This year the rap and hip hop scene delivered an extremely unique set of releases, with Kanye’s highly anticipated The Life of Pablo and 21 Savage’s hit EP, here are some key albums to go listen to.

Vince Staples – Prima Donna 

An extremely confusing yet hooking introduction, Staples opens his album with a twist of the classic children’s gospel “This Little Light of Mine”. The song starts dark with a slow melody but gradually picks up an intense pace. With a shock, a gun’s trigger is pulled signifying that the light has died. The audiences were able to identify that not only is the album telling a story and to be able to capture the real message of how it was for Vince growing up.

Travis Scott – Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight

With an original release date of August 5th, then being delayed to August 26th and then a final delay to a date of September 2nd. The anticipation and the so-called “hype” for the new album was executed uniquely. Travis captured so many fans with exclusive features including Kid Cudi, Justin Bieber and Young Thug. Travis really did fulfill our expectations with his well-crafted album, and to prove these claims, his album reached #1 on the Billboard 200, selling 88,000 album equivalent units and 53,000 copies in the first week, according to Billboard.com.  

Frank Ocean – Blonde

With the album being anticipated since July 2015, Frank Ocean fans have been disappointed several times with being given several different release dates, to the album name being changed, the album had dropped unexpectedly with extremely high standards. With Ocean’s last album drop in July 2012, the artist had four years to deliver an album to meet everyone’s expectations. Frank opening his album with the song “Nikes” had been an amazing performance and had delivered our increasing appetite for his album.

21 Savage – Savage Mode

Atlanta’s new trap artist first gained recognition when he delivered his banger “Red Opps”, the song setting a new trend of gang recognition, committing crimes and his excessive use of profanity set the streets of Atlanta on a new craze. With his songs talking about personal experiences, we have learnt from 21’s recent hit “No Heart” that he was expelled from his middle school for gun possession, another attribute 21 is known for, being reckless.

Kanye West – The Life of Pablo

Kanye delivered an extremely unique album. With amazing samples, the album is extremely eye catching, Mr. West presented new marketing techniques, including the album name changes which made the opportunity to get more attention on the album to an extreme. West originally announcing the album under the name “So Help Me God” to changing the name to “SWISH” and again changing the album name to “Waves” the album had sparked attention through criticism of Kanye and feud between the man and Wiz Khalifa. With the belief that Kanye’s name changes and Twitter feud with Wiz had been a marketing stunt, it obviously worked and captured potential listeners. With artists nowadays constantly releasing new music, being unique is now emphasized to an extreme.With the release finally occurring in February 2016, Mr. West reached 250 million streams in the first ten days of the release.

And to summarize 2016’s best hip hop releases, it has been a year full of remarkable albums from various artists. Make sure to check these out and enjoy the new sound of 2016!

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Nadav Ziskinder (9)