2009 is over but not before acknowledging the best rap albums of the year from San Diego. We're keeping it down to only the Top 3 because, honestly, they're the only three really solid releases from a still-burgeoning local rap scene that a still-learning rap critic could find. Deal with it.
1. Blame One - Days Chasing Days
Days Chasing Days was simultaneously Blame One's return from retirement, his debut to the rap world-at-large, and his swan song before going back into retirement (...... before coming back out of retirement just a few months later). As ambivalent as Blame may seem regarding the music business, the music itself is very focused. It's grown man rap, whether he's discussing metaphysics and religion, recounting lessons from his upbringing, or just putting young, wack, and/or disrespectful emcees in their places. Production from post-Dilla torchbearers like Exile, Oh No, and Black Milk offer stable, boom-bap support for Blame to rip.
Listen: Blame One "Supreme Beings"
2. Black Mikey - Blackula
Though 2009 will inevitably be remembered for all its tragic losses, San Diego can find some glimmer of joy in the return of SD rap legend, Black Mikey. Black Mikey came home from an 8-year bid in prison. All that time trapped in a cage must have built up his aggression because he comes with an unseen ferocity on Blackula. Black Mikey combines the greasy confidence of gangster rap with a hint of backpack-like lyricism, meaning he's not afraid to rap about skeezy ho's and gangbanging or alliterate the "ex-" sound for an entire song or name-drop Ill Al Skratch. I wish his production wasn't so amateur but Black Mikey carries it through to the end.
Listen: Black Mikey "100 Bars"
3. Mac V. & Bad Karma - Coffee Table Talk
Mac V. & Bad Karma are like the anti-thesis to the grown man raps of Blame One and the crazed aggression of Black Mikey. Mac V. & Bad Karma are two very young rappers who mostly spit about weed and women and more weed with laid-back charisma. Sure, they can spit bars like any emcee. But they're infinitely more entertaining when they find new, creative, kinda bizarre ways to talk about their swishers (seriously, who has ever been higher than eagle dandruff?). It reminds me of how The Clipse keep finding new synonyms for coke. And like The Clipse, Mac V. & Bad Karma roll with their own producers, Mike George and Kriis Money, who take a page from the book of Dilla and ride it into outer space.
Listen: The whole mixtape
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