JAM's Top 10 Jamz of 2010

2010 was the year of the Tiger

Here's ten songs from last year that struck a chord with me; if you feel I left off anything essential you can air your grievances in the comments section and go listen to some dubstep or something.  Comments are appreciated, but remember that this is nothing more than an annual personal recommendation.  It's not some sort of unequivocal manifesto by which I live and die.


10) Curren$y - "Audio Dope II" - Pilot Talk
Steel drums, soupy bass and Spitta's immaculate flow speak volumes about the baffling amount of quality music he was able to pump out last year.  Here's hoping he can smoke and maintain.

9) Afrocubism - "Para los Pinares se va Montoro" - Afrocubism
It's Talking Timbuktu meets Buena Vista Social Club sans Ry Cooder and it's brilliant.  No disrespect to Ry, but maybe world music doesn't necessarily need his skill set to attract the NPR posse.  Close your eyes and Afrocubism take you somewhere warm and lively; a place where waves lap the sand at your feet, sun-cured stalwarts slap bones on the table in a cigar strewn haze and fingers trickle over guitar necks with surreal fluidity.  Cheaper and more legally feasible than a flight to Cuba or Mali.

8) Kanye West featuring John Legend - "Blame Game" - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Without a doubt the best song from the album, and one of the only that I still find myself listening to after the initial week of heavy rotation.  Yeezy taught us.

7) Freddie Gibbs featuring Chuck Inglish, Chip tha Ripper, Bun B and Dan Auerbach - "Oil Money" - Str8 Killa
Gibbs & Co. flow over the organs and the pianos while Auerbach brings it all together with a chorus that is reminiscent of Blakroc's catchy, rap-neo-blues compilations.  The juxtaposition of Gibbs and Bun B makes a case for more collabos.  If only Pimp-C had been around to drop 16 as well.

6) The Black Keys - "I'm Not the One" - Brothers
The best song off of a great album.  The Black Keys broke free from their formerly formulaic song and album structure and managed one of my favorite albums of the year.  It's as close as it comes to a blues renaissance.  I hope they continue to bring it in 2010.  How ill would a full length Wu-Tang, Black Keys album be?

5) Big K.R.I.T. featuring Devin the Dude - "Moon & Stars" - K.R.I.T. Wuz Here
K.R.I.T. is one of the most promising of the crop of new artists that have popped up in the past year or so.  His beats are fresh and his syrupy southern drawl  and storytelling abilities make for a U.G.K.-David Banner hybrid that has a future as bright as the Gulf Coast is fucked.  If you aren't already familiar with K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, cop it and lend the man an ear.  He doesn't disappoint.

4) Erykah Badu featuring Rick Ross - "Window Seat Remix" - New Amerykah
Badu brings the heat on this two-part album and demonstrates that she's still R&B royalty.  Her patented smooth as suede vocals and the lethargic beat make this an excellent driving song whose effectiveness could be enhanced by a blunt, some fast food and some good company.  Disclamer: still.grimey do not condone driving while high as tits, although we may all agree that riding in a car while high can be pretty awesome.  Rozay, "the human bong," doles out some brilliant lines (listen to his verse and try not to smirk) and takes this joint from a top fifty to a top five spot.

3) Freddie Gibbs - "National Anthem (Fuck the World)" - Str8 Killa
Gibbs again?  Hell yeah.  If I had it my way the radio would overplay this shit instead of the latest trash that Drake pulls out of his Canadian ass.  It's catchy, and showcases Gibbs's ability to move a crowd as well as rap at a high velocity while avoiding a Twista-esque freakish rapidity.  Interscope has got to be kicking themselves for dropping Gibbs every time he drops fire like this and quality EPs like Str8 Killa.

2) Raekwon featuring Ghostface Killah and Method Man - "New Wu" - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II
There is no way I could leave Wu-Tang off this year's list.  Although OB4CL2 didn't come close to the legendary status of its predecessor, it was a pretty god damn solid album.  "New Wu" feels ironically like a classic track I could place on an early-mid nineties Wu album.  Just as Raekwon's outstanding recent release "Butter Knives" gives me a bit of anticipatory Wu-stiffy (Shaolin vs The Wu-Tang is set to drop this March), OB4CL2, and more than anything this song, brought me back to the days when I was first discovering what the Staten Island disciples had to offer: an ass-load of knowledge and an unabridged codex of hip-hop scripture.

1) Danny Brown - "S.O.S." - The Hybrid
He's versatile, dynamic, raw and unbelievably talented; Brown is the MC of whom I expect the most in 2011.  If he continues to make tracks like those on the latter half of The Hybrid this year I'll be spending more than a few hours intently listening to his rhymes in blissful awe.  The second half of "S.O.S." is one of my favorite verses of all time:
"It's like an, unidentified foreign object.  How you describe Brown? Simple as a clock-tick.  But his beats harder than a witch nipple.  Crazy as a hippie with a rifle sippin' ripple... I'm a pirate, with the Pyrex.  Might fuck a bitch raw Magic ain't died yet... Instigate beef and we all get torched, in the middle of the bull like United Center half court."  Check out Brown's top ten of 2010 here to get an idea of his eclectic taste and better interpret his eccentric genius.