Top 25 Worst Albums of 2019
By: Solomon Mcmurphy
Tags: Hip Hop, Rnb, Music, Rap, Lists

I haven’t posted or written anything in a while. I didn’t have motivation to write due to focusing on school and pursuing other interests. I want to continue this though as I think it would be a good idea. I love writing about music, but usually I love writing about things I love. Now I want to write about my worst musical experiences in 2019.

25. Hot Pink by Doja Cat

Another case of the singles being too good for their own right, Doja Cat’s debut studio album was highly anticipated after dropping 3 great singles all one after the other. Juicy with a Tyga verse is her biggest hit to date and deservedly so. A extremely catchy hook with a bounce like no other this year. She followed it up with Bottom Bitch, a very grungy type of song and feeling, backed by a Blink-182 sample and one of my favorite hooks of the year. Then comes Rules, another banger that is slick as can be and has a feel that Kendrick Lamar could hop on with ease. Everything was lining up for Doja Cat to drop a heater of an album, and then… it came out. The singles did their job in catapulting Doja in the mainstream stratosphere, but the album has way a few too many duds on the tracklist such as Cyber Sex, Addiction, and Shine among most of the other non-single songs that just completely flopped in execution. Also keeping the secret feature just to reveal it is Gucci Mane was a poor attempt to create hype. You can’t make the secret feature to be the guy who hopped on a Jake Paul song. Yes, he will never let that down. The album does have a few gems inside of it though such as the incredibly groovy RnB hit Say So and Won’t Bite with a smooth verse from Smino which helps bring it up on this list quite a bit.

Best Songs: Bottom Bitch, Rules, Say So

Worst Songs: Cyber Sex, Streets, Like That

24. Chixtape V by Tory Lanez

This admittedly might be one that could grow on me, but as of this moment, I don’t know the appeal of Tory Lanez. His voice is grating and personally his style does not appeal to me. It’s a great concept of sampling the great 2000 RnB hits and putting a more modern spin on them, but his spin was just not something I want to play. I can completely understand why someone would love this, but the songs are too drawn out and the style is just dated to me as someone who isn’t even a fan of a lot of 2000’s RnB. The album does have great songs though like Jerry Sprunger with T-Pain giving those nostalgic feels, The Take with Chris Brown which surprisingly wowed me and The Fargo Splash which has Ludacris’ first feature in about 4 years and was a welcome return. Other than some nostalgic feelings I got from this album, it’s a mostly forgettable album.

Best Songs: Jerry Sprunger, The Take, Fargo Splash

Worst Songs: Luv Ya Gyal, Room 112, The Cry

23. We Love Tecca by Lil Tecca

This was really just an album to capitalize on the huge momentum that Lil Tecca had with Ransom. It’s pretty easy to tell when it feels like every song took about 25 minutes to complete. Also this album should have had 8 less songs as 18 songs is far too long for a monotone rapper who uses 3 or 4 flows throughout the whole project. The saving grace on this project is the cool production from the Internet Money team such as Nick Mira and Taz Taylor aided by other Internet producers such as CashMoneyAP, YoungKio and others. The highlight besides the obvious choice of Ransom is Sidenote produced by Pierre Bourne who is just an absolute perfect producer for Tecca as his infectious melody complements Tecca’s delivery great. Other than that, it’s a mostly forgettable album that served it’s purpose of getting Ransom and Tecca more popular.

Best Songs: Ransom, Sidenote, Shots

Worst Songs: Glo Up, DUI, Count Me Out

22. ! by Trippie Redd

Coming off the amazing album A Love Letter To You 3, Trippie had solidified himself as one of the forerunners of the dying Soundcloud emo rap genre, along with Juice WRLD and Lil Skies. Announcing that he is releasing an album inspired by one of my favourite album’s of 2018 ? by XXXTentacion. Most people and myself were skeptical, but if one person could match or surpass the versatility of X, it would be Trippie, one of X’s few collaborators during his rise of fame. Unfortunately, it did not really seem inspired by ? as much it could’ve been, suffering from a very repetitive sound of the album which was not the issue of ?. Too many piano beats and lack of anything interesting really made this suffer much more than it should’ve. There are highlights such as Immortal featuring The Game with The Game having an auto-tuned part in his verse that sounds reminiscent of Kevin Gates, the title track featuring a very EDM-inspired instrumental by Diplo, whom he has collaborated with on the best Trippie Redd song, Wish. While it does not live up to that, it’s quite catchy and bouncy and would’ve served as a good introduction to a more versatile album. The best song on the album however is Under Enemy Arms, which features anthemic trumpets serving as the main part of the beat that sounds like it could fit in a stadium like arena. Trippie is great with his signature voice spitting a catchy chorus. Other than these three, most of this album is pretty forgettable including the cut track They Afraid Of You featuring the elusive Playboi Carti.

Best Songs: Immortal, !, Under Enemy Arms

Worst Songs: Be Yourself, Everything BoZ, I Try

21. Shelby by Lil Skies

Surprise dropped earlier this year, Lil Skies managed to have a pretty good commercial showing for no announcement, however the highlights are few and far between. The melodic bop “i” is a great emo pop rap song with a catchy hook and a bouncy beat stands out quite a bit as being the peak of this album, however there are a couple more such as Name In The Sand with a very melancholic tone to it and Stop The Madness with the mandatory Gunna feature that ends up working out pretty well. However as soon as it came is as soon as it left, as it isn’t really a project worth checking on and doesn’t come close to the potential that Life of a Dark Rose showed.

Best Songs: i, Name In The Sand, Stop The Madness

Worst Songs: Mansion, When I’m Wasted, Flooded

20. We All Shine by YNW Melly

Virtually no one knew except people who had heard Murder On My Mind knew who YNW Melly was last December. Then Kanye opened the eyes of many by featuring on his song Mixed Personalities, the second single off of this new mixtape. A catchy earworm of a song, it was set to serve as what was to be off this new mixtape, basic pop rap. However, when it’s basic pop rap for a whole album it can get pretty stale pretty quick which is what ends up happening. Catchy songs like Butter Pecan, City Girls and No Heart stand out from the rest, but the rest seemed like it was a rushed attempt to make an album off the Kanye hype.

Best Songs: Mixed Personalities, No Heart, City Girls, Butter Pecan

Worst Songs: Hold Up, Alarm, Curtains

19. №6 Collaborations Project by Ed Sheeran

Between his big albums such as Divide and X, Ed Sheeran has released what some may call a mixtape of sorts. Just fun side projects to pass the time between the high profile releases. Unlike the previous №5, Ed Sheeran steers away from the UK rap/grime scene, and favors the mainstream for the most part much to it’s detriment. Other than a few solid cuts such as Feels featuring Young Thug and J Hus which features a tropical and groovy beat, Cross Me which features Chance The Rapper and PnB Rock, and Take Me Back To London which features Ed Sheeran and Stormzy going back and forth, №6 is a relatively forgettable project. It’s clear that this was more motivated to get people talking about Ed Sheeran again rather than having any passion behind it. Songs like Remember The Name with Eminem and 50 Cent sounds like a throwaway song from Eminem’s album Encore from 2004, Best Part Of Me featuring Yebba and Put It All On Me featuring H.E.R. are devoid of any memorability as I forget them as soon as the next song plays. However, the worst offender on this album is something that truly could’ve been special. Blow with Bruno Mars and Chris Stapleton making a rock song with Ed Sheeran is the worst thing these 3 could have came up with, and it’s definitely in contention for one of the worst songs of the year. The rest of the songs are standard pop charters such as the mega hit I Don’t Care with Justin Bieber, Beautiful People with Khalid, and South of the Border featuring Camila Cabello and Cardi B. Let’s hope Ed Sheeran combines all of these forces next time and delivers a quality product instead of an album designed for radio.

Best Songs: Feels, Cross Me, Take Me Back To London

Worst Songs: Blow, Best Part Of Me, Put It All On Me

18. Bawskee 2 by Comethazine

This went significantly down when I realized that Comethazine actually had the potential to release a decent body of work with Bawskee 3.5 which I actually enjoyed quite a bit. This has a couple enjoyable bangers such as Benjamin Counter, Nonsense and I’ll Be Damned with just absolute energetic charisma and energy that would have just blended in two years ago, but now is a breath of fresh air as the gritty Soundcloud sound is essentially gone from the mainstream. As much as I’m praising it, it’s only for these 3 songs as the rest of these songs after the first 4 are just tiresome and repetitive. Comethazine would really benefit from features but he insists on not having any really. Comethazine is a Soundcloud artist at heart and his projects tend to be repetitive and devoid of creativity after the first few tracks on this album, and the production does not stand out enough.

Best Songs: I’ll Be Damned, Benjamin Counter, Nonsense

Worst Songs: 4 Pound, Gusher Guts, DeMar DeRozan

17. Harverd Dropout by Lil Pump

Honestly, the singles off this album saved it from being in the top 5. Songs like Eskeetit, I Love It with Kanye West, and Multi Millionaire with Lil Uzi make this a somewhat enjoyable experience. Having tracks such as Nu Uh, Drop Out, and Fasho Fasho with the eponymous Offset feature honestly are some of the absolute worst songs this year. However, amongst the crap you have to dig through, there are two golden shit nuggets in here. Those two being Too Much Ice with a surprisingly good feature from Quavo comparatively and Vroom Vroom Vroom which is the only track on this album that actually has Ronny J production, which is who’s production helped Pump blow up. There is also no production from Bighead surprisingly given how he gave Pump his biggest hit ever. All in all, there’s not really any good songs on this project honestly. There’s enjoyably bad ones, and then there’s the bad ones and unlike the self-titled mixtape where all the songs were enjoyable, this had way too many duds.

Best Songs: Vroom Vroom Vroom, Too Much Ice, Eskeetit

Worst Songs: Nu Uh, Drop Out, Fasho Fasho

16. Jesus is King by Kanye West

I really tried. I really did try to defend the album. I am admittedly a Kanye superfan with me insisting that he hasn’t released an album at least under a 5/10. Kanye was the king of consistency and still has an argument given his track record. However, this fucking album put a dent in that whole discussion. I tried to say that it’ll age like 808s. 808s had a universal message about heartbreak and loneliness however. I tried to say it’s experimental like Yeezus, but in subject matter and not beats. However at the end of the day, if you’ve listened to the leaked versions of the songs, you realize what could’ve been. It’s unfair for me to compare songs that have leaked to ones that have been officially released, but it is an instance of where the leaked versions are superior in every way. Closed On Sunday could’ve been great with that beat, but Kanye comes with his worst lyrics ever. Hands On is a cool beat, but finds Kanye complaining about whether people will accept him as a Christian in an annoying way. Water is just too simple and boring. God Is is just boring and though he sounds passionate, Kanye also sounds awful. The saving graces however are Follow God, On God and Use This Gospel. Yes, the leaked version of Use This Gospel is infinitely better, but remove that and it’s still good. On God would’ve been an awful song considering the lyrics in the verses are pretty wack, but the beat and hook are so catchy it’s hard not catch a groove. The fan favorite of the album though is obviously Follow God with that amazing sample and Kanye flowing masterfully over it with actually good lyrics. This is what people were expecting and that’s why we were let down.

Best Songs: Follow God, Use This Gospel, On God

Worst Songs: Closed On Sunday, Hands On, Water

15. ERYS by Jaden

As awful as the majority of this album is, it hits a stretch. A stretch of great tracks that were among my most played. I can admire the production on PINK, I can admire the Tyler feature on Noize but everything after that is just… pretentious. Jaden seems to think he can be the next Kid Cudi or Travis Scott within 3 years of actually making albums. He talks as if he’s the greatest when we don’t know what he did to be the greatest. This might sound like a recycled critique, but you can’t be the greatest when you’re handed the tools and resources to be the greatest. The greatest must work harder than everyone to stand out. Jaden does not. Most of this sounds like his best attempt at recreating Astroworld by Travis Scott but Jaden does not have the charisma nor the songwriting abilities to do it. Songs like Got It produced by Tay Keith and his self-produced song Fire Dept are just horrendously not good. But then we get into the stretch that I mentioned at the beginning. Summertime in Paris with his sister Willow is honestly a beautiful song about falling in love, though admittedly a bit weird to sing about it with your sister, but a great song nonetheless. Then we get into Chateau with A$AP Rocky and On My Own with Kid Cudi. Jesus, these three songs are amazing. Is it because they feature Kid Cudi and A$AP Rocky though? Not entirely! Jaden actually sings fairly decent on both On My Own and Summertime in Paris and they are both very catchy hooks. He didn’t really focus in on the autotune which is so prevalent on the rest of the album. Then Chateau with Rocky is just an absolute banger with Jaden going absolutely apeshit with the autotune, but it works out. After this though, it falls right back apart and ends with Riot and ERYS which are both forgettable as can be. Focus on making songs like those three, and Jaden is a favorite artists of mine. This is this low because of what could’ve been as opposed to what it actually is.

Best Songs: On My Own, Summertime in Paris, Chateau

Worst Songs: Got It, Fire Dept, Riot

14. Deadstar 2 by Smokepurpp

I was really looking forward to this. Deadstar is still to this day one of the best albums of the Soundcloud rap era. Smokepurpp and Ronny J were just a match made in heaven and the single Audi II proved that. Audi II is debatably better than the first and even the other singles were pretty good too. Stevie and What I Please with Denzel Curry almost match the energy of the original and Dirty Dirty is a catchy tune, but autotune Smokepurpp is alright in small doses. Key word is small doses. This whole album is nearly just all autotune Smokepurpp and it just does not sound good. If someone tells you that you don’t need a good singing voice for autotune to work for you, send this album because the singing is absolutely awful. All the production on this album is amazing which makes it absolutely depressing that all these beats got ruined by Smokepurpp. When a hard banger comes on like Pop 1 with Moneybagg Yo or Reckless, Smokepurpp is on point. When he’s doing absolutely anything else, it’s not good.

Best Songs: What I Please, Audi II, Pop 1

Worst Songs: Lightspeed, Ariba, Floor Seats

13. Bad Vibes Forever by XXXTentacion

It seems like on the Internet, it’s pretty hard to be a XXXTentacion fan. Whether you get the obligatory “he hit his pregnant girlfriend” comments or someone brings up all the awful things he’s done, you will most likely get shamed for liking his music. I admittedly do, at least the stuff he released when he was alive. This album is the culmination of the mishandling of X’s legacy and the label trying to catch some quick pennies. The features from Lil Wayne and Rick Ross are like alright, but why are they on XXXTentacion’s final album? Where is Ski Mask The Slump God or Wifisfuneral? Despite the backlash, the Noah Cyrus and Blink-182 features aren’t awful and not surprising considering X appeared on a Noah Cyrus song before and X had worked with Travis Barker before he passed. It’s not the features that make this album awful though, it’s moreso the fact that these aren’t X songs. There is no creative decision making in this album, instead there’s just monetary decisions. It seemed like they grabbed his last half-finished recordings and asked someone to feature on the song so it wouldn’t be 30 seconds. Some of these songs just go by way too fast despite there even being a feature. School Shooters with Lil Wayne is a minute and a half and is clearly not finished so why release it. Same thing with I Changed Her Life with Rick Ross. There’s just a lot of bad songs on here, but there are saving graces. Daemons is a great song with a verse from Joey Badass and Kemba with an amazing verse from the latter. Ex-Bitch follows the typical X formula with a catchy hook and a little bridge so it’s hard to tell if there was even more to the song. Despite that, it’s catchy though. Bad Vibes Forever is a great vibe song with good features from PnB Rock and Trippie Redd and It’s All Fading To Black is a great ender to this album. All in all, it’s sad to see the legacy of what could’ve been a superstar in the making fading away.

Best Songs: Daemons, Ex-Bitch, Bad Vibes Forever

Worst Songs: School Shooter, I Changed Her Life, Hot Gyal

12. East Atlanta Santa 3 by Gucci Mane

An almost surprise drop from Guwop, he announced that he would be dropping an album last week and followed with possibly the funniest single you could have for a Christmas-themed Gucci Mane song (“Jingle bales, motherfuck 12” Need I say more). It’s a hilarious song that is very tongue in cheek for Gucci, but then the joke gets old quickly. Unfortunately, everything I’ve disliked about Gucci Mane’s output in 2019 is widely present here. J White Did It does most of the Christmas themed production on here, and also helping produce on his two other 2019 LP’s, and he is just not a good fit for him. Gucci needs a producer to accommodate his laid back flow and smooth delivery, and most of the time the beats just sound like what Cardi B rejected. They are good beats, but Gucci is just not the artist for them. We get his worst RnB collaboration with Jason Derulo on here which is painful to get through. After a few highlights here and there, this album is at best a mediocre instalment in his discography

Best Songs: Jingle Bales, Tony, Magic City

Worst Songs: More, She Miss Me, Mr. Wop

11. Bad Habits by NAV

Honestly, this might have the best album cover on either the worst and best lists. Such a simplistic design and conveys so much. I wish the same could be said about the music however. When it first started though, I was taken aback as I actually….. enjoyed a NAV song for the first time in my life. To My Grave has possibly my favorite beat this year with an insane rhythm that would’ve undoubtedly be one of my favorite songs of the year with that beat…. until NAV come on. Don’t get me wrong, he isn’t awful on the song, but imagine Lil Uzi Vert or Young Thug with that beat. It could’ve been absolutely amazing. Speaking of Young Thug, his contribution to this album was freestyling a line saying he wanted to fuck his auntie. That among Lil Durk feature later on the album and NAV himself making weird and rapey lines make this sometimes uncomfortable to listen too, but when there’s a good instrumental and a good feature such as Tap with Meek Mill, and Price On My Head with The Weeknd, that’s when a NAV song shines. When the focus isn’t on him.

Best Songs: To My Grave, Tap, Price On My Head

Worst Songs: Stuck With Me, Taking Chances, Know Me

Now we get into the top 10…

10. The World Is Yours 2 by Rich The Kid

Did this album stay in anybody’s rotation or playlist all year? As much as I don’t like the first World Is Yours, it had SOME replayable songs like New Freezer, Early Morning Trappin and Plug Walk. The two closest hits on this song are Tic Toc with Tory Lanez and Splashin, but they aren’t nearly as memorable as the other three. This album doesn’t do anything bad necessarily which is why it’s only number 10, but it’s just offensively boring. I don’t remember anything after listening to it recently. I know Lil Pump had a good verse on Rocket, I know that the beat on Woah deserved a better artist as that beat is great, I know Big Sean is on this album. I just have a hard time remembering anything. What is the point of Rich The Kid releasing music and what does he do differently than anyone else? I’ve never seen the appeal of Rich The Kid, but he can throw together a catchy hit. I don’t think there’s one for me on this album though.

Best Songs: Rockets, Woah, Two Cups

Worst Songs: Save That, Wrong Thing, Slide

9. Legendary by Tyga

Tyga really made the same song 14 times and it still did really well. 22k units first week for a technically independent artist is actually really good. I’ve got to be honest, there’ s only two songs I like on this whole project, but those two are pretty fucking good. One is Haute with J Balvin and Chris Brown and the other is quite obvious. The comeback of the decade was defined by this one song. Taste with Offset was quite possibly the most impressive song that came out within the past two years considering it made Tyga a hot commodity again and in my opinion, made Offset the new Migos to get for a feature. I would say Taste was one of the best songs of last year, but knowing Tyga, I knew it was just a hot single and that was that. Taste was really countered by Maykherkhum which is easily the worst song this year and also the worst title for a song this year. After the two highlights and that one amazingly bad lowlight, everything else is just… the same. Same song over and over again and it gets old fast.

Best Songs: Taste, Haute

Worst Songs: Maykherkhum, Werkkkkkk, February Love

8. Members Only IV by Members Only

The way they’ve treated this literal human being’s death for profit is honestly disgusting. Saying there is going to be a feature of him on a song and turning out to be a recording of a Periscope stream is a manipulative way to get fans sucked in to this cashgrab garbage. 24 tracks of sad somber Members Only music is a pathetic way of cashing in on X’s emo style rap after he was done with hard distorted 808 style music. Maybe some of it is genuine, but after all the bullshit that has gone on in the past year and a half, it’s hard to see if it actually is. Discounting the songs with Ski Mask The Slump God, who is easily the most talented person who appears in the album, there is only 3 and a half good songs on an album with 24 songs on it. Maybe this album should be higher but the songs that are good are pretty good that elevate it higher. First one is Sauce which is a smooth song with an insanely catchy hook. Gassed Up has a catchy hook and good verses, but Kid Trunks absolutely ruins every song he is on. The highlight above all the other highlights though is Touch Eem Body which samples one of the best songs from the 2010’s, Ocean Eyes. A very wavey beat followed by every single person flowing on the beat, it makes for a very smooth banger. He Diddy is a solid Ski Mask song though nothing too noteworthy but it stands out from all the shit on here. Make Eem Run is another lowkey banger which is the only song actually with the classic duo of X and Ski on the whole album. Proud Puppy Lover is the only song without X and Ski on the whole album that is actually great with the underrated Craig Xen coming through with a fire freestyle with great energy. After that is Empty with the only song with a somber tone that actually works, with a depressing hook by Cooliecut and great verses by Craig Xen and Kin$oul. However, we hear Ski Mask The Slump God with a deeply introspective verse about the brother he’s lost that we haven’t really gotten from him before. It sounds eerily like Kid Cudi and would love to see him continue in that direction. However, I’m not going to go by track by track seeing how I only mentioned 6 and a half songs out of 24, let’s just call it a day and say it’s absolutely awful.

Best Songs: Empty, Touch Eem Body, Sauce

Worst Songs: Woah (Freestyle), Plottin, Jahsen On My Wrist (jesus)

7. Melly vs. Melvin by YNW Melly

YNW Melly has certainly had an interesting year. From breaking out with a song to Kanye West to going to jail then having 3 hit songs while in jail. It’s not often that an upcoming artist can maintain that relevancy, but somehow YNW Melly has done it through loyal fans and having good leftover singles. Which is why it’s baffling that despite this obvious talent that he has, he (and his label) have released two of the worst albums of this year. The same problem persists from the other one where you have 2 or 3 great songs, and the rest are just cookie cutter filler that aren’t worthy on being on this album or any album for that matter. Adam Sandler should have been never released and I’m A Star is corny as hell. Just a lot of formulaic and basic melodic trap songs that could’ve been done better by Melly himself if he was given the chance to redo them. However, like I said before there are good songs. Bang Bang and 223’s are the catchy bangers and Suicidal is a side of Melly we haven’t really seen before and ranks as one of his best songs ever and one of my personal favorites of 2019. This should’ve been an EP and it could’ve been so much better.

Best Songs: Suicidal, 223’s, Bang Bang

Worst Songs: Adam Sandler, I’m A Star, Stay Up

6. TrapStar Turnt PopStar by PnB Rock

Probably the most forgettable album of the year. It somehow sold 42k units first week and it really went as fast it could. I didn’t even know he was coming out with an album until he announced that XXXTentacion would be on his album which seemed to be his biggest publicity stunt. It’s the most memorable song on the album, but surprisingly it’s cause of PnB Rock and not X. The only other thing I remember on this album is the singly I Like Girls as the most generic pop rap song of 2019 where PnB Rock and Lil Skies melodically croon about…. guess. Liking girls who like girls. It’s annoyingly catchy, but catchy nonetheless. After this, not a single song and for reference, I did listen to this in preparation the week before Christmas. It feels painfully long since it feels like you’re listening to the same song over and over, but it’s surprisingly only 53 minutes long. All in all though, it’s just painfully boring and generic, but not bad enough to be in the top 5.

Best Songs: I Like Girls, Middle Child

Worst Songs: All These Bandz, Penny Proud, Nowadays

5. Drip or Drown 2 by Gunna

This is an instance where I needed to relisten to this because I didn’t think it was this bad. It is this bad. As the song so aptly named Idk why, I don’t know why I ever thought this was good. This is the definition of not giving a shit and rushing out an album. I guarantee these are “freestyles” as it doesn’t seem like the majority of the songs have more than 3 brain cells put into them. The outstanding production by Turbo and Wheezy save this from being the absolute worst album of the year because that is how good the production is. It easily puts Wheezy as the best trap producer of this along with his contribution to So Much Fun. Songs like the aforementioned Idk Why and Speed It Up are some of the worst songs I’ve ever heard to the point where it’s just funny. The beat for Who You Foolin could’ve have been absolutely been destroyed by someone who gave a shit about what they are, but Gunna came in and did his monotone delivery and made it dry as hell. The one saving grace is unsurprisingly the collaboration with Young Thug which I can’t say I’ve heard a bad song between the two between the past 2 years. 3 Headed Snake was a breath of fresh air in the mist of a pile of shit. It’s worse because Gunna killed his features this year, and released Drip Season 3 in 2018 which was a great project. Unfortunately, as some people will do when they get mainstream, we got a subpar project.

Best Song: 3 Headed Snake, Who You Foolin

Worst Songs: Speed It Up, Idk Why, Derek Fisher

4. Father of Asahd by DJ Khaled

The rollout for this album was an absolute mess which is rare for a DJ Khaled album. The first single, Top Off came out a year and a half early, which was followed by the I’m The One: Part 2 aka No Brainer. Both singles did well commercially, but weren’t very well received. Then radio silence and we didn’t hear anything until almost a year later where Khaled decides to drop it on the same day as the hugely anticipated IGOR by Tyler The Creator. Enough has been said on the drama between the two so let’s get to the music. It’s awful. It starts off with a weird reggae inspired with a sample of a classic song One Spliff A Day. In a way, it does set the tone of the album of weird samples that aren’t incorporated well inside these beats such as the classic Ms. Jackson beat on the Just Us track with SZA; Freek’n You by Jodeci on Freak n You with Lil Wayne and Gunna, and To Zion by Lauryn Hill on Holy Ground. They just don’t work and only SZA seems like she’s really trying on any of these songs. In fact, only about 3 people seem like they actually wanted to do any of this and that’s SZA as mentioned before, John Legend and the late Nipsey Hussle. The song Higher with Nipsey and Legend is one of the highlights of the year and well deserving of the Grammy nomination it earned. I don’t want to give this album too much praise though because after that, it is just devoid of life. Wish Wish sounds like an Invasion of Privacy leftover; Jealous with Chris Brown, Lil Wayne and Big Sean sounds like a song from 2013; You Stay with Meek Mill, Lil Baby, Jeremih, and J Balvin is just boring, and Celebrate with Travis Scott and Post Malone is offensively bad as proven by the hit song Take What You Want off of Post Malone’s album. There’s something that just sounds ear grating about Travis which is coming from a huge fan of Travis. I could just go on and on, but the short way of saying it is it’s creatively bankrupt and I would rather listen to that mysterious shit any day over this.

Best Songs: Higher, Weather The Storm

Worst Songs: Holy Mountain, Just Us, Jealous

3. Montana by French Montana

French Montana has never been anyone’s favorite rapper. He seems to always just be there, sometimes making a huge hit or two in a year. This album is the culmination of the past 3 years of French Montana’s life as he’s put every single successful single he’s had other than Unforgettable on here. Songs like Lockjaw with Kodak Black, and the two Drake supported singles; No Shopping and No Stylist. So if you take away the amazing singles he’s had here, this would be towards the bottom of the list no doubt. French cheated not only the RIAA, but the listeners too with thinking this might be a good album. Starting off the Side A which seems to be almost entirely produced by Harry Fraud, we can at least say that the production is good as Harry Fraud is one of the best producers out right now. Unfortunately, these great beats are held down by French’s almost monotone and lifeless delivery and flow. For example, the opening track Montana starts off with an amazing sample which promises big things, but when the track actually starts and he starts rapping, it’s absolutely awful. It’s insane that this side is actually the better of the two, however as the la música de Harry Fraud goes away for what is the single driven side. Cuts like Writing On The Wall with Post Malone and Cardi B, Wiggle It with the City Girls, and the absolutely god awful Twisted with Juicy J and Logic with A$AP Rocky only coming for the hook because he clearly didn’t want to be that involved in this track. Logic comes in with the actual worst verse of the year and yes I am aware we are only at 21, but it is actually just that bad. The Drake songs, Lockjaw with Kodak, Coke Wave Boys with Chinx and a still in prison Max B, and Say Goodbye with Belly are this album’s only saving graces.

Best Songs: No Stylist, Lockjaw

Worst Songs: Twisted, Writing On The Wall, What It Look Like

2. Confessions of A Dangerous Mind by Logic

What a fall from grace. If there’s been a poster boy for failure in 2019, it’s Logic. If I were just doing albums from all genres, Logic would occupy two spots in the top 5 as Supermarket might’ve been the worst thing I’ve heard in a long time. However, we are only doing hip-hop/RnB. When Logic said that this would be a return to Under Pressure, his best album, I was excited. After Everybody; Bobby Tarantino II; and YSIV, I was pretty much done with Logic. Then I heard Keanu Reeves and I was pleasantly surprised. The trap beat was nice and Logic flowed really good over it, but one thing that was lacking were the lyrics. That was only the tip of the iceberg though as when the album dropped, it was almost universally panned by fans. People dissecting the awful lyrics from songs like the infamous Clickbait to the awful hook on Icy to the awful everything on Don’t Be Afraid To Be Different. In 2019, we can say that Will Smith outrapped Logic. An embarrassing accomplishment that 2014 Logic would be ashamed of. The absolute worst song is the penultimate song Bobby with his dad where Logic essentially gets his dad to tell the bullies to stop picking on Logic. He also repeats the line “who’s biracial only in his penis” four time in this song as if it was funny or clever in anyway. The saving graces on this album are Mama/Show Love with a killer feature from the up and coming lyrical rapper YBN Cordae and Lost In Translation. These are the only two songs I get any semblance of the old Logic. Hopefully Logic can recover from this disastrous year or maybe he’s content with putting this type of material out.

Best Songs: Lost In Translation, Mama/Show Love

Worst Songs: Don’t Be Afraid To Be Different, Clickbait, Icy

1. The Big Day by Chance The Rapper

If Logic had the most disappointing and failed year, Chance comes in a close second. One of the most hyped albums of the year came to a screeching halt as soon as you hit track 4 and realize that Chance The Rapper is chasing trends instead of being new and creative like he was being on Acid Rap and Colouring Book. Hot Shower is considered by some to be the absolute worst song of the year, and it might be. If you only want to return to 2 songs out of 22 and the entire album is almost an hour and a half, that’s a sign of a truly terrible album. For the positives, there are some alright catchy tunes. Do You Remember with Death Cab For Cutie is a great song that invokes nostalgia and reminds me of a better time before I listened to this whole album. The second and last track I like is Handsome with Megan Thee Stallion is a good collaboration between Chance and one of 2019’s MVP’s Megan Thee Stallion who comes with a great verse about finding that special someone with a huge dong. I just admire the bouncy beat that Pierre Bourne will always deliver on. I swear he hasn’t produced a beat I don’t like thus far. After this though, I honestly can’t listen to any of these songs in full. There’s a part in every single song that is just truly off-putting and awful. Chance’s lyrics in the opening track All Day Long, Eternal where he starts talking about his wife which was a huge meme after this, We Go High is decent but the sample of Navi from the Legend of Zelda is so off-putting to me. I Got You is just more wife pandering that is just so grating and boring. Roo would’ve been a great Taylor Bennet song, but Chance’s verse is just mid and average. The absolute worst song of the year in my opinion is The Big Day. Literally what the fuck is this song? It starts off being so god damn repetitive with Chance repeating this chorus 3 times in a row and then Francis and The Lights comes in with possibly the most unaesthetically, unpleasing thing to hit my ears this year. I don’t really want to go through every single song, but just having this song on an album would make it on the top 10 alone. I’m happy Chance seems to be happy with his wife and child, but if he wants to keep releasing music like this, I’m passing it on by.

Best Songs: Do You Remember, Handsome

Worst Songs: The Big Day, Ballin Flossin, Zanies And Fools

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