After looking on Albumoftheyear.org to see if there were any new Experimental Hip-Hop releases so far this year, I then was directed towards their list of what are deemed the best in the sub genre (based on their aggregated critic scores). I figured that Yea Forums could share their perspective on how accurate or inaccurate they feel this pecking order is.
albumoftheyear.org The Best Experimental Hip Hop Albums of All Time
1. DJ Shadow - Endtroducing... (96) 2. Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher (89) 3. Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory (86) 4. Kids See Ghosts - KIDS SEE GHOSTS (84) 5. Kanye West - Yeezus (83) 6. Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition (83) 7. Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs (83) 8. Death Grips - The Money Store (83) 9. Young Fathers - White Men Are Black Men Too (82) 10. Brockhampton - iridescence (82) 11. Quasimoto - The Unseen (82) 12. Shabazz Palaces - Lese Majesty (82) 13. Milo - Who Told You To Think??!!?!?!?! (81) 14. Death Grips - Bottomless Pit (80) 15. Tyler, the Creator - Flower Boy (80) 16. Subtle - For Hero: For Fool (80) 17. Brockhampton - Saturation III (80) 18. Young Fathers - Dead (80) 19. Death Grips - Exmilitary (79) 20. Malibu Ken - Malibu Ken (79) 21. dälek - Absence (79) 22. Death Grips - Jenny Death (79) 23. cLOUDDEAD - Ten (78) 24. Death Grips - Year of the Snitch (77) 25. Death Grips - The Powers That B (76)
Hate Death Grips but Exmilitary is 100x better than TMS and that's not even questionable
Blake Green
Capitalize the album titles you fucking tard.
Grayson Hernandez
A project from last year which is pretty great was Nostrum Grocers' (milo and Elucid) self-titled debut. It seemed to garner an 83, yet didn't show up on the list, having only 3 credited reviews from lack of exposure.
Also, Yeezus by no means deserves to be considered one of the Top 5 regarding any manner of music, except for contrived Death Grips impressions.
Kids See Ghosts is a solid foray into out-of-the-box Hip-Hop by West, yet is by no means above quite a few other projects on the list.
I agree that albums such Flower Boy, Saturation III, iridescence, and Kids See Ghosts aren't really experimental, yet were ignorantly thrown into this box due to most casual listeners not being used to hearing these sort of sonics. The bar for a challenging or intriguing listen has been lowered. That is not to say that the aforementioned projects don't consist of good material.
While this seems to be a somewhat workable definition, that very broad requisite would encapsulate XXXTentacion's projects as having experimental aspects as well.
I also recall when looking on Wikipedia several times that Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly is considered as experimental as well. In checking it while writing this post, it seems that classification still stands.
So it seems the question needs to be reiterated: What is experimental?
My own definition would be something which pushes boundaries sonically, aiding to the core ethos of (which they subconsciously think, no matter how unrefined their addressing of it is) that classifications are restrictive and lessens creative possibility. Music is sound and vibrations, that is all.
I was clarifying my previous statement of: "The bar for a challenging or intriguing listen has been lowered", and how it solely related to the broader scope of the term "experimental".
Thomas Rivera
DJ Yo-Yo Dieting and his related projects are always good for a listen. Most recently I think from him was Undone Harmony Following in 2017 under the name Expressway Yo-Yo Dieting: youtu.be/ME4h54TX-Ho youtu.be/rZ_hzK9c3BY Also last year's Young Mothers album was great though that one's a mixture of hip hop and jazz and some rock. Sample tracks to pimp it here: youtu.be/JK6itSICYw0 youtu.be/lwemddg_66Y There are probably other experimental hip hop albums I might like more than those but I'm not huge on hip hop and I can't think of them off the top of my head. Also came across that Subtle album just recently and liked it a lot.
Camden Gonzalez
Dude it's like a space oprah
Easton Perry
I felt like I was the only person who loved the shit outta this album.
Andrew Stewart
wow im liking young mothers a lot thanks user
Grayson Torres
As a project, it wasn't all too innovative or challenging, and lacked any sense of direction or cohesion. I enjoy Black Skinhead, New Slaves, and Blood On The Leaves quite a bit, yet the other cuts on the album are lacking.
I definitely agree that JPEGMAFIA's Veteran was a very good release. It seems to have also been snubbed from the list with a score of 82 due to only credited in having 3 reviews.
