MG: BEST OF 2015
ALBUMS
01 Future - DS2
02 Young Thug - Barter 6
03 Carly Rae Jepsen - EMOTION
04 Dawn Richard - Blackheart
05 Jeremih - Late Nights: The Album
06 Johnny Jewel/Various Artists - Lost River OST
07 D’Angelo & the Vanguard - Black Messiah
08 Lana Del Rey - Honeymoon
09 Future - 56 Nights / Beast Mode
10 Justin Bieber - Purpose
11 Lifted - 1
12 Levon Vincent - Levon Vincent
13 Young Thug - Slime Season ½
14 Ty $ Sign - Free TC
15 Vince Staples - Summertime 06
16 Fatima Yamaha - Imaginary Lines
17 Jlin - Dark Energy
18 Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment - Surf
19 Fifth Harmony - Reflection
20 Beatking - Houston 3AM
SONGS
Future - March Madness
Justin Bieber - What Do You Mean
Young Thug - Just Might Be
Carly Rae Jepsen - I Didn’t Just Come Here To Dance
Jeremih - Paradise
Kodak Black - Ran Up A Check
Beatking - Houston 3AM Freestyle
D’Angelo - Prayer
Future - News or Somthn
Ty Dolla $ign - Straight Up ft. Jagged Edge
Dawn Richard - Billie Jean
Sauce Walka - Wack 2 Wack
Lana Del Rey - Honeymoon
Billboard Brothers - Strap On My Lap
Kamaiyah - How Does It Feel
Selena Gomez - Hands To Myself
Wonder Girls - I Feel You
Jack U x Bieber - Where Are U Now
Chromatics - Yes (Love Theme from Lost River)
Teeflii - Been a Min
RP Boo - Bang’n On King Drive
Young Thug - Stunna
Carly Rae Jepsen - Run Away With Me
DJ Paypal - Say Goodbye
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - The Last Time I Saw Your Face
Jason Derulo - Want to Want Me
Kash Doll - Run Me My Money
Chance the Rapper - Angels ft. Saba
Tate Kobang - Bank Rolls
Jeremih - Pass Dat
DJ Rashad / DJ Spinn - Dubby ft. Danny Brown
Jamie xx - Good Times ft. Young Thug & Popcaan
DJ Richard - Bane
Sicko Mobb - Own Lane
Natalie La Rose - Somebody ft. Jeremih
dvsn - Too Deep
Burna Boy - Soke
Pender Street Steppers - The Glass City
Metro Thuggin - Speed Racer
Jidenna - Classic Man
BEST SONG/VIDEO OF 2014 THAT IS STILL THE BEST SONG/VIDEO OF 2015 (SPOILER ALERT: NOT “TRAP QUEEN”)
Future - Codeine Crazy
BEST FUTURE 2015
March Madness
News or Somthn
The Percocet & Stripper Joint
Just Like Bruddas
Blood on the Money
56 Nights
Kno the Meaning
Lay Up
Stick Talk
Purple Coming In
BEST THUG (NON-LEAK) 2015
Just Might Be
Best Friend
Never Made Love
Halftime
Speed Racer (Metro Thuggin)
Stunna
Knocked Off
Power
Free Gucci (Metro Thuggin)
Raw
MY FAVORITE SHIT I WROTE THIS YEAR (SORRY)
PC Music, Hipster Runoff, & the Year of Internet Hangover http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/773-pc-music-hipster-runoff-and-the-year-of-the-internet-hangover/
From Teklife to the Next Life http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/9642-from-teklife-to-the-next-life/
Fifth Harmony: Reflection (Review) http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/20253-reflection/
Tyga: The Gold Album (Review) http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/20780-the-gold-album-18th-dynasty/
Nicki Minaj: The Pinkprint (from last year but whatever this counts) http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/20058-the-pinkprint/
I’m Breaking Up With Drake http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/865-op-ed-im-breaking-up-with-drake/
FAVORITE MUSICAL MEMORIES 2015
Moving to an apartment on Nassau Avenue and singing “Dress it up and go to Nassau [NASA? It doesn’t matter]” to myself on my way home.
Driving (well, riding in the passenger seat) through Times Square, rolling my face off, listening to Barter 6 at 3am the night after it came out. Soaking in the lights, chainsmoking Newports, letting Constantly Hating vibrate through my entire being.
The night we ate mushrooms and Trey showed me the DS2 track-by-track commentary on Spotify and everything felt really, really important.
Playing “What Do You Mean” on loop for over an hour and still feeling like it wasn’t enough.
DJing “Sorry” to a room full of my entire Twitter feed, everyone singing along, people jumping up on the stage dancing and getting dragged off, mushrooms hitting, feeling like the world’s most powerful wizard with NYC resting gently in my palms.
Listening to Jeremih “Paradise” walking over the Williamsburg bridge late at night after drinking too much champagne at a restaurant I can’t afford, and believing it.
That Sunday I took the bus to the far Rockaways, rented a motel, slowly consumed a bag of mushrooms and LARPed Lana’s “High by the Beach” video by myself. Woke up, jumped in the ocean at sunrise, felt very alone and loved it. Okay yea I ate a lot of mushrooms this year whatever man.
Sitting in DJ Spinn’s basement, smoking blunt after blunt after [etc], hearing him talk about Rashad and just laughing for hours.
WATCHING A BUNCH OF MUSIC WRITER NERDS DANCE LIKE NO ONE WAS WATCHING TO “CLASSIC MAN” 17 TIMES IN ERNEST WILKIN’S BACKYARD
The week DS2 dropped was a blur, and part of me feels like I should have taken better care to salvage and archive all of the little details. But in a way, it feels better that I just let it play out, in all its sublime chaos, becoming the guiding force behind the strangest summer of my life. Future isn’t a role model, but I can say with absolute certainty that DS2 changed me. I don’t know if it was in a “good” way, but it was right. It made me okay with being truly alone, for possibly the first time in my life. It kept me company as I skulked through New York, very fucked up, unsure of everything, just me maneuvering through the dark. I’m not the kind of person to ever be able to say “We gon be alright” to myself and believe it, but the way Future unspokenly affirmed “We’re not okay and we might not ever be and THAT’S OKAY” sunk into my soul. Anyway, that first week, I went to the free Chicago DS2 release party. You could just feel that you were a part of something, tucked precariously inside this giant, cresting wave that was about to break. I can’t remember the details of that show, but I’ll never forget the feeling.
