The 2022 Upstated "Awards"
The 2022 Upstated "Awards"
I'll change the name next year.
How this works:
As much as I love year-end lists, I can’t bring myself to contribute to the endless production of “Top 50” content. So instead, I put together a small list of “awards.”
“Awards” is in quotes because that word suggests these mean anything…which we both know is not the case here. In these “awards”, the categories will be a mix of traditional grammy-styled music awards, as well as other categories I just threw in there.
The Categories:
Artist I missed a lot - of the year
Album art of the year
Hilarious moment of the year
Non-2022 Album I fell in love with of the year
Verse of the year
Song of the year
Album of the year
Artist I missed a lot - of the year: JonWayne
Every year JonWayne doesn’t drop a project, my heart grows colder. I’m writing a longer article on this, but I needed it to be known: JonWayne is incredible. His writing is compelling, his production is untouchable, and overall, he’s an entertaining guy. So, JonWayne, if you are reading this, which I doubt you are, I love you and want you to know that your art is important.
Album art of the year: Roc Marciano and The Alchemist - The Elephant Man’s Bones
Al’s art direction is always on point. This cover feels vaguely familiar to me, like something out of a fever dream from when I was 12.
The album is great as well!
Hilarious moment of the year: “ACCUSATIONS!”
Listen, I have no idea what the hell Rick Ross was doing on AEW, but this is easily the funniest shit I’ve seen all year. Anytime I scroll through my Twitter and see this, it never ceases to make me laugh. What makes it even funnier is that Ross felt the need to double down by saying “…FALSE ACCUSATIONS!!!”
I don’t know the context of the “accusations” Rick Ross alleges the other man of making, but whatever it is, I’m taking Rozay’s side. A glitch in the matrix level moment.
Non-2022 Album I fell in love with - of the year: Hiroshi Yoshimura - GREEN
Hip-Hop is my genre of choice, but ambient/electronic music holds a special place in my heart. In the past year, this album helped me get through some strenuous grad school nights. I won’t say more, just click play.
Honorable Mentions:
Moodymann: His entire discog. (No, this is not an album title. His entire discography is amazing)
Michael Jackson: Off The Wall
Pink Pantheress: To Hell With It
Lucki: Almost There
A Tribe Called Quest: Low-End Theory (Heard it in high school, but I fell in love with it this year)
Verse of the year: Drake on Churchill Downs
I find it interesting that Drake, the single biggest artist on the planet for the past 12 years, still finds ways to rap with a Canada-sized chip on his shoulder. Where he finds his inspiration is a mystery, whether it be competition or fear of complacency, on this track, Drake clearly aimed to assert his ongoing ownership of the throne in front of budding superstar, Jack Harlow. In his verse, rapping for nearly three minutes straight, Drake puts on a legacy performance. It’s a state of the union address, riddled with paranoia, arrogance, and most of all, vengeance. Yet, at 36, the YMCMB star child refuses to relinquish his Taz-level sleeper hold on hip-hop.
Aside from the cultural contexts that make this verse monumental, there are specific moments within it that tickle my fancy as a rap fan. For whatever reason, and maybe this is an awful trait of mine - I’m just a sucker for onomatopoeia. Near the end of his verse, Drake rhymes the sound of a whip (Whaaa-pshhh) with the sound of spitting (Hock-ptgh…Sorry if that spelling is completely off). Throwing this at the tail end of a verse that was already amazing verse just broke the barrier for me. The 14-year vet was rapping his ass off.
**Also want to point out that allegedly Drake wrote this in like 12 minutes right in front of Jack Harlow on a vacation in Turks and Caicos… adding to the mythology of the verse.
Honorable mentions (There are only three that I feel could have legitimately toppled the Churchill Downs verse):
Cardi B: Tomorrow 2 (If I had a moment of the year award, this would have won)
J.Cole: Johnny P’s Caddy (Cole is in shape right now, let’s see what that new album is looking like)
Jay Z: God Did (Shared a piece of this verse with a class of undergrads, they thought it was published poetry)
Song of the year: Vince Staples - When Sparks Fly
On this song, Vince Staples transcended to a dreamlike sequence of nostalgic first love. The sample and drums make the frantic memories feel palpable as Vince laments about the beauty and anguish of a romance in Ramona Park.
Sure, maybe Vince is rapping about a firearm in the conceptual way many rappers have in the past. Or, maybe that’s what he wants his listeners to think when he’s really just remembering a crime-stricken ending to a youthful romance.
To me, it’s neither of these realities that made this the song of the year. It’s the atmosphere of the song itself, allowing the listener to omnisciently watch Vince Staples in Ramona Park, to experience the heartbreak of watching your significant other take the fall for you. The admiration, the resentment, the torment. All the emotions that fill a person’s heart during a time of grief.
This song feels like I closed my eyes, and lived another life for three minutes and forty-eight seconds. It is chillingly beautiful.
Honorable Mentions:
Kendrick Lamar: Count Me Out (Makes me want to run through a wall)
Drake: Falling Back (Felt iconic idk)
Kodak Black: Walk (Menacing, militant beat, and Kodak’s cadence is undeniable)
SZA: Blind (If this song came out earlier in the year, and I had more time with it, it would have easily been my song of the year)
Metro Boomin and Future: Superhero (Play this at the gym then come talk to me)
Future, Drake, and Tems: Wait For U (Almost had song of the year, but I think I was just blinded by the fact it was song of the summer)
Album of the year: Earl Sweatshirt - Sick!
Earl Sweatshirt is the greatest writer of his generation. I know, a hefty statement, but it’s one I am fully willing to stand behind. His last four projects all clock in at just around a half hour, yet this has no effect on the sentiments of his work. Earl tailors his work in the name of brevity. To Earl, time is merely a construct, a fleeting collection of numbers that are just background noise to his sonic journey.
To put it in laymen’s: Earl Sweatshirt doesn’t let a fucking word go to waste. EVER.
On his third album, Earl Sweatshirt fully immersed himself in a bounce he only nudged shoulders with in the past on tracks like “December 24th” and “DNA".” As a long-time Earl Sweatshirt fan, it’s a blessing to have an album I can blare during a night-time drive, as opposed to an album I listen to as I stare into the dark abyss at night. Though after the second or third listen, those rhythms begin to subside as the precise nature of Earl’s lyrics come into focus, you’ll soon find yourself lost in the void once again.
Honorable Mentions (AKA, just more albums I LOVED):
Pusha-T: It’s Almost Dry (Another rapper who refuses to waste ANY words)
Mavi: Laughing So hard, It Hurts (Extremely bright future)
Kenny Mason: RUFFS (^^^ What I just said)
Vince Staples: Ramona Heart Broke My Heart (Vince is an astonishing album maker. I almost had this as my album of the year just off the strength of his consistency)
Kendrick Lamar: Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers (How could I not?)
Steve Lacy: Gemini Rights (Took over the summer with a TikTok smash, but don’t let that blind you from the genius of this album and Steve Lacy as an artist)
Saba: Few Good Things (Took time to grow on me, now I’m obsessed)
FloMilli: You Still Here, Ho? (Infectious raps)
Drake and 21 Savage: Her Loss (When the chips are down, and I need something to listen to, I want nothing more than good old fashion shit talking **shrugs**)
SZA: SOS (To me, the title stands for Shes Obviously Solidified)
Sheff G: From The Can (Incredible stuff here)
Smino: Luv 4 Rent (Well warranted break to expand the vibes)
Yeat: Lyfe (Talk and Out The Way…those alone are enough to include)
Quavo and Takeoff: Only Built 4 Infinity Links (Not nearly enough talk about this album, it was special…RIP The Rocket too!!!)
Little Simz: No Thank You (I almost forgot this because of how late it dropped in the year!)