10 Albums + 100 Songs From 2021

Plus some other things I watched and read this year

Dec 16, 2021

Digging through the song mines on ISO Radio

Even though it might be hard to believe right now, 2021 was mostly better than 2020. Tantalizingly close to normalcy. We bounced with the ebb and flow on a month to month basis, learning new rules on the fly and all along, we were buoyed by art. Gone were the expectations of “Pandemic Albums” and manufactured delays where musicians held their work back in hopes of better timing and tour opportunities further down the road. In 2021, everybody emptied the clip and it made life a little sweeter. Here are the songs that stuck with me over the past year:

10 Albums From 2021

Baby Keem - The Melodic Blue
Boldy James & The Alchemist - Bo Jackson
CFCF - memoryland
Dean Blunt - BLACK METAL 2
Erika de Casier - Sensational
Ghetts - Conflict of Interest
Isaiah Rashad - The House Is Burning
Loraine James - Reflection
PinkPantheress - to hell with it
Vince Staples - Vince Staples

100 Songs From 2021

~ Listen to the playlist on Spotify and YouTube ~

Here’s some notes on a few specific songs from the list:

The Alchemist ft. Bruiser Brigade “Flying Spirit” — No city had a bigger year for rap than Detroit. One of my favourite verses of the year is the one by Bruiser Wolf at the end of this track. He unceasingly piles on punchlines as if he’s drunk on words. He throws everything at the wall and some of it doesn’t stick. But the stuff that lands is irresistible ( “This cross fire like my jeweller a member of the Klan”) and you can’t help but be awed by his commitment to his schtick. His album Dope Game Stupid is a standout from this year as well
ayrtn & mulade “34HUNNID” — The beat on this one is cold, jagged and alien. Nasty. Super swung. Offbeat UK rap that too weird to bite. “I could never be a damn coon / Mexico, I’m in Cancun!”
Azealia Banks “Fuck Him All Night” — Piss people off as much as you want if you can back it up with songs like this. Effortless New York ballroom swag. Sheer irrepressible attitude over an addictively supple Galcher Lustwerk house beat. Glad that I got to play this in the club.
Baby Keem ft. Kendrick Lamar “family ties” — In 2021, nobody had more flows than Keem. His creativity really inspired me this year. His random chanting of “beat him up” channeled a primal Fight Club energy whenever I heard it. And Kendrick’s verse singlehandedly shifted the paradigm. One of the most memorable moments of the year. Everyone was talking about the “brother” flow: was it good? Was it wack? Was it a Hulk Hogan parody? It stuck in people’s minds either way. The line that I always come back to sounded like an edict from a king that could only have been uttered in the digital age: “Motherfuck that album, fuck that single, burn that hard drive”
Cartier God “Vintage Chanel Model (Runway Wave)” — There’s a hypnotic ‘90s French house vibe to this song that makes it feel really slinky in Cartier God’s hands, especially with how it never quite resolves. I love the uncomplicated way he describes the action of the runway model: “You’re gonna turn, then walk away.” There’s a romantic sense of longing to his echoey vocals that embodies the specific, exasperating thrill of watching the person you love do their thing. Only two minutes and six seconds long, I got lost in this song for hours
Chief Keef “Harley Quinn” — This collab between Chief Keef and Mike WiLL Made-It was somewhat overlooked. This track carries the depraved comic book insanity of the titular character. “I just purchased two of the same guns, they probably twins” is a bit of gallows humour, sure. But later in the song, we get some insight into the origin story behind our villain: he goes through his phone contacts and hardly sees any friends, his school failed him, his grandpa took him fishing and he didn’t catch anything. You’d be mad at the world too!
Isaiah Rashad ft. YGTUT “Chad” — Drawing from Pimp C’s verse from “Big Pimpin’” is like thumbing through the Necronomicon: powerful magic lies within the text so you must be careful with how you use it. Referencing one of the greatest pure examples of rapping in the history of the form is usually a great place to start from. But it’s rare when someone takes a hot line and actually makes it a hot song. Zay did that here. I listened to this track more than any other in 2021.
Kanye West ft. Andre 3000 “Life Of The Party” — When it comes to rap music, there’s layers to this shit. There’s the immediate, surface level stuff where you get the sensory and physical enjoyment from the propulsion of the beat. Then there’s another layer underneath where a psychological attachment is developed and some lyrics get stuck in your head. But even deeper is another level where some well-placed words speak to the human condition, touching you in a way that you didn’t even know was possible before you heard them.
The reason why Andre 3000 is one of the greatest rappers of all time is because he can take us to that place on a regular basis. His verse on “Life Of The Party” makes all other words delivered over music this year seem insignificant and hollow, pointless and petty by comparison. This somehow isn’t hyperbole. Existential grief, familial guilt, generational trauma: he packs it all into a single verse with ease. Andre can go somewhere with lyrics that not everyone can go. But luckily for us, he chooses to take us there with him.
Lana Del Rey “White Dress” — I love Lana’s vocal performance on this song, how intentionally raspy it is. She reminisces about her pre-fame life as a waitress and being “down at the Men In Music Business Conference,” an instantly classic lyric that casually rips the industry wide open. Like the great folk singers before her, Lana has a way of stretching a hypnotic set of verses into the horizon like swirling smoke rings. She doesn’t get enough credit for the strange lyrical juxtapositions that she makes, such as referencing the White Stripes and Kings of Leon as time markers or how she feels like a God while shouting out Sun Ra.
Loraine James “Self-Doubt (Leaving the Club Early)” — I appreciate the self-referential nature of this song, a rare track that openly dares you to skip away from it. But I also enjoy the central conceit presented by the title, which is already incredibly evocative before you even hear the lyrics. What kind of self-doubt might cause someone to leave the club early? Loraine’s beat has a tilting, uneasy quality to it, like cold rain dripping down a gutter, sounding a bit like a night gone off the rails. The subject of Loraine’s song is in a hurry to leave for whatever reason. Maybe it was a song that they heard.
Noname “Rainforest” — Noname represents a way forward for all rappers. She’s a guiding light. This song is a really clever balance of a tuneful, easy to enjoy musical backdrop with serious themes and dense lyricism. “How you make excuses for billionaires, you broke on the bus?” might be one of the most incisive lyrics of the year.

Shows I Watched in 2021

The Real Housewives franchise (specifically Beverly Hills and Salt Lake City) — two of the most unhinged, absurd seasons of television in history
The Great British Bake Off — nothing is more cathartic and soothing
Succession — this season was absolutely nut-nut
Hacks — Jean Smart had one of the year’s best performances
The White Lotus — the casting was off the charts with this show
I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson — nothing made me laugh more
The Rap Game UK — best representation of rapping I’ve ever seen on TV. I want to license the concept and bring it to Canada
Pretend It’s a City — I enjoyed the languorous pace of this love letter to NYC
Search Party — possibly my favourite show on television
Mare of Easttown — I forgot this show existed until right now but I was obsessed with it when it dropped

Books I Read in 2021

Inner City Pressure: The Story of Grime by Dan Hancox
Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye by David Ritz
Remain In Love: Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Tina by Chris Frantz
Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine
Red Pill by Hari Kunzru
What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez
The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination by Sarah Schulman
Fake Accounts by Lauren Oyler
Hype by Gabrielle Bluestone
Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam
Everybody: A Book about Freedom by Olivia Laing
The Office of Historical Corrections By Danielle Evans
Luster by Raven Leilani
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
Black Talk by Ben Sidran
Exile On Main St: A Season In Hell with the Rolling Stones by Robert Greenfield
This Searing Light, The Sun and Everyrhing Else: Joy Division: The Oral History by Jon Savage
Passion Is A Fashion: the Real Story of the Clash by Pat Gilbert
Hold On to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973-1992 by Tim Lawrence
Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones by Quincy Jones

Thanks for rocking with me during this absolutely insane year. I’ll see you on the flip side. I hope you find some time and space to recharge during the holidays. If you have any favourites from this year, feel free to email me back or share in the comments!