Jake Pappo and Rhocar Constant
- More Life: After disappointing his fans by postponing the merely mediocre Views for half a year, Champagne Papi shook the rap game with the surprise release of More Life in March.
In this “playlist” (it’s an album), Drake tries to establish a fan base in Britain. While this is sometimes entertaining, some of the “tings” he says get to be annoying. He also brings some British members of his collective OVO (October’s Very Own), like Skepta, into the spotlight by giving them features; unfortunately, they fail to step up to the plate. Besides these minor flawsMore Life is full of both relaxed songs like “Get It Together” and “Do Not Disturb”, and vibrant songs like “Gyalchester” and “Ice Melts”. The 6 god leaves us ready for his next project, which he is rumored to have already started working on in Toronto this summer. - DAMN: Kendrick Lamar does not have much to prove since everyone already knows of his lyrical genius, yet he still added to his well-earned reputation with DAMN. The premature release of “HUMBLE.” set an aggressive tone for the album, but K-Dot still surprised fans with emotional R&B that had fantastic complementary features, such as Rihanna in “LOYALTY.” and Zacari in “LOVE.” Both are radio-worthy hits and a number of others were reminiscent of Kendrick’s older songs. Overall, the album hype was well-deserved making it worthy of a stop on the top 3 list.
- Trust the Process: Ace Hood has been non-existent in the rap game ever since Bugatti, his hit in the album Trials and Tribulations (2013). The following series of Starvation albums, which he dropped over the course of several years, were neither good nor popular. However, his recent album Trust the Process proved that Ace Hood has not lost his sense of flow, but in fact has significantly improved since his most recent projects. The album includes banger after banger, yet several interludes come as a small setback which interrupts the consistency of the songs. Although the album did not rise to the top of the charts, mainly because Ace Hood has essentially been forgotten since Bugatti, it nevertheless was an unexpected and underestimated gem among the rap albums of 2017. He then followed this up with two strong singles, 3 Bless and They Said It, auspiciously revealing that the 29-year-old is not afraid to get back in the booth and produce more hot tracks.
