2025 Year End Wrap Up w/ Arthur & A.J.

On the Record Jams! wanted to wish you all a Happy New Year!  Join our discussion as we give you our Year End Wrap Up for 2025.

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Arthur's Top 10 (Rough Draft)

Clipse - Let gods sort em out
Empire of the sun - ask that god
DJ premiere and Ransom - the reinvention
DJ premiere and Nas - light years
DJ premiere and ROC Marciano - the coldest profession
Mobb deep - infinite
Westside Gunn - pick one (12)
Freddie Gibbs and Alchemist - Alfredo 2
Big KRIT - dedicated to cadilee Biarittz
Raekwon - the Emperor’s new clothes

I jumped around so much this year with a focus on hiphop. I'm sure I missed some great R&B albums because I heard plenty of good R&B songs. Pop stars were out in force too. Great year for music overall. If you listened to basically anything, you heard something really good. It was basically impossible to hear all of the good hiphop that came out on behalf of our age group in general.

 

Boutique Rapper/Producer combo albums. Best behavior hiphop music. Alc has drums damnit! And Pharrell still has hard beats..who knew!

    Clipse and Pharrell - Let god sort em out (FICO, So Be It). Malice Malice Malice 

    Freddie Gibbs and Alchemist - Alfredo 2 (Ensalada, Empanadas, Thousand Mountains):

DJ Premiere: He got back on the horse with great results:

    DJ premiere and Ransom - the reinvention (Forgiveness, Amazing Graces). Ransom is delivering and Primo was giving the Vintage Primo here.
    DJ premiere and Nas - light years (GIT Ready, My Story Your Story with AZ). It finally happened. It paid homage to the culture. Raps and great/varied beats all over the place.
    DJ premiere and ROC Marciano - the coldest profession: (Execution Style, Good to Go)You're not going to get me against anything from Roc Marci

 

Curren$y and Harry Fraud did another one: Never Catch Us: nothing shocking here (Money Magnet, Airport Industries). Great beats. Dope raps. Curren$y 'only' had 5 albums this year.

 

Mobb deep - infinite and Raekwon - the Emperor’s new clothes and really all of the Legend Has it Series. I'm crediting it to Nas in general but everyone did good work. I'm surprised at everyone except De La..I knew they'd bring it on behalf of the Native Tongues collective.

 

Tchotchke: Playin' Dumb - you were right. This is well laid 60s pop.

 

Empire of the Sun - ask that god: The spirit of Fleetwood Mac lives in the form of an Australian electro dance group. Yes, they're dressed like characters on RPGs all the time. Yes, I love it. (Music on the Radio, Television)

Your Old Droog: 2 EPs. Anything is Possible and Yod Serling. Movie from 2024 was amazing since we're talking YOD. These EPs were yet another barrage of supremely written and delivered raps (Confetti, Victims of the street).

 

Griselda:

    Conway - You can't kill God with Bullets (Diamonds with Roc Marci, The Painter). This is an excellent display of professional raps from Conway. I hope people hear this record.

    Westside Gunn - pick one (12, Heels Have Eyes Series), he's keeping Stove God out there. He's one of the best beat selectors ever. (Health Science, Gumbo Yaya, Boswell)

    Boldy James - I lost count but dude is still out there rapping.

 

Big KRIT - dedicated to cadilee Biarittz; Paul Wall w/ DJ Fresh: The Tonite Show: two more cases of two more rappers 'doing what they do' still in 2025.

 

Little Simz..I just ran Lotus after missing it during the summer. She's a good one.

 

Olivia Dean - The Art of Loving: I'm late on her but this album has some jams on it. So Easy (To Fall in Love)...whooo!

 

ROUGH DRAFT THOUGHTS from A.J.

Ransom and D.J. Premiere's EP, The Reinvention displayed many Dimensions of the producer that I wasn't fully aware of him possessing.  Every record is a banger on there, and each song places the MC, Ransom, in a position of being a great leading man.  Speaking of Ransom, a rapper I never heard of till a few months ago, is a street tales MC with MAD SKILLS.  To a casual passerby, he will appear one note, and he MIGHT be, but the angles he takes on the same topic are refreshing and welcomed.  This EP feels like an album because both the producer and MC displayed range, clarity and personality.  Again, Ransom's style as this cool, tough street tales guy could get old real quick, but his rhyme schemes, delivery and self awareness content is second to none in 2025.  The album is tight and focused and there are stand out records on here as well.  

 

I just revisited Da Clipse album again the week before Christmas.  I'm still moved by it.  Again, an album where the content is something Malice and Pusha T have done ad nauseam, but the music is so good.  The clever double entendres, the focused execution on EACH song, and the production that stays interesting, but doesn't overshadow the sibling MC's.

 

The sophomore album by Tchotchke is pop perfection.  Running time under 40 minutes, the trio with the assisted production of the Lemon Twigs displayed everything you need to know about this girl group.  They traded in the nostalgic garage rock with a hint of 50s/60s doo wop with full on 1960s nostalgic pop bliss.  I'm here for it.  Guitar solos, background vocals, appropriate production choices, and deliberate songwriting make this album a 10 out of 10

 

Nas and DJ Premier - Just wow.  New York State of Mind part 3, production wise, surprised the hell out of me.  Sounds like a haunting Alfred Hitchcock boom bap BANGER.  Nas attacks this track with direct, off kilter poetry that was MC craftsmanship. The Underground sounds like a rock song and Nas is the lead vocalist.  Can't lose!  The whole album is a ride not just on the road of nostalgia, but just a display on how good Nas really is.   No fastballs are lost.  Nas' rhymes are so interesting, I just keep returning back to this one.  This may be my album of the year.  

 

OK.  My knowledge about De la Soul is not vast.  I knew that Dave "Trugoy"  Jolicoeur passed away.  When I heard news of De La Soul releasing an album, I was quite interested.  I heard a snippet of one of the songs, and I knew it was going to bang.  This would never happen, but let us say there was someone who wasn't a hip hop fan, but wanted to get started.  I would suggest this Cabin in the Sky album, for it sounds like a tour guide through Hip Hop.

 

Once this album starts, it never lets up.  This is a great listen with incessant repeat value.  If not for the Light Years and Clipse album, this would be my album of the year.  

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