The Best Music of 2018

As promised last Friday I am going to come to you all this week with my top 5 things in sports, movies, music, tv and podcasts. These lists were a bit more difficult than usual because I am very set in my ways now. I also don't get out to the movies as much, but I have seen enough to make a list. I like doing this every year though, and that has not changed at all. I'm also ready to hear why I am wrong for the top 5 things that I have picked.

Today I am going to start with my top 5 albums/music that happened in 2018. I will count down from 5 to one. It also needs to be said that my list is different from others. You will see what I am talking about as I get into my top 5 music of the year. Lets get started.

At number 5 I have the three song EP released on Spotify this year by the band Heartbones. I heard about Heartbones since I am a fan of Har Mar Superstar. I follow pretty much all the music stuff he does, and when I heard he was going to team up with Sabrina Ellis, and do the songs of "Dirty Dancing" live, I was intrigued. Unfortunately for me I did not get to see them live, but I was blessed with the three songs they put out. The songs are also originals, they are not covers from "Dirty Dancing". I love these songs. They have that 80's synth sound, but made to sound more modern. Har Mar is perfect for this type music. He is a pop singer. His voice is perfect for that style music. And he shines on these 3 tracks. I had never heard of Sabrina Ellis until now, but she rules. Her voice is also great for this style pop music. These 3 songs I can listen to in the car with the kids, and they sing and dance along with them. I love these 3 tracks. I cannot wait to see what they come up with when they do eventually put out a full album. If the rest of the tracks are 1/3 as good as "Little Dancer", "Disappearer" and "This Time it's Different", it will most likely end up on my top 5 albums of 2019. If you are a fan of either Har Mar or Sabrina Ellis, or well made pop music in general, check out this 3 song EP. It rules.

At number 4 I do have a full album, and it is a soundtrack. That album is "Sorry to Bother You" by the Coup. First things first, this is not the same record with the same name that came out in 2012. I like that record to, but this is the soundtrack to a movie that you will definitely hear more about on Wednesday. But, the soundtrack to the movie is all new material from one of our greatest hip hop groups. Boots Riley and the Coup come just as hard on this record as they do on every other one they have released. The opener, "OYAHYTT" comes at you hard. It gets you ready for the rest of the record. Boots Riley crushes the vocals, and the guitar in the song is perfect. LaKeith Stanfield also crushes his verse on the song. It is a great table setter. From there on out we get great songs featuring people like tUnE yArDs, Janelle Monae, Killer Mike and E-40. It's a relative who's who of hip hop and R&B. This soundtrack comes hard, it makes me want to watch the movie and is a good, 9 song rap record. The Coup always do good stuff, and this record is no different. It's awesome.

At number 3 I have Nathaniel Rateliff and the Nightsweats "Tearing at the Seams". This record is amazing. I loved his first record, but I was hesitant on the second. I am always hesitant on second records from people who's first record I cherish. But a friend of mine, who's musical taste I very much trust, texted me and told me it was one of the best records he had listened to in quite some time. That night I downloaded the record and listened to it three times. It was, and still is, amazing. Rateliff and his band totally crush this record. It is so good. It is a shift in the alt rock genre of music. Rateliff has that gruff voice that I love in rock music. His band is amazing. The addition of the horn section was phenomenal. The way the record is sequenced is perfect. The fact that he has a song called "Intro" that comes in the middle of the record is one of my favorite things about it. This is a record I go back to every month or so and remember why I like it so much. It is such a good modern rock record. Rateliff and his band are on a big time upward trajectory. Now I cannot wait to see what they do next. I will have no trepidations when they put out their third record. I will listen to it the day it comes out. For the time being though, I have "Tearing at the Seams", and that makes me very, very happy.

At number 2 I have more of moment than an entire record or EP. But, "This is America" is a seminal moment in music, and out current culture, and it fully deserves to be on my top 5 music list for 2018. When Donald Glover, AKA Childish Gambino, released this song and video, you could feel a shift in political hip hop music. It is such an important song, but the video puts it over the top. That video is astonishing. It is haunting. It is terrifying and it is all true. Glover and director Hiro Murai knew exactly what they were doing this when they released it. I still, many months later, go back and watch this video from time to time. I listen to the song almost daily, especially when I exercise. It is such an important piece of music and art. It will be remembered for years to come. I would bet a good amount of money that my kids will study this song and video when they are in high school and college. Everything about "This is America" will be historically acclaimed and remembered. It is the most important piece of pop culture to come out in 2018.

And my number one record, and it is only ahead of "This is America" is because it is a full record, I have Pusha T's "Daytona". This record is the perfect hip hop record. Pusha T, from the start, crushes all the songs. He puts himself at, or near, the top of current emcee's. The opener, "If You Know You Know" has one of the best beats I have ever heard on a rap song. And Pusha crushes with his rhyming. And in a short 25-30 minutes he touches on so many important things and he nails it all. What stands out most is his "diss" track of the highly overrated Drake, and he doesn't even have to mention his name. We all know exactly who he is talking about, and like only he can do, he pulls it off without even mentioning him. I grew up listening to Clipse, they were one of the first real hip hop groups I devoured, and to see where Pusha T is now makes me so happy. "Daytona" is wonderful. I listen to this record all the way through once a week. Usually when I run. It is a perfect hip hop record. It has anything and everything a hip hop fan could want, and it is short and to the point. I love this record. I have not heard anything nearly as good as "Daytona". It is number one, and it is number one with a bullet. This record rules. It is, by far, the best record of 2018.

That's it for today. Come back tomorrow for my top 5 TV shows of the year.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He was going to wait on his best music list to see if Run the Jewels did another surprise album drop just before the new year. Only a few hours left guys.

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Childish Gambino Has Two New Songs for Our Summer Pleasure

Relax in a pool chair and take in the new tunes from Childish Gambino

Last night I was scrolling through Facebook and noticed that Donald Glover’s page had some new, very non interpretive pictures on it. The pictures were a colorful mish mash of neon, and they simply said, “Summertime” and “Summertime 2”. Needless to say, I was intrigued. Last time he did something like this, he dropped “This is America” under his rap pseudonym, Childish Gambino. You all know how much I adore, and how much that song and, more importantly, that video, affected me. So, I was hoping this would be some new songs.

Well, when I clicked the URL, much to my enjoyment, it was 2 brand new Childish Gambino songs. I was stoked. I had just gotten home from working out, cleaned up, and was greeted by this wonderful news while playing on my phone. I immediately listened to both songs at full volume. And, once again, Glover absolutely nailed it. I mean, this dude is so talented, it is almost unfair. He can pretty much do it all.

It needs to be said, both these songs don’t have the same political and of the moment feel of “This is America”. That song is its own thing, as it should be. These 2 new songs are breezy and cool and mellow. The first version, “Summertime”, is a cool, faster paced R&B song. It is such a fitting summer song. It has mellow, yet sped up instrumentals. Glover goes a bit lower with his voice on this track too. He also does, a very little bit, of rapping on this song. I was immediately on board. I love the change he has taken with his music. When he started out, he was straight forward rap. But now, he seems to be a full fledged R&B dude. He really showed that he could do this music on the incredible “Awaken My Love”, and he seems to have really found his groove.

Needless to say, after listening to the first song, I had high hopes for the second track. It did not disappoint. Glover slows things down on this song, and I love that about this song. It is an R&B song through and through. From the opening bar to the final noise of an instrument, it is like listening to old Earth Wind and Fire or, dare I say, Barry White. I like the first new song, I LOVE the second version. It is so wonderful. I immediately played them both for my wife, and even she was impressed. She’s not a big Gambino fan, but she does like the newer stuff he is doing. She likes R&B, so she was on board. I just get more and more impressed with all the stuff he does. He cannot do wrong right now. He is on an incredible hot streak, and he is striking while the iron is burning.

I highly recommend checking out these 2 new songs. They will be, or at least should be, played endlessly for the rest of summer on the radio. Childish Gambino, you’ve done it again. Maybe this means you aren’t giving up music just yet. One can hope. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He usually does not click on the links in Facebook. He wants Zuckerberg to have to guess what Ty likes.

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"This is America" is What America Needs to See

Take a long look

Before I start, watch "This is America" by Childish Gambino.

I have now watched Donald Glover's, AKA Childish Gambino's, newest video, "This is America" about 2 dozen times. I'm not here to critique it, say what I think it is about, or anything like that. I'm here to praise Donald Glover as an artist, and talk about how I think this video is going to go down as one of the most important pieces of art to ever be made. I feel like my kids will be taught things from, and about, this video when they are in high school and college.

For those that don't know, Glover put this video out last Saturday night, when he was hosting "SNL" in fact, and it has been all over social media since then. Many people have given their own thoughts and takes on the video. I have done multiple deep dives on YouTube and other sites just to see all the things I missed, or didn't understand. I am officially obsessed with the music video. Now, the song is just as important, but this video is a masterpiece. The song calls out other rappers for bragging about all the guns and material things that they have acquired due to their fame. But, when put to a music video, it speaks volumes. I do have to say, for the faint of heart, this is a disturbing video. Some horrific things happen, but in this day in age, when it is so hard to shock anyone, this video does just that.

I know I said I wasn't going to interpret anything, but I do have to say, my biggest takeaway from the video is that the U.S. is way, way too obsessed with guns. And Glover puts that front and center. The video opens with Glover dancing, an older gentleman sitting down to play acoustic guitar, then Glover pulls a pistol out of his pocket and shoots this man in the back of the head. It is so unexpected, they show the blood and it hooks you. I couldn't look away after seeing this gruesome act because I wanted to see where he and his director, the awesome, and very underrated Hiro Murai, went from there.

After Glover does the unspeakable act of shooting someone, he begins to dance more and starts rapping the song. The lyrics are simplistic, but they speak volumes. The main gist is, "this is America/don't catch you slippin/ look what I'm whippin". He also says certain things that have stuck with me like, "I got the strap/I've got to carry", or the chorus that is a group of people singing, "tell somebody/you gonna tell somebody/get your money/black man". I mean, that is poetry, and speaks to the culture we live in right now.

Back to the video. After the crazy opening, if all you look at is Glover, you see him and some younger kids doing popular dances. It is almost fun, until you realize they are mocking modern rappers. It then takes on a whole new meaning when you look at it through that lens. But, after the many deep dives I took, you start to see some crazy things going on in the background. Death is represented as a white horse being ridden by a man with a black hood, and everyone scatters when they see it, except the police. There is also a person that commits suicide by jumping off a high rise in the background. We also see some random people wearing eerie masks in the background, all on their phones for some unknown reason. Glover, once again, pulls a machine gun on a choir singing with him, then hands the gun off to someone else to dust it for prints. All while this is going on, Glover and the young dancers remained unharmed. Then, in a silent moment of the song and video, Glover pulls out a joint, lights it up and takes a few puffs. He then jumps on a very old, beat up car and starts to groove again. That was another thing I found out, if you look at all the cars in the video, none of them are new. Apparently he did this on purpose, once again to mock these newer rappers who think all that matters is shiny, new expensive cars. After the dancing on the cars stops, the video cuts to black, and only now do we see Glover finally being chased, presumably by the police. The reason he is being chased you may ask? He was smoking a joint. The guns, the suicide, the dusting of prints, none of that mattered. It was marijuana that finally catches up to him. It is insane.

This video is a work of art. As I said at the top, this needs to be shown in schools as to how dangerous we have become as a society. We are gun obsessed, and it is a real big problem. This video and song also makes Glover the most influential and important rapper out there right now. No one else comes close. Jay Z isn't rapping anymore. Kanye West is certifiably insane. Chance the Rapper is sticking up for West for some reason. Drake only raps about girls. And these new guys, the Post Malone's of the world, are a joke. They give rap music a bad name. Glover, or Gambino, is doing everything right and he deserves all the accolades he is getting for putting this video out. It will go down in history as a very important piece as to what we were like in the early 21st century. I will never forget this video. I will also continue to watch it. I will tell more people to watch it. I will do even deeper internet dives. This is masterful work.

Donald Glover is a genius, and "This is America" only further hammers that point home. Go watch the video now, then watch it a second, third, fourth and fifth time. Then, watch it 10 more times after that. It is disturbing, gory, important, provocative and amazing. What a gem.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.