Kid Cudi – Man On The Moon: The End Of Day

This was not an easy choice. I was struggling between this and Mos Def’s The Ecstatic for weeks, but ultimately, I felt that Kid Cudi’s Man On The Moon: The End Of Day was the more complete album. Presented as a mini-movie with its division into acts, narration by Common, and movie poster included with the CD, this album took the listener on a trip through Cudder’s mind. Not much straight rapping is actually done on the album (only a few tracks have verses that are solely rapped), but it still felt like hip-hop. Man On The Moon is so far the greatest work expressing the new school of thought in hip-hop, which proves that the genre is not defined as songs performed through rapping just as rock is not defined as songs with guitars. The production on this album was fantastic and it works well with the concept of a voyage through the mind. All that being said, Kid Cudi doesn’t let the album get weighed down by deep, heavy tracks and keeps it all in check with the inclusion of some more light-hearted songs like “Make Her Say” and “Pursuit Of Happiness”. Is Cudi a lyrical maestro? Absoulutely not. But this only makes me eager to see what he’ll be able to achieve once he becomes a more developed artist. 

See which albums made the list of honorable mentions after the jump.

Honorable Mentions

k-os – Yes!

Toronto singer/rapper/song-writer k-os proved yet again that he is a triple-threat who knows how to balance his three aforementioned roles. The content on this album is the usual fare that k-os is comfortable with: odes to love, odes to hip-hop, and odes to his love of hip-hop. The great thing about Yes! is that both hip-hop heads and mainstream casual music fans can greatly appreciate this album.

DOOM – Born Like This

The stage name changed again, the rhymes got more cryptic, and the rhyme patterns got a whole lot more intense. A definite highlight from this year’s underground hip-hop.

Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt II

Every hip-hop blog covered this album or leaked tracks from it at one point. OB4CL2 is a worthy successor to the classic original and a fresh reminder that legitimate gangsta rap isn’t dead yet.

Method Man And Redman – Blackout! 2

Another great sequel to a classic. While Eminem was being his old disturbing self, these two quietly dropped around the same time this easy-going escape that ended up being the most potent blend of humour, swagger, and control.

Mos Def – The Ecstatic

Easily one of the best albums of the year on every level, The Ecstatic was a relief after Mos Def’s last two solo albums. In classic Mos Def style, the lyrics were sometimes cryptic but always poetic. The beats with the Latin and Middle-Eastern flairs provided the backdrops for the best tracks on The Ecstatic, including “Quiet Dog Bite Hard” and “Auditorium”.

BlakRoc – BlakRoc

2009’s sleeper album. Dame Dash and The Black Keys fused blues-rock with hip-hop so naturally that the featured artists had no trouble flowing over the instrumentals.

Slaughterhouse – Slaughterhouse

These four rappers run virtually every hip-hop blog. Not a week goes by in which I don’t see on some site’s home page at least one new track from Joell, Budden, Royce, or Crooked I. Granted, the album’s content stuck to how highly they think of themselves, but with the hardcore fans they’ve garnered, who can blame them?

Wale – Attention Deficit

It’s too bad this album sold as few copies as it did, because Wale is at the prime of his game. Although we here at B&B are biased towards this DMV native, there is no denying that Attention Deficit is one of the few thoroughly solid albums of this year.

Diamond District – In The Ruff

For those who don’t know (i.e. for anyone who has never been on this site before), Diamond District is a Washington trio composed of rappers X.O., YU and Oddisee. With it’s consistent lyrical content and beats that would be perfect for shows with a live band, “In The Ruff” is a sleeper that needs to be copped (for those who are far from the DMV, it’s available on iTunes).

Tomorrow on The Recap: artist of the year (take a wild guess).