yqjlVrI

7. Real Estate "Crime"
Summer drivin'. Watch the sun set. We were drivin' uber cars way before we got paid to drive uber cars. Sometimes you gotta go forwards to go backwards. Just drive. When Mcconaughey gets all pensive while driving through the mountains, perhaps "Crime" is his soundtrack. It's probably not what he would listen to while preparing for his role on True Detective despite the song title. It's hard to say if any hope is suggested through the unresolved chorus. "Crime" isn't really for those moments. Life's problems don't always come to an end so easily. Some days are rougher than others. But at least it's summer, and the tops of the trees are green and swaying back and forth. Take another sip of coffee. Smoke another cig. This is the kind of song that's good for when you're totally out of steam and too unmotivated to think of stuff to say about 100 songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W27sDLLWMc

6. Rae Sremmurd featuring Nicki Minaj & Pusha T “No Flex Zone (Remix)”
On the surface, it's a great summer song that didn't seem like it was going to matter much a few months down the line. But in the moments when ephemeral hits start to sound tired, Rae Sremmurd were only getting started. And out come the subtleties. "Damn." "Yup." "Uhh." "Ho!" All those little call-and-response things are almost their own separate song. And for a while, we didn't think much of its remix until just recently, after realizing that Sremmurd's victory lap verse might actually surpass the original. "When I slide down the ave I'm fuckin' trippin' (damn) / Maserati black bat, all I wanna know where the cash at / TNT tucked in my 'rillo, hundred racks under my pillow / Different styles I'm so versatile nigga you know like I know." The same goes for Nicki Minaj's guest freestyle. By the time she's done, the thought of flexing in their zone seems laughably ridiculous.
Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2cQSPRTdhg
Remix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8qpdY-kdJY

5. D'Angelo “Prayer”
Sign o' the times. Who else is stoked as hell that D'Angelo may have single-handedly escorted the return of smooth, dope R&B guitar? The past 30 years of R&B placed so much emphasis on keyboards, organs and (especially) piano that it seems like everyone just forgot. But not D'Angelo. He knew all along. Bonus points for anyone who can actually make out all the lyrics of "Prayer" without resorting to Rap Genius. Either way, you don't need to know. It's all feeling. The bell. The handclaps. The eerie drunken warpiness. The backwards vocals? The backwards drums? Are those actually in there or did we imagine it? Even after hearing it for the 20th time we're still not sure. Part of us hopes we never know.

Bonus blurb: We're still processing Black Messiah as a whole, a dense journey of musical discovery that we haven't received from a full album since (probably) OK Computer. It's about time one of these decades-long follow-ups actually delivered on its promise - basically fulfilling the anticipation we were hoping to receive from MBV. (By the way, Voodoo was Jan 2000; BM was December 2014 - only a few weeks shy of 15 years, not 14. A mute point, granted. Thanx OCD.) We can't help but imagine if the all-time R&B-genius-turned-psychos all returned in the wake of this record and delivered equally brilliant shit. Imagine a true follow-up to The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (which has existed unreleased for nearly 10 years according to Wyclef), or if Maxwell or even Sly Stone could pick themselves up just as stunningly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ6ADCTmaNA

4. Tinashe featuring Schoolboy Q "2 On"

So is "2 On" the same thing as "doubling up?" Like Robitussin and PCP? Or like peanut butter and lobster? Is there a "3 On?" Would it be similar to how celebs are more likely to get hired for work when they're considered a "triple threat?" Would "5 On" be like the 5 members of The Travelling Wilburies? Just some thoughts. While the production never strays from nearing perfection, the true spotlight is reserved for Tinashe's understated starriness, eerily similar to Aaliyah's quiet charisma. You almost couldn't ask for a better introductory single. ALMOST. It wouldn't be completely fair to assess "2 On" without noting Schoolboy Q, who sounds as if he wrote and recorded his verse without closely listening to the rest of the song, like he didn't bother trying because he didn't think the song would be a hit. Aside from "money money money weed fashion," its content is somewhat grating and unfortunate, with too many unnecessary X-rated words. However, a new hook introduces itself only a moment later: "Just gimme the trees so we can smoke it yaaa." Holding that section until the end guides "2 On" with the extra push it required, revealing the song's flawless pacing, so perfect that Schoolboy's blemish hardly leaves a dent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s7TCuCpB5c

3. Shellac “Dude Incredible”
Based on Albini's song descriptions, it seems like comparisons to Lord of the Flies or Kid Nation wouldn't be too far off base. The ominous guitar lick in the intro suggests that some shit's about to go down. And by the time it's done, we may be witnessing a full island mutiny. A lot happens between then and when it's all finished 6 minutes later, which isn't unlike Shellac's previous album openers: It's got that same choking grip as the equally classic (albeit slightly overrated) "A Prayer to God" from their 1000 Hurtz LP, but with the sprawl of "Didn't We Deserve a Look at You the Way You Really Are" condensed into a sizeable package that's closer in length to "The End of Radio." And all 4 of these songs sound like they could have been on the same record, proving Shellac's timelessness. Another classic to anticipate in future set lists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StooJzxAfrc

2. Tkay Maidza "U-Huh”
This might be as good a spot as anywhere else to talk about Iggy Izalea and the common misconception that rapping only exists within the spectrum of hiphop. Is the vitriol towards Iggy a result of how she's marketed? She's no more a hiphop artist than Rage Against the Machine or Linkin Park, two hard-rock bands with rapping that aren't exactly eligible for spins on Hot 97. "Shake it Off" has rapping. Is it a hiphop song? No way. And in the same respect, Macklemore and M.I.A. never really felt like bonafide rappers either. So why is Iggy so widely considered a rap artist if she's clearly making (bland and mediocre) pop music? And if she was largely viewed as a pop artist, would more people be able to calm down about what she supposedly represents? Should we also pretend that Blondie's "Rapture" never happened and didn't hit #1?

Someone on Singles Jukebox made a great point as well: If critics instead used that same clickbait generating energy to instead praise talent like fellow-Aussie Tkay Maidza, we'd be in a much better position. To be honest, we're not 100% down with labeling "U-Huh" as hiphop either. Perhaps we're just a bit culturally biased here, but hiphop feels like it's mostly a USA-based genre, whereas songs like "U-Huh" (or "Paper Planes" for example) are rooted far deeper within pop and EDM. But that's not to say she doesn't have rapping chops, which becomes abundantly obvious after hearing her impeccable flow through the third verse of "U-Huh." It feels like there's about 15 hooks in this song. She dresses cool as hell. Why isn't she a huge star yet? Why isn't she our next door neighbor so we can party and drink with her? (She's about 19 or 20 so we're pretty sure she parties.) And how are we supposed to pronounce her name? And what's up with "Chitty Bang Bang?" No one knows what it means, but it's provocative. It gets the people goin'. So many questions. So much mystery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvzC4TfsrI0

1. Lil B "No Black Person Is Ugly"
From Lil B's November 2014 lecture at MIT: "I appreciate the Black Student Union for making this happen. Everybody should be in the Black Student Union, because we're all black, remember that." It's always so surprising in those #rare instances when we're reminded that Lil B is actually a remarkably bright and thoughtful dude. His 2010 jam "The Age of Information" was one of his earlier jaunts into demonstrating depth beyond singing "I fucked a thousand bitches" eight times - not that those songs aren't also amazing in their own way, but they make an extreme curveball like "No Black Person Is Ugly" all the more surprising, especially when the title of the video might raise skepticism or suspicion: "MOST POWERFUL SONG OF THE DECADE?"

We consulted the only two (surprisingly high profile) instances we could find that also placed this among the best of 2014: SPIN's end-of-year blurb rightfully compares its "vintage" aura to all-time classics like "It Was a Good Day" and "My Mind's Playing Tricks on Me." Pitchfork's end-of-year blurb speculates about a few rhythmic imperfections (typical of his style on nearly every other one of his songs), possibly suggesting Lil B had freestyled the whole thing. If true, it might be among the most impassioned and soulful streams of consciousness in the genre's history, without diverting to a corny or cringeworthy "protest song" vibe. Months later, Kendrick's "I" would echo a similar self-love message as a reaction to current events. Lil B's version has been among the least preachiest, most inclusive, most genuine and warmest commentaries on these issues. He's giving us all a big hug and speaking like we're all friends here, just the same as in his college lectures. "I'm tryna see black on more magazines." "My English not perfect." "I hide all the pain." "Tryna make peace with the police." "Stand up against rape. No means no." "Hands up for peace on the streets." Completely essential and necessary. #TYBG


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83p69JhDnwU

| Hot Mix 2014 on Spotify |

| #100 - 91 | #90 - 81 | #80 - 71 | #70 - 61 | #60 - 51 |
| #50 - 41 | #40 - 31 | #30 - 21 | #20 - 11 | #10 - 1 |