2008 in Review: Albums Good Enough To Buy

It’s about that time. I remember last year, I struggled epicly to listen to a bunch of albums that were supposed to be any good to crank out a definitive “Best of” list that wasn’t at all definitive because I tried jamming like 20 new albums into my brain in the span of a couple weeks and it resulted in me melting my face off. And it wasn’t really worth it because as time went on, I realized I really only held on to a few of those records this next year. So in the interest of conciseness and honesty, I haven’t compiled a Top Ten for either songs or albums. These are merely some great albums from 2008 that I’m confident I’ll be bumping well into 2009. In no particular order, except as I remember them, which I guess is a loose order for how memorable they are. Unveiling after the jump ……

New Blamexile

Exile and Blame wearing hats

DOWNLOAD: Blame One ft. Sean Price – Disturbed [prod. Exile]

Blame One’s first single off Days Chasing Days, set for release January 2009. Exile is capitalizing on the shine he got from last year’s Below The Heavens and shoving his rapper homies down his label’s throat. And as long as Exile’s behind the boards, that’s perfectly fine. Blame doesn’t mesh well with Jesus Price but they’re both serviceable enough. Exile rips this beat apart, doing that Donuts thing with the vocal samples, chopping them up in an interruptible way and using them as instruments in awkward but really genius ways, all on top of these sick sax cuts that he also chops awkwardly. I’m looking forward to the Blame album because he and Exile have good chemistry. And as a San Diegan, I’d much rather ride for Blame One than freakin Mitchy Slick.

Haiku De Rap, vol. 1

As we move into the fourth quarter, there are gonna be some weeks where too many high-profile albums drop. This past week was the first taste of it with releases from T.I., Murs, Madlib, Termanology, and Heltah Skeltah clogging the line-up. Obviously, I’ll never have enough time every single week to draft a complete breakdown of every single record that comes out. So I’ma get all Reggie Miller for the last quarter and shoot the lights out … 17 syllables at a time. Here are five records summed up in haikus:

Bars wait after bars
Showers with big naked men
I’m innocent dawg!