Musical Fridays - Year in Review

2005. What a year in music. Reggaton made a mark, southern fried hip hop ruled the airwaves and Maria Carey went from loony to lovely. So lets do a quick recap of a few musical genres shall we.

RnB - One Thing
Yea Omarion and Marcus Houston, had some nice joints last year but women a run things in the 2005. Amerie hit you with "1 thing", Maria Carey was the comeback artist of the year making us forget Glitter, Ciara did big things with Luda, Bow Wow and Missy and Faith and Mary made appearances.

On the new artist scene there were also a whole heap of young upstarts like Brook Valentino, Tierra Marie and Keisha Cole keeping things hot for 2005 on the ladies side while Lyfe, Trey Songz, Bobby Valentino and Chris Brown held it down for the guys.

Cant leave off a Special shout out to Rhianna (big up the bajans dem!) for bumrushing the scene with Pon the replay and her other joints.

Also as I mentioned in a previous Music Fridays article the Canadian rnb scene was hit this summer with releases from JullyBlack, Divine Brown, Toya Alexis, Melanie Durant and Andrea Lewis.

2005 saw some more popular old school hip hop joints like The Bridge is Over (Rhianna), Best Kept Secret (Faith) and My Melody (Tierra Marie) being appropriated into rnb.

Oh and in other news some yout name Houston juk out he eye for no apparent reason.

Oh and let me not forget R kelly's Trapped in the Closet.

Song of the Year: One Thing - Amerie
My Favorite song: One Thing - Amerie
Album of the Year: The Way it is - Keisha Cole, Emancipation of Mimi - Maria Carey


Dancehall - Welcome to Jamrock!

Out in the streets they call it murrrrder!

Yea Elephant Man hit with the Willie Bounce, Vybz Kartel was everywhere (Up to the Time!!!), Sean Paul retained his popularity and the military rhythm was pure niceness but 2005 was the year culture lyrics made a comeback. Damien Marley did big things with Welcome to Jamrock which crossed genres even spawning sound-alikes and remakes. TOK's Footprints made it to the BET rotation even though the tune is like 5 years old :-). Ok I lie but the American public picked up on that tune about 10 months after its release.

Richie Spice, Jah Cure, Lutan Fyah, I Wayne, Chezidek, Fantan Mojah and Gyptian all bought the fyah for 2005 with big tunes like "One man cant satisfy her" , "Reflections", "Serious Time" and "Blood Agin". Conscious lyric replaced slackness. A new era has dawned... Perhaps.

Dry Cry and Rise to the Occasion from Sizzla were still hitting hard (although they are pretty old as well) and he signed on with Dame Dash's label so expect him to get some mainstream play this year.

In other news, Buju caught a case. Anyone know what happened in court?

Song of the Year: Welcome to Jamrock - Damien Marley
My Favorite song: Reflections - Jah Cure
Album of the Year: Unknown Language - TOK

Commercial Hip Hop - Back then they din want me, now I'm hot they all on me

Someone said the South shall rise again! And it did in 2005. Last year was definitely the coming of age of Southern Hip hop. Did any Rapper in the East or West make music this year that got commercial airplay (besides Lil Kim that is?) Ying Yang Twins, Paul Wall, Young Jeezy, Mike Jones, David Banner, Dem Franchise Boyz, TI, 3-6 Mafia and more. Everywhere you looked it was all about the south. Tennessee, Houston and Atlanta all had more hits than New York who would believe that?

Laffy Taffy set back the whole Southern Movement though.

Ok other folk outside the south held it down. The Game scored in the first quarter with the Documentary (arguably the years best hip hop album BUT NOT A CLASSIC), Kanye West blew up the spot with Golddigger and 50 cents went platinum with the Massacre (I wont comment on that one). Cassidy's I'm a Hustla was the ish too!

In other news, 50 signed Reverend Mase, Mobb Deep and MOP, Juelz Santana was spitting on records all over the place, Foxy Brown went deaf, Lil Kim went to jail, Jay Z and Nas dropped their feud, Puffy forget that duets mean two artists not 5 or 6 on a track and we all wait for Jay Z to return.

Oh and Memphis Bleek dropped another album to the sound of utter silence. Why doesn't Bleek get any props? Bleek aint as bad as people make him out to be, its just too much hype was pinned on him when he got drafted into the Rock. What can I say I'm a Bleek fan (but then I think Rafael Araujo will become a serviceable NBA centre so what do I know.)

News Flash: Nelly still sucks (that one was for Kami)

Song of the Year: Golddigger - Kanye West,
My Favorite song: #1 spot - Ludacris, Dreams - Game, Soul Survivor - Jeezy/Akon
Album of the Year: Documentary - Game , Be - Common

Underground Hip Hop - Solid!

(Sorry had to make a distinction) These are the guys who get no commercial airplay but gave us quality output for 2005. It was actually a good year for the underground. Main staples like Gza and Muggs, Ghostface and AZ all gave us solid lps. The highlights were probably Little Brother's Ministrel show and the Danger Mouse, MF Doom collabo Mouse and the Mask. They were both good albums but a little disappointing from my standpoint given the anticipation. Justus League (the Little Brother extended crew) did drop some nice stuff with Away Team, Splash and the Little Brother Chitling Curcuit mixtape though. Duckdown Records came back with a triple threat with Buckshot, Sean Price and Smif n Wesson all putting out decent albums.

Common managed to cross over to the mainstream with some help from Kanye West's production and singles like Go and Testify but we still embrace him as one of the underground.

Oh and I discovered this west coast cat Rasco (a few years late but better than never).

In other news, labels reissued classics like crazy this year. OC, Doug E Fresh, King Just, De La, Tribe, Tuff Crew, Boogie Down Productions, Boogie Monsters, Del, Souls of Mischief you name it they reissued it although all a brother is asking for is some Special Ed and some D-Nice. I mean come on is that too much to ask?

Oh and what happened to KRS-one?


Song of the Year: The Corner - Common (wait can I put his album in commercial and the single in underground?)
My Favorite song: The Corner - Common, New York - AZ featuring Ghost and Rae
Album of the Year: Put it on the Line - Ghostface and Trife

Soca, Kaiso, Calypso - 2005 see we coming!

Last year was a great year for soca. From Destra's Fly to KMC's First Experience Carnival 2005 brought some of the wickedest soca tunes in a while. Ah hook like Blackie on the music that was popular last year.

Crop Over 2005 also brought out some good music. I'll confess that I was underwhelmed by the offerings in 2004 but 2005 more than made up for it with Nathalee Shontelle's Colors (blue yellow blue, yellow blue, yellow blue), Allison's Roll it gal and my favorite Waistline Shots by Mr DJ (the A few of my favorite things sample in the beginning is bad!).

In other news Edwin Yearwood put out an album on VP records but it seems to have flown completely under the radar and Rupee never took off like we expected.

Song of the Year: Dead or Alive - Shurwayne Winchester, Roll it gal - Allison Hinds
My Favorite song: Wasitline Shots - Mr DJ,You _ Machel Montana
Album of the Year: I aint got a clue cause I aint hear one full album this year