Our Favorite Music of 2024
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Welcome everyone to Dissect. I'm your host, Cole Kushner. Today is our annual favorite music of the year.

podcast episode. I'm joined with Camden Ostrander. I think this is our fourth year doing this. This is year four, Cole. This is a lot. That's crazy. It's been a while. Yeah, that's pretty wild. This has been an exciting music year, to say the least. We had our part one of this episode. The year was so packed with great stuff that I decided to do two episodes. One, if you missed it last week, was focused specifically on hip hop.

We went through the Drake and Kendrick Lamar battle, and we also highlighted our favorite rap lyrics of the year and dissected those. It was a great episode, so check that out if you haven't. But today is our traditional episode where we're going to cover our favorite music of 2024, including our favorite musical moments of the year, our favorite songs, our favorite albums. We're going to do some underrated albums, some Lucys. We've got a bunch of categories we're going to go through.

But let's just open the conversation up, Cam, with, and for those that don't know, I should introduce you properly. Camden Ostrander is here. He was the co-writer on Because the Internet season, which is celebrating its 11th anniversary today as we record this. But also you helped with the Igor season, the Mac Miller season, and the MF Doom season. So long time friend of the show, our fourth year doing this annual episode together.

And we were just talking before we started recording of just how jammed pack this year has been for music. And we were reflecting on last year's 2023 episode. Right. We were kind of struggling for picks. And this year it was like, man, how am I going to talk about everything that I love this year? You had the similar experience, right, Ken? I did. Last year we had like a bit of a talk that was kind of sad. There wasn't enough good stuff. And then this year it's too much. Yeah. Like...

I guess all the artists didn't talk. They didn't at their union meeting, they weren't conversating and planning this out very well for us, I guess was what happened. But this year has been incredible. Yeah. It's been a special year for a number of reasons. We had this kind of pinnacle kind of trademark event of the year, which was Kendrick and Drake that kind of centered music conversation, which I felt like,

you know, as ugly as that conversation has gotten and especially now or the remnants of it feel like kind of gross where the, it's just the Stan culture on either side still talking about it in a real like combative way where analysts, of course, are going to talk about it because it was a historic music event. But, but I do feel like

the conversation around that battle has kind of trickled around and led to like just great music conversations in general and kind of got us active, actively thinking about lyrics, analyzing music again. And it also happened to be that we just got incredible projects from just a

or more than a handful. Yeah, everybody dropped. Every single person. Yeah, so we're gonna get into a lot of those in detail later. But I thought the first category was,

we should probably go into was our favorite musical moment of the year. I feel like I haven't remembered a year like this where we're going to talk about songs and albums, but there are so many kind of tangential experience, experience driven moments around the music that are, were just so like visceral and exciting and, you know, group text threads and YouTube reaction videos are just so many great moments this year. I was curious to hear what,

I know we got a few each. We can just kind of, if you want to just talk about all your moments and kind of nominate those, I don't know if you have a favorite, but just kind of talk about some of the music moments that you enjoyed this year. I mean, okay. So we're going to, we got to not start with the Kendrick winning all year thing because it was amazing to see him win all year long, like every time. That was great. I really liked, based on my fandom and my taste, Tyrone.

Tyler, the creator and Childish Gambino, their years starting off like for the two of them when they performed together at Coachella. And like they finally came together after so many years of just like a weird, maybe a little tension or anything like that. Them coming together was amazing. And then we saw like them kind of keep working and give us little hints of eventually getting Gambino on Tyler's album.

And I mean, as a big Childish Gambino fan, that also came with like Gilga Radio, which we had like a few episodes of Donald Glover, like putting us onto a bunch of music, teasing a bunch of new content. Like there's a cartoon with Zach Fox that we're going to get that we have like a teaser from that. And it's like he was having so much fun with like fake ads and a bunch of songs. Like that was so fun. Like that was so engaging for me, at least like I remember that. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. So I had, yeah, the role, there's just been great rollouts. I guess I'll start in that vein. I'll start with the Chromacopia rollout, which was, I think Tyler's best rollout. And we're talking about, I think I would say Tyler has the best rollouts of the decade so far. And this one was felt like his best. It was the most engaging. I felt like the clean, I mean, all of his rollouts have been so clean and strategic and everything dropping off.

you know, he has everything planned out ahead of time. But this one just felt bigger in a way. I don't know if it just had to do with the visuals feeling so grand.

It was sick. I walked around D.C. and I saw Chromacopia at my feet, like spray painted on the sidewalk. Oh, that's sick. It was insane, man. It was crazy. Yeah, the shipping containers and even like the post rollout, the post album drop surprise pop up shows where he was just performing solo on top of the Chromacopia shipping container. I thought was really great to keep the momentum of the rollout going.

to ship those actual containers around as kind of these spectacle things where people got to go and touch it and take pictures with it. It was just so, we've never seen anything like that

We've seen versions of it, but it just felt really unique. And then I think probably the biggest statement of all was that the music lived up to the rollout. To have a rollout so grand, to have a flop of an album would obviously be an ideal, but the album is fantastic. And I'm going to talk a lot more about it this episode.

So that was definitely just so fun. Um, of course we get right after essentially right after Tyler, we get Kendrick's, I guess, rollout. He didn't really have a rollout.

But we got hit. The whole year, 2024 was a concept. Yeah. It was a Kendrick concept. It really was. Honestly, it was. But so we had that. Another highlight for me was the Not Like Us video. That dropping on 4th of July was so perfect. All the Easter eggs, like,

Yeah.

So that was definitely a memory of watching that for the first. I mean, all the surprise drops because obviously he's not telling us anything and he's just dropping. And it's like the excitement of just, oh shit, like there's something here and you got to like scramble to go watch it. Okay. Another musical moment for me was Doji. One, the interview that I did with her was of course really special for me. It was the first artist interview that I've done on Dissect.

And I couldn't think of a greater artist to do it with than Dochi. She was such an incredible interview behind the scenes before and after the interview. She was so sweet and genuine and you can just tell she's like a great person. But also her concert, I got to see her in concert.

a couple months ago in Oakland and she's her tour for alligator bites to never heal was these really small venues. I mean, the venue I saw her in Oakland was like essentially a bar that had two stories and maybe held 150 people, maybe, maybe 200 at most. Yeah. And the, the level of performance that she gave was special. She had a whole set design on stage and,

her outfit changes. She had a, the DJ was phenomenal and you can just tell the connection she has with her audience is so real and genuine. There is a woman, um,

I was sitting up on top of the balcony, so I got to overlook the stage and the lower, I guess, just the general admission seating or not seating, standing kind of the pit area, which was the only area because it was such a small venue. And I just got to watch those fans in the front row. And there was this one girl I kept going back to over and over because I could tell she just was...

so connected to the music. And on one song, she started to cry and it was just a cool experience seeing that relationship in person. There's really nothing like it. So that was, maybe to be honest, out of all the moments this year with that, that concert was like, okay, this is something that,

I'm have a privilege in witnessing because she is not playing. Then she is on the rock. She's on an incredible ascension again. She is not going to play 150, you know, person venue ever again. So to be able to witness that was phenomenal. So, and then of course we talked a lot about it last episode, but I have to mention the weekend quote unquote, the weekend, which was the weekend, the weekend, the Friday, Saturday, Sunday of the, of the battle and just getting all those songs, uh,

and such a rapid fashion and everything that went around that there's a musical moment that I don't think anyone's going to forget if you're in this kind of culture. So I, I feel like we're cutting that even this category short, because there are so many other incredible moments this year. So yeah,

Let's move on to our next category. We're going to talk about our favorite song that is not from our favorite album nominations. So these are the little Lucy. Yeah, we call this the Lucy's. So again, it is our favorite songs that are not from, because we know that are probably our favorite songs are from our favorite albums. We're trying to shine some love on, on some other songs and albums that we love this year. So why don't you go first?

Alright, so the first one I'm going to go with Cole. This is a song and a project that is very up our dissect alley. It's Image by Magdalena Bay off of their album Imaginal Disc. I don't know if you've spent much time with this. I had spent some time with this album earlier in the year, like listening, really enjoying it. I love this song. Like I think it's just so catchy and I love the song.

And then like in the last like month or so, I was like, man, this song is really good. There's a part where she's singing about in 22 minutes, she's going to change. Okay. And I was like, wow, this is really, that's really cool. I wonder why she's singing that. I guess it was just a thing. But if you look at the album,

and you do the dissection there's a narrative on this album they put it together online with their music videos and like 22 more minutes into the album there's a key beat switch oh shit okay and there's a key like this is the next act of the album and it's about this like the main character is like transforming the album title Imaginal Disc is like a double entendre for like

an imaginary CD that's being marketed to the main character. But Imaginal Disc is also apparently like a thing in bugs that makes them like metamorphosize and transform. So it's like this double entendre for like this transformational thing. Image is early in the album, sets everything up.

And like, again, I wish I had been able, like I've dissected this more and like, it's got everything we like. Okay. And the song's incredible. So yeah, that's my like loose one. I want to shout out right now. Okay. So I just got turned on to this. I want to say, I can't remember when it was released. I don't know if you have it pulled up, but I don't know. Yeah. I heard about this project just recently.

maybe, I don't know, whenever it came out, it made some noise. And then when I asked people on Twitter what their favorite project was, this one kept coming up. So I was like, oh shit, I need to, I need to, it makes sense for our list. Okay. So then I listened to, I just, this, just this past couple of days before we recorded this, I,

I played it. I have image was the song that stuck out to me. I put that on repeat. Uh, it's such a, you can play forever. Yeah. It's insane. It's really, really good. And that groove is just so addictive. Um,

And so I was impressed with the project and now you hearing- It's got our stuff. I was going to say, it's like dog whistle. I'm like getting excited. So I'm definitely going to listen even closer now because it sounded fantastic. And if it has that kind of stuff, then I'm even more excited to keep listening. So great shout out there.

Were you going to do more than one or is that the one you had? For the Lucy, I'm doing the one. How about you? I just had, I'll just not even describe these, but I had to just, we're not going to mention them later. Let me just say the name and the song because I just wanted to be acknowledged. Because one, I just want to, but also I don't want people to get on our ass about not acknowledging all the great stuff that everyone loves this year. So I got to say,

Either On or Off the Drugs by JPEG Mafia. Incredible song. I mean, if you want to talk about

how to use AI correct. Like that song is like a masterclass and like, dude, it's a tool that could be used, uh, for better or for worse. And JPEG mafia, I think made it a great song using an AI vocal of future. Um,

Um, but just, which is just kind of crazy to say. The project is crazy. My favorite is it's dark and hell is hot with the Brazilian sample. Okay. Yeah. That one's the one. But yeah, we'll talk about more in my honor. I'll mentions. I'm going to be talking about that. I'm a little bit more. Okay. Sweet. Sweet. Um, space side by Boney Bear. He put out just a little like four song EP, uh,

song called space side, beautiful classic Bon Iver real love. I know we're going to talk about childish Gambino later, but maybe real, real love. I was re listening to the album today in preparation for this. And that song, I remember loving it when I first came out and it just hit so hard today. Um, I love the, it's kind of corny, but it's also just fantastic and sweet. Um, and, uh,

Crazier by Absol and JID. I called that out on our hip hop episode last week, but that was definitely one of my favorite hip hop songs of the year. Blue Slides by Schoolboy Q. Incredible song, incredible album. Of course, got to mention Not Like Us, Euphoria, Like That, all the Lucys that Kendrick dropped that we talked about kind of ad nauseum last episode.

Girl So Confusing by Charli XCX and Lorde. I know we're going to talk about that more, so I'll save, but I had to acknowledge it on my own. And then here is my favorite Lucy, officially my favorite Lucy, is I Think About It All The Time by Charli XCX. Brat is a phenomenal album.

It was early on my list as it was kind of the album to beat for a long time of my favorite album this year.

But this song is such an anomaly on the project and it's so perfectly placed because brat is this like 24 hour party thing and high energy songs for the most part. And just kind of just serving us all these different kinds of musical looks, uh, all kind of aesthetically in the same box of like fun, energetic, just great music.

but then we get to, I think about it all the time and it's just, it's just one of those songs that kind of like take the mask off. It's like after the party, you take your makeup off and you're, you're getting into your pajamas and it's like, you get into bed and you're kind of buzzed and you're thinking about life. And this is that song to me because the song is about her, um, visiting one of her friends that had just had a child and, um,

it kind of making her reflect on her own choices of should she have a child and her kind of clock is ticking and she think you know she talks to her partner about if she should stop her birth control and it's just such a like honest and raw song the melodies are great that the musical landscape's super intimate

And it's just, I don't know, there's just like, you know, Tyler actually ends up talking about similar things on Chromacopia. But I remember thinking like when I first heard, I think about it all the time. I was like, I've never actually heard a song like this. And I'm sure it's been done, but to put it on this album by this artist, it really stood out in a way that I'm like, every time I listen to that song, I actually tear up because it's like, I can feel how genuine those, it's like, there's only a few decisions that,

you get kind of like these major decisions and it's like yeah they are you get to an age where it's like you kind of have to pull the trigger one way or the other and someone just being super honest about it uh and such a beautiful song i thought was just really impressive and again its placement on the album is so perfect um so had to shout that one out so next category cam let's go to

Album that surprised us the most. So this is one that just for the listeners, give them context. This is something that maybe we put on based on a recommendation or, or just had a certain kind of expectation going in. And we were surprised by how much we enjoyed the project. So what do you got?

Alright, so for me, the album that surprised me the most, it came out of left field both in the quality and in the style of the album, is Mika's Laundry by Matt Champion. Matt Champion was a part of Brockhampton. He was usually just regarded as like, this is one of our rappers, he's just going to come in with bars.

He doesn't really talk that much in a lot of the Brockhampton interviews. And like sometimes they alluded to like some of the stuff he would do behind the scenes. But, you know, he was just a rapper.

At least that's what I thought. And then it comes out with this post Brockhampton album after their breakup. And this thing is incredibly creative. It is incredibly weird. He's like just playing with weird motifs. He's going into strange places. Like if you think of like dank moss and like weird organic material, it's like he's like harnessing that.

He's got a bunch of different styles on the album. He's stretching his voice. He's obviously influenced by some of the artists who he worked with, like Dijon, who he's talked about in songs before. So we thought, oh, they were just friends. But when he comes across with all these different styles on the album, it's amazing. And then the other thing is he's kind of kept going with this project all year. It came out early. He's been like...

publishing these short stories that seem to be some of the characters on the album. He has this small project he released recently, which is one of the characters has four favorite other songs, and those four other songs came out. So he's working with these very interesting concepts. And it's just like... Because if I was going to say who after Brockhampton is going to make the best album, who's going to...

I did not. I'm sorry, man. I didn't expect it to be like, I did not think this was coming. And like, I've been playing it all year in my Spotify wrapped. It was like all of the songs from my top hundred. I couldn't believe it. Like I love this thing. Okay. Yeah. I just briefly got, you gave me a heads up on this album before we record and I just got to kind of skim through it. It sounded,

Definitely not what I was expecting, for sure. So I'm going to spend some more time with that. And we should just, as a reminder, we're going to put all the picks. What's your highlight song from this album you're going to put on our playlist? I would say Aphid featuring Dijon. Okay. So all the picks, we're going to put all of them on a playlist. You can find it linked in the episode description. So my album that surprised me the most was...

by Willow, her project Empathogen. So I was turned on to Willow by actually Dochi. So in the interview, I asked her, you know, what's a song or an album that you've been really enjoying in this moment? And she named Willow, Willow's album. So I was like, oh, that's interesting. I've never really...

I think maybe I just fell into the perception that she's Will Smith and Jada Pinkett's daughter.

There's a nepotism thing. Maybe she has some talent, but she's also like getting a treatment, you know, getting some privileged treatment, which is probably true. But the one I listened to the album and it's just like really, really good, just genuinely awesome. And the musicality is what really struck me. She's working. I don't know. I haven't done the deep dive on her band, but I also did a deep dive on her, on her. And it seems like she's very talented as it has really taken the study of music very seriously. Um,

And you can tell in the music, it's like she's working with odd time signatures. Her melodies are incredibly unpredictable. It still is like weirdly accessible for how weird and strange it is. And, or like just how different the music is. But it was like,

talking about being surprised i was like incredibly surprised with just how just the musicianship alone was great and and still being kind of accessible and she's only 24 years old so it's like okay if she's already at this level just wait like five more years and i feel like yeah she should she if she continues this evolution um

I mean, yeah. So it's wild that she was sort of in like a pop punk realm with like some of her releases and like the anxiety, like the band with Tyler Cole, like,

Then to do this again, like out of left field. I don't know for me at least. Yeah. I mean, I think it's one of those things where it's like she had a lot of attention early and that's never, I mean, I wouldn't say it's a bad thing, but it's never who you, if you're whatever music, whatever music you're making at 18 is typically not the music you're going to end up making at 28 or whenever you actually fully come into your own. And so I think,

Yeah, maybe the early perceptions of her and her music kind of shadowed over what she's doing now for some of us. But obviously she has a pretty solid fan base. So I'm going to put Big Feelings, which was the bigger song from the album on the playlist. But I would definitely just...

suggest everyone just check out the actual album it's really phenomenal okay so next category is going to be our favorite quote-unquote underground album i don't know what else to call this but essentially it's like an artist with less less than 1 million spotify listeners you know just a smaller artist that we wanted to put on and talk and highlight here all right i want to go first with this one yeah

I really love this album that I'm about to talk about. It is called Please Give Your Body a Break by an artist named Nico Tripodi. This album came out like at the beginning of the year.

And I'm going to talk about Nico in a minute. But essentially, as I understand it, like this album is in the realm of if people need other artists like Mickey, Dijon, like it's in that kind of realm of style. He's like he's mostly like a producer. I've seen him producing some other work this year.

I think the album is incredible. It is informed apparently by he kind of experienced like massive heartbreak and then like loss at the same time, like a double, triple whammy happened in his life. And then this album was sort of like the response to that. And the album title, Please Give Your Body a Break, combined with the material and all the songs, this coming out at the beginning of the year, just like struck me.

a really direct chord with me and like really kind of directed the way that I lived for like the first half of the year as far as just like taking rest, like doing my best to calm myself down after stuff I've gone through. That one was incredible. The only reason I know about this, Nico, I think used to work for Pigeons and Planes. Okay. Which is like a music blog. They've covered Dissect. Yeah. I've followed their stuff for like a very long time. When...

because the internet, when we did the dissect season on because the internet, Nico was like, he reached out to me. He was like, Oh, it was really cool. And like, we had some conversations about it. Oh, cool. So I just knew him as a guy. I'd be like, Oh, this is cool. Yeah. And then like, I saw that he,

put out an album and I was like, Oh, I'll, I'll listen to that. And I just was, I was just blown away. I can't, it's an amazing piece. It's only like seven songs, but it's like, I think the thing is beautiful. I love it. Okay, great. I can't wait to listen. Cause I, yeah, I haven't got a chance to listen yet. Uh, but that sounds really special. Um,

- Yeah. - And that backstory is crazy. - I know. - Does he still work there? Is he doing music full time? - I think he's doing music full time because he's been like constantly like production on other people's albums is what I've been seeing this year. - Amazing, yeah. Okay, so I wanted to highlight an artist named Quadri. He is a rapper out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has a project called Ask a Magnolia.

It's really strong. I think, yeah, for like a comparable artist, I would say like Vince Staples comes to mind in terms of like, just in terms of maybe approach to like cadences and like their voice kind of shares a similar vibe.

uh, high pitch nasally quality in a good way. Um, and a little bit like Kenny Mason ish, like not so much like the singing, but just like in tone of voice when they rap. But yeah, it's kind of like lo-fi, um, MF doom ish in terms of just like, there's like shorter songs. Some of them don't have choruses. Um, but he's a really gifted rapper, uh, really great beat selection, um,

um just kind of hits every mark that i'm looking for in like a up-and-coming rapper and artist uh who seems to be playing with concepts and actually talking about stuff and you know rapping about real things in his music uh the song that i'm going to put on the playlist is called the ghost of brandywine um but every song is great on this project so he was the one i think he has like

I can't remember how many listeners, not enough listeners. I think people that listen to dissect, if you don't know about him already, like you're a hundred percent going to like what he's doing. So check out quadris, ask a Magnolia. Okay. So let's, we're going to start getting into the major categories. So let's take a quick break and we'll come back with our album of the year and our song of the year. All right. We are back. It is time.

for the big category album of the year so we're going to start with some honorable mentions um I know we have a couple each so why don't we go back and forth one each of our honorable mentions and then we'll get to our album of the year albums of the year I guess we're going to nominate three official album of the year uh with one overall winner but uh let's start with some honorable mentions

All right, sweet. I guess I'm going to start. For me, two of the people that I wanted to talk about here are people who released two albums this year. And I'm like, I wish they had been together. It's impossible to talk about. Kenny Mason is who I want to talk about first. He released an album called Nine. And then I think a mixtape, I don't know what he's calling it, called Angel Eyes. Yeah.

I think these things were amazing. Angel Eyes is probably my preferred one, even though it seems like something put together after Nine, like... Okay. Because it was the second release and it seems like something he just put out. But like...

Kenny Mason is building narratives. He's got hits on these like hood rat and angel eyes off of angel eyes. And then jumping in off of nine, like these songs are incredible. I could listen to them forever. So Kenny Mason, and I think we keep talking about, I know, I think he's come up on like three out of the four. Yeah. Like,

he's building, he's building, he's building. The narratives are building. Yeah. It feels like one of those artists that are just like, why isn't he big yet? And it's just, it's bubbling. It's bubbling. It just, it's going to take one song and then people will discover the back catalog and he'll be well. I mean, he's already well on his way, of course, but I think we both have seen, um,

a promise in him that hasn't been fully realized that should probably be realized soon if we're betting. So I'm glad he gets another shout out on dissect third year in the row, probably. Okay. So I'm going to start with a album called ritual by John Hopkins. Yeah.

So John Hopkins is a electronic artist producer. He had, um, kind of a breakout record in immunity. I think it was the first one. And this was like 10 years ago or something. Um, and then since, since more, I wouldn't say they're like traditionally classical electronic, uh, albums, but,

he has veered for a few years away from more like beat oriented music into like music for meditation and music for like psychedelic trips. And then ritual was kind of a return to kind of maybe somewhere in between those more ambient driven kind of vibe oriented experiential kind of music and the more traditional electronic approach ritual though is like a, it's a, I think a 45 minute,

piece i would call it it's more akin to a symphony or something than a than a an album because all the songs it's just one song they're broken up in a chart in a track list just for uh streaming purposes but it's all one 45 minute piece and it's like a journey i would say if you if i would say save this album for like a drive where you're going to be able to listen to it in full and

I listened to it in full. I've only listened to the album once and I'm recommending it because I'm like, I'm not going to listen to this unless I have a full 45 minutes to experience the whole thing. I can't just really describe that. It was a musical experience listening to the, I was driving on, driving home at night from somewhere. Maybe it was actually from, from Dochi's concert. Oh, okay. And. Good headspace. Yeah. It was just incredible. It like just sucks you in. It's like,

very hypnotic. And it's like, I think he said something, it's like a, it's a piece of music that it's supposed to kind of expand your consciousness and inspire thought. And that's what it really, and I, I didn't know that going in and I had this experience and then I read about what he was trying to do with it. And I was like, Oh, that's the exact experience that I had. Um, so I don't, I can't really describe it except that it's like, it really does put you in this state of consciousness that feels very, um,

connected to like everything somehow um okay it's just like it's beautiful yeah it's like i really can't recommend that experience like highly enough i think it's really really really great so next time you have a 45 minute drive or you want to just sit down with some music and lay in your bed and just listen like this is i'm telling you it's incredible experience so sweet what's your next one

The next one is again like a double project. Black Star Kids is kind of like alternative hip hop kind of pop. They've released like a lot of projects in the last like five years. But this is their final project, which kind of sucks. Oh, really? That this is their this is their final. They're done. So like they're kind of, I think, splitting up and like they had each individual member has projects coming out this next year, I believe. But the two albums, Saturn Days and then Heaven on Earth.

Um, or spelled kind of like Tyler would say, you are. The albums are really strong narrative concepts. Um, Saturn days being this woman named Maggie getting like abducted or having like a trip and going to Saturn, um,

with the concept being that Saturn is a planet just for black people. And then like all the songs kind of cover different situations that she goes through. And the songs are great. Like the concept is great. And then in Heaven on Earth, which is like a follow-up project, Maggie has passed. But like the story as it's told is like that she became like an author and she got a bunch of people to like learn from the things that she learned and like the impact that she made on the world.

But the thing for me that's amazing about these albums is something that Blackstar Kids has done their whole career, which is like the music, to me at least, really solidifies like finding the joy in the mundane stuff of life. Like Saturn Days is about Saturday. We go through that slog of the week and then how do you still find joy in the weekend? Like with all the stuff going on, with all the stuff that you're going through, that the world is going through, like finding these joys. Because like

Blackstar Kids' first hit was just like that life with somebody else sounded like fun, sounds like fun. And like that they've kept such a strong concept at the core of their stuff and kind of reached this with the final project. Like I love these two things. And I love that they had to do two projects. Like they had to do like the narrative, follow up narrative. I just loved it. Yeah. Yeah. I got to skim through this again. It was like you put me onto it before and I just got to kind of skim through it before this episode. But it sounded...

incredibly interesting the way that they're moving through genres and it's like it feels like like when a line that i'll talk about again this episode i talked about last episode is i'm everything by doji and it's they live that i was gonna say like it's like it really describes so much of what's going on with these like 20 something year old artists that are been influenced by

Just all these different types of genres and just feel no pressure in boxing themselves in musically and just switching between genres seamlessly where it doesn't feel like a gag. It just feels like a very organic expression. And that was something I thought about when I was skimming through it was like, oh, they're fluidly switching from

more R and B melody to nineties hip hop to like just every single thing you can think of. It felt like it was hitting. Uh, and it, it's really sad to hear that they're breaking up. How long have they been, uh, I guess like five or six years. Um, but like the, the, the babe Gabe, she has talked about like, she has a project coming out and then like,

Ty, who's another one of the members, he has a production alias and then he has stuff coming out. They're incredible. I'm just happy they made so much stuff in such a tight time frame. It's crazy. Okay, so the next one I'll highlight is...

Let's go brat. We don't need to spend too much time on it. We're going to do brat. Cause we talked about, I think we did our, like our mid, I think we did a episode earlier this season. Halfway through the year. This was my kind of one to beat and it got, it got beat sadly, but it's still a great album. It's so fun. It's incredibly well produced. It kind of broke through culture in a really fun way. Um,

It seemed really important for her as an artist. I know she had spoken about, I just wanted to make an album that wasn't worried about singles. And then she made her biggest album of her career, which is, I love seeing that from artists that take the risk and just do the art and they get rewarded for kind of going against what they've been trained to do as pop stars. And it's only going to embolden her to do even more stuff like this in the future. So I'm really glad that

to see the moment that it had. I hope it, it feels like that out of all the ones that have been nominated for Grammy of the, uh, album of the year at the Grammys, like it feels like. I would hope. We can't be Taylor Swift again. It just like, it just can't not be. And like Cowboy Carter's great album, like Beyonce has been deserving of that award for, so obviously if Beyonce get it, it gets it, it's fine. But like Brat, if anyone's going to be Beyonce, Brat feels like it has the best case.

Brad is like a uniquely culturally ubiquitous thing. I can't. It's so awesome that we have this. Okay. You want to highlight something else? I mean, honestly, you're going to talk about all the other ones that I wanted to, and then I was going to say Brad. So we'll get to him. We'll get to him. All right. Oh, go ahead.

I think you had one, how many more? Yeah, Blue Lips. I talked about this again at the earlier of the year. Incredible body of work. I re-listened to it again in preparation for this. Production, insane. Introspective, it just hits all the marks, all the, you know, all the, all the,

the categories I want from him as a maturing hip hop artist. So definitely wanted to shout that out again. And then also JPEG Mafia, I Lay Down My Life For You. Another incredible project from JPEG Mafia. It's like the fifth year in a row he's released something great. You like this album too? I love it. Like he's, first, he's just remarkably consistent. Yeah. The whole thing is great. I love that like he did find some new space on this album.

Initially, I would say I was a little concerned because lyrically, I wanted him to go more places. But the more I listened to the album, I think it's very strong. I really like his moral... I don't know how to say this. His moral code. To me, the theme and the core in I Lay Down My Life For You really helps me understand Scaring the Hoes and really helps me understand Peggy. Just like...

How committed he is. How he believes that like having a personal code then drives your life and like how important that is and him criticizing those who would not have that. It does feel Kendrick as I was going to say, yeah, this is the year of moral code, I think. Like it's, it's this one thing for me this year is discipline. And we'll talk about that when we talk about Kendrick more, but like, that's what this is. And I love it. Yeah. Beautifully said. Yeah. It's, um, I had the same critique if I'm going to give any critique about the album is like,

Yeah, lyrically, I mean, lyrically, the subject matter is consistent, but also I do want to hear some more things from him in the future. And also the way he raps, I think it's interesting.

him relying so I can't get enough oh really just the triple flow he relies on the triple flow okay I think just a little too much where I know he has more in his bag that I'm just like show us a little bit more variety in the rhythms but small critiques on a great album yeah yeah okay so yeah

I'm looking at your other honorable mentions and we're definitely going to be talking about this. Okay. So let's get into our official top three albums of the year. Why don't you start with your number three? We'll work backwards. All right, sweet. We're going to do it. I'm going to go ahead and admit my number three pick is also informed by the fact that I knew the three you were going to say. Okay. Yeah. So I was avoiding it a little, but for my number three, I'm going to go with charm by Claro.

I love it. It is so sweet. I think she, this is her best album. Like I've been a long time Clara fan. I am like the core demographic as far as like age goes for Clara. So like, I think it makes sense. Um, this is her strongest piece musically, lyrically. I think she's found such a strength. I was really concerned after her second album sling that like,

She was getting too beat down by everything around her and by like the pressures of industry and everything. But I love charm. Like charm is so sweet. It helps. It's like, she's obviously dealing with like social anxieties, but she works through them on charm in a way that helps listeners work through them. Like,

I love it. It's like lovely. There's like a stretch. There's a stretch from Terrapin to Juna to Add Up My Love, which is like an incredible three track run of just like, I could listen to that forever. And then to be honest, like what the big like standout lyric, I think from Juna, which is the big hit song from the album is, you make me want to try on feminine. This song makes me want to try on feminine. Like this gets me in that energy and I feel that intensity.

And it's like so lovely. I love it. I love this album. It's so sweet. Yeah. Yeah. I listened to it again because I listened to it when it came out and I listened to it again a couple of days ago. Yeah. It's beautiful. It's, um, she's, I think her music hasn't resonated as deeply as it has for what I can tell her fan base, but, um, they love it. Yeah. It's, it's very enjoyable. Um, and yeah, very sweet.

Good, good. There's some really great, like, I don't know if she does her arrangements or if she has help with that. She's involved in it, but yeah. She has some really great, like, musical details that I was really picking up on. Just a little instrumental. It's been pointed out that, like, this is rife with samples. Okay. Like, for the first people that are going to flip this and put samples. Oh, right, right, okay. That's what I'm saying. Like, it's going to be sweet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. It's going to be weird. We're going to be...

20 years from now talking about people sampling Claro. Claro. I remember that song. Okay, so my number three. Oh my God. I can't believe I'm about to say this, Cam. Dude, you have to decide. I had to decide between all three of these could have been number one. All three of these could have been number two and all of them could be number three. So in this moment,

In this moment, I'm going to say my third album, my number three album of 2024 is GNX by Kendrick Lamar, which is crazy to say. How is it? How is it?

Any other year, any other year but 2024, GNX is easily my hands down favorite of the year. It's an incredible album. We talked about it. I've talked about it a lot. We talked about it last episode a little bit.

Actually, let me... I haven't got to talk to you about it, though. So let me hear your thoughts on GNX as a Kendrick fan, but not to the degree that probably I am. Look, I bow at the altar of cold, but look, man. GNX, this year, this Kendrick, this GNX... Discipline. Like, actual moral code. Like, I cannot believe...

the way that I feel it from this album. I put this thing on a lot. This thing has been on repeat since it released. I can't believe how much I love it. I can't believe how much every single song has moments. Usually with an album, one song will go big on the internet. Every song. I know. Every single song. And the fact that this is happening with GNX, which is so focused in that sound,

I love it. Kendrick is the greatest rapper of all time. Like this, I can't. I've been, I've been, I don't want to be a prisoner of the moment, but it's just like, we talked about this on, it's tough. Cause it's so recent. It's so recent. So we're like still in it and we're feeling that momentum and we're feeling the energy from the public and everything he's about to do with the stadium tour and super bowl and possibly another project. And it's like,

it feels like he's going to on a very focused multi-year run as his kind of, here's my resume. I'm submitting my resume for the greatest of all time. This is my official submission of like, there we go. I'm building on this classic. I've already have like three to four classic albums, depending on who you're talking to. Uh, and here goes my like popular culture, undeniably, uh,

I'm just, I am everything about every I'm what everyone's talking about. I'm going to go on a tour, a tour with SZA. Uh,

uh stadium tour was as a i you know it's just like he's just checking every single box for the in a serious kind of quote-unquote goat conversation um it's as a you know i've been a huge kendrick fan for many many years now and to experience this moment with my favorite artist of i mean i say that

my favorite artist. I say that very specifically, um, of this, of my lifetime so far, you know, of someone I've experienced in real time, like Kendrick is the artist of my lifetime so far. So to, to, to see him now taking it to new heights is absolutely incredible. Um,

But GNX as an album, yes, it's hard to even talk about the album without talking about the year, right? Like the 2024 was the concept. That was an album, Kezler Clement. Yeah, I think it's just, yeah, it's thrown some of us for a loop that I've been so enveloped in his work, conceptual work, that the lack of concept is confusing. But I've learned to let, I've kind of let that now go. And it feels just like,

an album. Most people don't have multi-layered conceptual album. And it's like, it's actually really great to have a Kendrick Lamar album that you just put on and it's really relistenable and you don't have to like use that side of your brain story. Yeah, exactly. And I think that was part of the strategy of this year was like, I can do all that and I can still, I can knock the, I can knock the top guy off, but,

with my lyrical skill. I can make hits. I can, I can literally do everything. And I think he's going to continue to show us how he does everything. And so it's so weird to be talking about it as my number three album. How is that three? I don't know. It's crazy. It's great. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe it's just, it was one of those things like, am I a prisoner of the moment? Because it's the most recent album. Um,

But what I have it up against, you'll see. I mean, it's hard competition. Yeah, I think Dissect particularly, we had a trifecta release this year. So we're going to talk about it. We'll talk about it more. All right, so number two. Number two that I want to talk about is Two Star and the Dream Police by Mickey. ♪

This album is beautiful. Mickey is a guitar player. He was probably most well known for being a massive part of Dijon's album, Absolutely. He was a massive part of that production. Look, I'm not the musical theorist, so I'm not able to address specifically what it is about the album that feels so special to me.

I just know that like, I can't stop playing it. That this was the top of my, like, I can't believe this was the top of my Spotify wrapped. It was this album. It was, I think in part because it came out so early, but like, I can't believe it can be now that I played this more. So I have to be like, I played this more. Um, I think he's described the album in a couple of ways. Um,

Kind of as like a series of fables, which I really enjoy. Like him talking about it like weird little fables. He also talked about like today's moment in culture makes no sense. So why won't I be honest and have an album similarly express like the honesty of right now? Because it's very difficult to find actual threads through culture right now. Like what should we be learning from this moment? So it's not as if there's like a clear narrative through this album.

Then, I mean, it has really strong point. Like there's so many, are you looking up DNM, Candy, Alesis? Um, and then one of the one, the dream play song from the end. Like, I love all these songs. You can just like stay in them forever. I want to talk about one of these songs later. So I'm going to save that. Um, but like, I just love the dreaminess. The,

the fantasy. Like he's like a little elf. This is a little, this is an elvish, beautiful guitar out. Like, I don't know, man. And then live, I saw it twice this year. Oh, cool. It's just immaculate vibes. Okay. You couldn't, I can't even believe. Yeah. I was trying to describe the album to myself as I was listening to it this morning, actually revisiting it. And it's such a unique sound. It's like bedroom quality recording. Like it's,

It's like a little rough around the edges. He says he specifically uses crap. Okay. Like make sense. Instruments. So it has that like, but also makes it really intimate in that way. Because it feels like your next door neighbor recorded it or something. A little bit. But then there's all these like,

electronic glitches and stuff in it. Yeah. So there's this weird textural layer of like, okay, he knows how to produce, obviously. He's producing all of it. Yeah. And so it's like, okay, the skill sets there, this is not just, this is someone doing this for an aesthetic purpose, not because I don't know how to not do, you know what I mean? I don't have the skill set to do this polished. So yeah, I can see why it's hard to describe, even as the music theorist guy here, it's like,

There's a weird quality to it where it's, yeah, I don't know. Like Bon Iver was the one comparison point that I had. Bon Iver is his favorite album. And they opened. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's like the more electronic Bon Iver album? I can't. The one with the black and white cover? Yeah, exactly. Is that the one? It has I on it. 22 Million. Okay, yeah. 22 Million. It reminded me. It's not I, yeah. 22 Million, which is the more electronic version.

experimental album from bony ver was the only point of comparison i was like oh that kind of sounds like in the same lane but i wouldn't i mean even to compare it to that's kind of undermining the uniqueness of the sound that what the question i wanted to ask for you was like why do you think he's broken through and almost i don't know i wouldn't say like a mainstream way but he's on snl it feels like he is bigger than i would have guessed given his sound

here's like the one thing that i can think of when it comes to this in my personal life the coolest people that i know love this album okay and i'm not trying to say i'm cool because i love no that's not what i'm saying but i'm saying like if i think about the coolest people like i'm like damn they got like everything about their life is cool like i love that person they all love this album so there's something about like maybe tastemaker something like something about that yeah

is hitting in a way where everybody kind of realizes like, oh, something is special here. - Right, right. - I think it's something to do with that. I don't know. - I can see that. - But it's so difficult to put into words. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah, it's weird 'cause I know exactly the kind of person you're talking about and it's like his music feels like a soundtrack for their outfits in some weird way. - Yes. - Like I can see the aesthetic of today's coolest people and how they dress. - The people at the concert are like, what? - All dripped out.

Yes. I've never been in such an immaculate place. I was going to say at Dochi's concert, everyone was, cause she kind of had a dress code, like a suggested dress code. She, on her Instagram, she had put some like looks to be inspired by. And so everyone abided because everyone there was like heavy Dochi fan, again, intimate audience. And so everyone was dressed so cool. And then she had, she picked out some, the best dressed person from the crowd and brought them on stage and they danced, which is incredible. That's sick.

Okay. So my number two, I love the McGee album too. Um, really, really great. So, but my number two, speaking of Dochi, it's gotta be alligator bites and every heel. So this album has just been so special to me this year. Um,

you know, I think maybe if we're talking about GNX, I think Kendrick Lamar is a better songwriter at this point, but there's something about alligator bites, never healed that the album itself, her rise this year and witnessing even now in this moment, her performance on Colbert, her tiny desk performance, which was one of the best tiny desk performance I've ever seen. If you, if people haven't seen it, go check it out immediately. Um,

And seeing her in the concert and just obviously getting to talk to her, but even seeing her on other platforms talking, it's just like she's checking every single box. And I haven't really felt this invested in a new artist in such a long time where I'm just genuinely like become a Stan, just genuinely interested in everything she's doing because everything is done with so much intention and vision. And she's restrained by her, um,

her kind of financial constraints right now because she is a smaller artist at this moment so she doesn't get these huge budgets to do exactly what she wants to do but when she does she's going to be so ready for those moments like it's going to be incredible like I hope she performs at the Grammys that seems like a no-brainer and if she gets that like why

watch out because i think that could be really a moment in a big way for her um i'm hoping fingers crossed that she gets to open for kendrick on the stadium tour um but let's talk the album itself is just i mean if you want to hear my thoughts on it go listen to the interview we did because we dissect it in detail but you dissect it with her with her yeah that was crazy yeah and she's a fan of the show i'll just say um which was really cool

So no big deal. No big deal. No big deal. Just one of the best rising artists in the world. But the album is just phenomenal. There's, there's a freedom present that someone really finding themselves and committing to themselves, blocking out outside noise and just really discovering who they are as an artist. And you can really feel that kind of battle and the catharsis that comes with

like really finding that confidence in yourself and then running with it and just never looking back. And we're kind of experienced. What's cool is the album helped her to like formalize that to herself. And now we're seeing the fruits of that labor

in everything she's done since the album, which are these performances and all, you know, her outfits and she's just moving in a way that you can just tell, like she's an artist who knows herself and this album is what helped her kind of find herself in that way. So I think number two for me, alligator bites, never heal. Don't she? I haven't really, have we talked about this album together? What are your thoughts on it? I haven't been able to talk about it as much. Dude, as far as like the artists after, um,

This like first generation of the ones that we have become so excited about in our lifetimes. Like Doji being like a post Tyler post game, like as much as we can say that incredible, like this is the best we have post our folks so far, you know? It's the, yeah, it's the, she's the, she's, yeah, she's one of the ones she grew up on.

the odd future odd future that 2000 early 2010s to the early 2010s post that generation because they're still around right now right and they're still making great stuff but don't you as far as like a post one yep to take some of the concept like the fact that she like some of her concepts are straight out of early tyler yep and always and i'm like but they're like elevated yeah and they're it's pulling it off better yeah and like when i heard it the first i'm like whoa like yeah man it's cool yeah yeah she's amazing

Okay, so number one album of the year. No surprise this year. All right, look, there is no surprise here for me. It is Bando Stone and the New World by Childish Gambino. I can't believe I got two new Childish Gambino albums this year. I don't count out of Vista for this exercise because it was kind of like a remaster and retooling.

Band of Stone in the New World is an incredible album that is so jam-packed. It is maximalism. It's a full cornucopia. I am overjoyed every day that I have it, that I can listen to it. I can't believe it. I can't say enough good things. The fact that he is capping off Childish Gambino, he was very intentional about this is the end of Childish Gambino. I'm making this for the fans. He said that about the tour and about the album.

it really did feel that way. I am beyond grateful that this thing exists. I love it so much. I know that I'm going to be listening to it forever. I love feeling the way that Gambino albums grow with me as I spend more and more time with them. That's just been happening.

And like, I'm not going to sit here and say, yeah, I can dissect it right now. The year it came out. Cause I can't, I don't want to necessarily. But like this thing helps me feel better about the future. This thing helps me accept things that I have been afraid of, like an unknown future, like things that I think are going wrong. Like the new world is coming. And just as we have loved the old world, we can love the new.

is very strong to me. It is also killing me that Childish Gambino has not released the movie. I know, I was going to ask you about that. Is there any news about it? Look,

So Donald Glover during the New World Tour, which I do want to talk about in a moment, but during the New World Tour, he had to cancel the rest of the tour because it appears he got ill. He had to have a surgery. He didn't say specifically what happened, but he had to cancel the whole tour. That meant like half of the country didn't get the tour and all of Europe did not get the tour, which is devastating. That sucks. Yeah.

There's a possibility though that he'll do it again. Maybe. Maybe. I don't know. Like he canceled. Like they're getting refunds for everything. So it's over. It appears he has had the surgery. He has made a couple of public appearances without saying. Like we've seen that he's walking around. So I don't know how he's doing. I hope he is doing well and recovering and all that.

I don't know what... That movie is in limbo now. I hate every time somebody points out that he did a trailer for a 21 Savage movie and then didn't give us the movie because people point that out to be like, yo, Bando Zone's not happening. Oh, right. And maybe Bando Zone won't happen. Maybe the movie was the friends we made along the way. It's fine. It really crushes me, but it's fine. But like...

When he did the New World tour, I'm devastated that that was cut short because that was a narrative experience. There was a narrative to the performance. There was an opening that happened before he even came on stage where parts of the stage were appearing to fall apart. And an actual welder came on and did a pyrotechnic thing. There were these weird sounds happening. And then he's moving between places. He has an alien costume. Then this weird flight suit. Then he like...

Like it was a narrative performance. If I can only imagine that if we had the movie, if we had had the full tour, we would be able to make better sense of it. So like, it's difficult for me to like talk about it, dissect it in the way that I want to, in the way that like my natural inclination is. Right. Given that it is limited by the fact that it's almost broken. Like it's like Bando Stone is almost broken at this point.

I still love it. I'm still going to listen to it. And I'll talk more when we get to the songs. But I love Band of Sona, The New World. I'm happy to be in it. Yeah, that's my favorite album, 2024. Yeah, I re-listened to it this morning. I was struck by how... Yeah, exactly how you said. There's dark elements to it, but there's so much hope. Genuine hope. And I can feel his...

sentiment as a father there's like there's a even like real love I think is like really encapsulates like that song that song says do you know real love can you feel real love and it's like I think of my children and I think of my wife and I think about this these beautiful things we have in the chaotic in the amongst the chaos of

uh ceos getting assassinated and certain people being elected to president of the united you know just like that where the world seems like on one hand just in total weird chaos and just surreal thing happening after a surreal thing but also to have the grounding of love and you know genuine sentiment is just like i felt that on the re-listen this morning of like yeah this really does

a lot of the moment that we're experiencing right now and the kind of dichotomy of it all. So-

I feel for you, though. I was wondering about the movie. I know. I know. I mean, and it did feel like a soundtrack. That was the thing that struck me again. It is a soundtrack. It's got movie clips in it. There's a clear man. Please just put it out. Yeah. So, but yeah, it stands on its own, though. The songs are great. The songs really are great. And he's experimenting with

He's nailing it. I love the electronic kind of tinge of it all. Great pick. I can't say I'm surprised, but great pick. It was going to be. Yeah. But I am surprised that my album, number one album is not even on your top three list.

I cheated because I knew. Okay. What is it? So my number one album of 2024 is Chromacopia by Tyler, the creator. I mean, I think I'm ready to say it. I think Chromacopia is his best work to date. I think it is the most complete work to date. Whether it's my favorite, time will tell.

I love Igor. Igor has a special... My eyes just bugged out of my head. I think technically you can make the case that Chromacope... Easily make the case that Chromacope is his most complete and best expression as an artist. As much as I love Igor and as much as that just...

Kind of felt like it was released at the perfect time. Chromacopia is an elevated Igor to me. It's Igor where it's like, it's, he's leaning into the songwriting and the melody and barely rapping. Chromacopia has rapping and, but equally as much melody and songwriting. And, and,

I just feel like he's doing everything at a higher level on Chromacopia. Again, whether it's your favorite, that's, that's personal, but I just, as a musician, I'm just like, this guy is fucking continues to get better as a producer, as someone writing chords and making arrangements. And it's like, you think of a song like sticky, like he's never made a song like that. And as far as accessible and fun as it is, like listen to the production on that thing. Like,

That is insane. Those are all real instruments. He's bringing in all these different components. Essentially, every song is like that. Something I've been thinking about is just, I don't think we give enough credit to him as a producer. We put him in the same boxes as, let's say, even a Kendrick. As much as Kendrick is a producer in terms of like,

an orchestrator, like Tyler's got his hands on the fucking keyboards. Like he's the one playing the piano. He's giving us those incredible synth solos. Uh, he's arranging all the songs again, the chord progressions, the bridges, all this stuff is coming directly from him. He's recording himself doing all of this stuff. And that, I just feel like we're overlooking that aspect because he's such a great rapper because he's such a great now storyteller and lyricist. Uh,

and even getting better as a singer that it's like, no, let's not forget. He's touching every single part of every single song that is coming from him. So I just, I just feel really strongly about him as an artist and Kim just continuing to get better as a musician has been just such an inspiring part of his kind of musical journey to witness. You know, we'll talk about some of the songs in a second, but

overall, man, Chromacopia, it was actually kind of an easy number one, as much as I love Dochi and Kendrick Lamar as a complete project, as an album that sounds like a world that is cohesive, that has the narrative, has the through line. It has diverse songs, but it all feels like a part of the same world where I think that's kind of my knock on Kendrick's album, where it feels, some of the songs do feel a little bit

It's like Tyler still gives us the diverse sound where they each has its own identity and it's not like the same song over and over yet. They all feel a part of the world and it's seamless one song to the next, even if they're sonically coming from different perspectives. Like I think of a darling, I kind of like more of like a pop song versus a sticky or like him or even, um,

uh, ratata. It's like all these songs are very different, but they all feel so cohesive. Um, so Chromacopia easy. Number one for me, I easy, easy. Number one, I think like I'm so impressed with this album, him as an artist, it's a privilege to watch him evolve. Absolutely. No, I agree with what you're saying for sure. Yeah. Yeah. This thing is incredible. We talked about it when it came out, but like one, one thing I'm mad about this year is,

I haven't had enough time with Chromacopia because there's been too much. That's one thing I was thinking about when I was reviewing the year. I'm like, Chromacopia is incredible. Why haven't I been able to listen to it every day? Because I have to listen to all those others. God, we're spoiled. Specifically the second half of this year was just release after release, it seems like. And I haven't even listened to Denzel Curry's new project.

which I hear is really good, but I'm like trying to save that to when I can actually give it my full attention. There's a couple of albums that I just haven't listened to. Like Vince Staples released a very good album. And like, when I'm thinking about, I'm like, this is a great album. It's not near the other 25. I know. Like, what are we doing? Yeah. It's been incredible. Yeah. Was there any other projects that we should just name? We're going to get to our favorite song.

our song of the year as the ending portion of this episode. But I'm just trying to think of like, okay, Rhapsody, Please Don't Cry, great album. Cordae, The Crossroads, great album. Vince Staples, Dark Times, great album. Soul Burger by Absol, great. Samurai by Lupe Fiasco, great. We Don't Trust You by Metro and Future was pretty historic. Yeah. And I'm probably missing a whole bunch of other ones, but it's just too much, too much greatness. Too much. I'm sad that like,

This is like legitimately one of the best years of music of definitely of the 21st century so far. I feel like.

but also it's coming to an end, whether, you know, whatever a year kind of demarcation means, who knows, but hopefully it's sustained, but it's like, I think we both know this has been special. The year has been special. Okay. So let's get to our song of the year. Do you want to go three to one?

um trading off trade off let's go you're number three you want to put your do you want to put your caveat do you want to go ahead with that or or no your little yeah i i just don't see a world where not like us is not the song of the year right am i right uh yeah no if you're right yeah turn on your objective brain objective and give me a case for any other song being the song of 2024

I don't want to. It's not possible. It's not possible. Not Like Us is the song of 2024. End of discussion. This is our favorite...

These are favorites. That's the thing. We didn't make that demarcation, but this is not us saying these are the best. These are our favorite, but not like us is the best song of 2024. I'll say it. Okay. So what's your third favorite song of the year?

All right, so for my third favorite, I'm going to go with what I think is a fascinating pick in light of the rest of this year. I'm going to go Girl So Confusing featuring Lorde by Charli XCX and Lorde.

I think it is so fascinating that in the beef, if you would call it that, between Charlie XCX and Lorde, it gets resolved by working it out on the remix in the year when Kendrick Lamar and... Can you imagine? Kendrick and Drake. Can you imagine?

No, never. Drake's like, man, I just felt like I wasn't accepted and that's why I wanted to make the pop song. It will never happen. Kendrick has made it entirely clear. It will actually never... Not in 20 years. It's never going to happen. It's not going to happen. Unless Drake...

I think the only case that... I don't want it to happen. I'm going to be honest. I don't want it to happen. It's very Drake. I think unless Drake has like a moral kind of 180. You have to have them. Exactly. Because you know what the difference is? Is Charlie XCX and Lorde are both phenomenal artists who are doing beautiful work and trying to better the world.

They're both trying to make the world a better place. That's the difference. Yeah. I love this song. Like, this is a audible gasp moment when this song comes out. Like, what? Like, what is happening? Because, like, when Girl So Confusing gets...

I thought that Lorde was who Charlie was talking about. And it was correct. And it was Lorde. And Lorde is one of the best writers of her generation. Her pen is so strong on this song. Reminds us all, do not forget about Lorde. Even though some of you didn't like Solar Power for some reason. She's coming. 2025, she's coming. And I think she's out for blood in terms of like, don't forget about me.

I love this song so much. It speaks to like what art can do to what honesty can do. Like when we talk about how special Brad is, when you talk about everything we've said so far, like it has the pop, it has the party, but like the honesty that Charlie put into the album is what makes it special. Yeah. And like, we cannot forget that in how culturally ubiquitous it has become and

Because it's so actually powerful and beautiful. Yeah. And I think Girl So Confusing, like, and this kind of also setting off the whole remix album. Yeah, right. Like that Charlie did, like, I love this song. This song is something that we need to remember from 2024. It's going to be my three favorite. And I love Lorde. And I'm so happy that she had just like one showing this year. And it was a showstopper. Like, that was it. Yeah, good point. Yeah, really. It was her only...

Or only release, I think, right? Yeah. Yeah, I think so, yeah. Yeah, it was an incredible verse. The story behind it is beautiful. I was surprised it was not on my top five played songs on Wrapped. They are all just dominated by the beef. But this must have been number six or something because I played this a lot. My kids love this song.

And as like someone who just for them to express, like just the title umbrella girl, so confusing them trying to work out this weird tension that doesn't seem like either of them really wanted, but we're just, it was like just kind of happens, but it just, yeah, it just happens. We get pit against each other all the time. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And then like finding the space to work it out publicly, I thought was really important in terms of just, yeah, two girls, two women, um,

trying to just be vulnerable and honest, you know, because Charlie, it's like, she's not sucking up to Lorde in that song. No. She's just being exactly honest about what she feels about their relationship. And then Lorde comes on and does the same thing. And, you know, her talking about like,

the reason I didn't want to go to dinner with you is because I was afraid of taking pictures because I'm, I've been struggling with my body and my weight. Like how much more vulnerable are you going to ask an artist to be? And like, you just see like that insecurity and that thing playing out in these decisions and then causing tension where there should, you know what I mean? Like, and then getting to like be like, when do you actually share that deep of a truth with someone? Yeah.

so difficult to be that brave to be that. Yeah. Especially on a public, you know, on a huge album, um, to do that, that response, like, and then I didn't, I think, didn't, uh, Lord text Charlie, her response, like the verse as her response as, yeah. And then it's like, yeah, Lord, what do you think? How are you this good? I know. Like, what are we talking about? It's really, it's such a special song. Um, it is truly a special song.

Okay, so let me go then, 'cause that would have easily made my list. So I'm glad that we got to talk about it. So it's kind of a reverse order here, 'cause my third favorite song is gonna come off of Chromicopia. It's my favorite album of the year, which it makes sense actually to me, where it's, Chromicopia doesn't have my favorite songs, but Altogether is my favorite.

where GNX and Alligator Bytes have my favorite songs. So let me say it's, I could easily nominate Darling Eye, Take Your Mask Off, Like Him, or Balloon. I'm just going to go with Take Your Mask Off. That was my, that was a standout track for me when it first came out. And it's still,

Every time if I'm forced to choose one song as a representative of the album, it feels like that's a great statement, individual statement piece, because it gives you kind of both sides of the album, which is Tyler kind of looking around him and being judgmental and braggadocious, but then also being equally scrutinized, turning the mirror around and placing it on himself and kind of going out his own flaws and in that way kind of unites the

the sentiments, right? Like he's being critical of everyone else equally as critical about himself. And so we're all sharing those critiques of ourselves, working to be working to take our individual masks off and be expressed closer to who we are closer to that authentic self. And then just have that's such an ongoing journey. Uh, and so much of the album is about

Yeah. How do you like, you know, the, the motif of the light is the centerpiece of the album. It being like this pure thing that Tyler had as a child. You know, my, my take on chromacopia is that it was represents like his childhood home. Um, that's why his mother's a huge prominence. And he says what he says on, on the first song, he says back in chromacopia, uh,

talking about his childhood. So it feels like the album is him. Yeah. How do you maintain the light that is chroma copia as you age and take your mask off as a perfect encapsulation of that concept being, yeah, we put on these different masks to kind of appease certain people or just get on, get, get on in life. But yeah,

each one of those masks kind of mask our light and our authentic true self. And, um, yeah, it's a really deep album. Like the, the, the concept is simple, but it feels very truthful and very relevant. And the way that expresses it is very, I think something that everyone relates to as we're getting older with Tyler. And as we're trying to like make sacrifices to build a better life, um,

just trying to stay true to who we are. And I think, yeah, take your mask off. I think is a great encapsulation of that. So I'm going to go number three, take your mask off. That's sweet. What's your number two? Number two. Okay. So now we're going, these songs are off my favorite albums. Um, number two, I'm going to go with Elisa's by Mickey. This is my standout song from the album. And I kind of want to like think and talk about this a little bit. So

I think this song is infinitely readable in that like I have heard this song and interpreted this song in an infinite amount of ways when I've been listening to it. Like I cannot believe how applicable it is when I think about different things. Um,

It's fascinating to me, the title of the song, Alesis, and correct me if I'm wrong, but Alesis is a music technology production company, like an electronic mostly. Yeah, the name sounds familiar. Yeah, because I think I'm remembering this from Doom, the Gold Tan Alesis. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so it's about, and my understanding is it's kind of like a budget company.

So for that to fit with McGee's concept of like using the budget materials to create, I think is beautiful. And I think that the song's infinite interpretations come from like you have to create. So like the some of the things he talked like I'm in another body, like I've I've thought about that in like a gender dysphoria sort of way and in a body image sort of way. And he's critiquing himself and other people at the same time. And he asked the question, don't you want to get a move on?

And I've just heard this so many times and thought of this in so many ways. And it just, this song inspires creation and activity for me. Like, it's one thing I connected it to is like Fast Car by Tracy Chapman, because there's like, we don't have enough money to leave. But it's Fast Car if it was all in one person. So in Fast Car, there's like the relationship and the father and all these things going on. This is McGee all interior, right?

If you look at the verses and everything that he's discussing, it's internal conflict, resisting his own impulses to just escape conflict or put it off, calling out his own lies, calling out his own stagnancy, and asking himself and asking us, don't you want to get a move? I think this thing is beautiful. And the first time I saw it live, I cried because I cried a lot.

And the song is so beautiful in the studio version, but like there was something about the live, like they added the instrumentation. This song, I can't believe, A, I can't believe this is only my second favorite song of the year. B, like this thing is infinite to me. At least this is infinite. Like as far as like creativity and the push. Yeah. I love it. Great. It's truly special to me. Yeah.

Yeah. This was the hit song too, right? A quote unquote, like it was a bigger song. It's one of the, it's one of the two. It's this. And I think, are you looking up? Okay. Are the big ones? Yeah. Yeah. He's, I haven't even like thought about his lyrics. That's where I am with his music. Cause you know that for people that don't know, like any muddles it. Yeah. Yeah. And he hides it in the magic of all the, yeah. So I'm like, I'm one that does, I listen to lyrics last usually. So I haven't even really got to that layer, but I'm like, I just pulled them up as you were talking about it. And it's like,

Yeah. I'm in another body who's in somebody else, both of the headless and the heartless dancing with themselves. And the description of looking around in the apartment, I think of looking for a certain substance. I think of just fighting amongst yourself. I feel like quarantine probably informed this in a definite way. How much do we have to push ourselves to

out of our shells and out of our stupid excuses for why, I don't know, man. And like every day I could think of something new to frame the song. So I love it. - Beautiful. Okay, so I'm gonna go with my second favorite song of the year. It's gonna come off of GNX.

I don't even have one picked out yet. Well, let me just say you for you. Euphoria would probably be, I've just talked about euphoria so much this year, but that's kind of my one B with not like us for the song of the year. So I'm just, I'm skipping over euphoria. I'm basically skipping over all the battle songs. Cause we just spent two hours on them last episode, but just no, not like us. Euphoria. Those are the ones for me. Um, but for the sake of conversation, um,

Man, GNX has so many good songs. What I love about the album is that I have a new song every other day, it feels like. It started out with Reincarnated, just because, or sorry, Squabble Up. But because I was waiting for that song, we're all waiting for that song. So when we got it, it was so kind of euphoric to get it.

But then I really got attracted to Hey Now, which is the fifth song, super dark. I've never heard Kendrick's voice so low. And then, of course, Reincarnated.

Heart Part 6 is incredibly sweet. My current favorite song is Peekaboo, which is so, so fun. It's like a meme song. Every single part of Kendrick's verses and chorus is like a meme-able, TikTok-able, but he's also the greatest rapper alive, so it's just cool to hear him have fun. So I haven't really landed on the GNX song

I think it just, no, I think conceptually I just have to go with reincarnated. I have to go reincarnated TV off might be the, it's so hard at this point. It's only been off is the one I, I would decide. Yeah. My six, my six year old is screaming mustard now, by the way, let's go. So it's reaching, it's reaching that level of ubiquity. Um, but let me just go reincarnated. Number two, as my representative off GNX, because conceptually, uh,

There's just every single layer you want. I'm not going to rehash it because we spent so much time on it with Femi. And then last week we even covered it on our best bars of the year. And I covered it on the Wrap Latte podcast that I was just on with those guys, King Grain and Torre.

But I could really have picked any song really off of GNX almost. But let me just say Euphoria slash Reincarnated. Going to be my number two slot. So let's go into your number one. Okay. So for my number one song of the year, we are going to go...

It's obvious. I think it's obvious. The song is We Are God by Childish Gambino. To me, this is the most Childish Gambino Childish Gambino has ever Childish Gambino. It is a culmination of so many things he has done over the years. I'm going to try and break them down. But I'm also going to say at the top, like, I'll probably forget something. And

This is what I mean when I'm like, I'm so grateful he made this for the fans because this builds on so many of the things he has said over the years if we've been paying attention. Like if you listened to season seven of Dissect, you probably already knew the We Are God song. Like you knew it inside. Is what I would say. So first off, it is a retooling of what was the initial concept.

0.00 off of 31520, which then became Atavista. And on that album, it was just We Are, We Are as this kind of chant to bring you into the album. I, for years, have loved that song and thought like, okay, this is a great meditation to get into the album. This hyper repetition of the word that allows for freedom of thought and meaning with the interpretation of the song. Like I loved it as an intro. And then Atavista came out and it was gone.

And we're like, no, oh, the song's gone. Like, where did it go? Like, shoot, this sucks. And then a couple months later, we got it back. He gave it back to us, but now retooled and added and fleshed out. And it's like, I mean, it's an old friend coming back. It is the very childish Gambino thing of like everything has to die because the song died. It was gone and then it came back. It's that type of thing. So it's from that album.

It's also a continuation of ideas he put forth on Because the Internet and Stone Mountain Kauai with the idea of we are becoming God. And so as people like learn to code and as we build humanity, like become more and more connected, the act as Gambino talked about at the time, like the act of creation is the spark of God. And so the more connections we create and the more we create, the more like that is the spark of God. That's what that feeling is. And so this speaks to that.

And then in my mind for some reason, and I still can't figure it out, but it sounds like the end of Awaken My Love, like the last few songs, like Stand Tall and Baby Boy. Like it just feels in that vein and a little bit like Flight of the Navigator with some of these like standout Gambino songs where he's speaking almost in this universal perspective of

I love it. I can't like this song was not on my rap because I can't listen to this song and have a normal rest of my day because it is really overwhelming. And that's maybe stupid to say, but like,

I am overwhelmed by this song. Every time I hear it, it's just a flood, a complete flood. All my favorite songs of all time are those kind of songs where it's like, I can't actually just listen to this. It's impossible. I can't. I can't hear it like in the car regularly. Like, no, I'm sorry. We're skipping it. I can't have this moment. Yeah, exactly. You know what I mean? Exactly.

yeah so i cherish it and that's that's my favorite song of the year beautiful i'm happy for you that you got that um yeah okay so i gotta go again with the caveat not like us slash euphoria those are my favorite songs those are my songs of the year but as a as my one c let's say i gotta go boom bap off of doji's alligator bites never heal

So this is my introduction to Dochi, really. I think I heard, I definitely heard like what it is, which is her big like pop song that doesn't really give a complete picture of who she is, as does, I think that was always a thing with Dochi. It was like she had these singles. She had one EP. Persuasive was a cool hit. Persuasive, yeah. But it's like that did, in retrospect, that clearly didn't give us

the full picture of who she is as an artist. And so once we get alligator bites, never heal, it comes into focus a little bit more, although I think she's still, still fine tuning it. And we'll kind of, I think it's, she's going to, what she's doing now is going to be amplified times 10 in the future. Uh, if I'm right about her, but boom BAP is what really caught my attention of someone just

doing something so different in a world at a musical world in which it's so hard to stand out. There's so many albums coming out every single week. It's so easy to kind of just fall into the mix and not really stand out. Boom bap was a song, the same with like denial as a river off the same, same album. Um,

A song that I've just never quite heard. I've never heard what she's doing on the beginning of the song, the fun she's having. It's fun, but it's also very serious because what she's talking about and the fun that she is having is a cathartic

expression of like all these entrapments that she felt artistically. And she's kind of just being so free on this song in a way that I've just rarely ever hear with the speaking in tongues and the blowing raspberries and mocking hip hop at the same time, clearly beloving it, but also kind of feeling boxed in, in a specific lane of hip hop and people's expectations of what she should be rapping about or sounding like as a female MC and,

And just kind of encapsulating all that with so much freedom and joy. And then we get the line that I've talked about numerous times on the podcast of like, every time I talk to her about her as I bring up the I'm everything line, because it's such a condensed articulation of her as an artist. It also expresses so much about the moment and what kind of artists that all the artists that we talked about today are kind of doing some version of this where they're

even like a Tyler chroma copious, he's everything. He's not just a rapper. He's not just a singer. He's not, you know, it's, it's, he's expressing this full bouquet. And I think boom BAP is just such a unique song, um, that I have to go as my kind of song of the year, my one C, uh, the caveat being of course the Kendrick stuff, but I think it's such a great representation of her as an artist, uh,

And I've just really never heard a song like it, frankly, which is really saying something, I think. So it's very inspiring. Yeah. It's so fun. It's literally everything. In a song about being everything, it gives us everything. So Boom Bap, song of the year for me.

All right, man. It's been a good, it's been such a good year. Oh my God. Um, well, thanks for joining me, Cam. Again, we're going to put all these picks, uh, on a playlist that you can find linked in the description. Um,

Is there anything else that we didn't get to that you wanted to just mention? Cause I know we had to skip a lot. We had to skip a lot. Like I obviously wish we could have talked about Meg, the stallion probably starting the beef with his. Oh, right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like the glow, glow, glow, glow. Yeah, man. There's so much good stuff. Like to me,

Seeing the Kendrick cultural win. Yeah. Seeing Dochi and Gabino and Tyler. Yeah. First off, like that's a very interesting dissect trifecta into the next. Right. And then just the ideas of discipline, the ideas of like our ability to change for the better with all the stuff that I think we've been talking about through like conversation, through creativity, through being you, like being everything. Yeah.

I think this has just been a really beautiful year for music, which is incredible given everything else. Yeah. I'm so grateful that we get this. Yeah. I can't believe it. I know it really does. I never really, I guess I never really thought about, I guess specifically the Kendrick stuff as it like,

Yeah, there's something there about what he is saying and the kind of demeanor in which he's carrying himself throughout this whole thing that is resonating culturally in a way that might be reflective of something larger that we all feel like we should be doing in this moment because of the chaos, because of just the noise of everything, the...

the rapid way that technology seems to just be advancing every single day. And we're kind of on the precipice of something. We could all feel like something's about to change in a huge and fundamental way in the same way that the onset of the internet, if you're old enough to remember what that we were kind of wondering what it would be. And it's like, we know that it's not going to be anything we can imagine yet. We know something it's going to be something significant and there's a fear there. There's also an excitement there.

And then there's all this noise around it. There's the noise of the election and how just gross that got, of course, like predictable, but still somehow found a way to live up to the grossness of the expectation. And just the...

But when I like listen to us, I believe in us. Do you know what I mean? That's what this year feels like. The music reflection. Exactly. Feels like that. Exactly. It's like we all understand this isn't quite right. There's something weird, but there's also something beautiful and there's potential. And like the people I talk to every day seem to be with it. So it's like what we're experiencing. I don't know. It's this weird dichotomy of like,

"Yeah, this is scary, but also like, there's really just great, beautiful people around and like, we can do this type of feeling." And it's like, "We can make this better." I experience it every day with the people I interact with and it's like, that has to win, right? Like that has to win. - It does. - And I think, yeah, that's an interesting point that I'm gonna be thinking about it now of Kendrick being reflective of that in some way, but also just all the music as well.

And it's just great. It's like maturing with some of these artists. I think we talked about this with Tyler. I know, we've been talking about this. But just like the way some of these artists have evolved in the right way and are kind of reaping the benefits and the rewards of doing it the right way. And I really love seeing that. And then getting someone like Dochi who is clearly...

the next seed that we're about to witness kind of blossom and the excitement of that and what that means. And like, yeah, we got one. It's gonna be, it's like amongst all the kind of worry of like, even like specifically about the hip hop genre, which has been a point of conversation. It's like, man, we really might have someone, the future really might be in like good hands. Someone that understands the history is respectful, wants to honor the legacy of hip hop.

doing it the right way. It's just like, yeah, it feels like things are really just kind of clicking on all levels this year. So yeah.

Beautiful, man. Well, thanks for joining. Thanks, everyone, for listening. Check out the playlist if you're interested, and I'll probably post. I'm always interested to hear our listeners' top albums and songs of the year. So for the social media posts for this episode, I'll have kind of a survey. Just drop your favorites in the comments. I always love reading through those. So give us your favorites, your explanation if you want.

And we'll talk to you soon. I should say just for the people that are listening are probably the bigger Dice Tech fans. Season 12. Is this 12 or 13? I always forget. Whatever the next season is, I think it's 13. It's 13. It is coming. You'll see why it's taken so long.

The key word being see what? So there's some stuff coming. Also, like I was thrown off of my script writing for so many times this year. I was like, okay, I got to get this. I got to get the season off the ground, but then Tyler drops Kendrick drops the battle. Like I was just pulled so many different directions this year that I haven't been able to focus and lock down as I usually am. Um, but it is coming. So I did want to say that because this is the last episode of the year. Um,

So I should next time you hear from me is either because Kendrick dropped again or it's going to be the launch of season 13, which is going to be coming soon in January. So thanks everyone for listening. Thank you, Cam. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks.