The older I get, the more embarrassing it becomes to admit what music I listen to. It feels too personal, like admitting what podcasts are in your regular rotation. There are just too many options nowadays. So many independent releases that I didn’t check out, which are probably better than the albums that did catch my attention. My taste seems too mainstream, too out of touch. I’m at the exact age (33) when according to some study I think I saw the headline of but didn’t read, people tend to stop discovering new music.
I’ve always thought ranking albums at the end of the year is kinda pointless, but I’ve also enjoyed reading other people’s lists and making my own. So I will confront my anxiety about sharing my old ass millennial taste and transparently inform you of the new music I enjoyed most in 2024. Everybody’s doing it, you probably don’t care, but here we go anyways.
I should mention that I listened to a lot more music than this, in many other genres. But I put these rankings together in order to submit my ballot for passionweiss.com’s annual Top Albums and Top Rap Songs list. So it’s heavily favored toward hip-hop, because that’s what I listen to most anyways, even though I like playing guitar music and used to listen to it way more.
The first list I will share with you is definitely rap music, because it’s the Top 15 Rap Songs of 2024. I hate Spotify but I’m a hypocrite, so I made a playlist on there you can listen through too.
Top 15 Rap Songs of 2024
HONORABLE MENTION
Honorable mention to “That Guy,” Tyler the Creator’s “Hey Now” remix that came out on Christmas. I love the shots of Hawthorne, the “Rip the Ruler” reference, and the dancing in front of the 405 on-ramp. It wasn’t out at the time I submitted my ballot though, and I haven’t listened to it enough to know where I’d rank it. There were probably a ton of other songs like this throughout 2024, that I really liked for a few days then forgot about completely. Here are the ones that stuck.
15. YANKIN!, LARUSSELL & P-LO & D-LO & MALACHI
I honestly don’t know much about this song or any of its artists. Can’t remember how I heard it. But it slaps hella hard. Lately I’ve been thinking back to the era of music when I was a teen. How Houston was maybe the biggest scene, and the Bay Area sound seemed to seep into everything via YouTube. The Bay just has such a fun, wild, yet thoughtful energy. I think every town in America, maybe even NYC, enjoyed getting a glimpse of Bay Area culture circa 2007. You can hear remnants of it in the music of many subsequent scenes in different cities. This song feels like an instant classic, a throwback without sacrificing its modernity. I tend to throw it on after playing the Thrasher Magazine behind-the-scenes video for Mistah Fab’s “Ghost Ride It,” which my 1.5 year old son loves because it grainily depicts a bunch of people ghost riding a yellow school bus.
14. Let’s Go (Remix), Young Dolph and Key Glock
I wrote an article about this song when it came out, about posthumous releases and the possibility of AI to perpetuate the “music” of dead artists in ways we probably don’t really want. You can read about it there. But Young Dolph is one of my favorite artists of all time and I cherish the opportunity to hear new music from him. Key Glock is doing a great job carrying Paper Route Empire into the future.
13. Black Flag Freestyle, Denzel Curry and That Mexican OT
Somehow I don’t believe this was really a freestyle, and the misuse of that term irks my old ass self, but I’ll buy into the narrative because written or not this song goes insanely hard. I’ve been following Denzel Curry’s career for what feels like an eternity now, and he only seems to be improving. That Mexican OT has a booming voice and persona that harkens back to Paul Wall if he rapped like Twista. I like the From the Block performance in particular.
12. #RICHAXXHAITIAN, Mach-Hommy ft. Kaytranada & 03 Greedo
I might like this song based on the roster of artists alone. 03 Greedo isn’t who I’d expect to hear with Mach-Hommy and Kaytranada, but he also makes complete sense. He’s so versatile that he could make sense anywhere. He’s been on such a tear recently which is worth celebrating especially because he was able to come back so strong after incarceration. It might be blasphemous to some people, but I don’t like Mach-Hommy as much as those who really love him. Not for any tangible reason, I just haven’t listened to him enough. I love his DOOM-like mystique and innovative approaches to monetizing his art. This song seems like him at his catchiest and most approachable.
11. Still Feel Loaded, 03 Greedo
I could put almost any 03 Greedo song from 2024 anywhere on this list. As mentioned in the above blurb, the dude is on a tear. He’s been dropping SoundCloud exclusive mixtapes with tons of tracks on them, but this song came out on his “album,” Hella Greedy. I chose it in particular because it’s one of the first tracks on the project so I listened to it a bunch each time I’d start it in the car. Also, he pulls off Freddie Mercury-like stunts with his vocals on this song. It’s incredible.
10. Crack Cocaine, Bruiser Wolf & Chris Crack
This is one of the songs I wrote about for the POW list, but I’ll post the unedited blurb I submitted below.
Following last November’s mature reflective LP Quaranta, Danny Brown spent 2024 helping usher into the world two modern Detroit classics: J.U.S.’s 3rd Shift and Bruiser Wolf’s My Story Got Stories. The late-career success of the latter is emblematic of everything Danny Brown could have hoped to achieve when he established Bruiser Brigade over a decade ago. The label has been a beacon for hard-working, eccentric Detroit-grown artists who, like Danny, don’t fit neatly into any traditional categorization. Bruiser Wolf is a character based on no exact archetype: a fedora-wearing middle aged family man whose wise nostalgic tales of his hustling past will have you crumpled over with laughter in one line and stunned by the underlying real pain of the next. He delivers it all in a falsetto that shows no allegiance to conventional musical logic.
Over a looped guitar strum on album standout “Crack Cocaine,” with nary a kick drum in earshot, Bruiser Wolf contorts his voice from conversational delivery to dramatic croon. The beat has ample breathing room throughout the hook—“I risked my life… selling nicks and dimes… of that crack… cocaiiiine. I sold crack cocaine!”—like each line is a quick burst of a jazz horn almost soloing. Chris Crack drops in with “Uh… That’s my name though,” rips through a verse and dissolves away.
There could be no better rapper to feature on this track than its namesake. Chris Crack, whose consistent public support of Bruiser Wolf includes a post saying “mama was a dope fiend changed my life,” is one of the few artists left who shares the same strange humor, wildly unique style, and overwhelming integrity to his true self. “Crack Cocaine” is a collaboration that couldn’t possibly fail. Both Bruiser Wolf and Chris Crack have maintained a steadfast rawness and realness throughout their uphill grinds in their respective Midwestern cities. Simply hearing these two share a beat is cause for celebration.
9. WATCHU KNO ABOUT ME, GloRilla ft. Sexxy Red
Glorilla is artist of the year. This song came up on the radio a bunch. She lured me in by saying “It’s giving Hair. Face. Ass. Titties.” over and over again. I don’t know why I love Memphis’ music so much, but it really speaks to me. I also kinda despise most Sexxy Red songs I’ve ever heard, but love her verse here.
8. Like That, Future Metro Boomin Kendrick Lamar
This was the song with the verse that kicked off the beef of the year. It’s so massive. The verse isn’t as scathing as the tracks that would come, so it still holds up as a standalone single. Like most Future songs, it puts me in a weird headspace that somehow seems to capture the detached VIBE of modern times.
7. Not Like Us, Kendrick Lamar
I don’t want to write about this song, but it’s hard to deny it was the song of the year. I still remember when I first heard it, then listening to it 100 more times, and checking out Drake’s “Heart Pt. 6” then immediately realizing the battle was over.
6. DON'T DO DRUGS!, J.U.S.
Bruiser Brigade dropped two quality Detroit albums this year. Bruiser Wolf’s My Story Got Stories and J.U.S.’s 3rd Shift. My brother sent me this song randomly one day. It’s so strange. Absurd. Great.
5. SLUT ME OUT 2, NLE Choppa
As my appreciation of GloRilla and Sexxy Red’s single may have shown you, I’m a sucker for dirty songs. I probably liked them because they felt subversive to listen to as a kid. “Ass & Titties” was a Napster staple. The hook “If I were a bad bitch, I’d want to fuck me too. I’d want to suck me too” is just too hilarious. I didn’t seriously listen to this song too often, but I always had a smile on my face whenever I did.
4. RWS, SteveDaStoner
2024 was the year I finally got my monk on and dug into the Milwaukee rap scene as much as I could. I barely use TikTok but my algorithm honed in on me quickly, presenting clip after clip of SteveDaStoner walking into public spaces with a mic and speaker to put on a “free concert.” Take your pick-Walgreens, Chuck E. Cheese, the one with Ludacris-they’re all great. This song might not have stuck out to me without SteveDaStoner’s viral promotion, but once it got lodged in my brain I had trouble getting it out. Every SteveDaStoner free concert seemed like a joyous occasion, even when the attendees had no idea what they were witnessing.
3. Who At The Door?, Pivot Gang
I first heard this song when Saba opened for Madlib and Freddie Gibbs at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. It had just been released. Saba brought out the other members of Pivot Gang just to perform it. I can’t explain it properly, but it sounded way better and fuller live, with Joseph Chilliams doing a goofy dance while rapping, “Running plays like I’m Al-qaeda inside of the US” while the rest of Pivot Gang punctuated with a booming “Who At The Door?” behind him. I wish that Pivot Gang were more popular than they are, but I’m glad that they put out this song and a bunch of other good stuff.
2. Mr. Pot Scraper, Bossman Dlow
Bossman Dlow is my favorite new artist that I discovered this year. He put out an album in early 2024 called Mr. Pot Scraper, then toward the end of the year dropped Dlow Curry. He’s an extremely popular rapper and he deserves it. He makes a sort of trap music that was popular in the early 2000s, which is more fun and celebratory than grim and nihilistic. This was the big hit and still is.
Words2LiveBy, El Cousteau ft. Earl Sweatshirt
I also wrote about this song for POW’s list, which I’ll paste below. I highly recommend reading the lyrics of Earl’s verse over and over again. It’s the best thing I read all year.
“Words2LiveBy” completed Earl Sweatshirt’s transformation from angsty ex-exile to goofy fun uncle. Musically, this rebrand began somewhere around Sick! (2022), where Earl shed the madness and abstraction of his previous two projects for upbeat, enlightened clarity. When this song dropped, everybody knew it was official.
A backpack-wearing Earl outside smirk-rapping over trap-adjacent production on a hot NYC night, while someone in he and El Cousteau’s street corner crew twerks for the low budget camera, feels like a vindictive triumph. It was visual confirmation that he is, indeed, alright. Classifying Earl’s lyrics as anything too far removed from something like Future has long been a mischaracterization. It’s the presentation that differs. From “Making the Band (Danity Kane)” to “2010” to this verse, Earl’s sound has evolved without losing his essence. He’s come a long way but he’s always been here. Poets don’t stop being poets just because they’re no longer tortured.
Any isolated line of Earl’s could make a case for bar of the year, like a Godiva variety pack. “I’m not okay, but I’m gonna be alright” and “Free Gaza, we on the corner like Israelites” are the two most people pluck out on a casual listen, but the entire verse has near zero fat. Especially not, “Put on some weight, now I feel like a lineman.”
El Cousteau gets outshined on his own album, but “Renegade” moments don’t exist in the viral age. The song’s success is both a celebration of the DMV scene’s inevitable 2024 mainstream breakthrough (assisted by the inescapable Tommy Richman) and a crossover hit for the Brooklyn transplant underground. El Cousteau didn’t settle for virality, following through on his biggest and best album yet, Merci, Non Merci.His shell necklace and leopard-print hat are as loud and flashy as his flow. With “Words2LiveBy” and “Real Hip Hop,” Niontay’s song that he, Earl and MIKE also feature on, El Cousteau is in good company. They may have come from elsewhere, but they’re finding gold together in Brooklyn. The more fun they have together, the better off we’ll be.
Best Albums of 2024
HONORABLE MENTION
Honorable mention to Stay Inside’s new album Ferried Away. I was briefly in a band way back in the day with their singer Chris so I can’t rank it, but it’s worth mentioning that it’s incredibly good. I also don’t listen much to what others might describe as “emo” anymore, even though I’m kinda writing a book about it. I did listen to punk and indie rock and ska and “emo” a lot in the past, and enjoy checking out the newer bands, but mostly avoid it in my casual listening because I also like playing a version of it whenever I attempt to make music.
I want to give a shoutout to a bunch of other albums that reasonably could have made it into my Top 10, or Top 20, 30 etc. depending how I feel at the moment of ranking them. I’m honestly just a little too lazy to write any blurbs about them, but here they are:
Freddie Gibbs - You Only Die 1nce
Ka - The Thief Next to Jesus
GloRilla - Glorious
Chief Keef - Almighty So 2
The Alchemist - The Genuine Articulate
D.R.A.M. - DRAM&B
Bruiser Wolf - My Story Got Stories
Schoolboy Q - Blue Lips
Tyler, the Creator - Chromakopia
Ab-Soul - Soul Burger
Common & Pete Rock - The Auditorium Vol. 1
Big Sad 1900 - 1937 South Corning St.
JPEGMAFIA - I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU
Denzel Curry - King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2
Michael Christmas - Unsexy
21 Savage - American Dream
Mach-Hommy - #RICHAXXHAITIAN
Maxo Kream - Personification
Fucked Up - Another Day
Moneybagg Yo - Speak Now
Mutant Academy - Keep Holly Alive
Tim Heidecker - Slipping Away
Seafood Sam - Standing on Giant Shoulders
It’s pretty funny looking at this list, as I feel like I’ve pigeonholed myself in a particular time, tone and era of music. Hopefully in 2025 my musical palette will expand rather than stagnate. But if you like music vaguely in this lane, hopefully you’ll like this newsletter.
10. POLO PERKS, FearDorian and AyooLii - A Dog’s Chance
I don’t even like this album as much as I just want to include because I feel like it’s a wild representation of the Milwaukee rap scene, which I got more into this year. All three of these artists are super innovative in their own right, and combined they make music like nothing else. If you skipped any album in 2024 that you should go back and check out, it’s this. Plenty of eighth note claps for ya.
9. J.U.S. - 3rd Shift
As I mentioned in my Bruiser Wolf blurb for POW, and the J.U.S. blurb above, Bruiser Brigade put out two Detroit classics in 2024 and this was one of them. My brother sent me “Don’t Do Drugs” and J.U.S.’s weird style immediately caught my ear. This album is a collaboration with Squadda B, from Oakland, who provides the production. I think this album was way overlooked on other Best of 2024 lists, and will go down in history as a legendary collaboration that we’re lucky to hear.
8. Meryl Streek - Songs for the Deceased
Meryl Streek is a gift from the algorithm gods. My brother discovered him on Spotify and sent me his song “Death to the Landlord.” I was an instant fan, because he was talking angrily and straightforwardly about issues in his home in Ireland that are equally as relevant in the US. Meryl Streek also approaches music recording and performance in an interesting way. He puts the songs together and then performs live with just a microphone and the backing track, like a rapper. It makes sense to me in the clips I’ve seen. I’ll keep checking out every new Meryl Streek release and am hoping that his message and music continues to spread.
7. Kacey Musgraves - Deeper Well
I fucking love Kacey Musgraves. I shouldn’t like her as much as I do; but Golden Hour was a classic, the next one sucked; and this one is a return to form as well as an evolution.
6. 03 Greedo - Hella Greedy
This was the “official album” of 03 Greedo’s incredible 2024 run. Therefore, I’m ranking it above Crip, I’m Sexy and any of the other SoundCloud exclusives he dropped this calendar year. I don’t even want to begin to attempt to describe how original of an artist he is. I just want to sit back, listen to this, and appreciate it. Maybe that’s the lazy way out but that’s what I’m taking.
5. Angry Blackmen - The Legend of ABM
A PR company sent this album to my inbox. I usually ignore those emails; but something about the name of this duo and the way they were described captivated me from the jump. I interviewed them for POW. Paste Magazine’s list was the only end of year thing I saw this album on, which seems criminal. I have a feeling this album will stand the test of time.
4. Lupe Fiasco - Samurai
I wrote a whole ranking of Lupe Fiasco’s discography that might give you more context as to why I think Samurai is not only one of the best albums of 2024, but one of the best of Lupe Fiasco’s career. I didn’t expect to be listening to Lupe Fiasco this much this year but I’m glad that I did, and I appreciate him for making this focused of a project. I loved it.
3. Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven
Mannequin Pussy is one of the best new bands that I really got into in 2024. I already liked them, but seeing them live at Best Friends Forever took it over the edge. They’re the perfect embodiment of what it means to be punk in 2024. They’re unabashedly themselves. They’re provocative. They have beliefs that they’re not afraid to espouse. They’re so good. This album is awesome.
Bossman Dlow - Mr. Beat the Road
Bossman Dlow is such a good rapper. This was the first of his albums that came out in 2024. The second was Dlow Curry. The only reason that one’s not on the list is because I haven’t had enough time to digest it, but it might be better than this one.
Kendrick Lamar - GNX
Ah, man. I hate listing this number one. It feels too obvious. But GNX is the best Kendrick album since DAMN. I don’t even want to like Kendrick but I can’t help it because he’s in such another league. I was in the room with another famous rapper recently while this album was playing, and he immediately said “Who’s the DJ? Turn this library music off. I’m not trying to learn right now.” It was funny but there’s obvious truth to it. But it’s impossible to deny that Kendrick Lamar had a DAMN year, and this “album” was a representation of the West Coast sound, whether or not Drakeo was explicitly referenced, politics be DAMNed. A lot of people say that Kendrick’s true “album” hasn’t dropped yet, and this is a mixtape. Others might say this project isn’t as good as people always say Kendrick’s albums are. That the “Mustaaaaard” meme was contrived, and the heat wore off quick in comparison to “Not Like Us” et al. But Kendrick really should have fallen off at this point in his career, and when I skip the slower songs this album gets me absolutely juiced at the gym. Every time I think I want to move out of LA, Kendrick lures me back in. Even if he doesn’t even live there. IMO this should be the consensus boring obvious pick for album of the year, not Brat, which I haven’t listened to. I chalk it up to Kendrick fatigue. This album is amazing.