If there's one thing rappers impressed the most with this year it was verses. Inventively dope, lyrically maniacal, fantastic flows defined this year's verses with unabashed swagger. There were artists who stole the show with their lyrics, one's who stole it with their voice, their heart, their style, their flow, and hilarity. 2014 had it all when it came to single, show-stopping verses that sunk listeners in their seats, jaw agape at the verbiage spit by their favorite rappers, and some new-comers who aimed to stake their claim. Check out the list below, along with links to every song by clicking the accompanying image.
__________________________________________________________
10. Ab-Soul
'These Days'
These Days...
“I’m more than a man, I died and I rose again/I left these holes in my hand just so you know who I am/An alien, extraterrestrial, ET’s a mini me, you understand?/Look what I did, smoke like a chimney/Then add to that, that I smoke like the hippies did back in the 70’s/So many styles I write with a ghost/Like I had assistance, but this is just dope, dope/Bottles of Belaire, the prince is the freshest/Tree by the elbo we get for the LO/So I should be happy, but this is stressin’/Staring at heaven like “fuck is perfection?”/I’m popping downers to deal with depression/Cause when you the plug here come the finessing, finessing/Smoking dope with the hitters/Don’t know no new niggas and business is business/Can I get a motherfucking witness?”
__________________________________________________________
9. Kool A.D.
'In Gaol'
A Toothpaste Suburb
“Hey dude, you like this weird rap song?/ It’s me, Kool A.D., the other fool on the weird rap song/A mellow number, 3 minutes it doesn’t last long/Some fools might tell you it’s whack, but I think that that’s wrong/Really, in fact, I think it’s tight, that’s right/Wrote this on a carcass of a lion by lamp light/That was a reference to another Kool A.D. rap line, the last time I said “candle light” instead of lamp light, get it?/So that’s like about progress, I’m Michael Ondaatje kissing on your mom in a prom dress/Meaning like she’s in a prom dress, not me, I guess, um, that was obvious probably/But shit, you never know, fools cry over spilled milk and argue over whether a leather kilt is hetero/In my humble, I gotta say is probably just, um, better to let it go/I feel like Leonard Cohen, and I don’t even know if I can name a Leonard Cohen track/Is Leonard Cohen whack?/That’s rhetorical, you don’t need to answer that/I’m David Bowie, I mutter question raps for the answer, man, like mice I might turn butter to milk like “catch me if you can”/Chris Walken how I’m talking, kriss-krossing on your Walkman/She sucking on a dick like it’s a tall can/Pass the Four Loko, I’m a leader at last to my local folks, but still broke though/Fuck the Beatles, go Yoko/You know, bro?”
__________________________________________________________
8. Mick Jenkins
'Shipwrecked'
The Water[s]
“I’ve been in these waters like the Titanic/Waves crashed down, you wouldn’t thought a nigga drowned/But I’m staring at the sky like “Why panic?”/Don’t you know who I pray to? We’ve been lookin’ like prey, I just caught this shit at the prelude, peace, I been keepin’ it/Step into the wools, forever a black sheep to the herd/How you not heard about this nigga?/You think you feelin’ the flow somewhere in the ceiling, I’m not hot/Trust me I’ll be bringin’ it, a nigga get it like “Pop, Pop!”/I’ve been trying to give them what’s good, but don’t call it food for thought, shit taste like a hot fry/Shit had a nigga so thirsty, I couldn’t see straight it was like I was cock-eyed/Fam, tell them what you’ve seen on the southside/Tell them, tell them where you been, nigga, tell them where you’re going/Cold park whenever I was outside, somebody shootin’ nigga/Even when it’s snowing, in the cold you could see the people thirsty/Well, I gotta little water right here you heard me, all you gotta do is take a sip/And I don’t want your souls, and I don’t want your gold/I just do it for the free my nigga don’t trip, don’t trip, I do it for the free my nigga, don’t trip/Don’t trip, I do it for the free my nigga, don’t trip.”
__________________________________________________________
7. Killer Mike
'Lie, Cheat, Steal'
Run The Jewels 2
“I’m fly as a Pegasus, that’s no embellishment/I’m here to pain the whole game, where the Excedrin/Good pussy, good marijuana that be my medicine/And I’m a mixture of MJG and the Weatherman/A revolutionary bangin’ on my adversaries/And I love Dr.King but violence might be necessary/Cause when you live on MLK and it gets very scary/You might have to pull your AK, send one to the cemetery/We overworked, underpaid, and we underprivileged/They love us, they love us, because we feed the village/You really made it or just became a prisoner of privilege?/You willing to share that information that you’ve been given?/Like who really run this?/Like who really run that man that say he run this?/Who who really run that man that say he run this, run run run run this?/Like who really fund this?/Like who really fund who say he fund this?/Like who in the world gon’ tell Donald Sterl who to put on the “you can’t come” list?/Now don’t be silly, who the fuck gon’ bully me if I got a billi?/If I got a billi and the bitch recording me I’m like who cares/What I wouldn’t be is on TV stutterin’ ta-ta-talking scared/So the question is when Don’s at home with that traitor ass bitch alone/Who’s that voice on the side of the phone that shakes and rattles his bones?/Could it be the man behind the man behind the man behind the throne? Gone.”
__________________________________________________________
6. Ismael Butler
'They Comes In Gold'
Lese Majesty
“Vanity, I love you for myself/Me and always you and always never know one else/Sanity, a visage of my wealth/Lost but always found before the idols that I knelt/Strategy, the only way to cry/Keep it do or die and always think in term of “I”/Reverie, some legends futures past/Revelry instead of it renders hella fast/Capitol, a sound that’s on the rise/It’s slaking unrealized until essence has been razed/Sepulcher, a stage enlived by ghosts/Floating off with bags of the blood-encrusted dough/Farceus, quite simply it is him/It’s blac-ephilic petalistic palistrophic hymns/Darkness, the light that flashed to dare/Kingdom stellar lairs to which my kind is the heirs/Pasquinade, the jester’s game of vice/The criers and corporates slang during heist.”
__________________________________________________________
5. Isaiah Rashad
'Banana'
Cilvia Demo
“My son sleep, I’m rolling it up, I don’t sleep/I’m running for bucks, don’t tweet/You fuckin’ with us, I won’t eat/Start stomping your feet, I need that/Depending on all of you feedback/Come out to my show and come feed that/Can’t go back to sellin’ that retail/My daddy left me with no details/Came back with a bitch and his stepson/I guess he forgot he left somethin’/He must have been saving the best bum/She screaming out “Give me the rest, hun”/Pearl necklaces I empty my left nut/Most niggas can’t fuck with my worst shit/I’m scribing my living with curses/Just wait till I get this shit perfect/You niggas can’t fuck with my verses/See, they really don’t think that I’m bout this/Don’t make me come run in your houses/We know where your mom and your dad lives/Ooh baby, yes wait just mask us/My niggas got triggas and vastly/Don’t like how we living it lasts/You out of your trigger and backseat/Just looking at the shooter, it’s Mike D/Your rosary shining so nicely/We innocent kids if you ask me/I rode in the Benz in the backseat/Them vices they swarm and attack me/Got diamonds and niners upon me/That Juvie, that Percy, that Bun B/Sound track in the back while we dumping.”
__________________________________________________________
4. Mick Jenkins
'Martyrs'
The Water[s]
“Shorty told me that she do not do the fakes, same bitch got weave/My nigga mow the lawn it’s too many snakes, that’s the same shit that got Eve/What you ain’t never seen a nigga on a horse? You ain’t seen Chief Keef new Porsche?/Naw you ain’t seen shit yet, betta not forget that spit it like I chain smoke Newports/All the little niggas got guns now, and they carry them to the fucking beat/All these little girls give it up now, shame I could see the cherry stems in the fucking street/Niggas aim too high to leave the lows/Niggas hang too high to see the lows/Niggas ain’t, niggas ain’t really listening let me break it down for you/Just before you forgot about him, overlooked or started doubting/I douse it with the flow and started talking all this water shit it’s like I started drowning in truth/The thought is pounding, I started counting the loopholes in they stories that they tell us/Every evening at like 10 when Judy Hsu is on yo TV/Telling songs in the key of life, you was on yo Stevie/I pray it’s never too preachy but I’m preaching/Losing hella blood these fuck niggas leechin/Why you reachin I’m like 6’5 stop it/We are not on the same plateau, Chateau de Chenonceau/You just throwing shade in my shadow/Ginger ale in my Chalice I never been champagne shallow/I’d never run from a battle I’d rather hang from the gallows/For I let a stray bullet catch a nigga on the nine!/Trey 8 pullin 0-9 Kwame Brown if a nigga act foul then we put em on the line/It’s a shame that’s the game on these young niggas minds like.”
__________________________________________________________
3. Daveed Diggs
'Intro'
CLPPNG
“Ghosts on the avenue were talking to themselves/Somebody been selling them dreams again/Breathe again, the breeze is full of trees again/The beast is buried under the streets is bout to leave the den of thieves and holligans ready to Fettuccine the noodles of any cook looking to new to the kitchen/Cooking up wishes and powder, flour the pan and the cake, he can bet that the cheddar stay in the refrigerator to keep it fresh until it’s on/Every day is preparation for Armageddon, a holocaust, any cost, you want to get no one or on two, get three stacks and bring it back to the fortress/Wrapping five fingers round that much cash will make a muthafucker Cassius Clay/Quick, the cash is pay, checking gas with a loaded fo-fo when he rollin’ Po-Po on his shoulder so he’s slow but he’s goin, wouldn’t you?/If you scared, say you scared, cause they comin’ through sweepin’ and nobody got a problem sweepin’ over you/Trust the shadows is thick, full of mattresses, get over a pastor to suck a dick/Skinner glass, killer fashion, and spinning back so quit back spinning and get a gat, fuck a battle rap, rappers will battle where they at/Trunk rattle is leaving the streets and probably eating the map/Versus verses, the hearses, Versace verses the nerves and the pain slang, it seems it’s a no-brainer the same folks sayin’ it ain’t never seen a caddy-driven candy paint or the black after the rain/Fucking prepare for the storm, hope you got a blanket or a body keeping you warm, the spoke word is weak, scream motherfucker, dreams are cheap, you ain’t even gotta sleep, don’t sleep, it’s clipping bitch,”
__________________________________________________________
2. Kendrick Lamar
'Never Catch Me'
You're Dead!
“I can see the darknes in me and it’s quite amazing, life and death is no mystery and I wanna taste it/Step inside of my mind and you’ll find curiosity, animosity, high philosophy, hyper prophesied meditation/Reminisce on my wonder years and I wonder here/Sentiments of my words ain’t been so sincere/The sentiment of my nerves that I just persevere, the big thought of falling off, disappeared to my fate/They say heaven’s real, analyze my demise, I say I’m super anxious/Recognize I deprive this fear and then embrace it, vandalizing these walls only if they could talk/Conversations won’t contemplate to my dark thoughts, lookin’ down on my soul now, tell me I’m in control now/Tell me I can live long and I can love wrong and I can live right, and I can sing song and I can unite with you that I love, you that I like, look at my life and tell me I fight/This that final destination, this that find some information, this that find some inspiration, this that crack, the instillation, this that quantum jump and that fist pump and that bomb detonation/Please don’t bomb my nation, embalming fluid waiting I got mind control when I’m here, you gon’ hate me when I’m gone/Ain’t no blood pumpin’ no fear, I got hope inside of my bones/This that life beyond your own life, this ain’t physical for mankind/This that out-of-body experience, no coincidence you been died/Bitch, you’re dead!”
__________________________________________________________
1. Serengeti
'Alcohol'
Sisyphus
“They were divisible, living invisible, clinical, pivotal, biblical, medical/Pinnacle, criminal, difficult miracle, fucking embarrassing, pitiful, minimal/Dead in the head, like a rat on my bed, with his teeth all a ready to bled me in pleasure/So he sucked out my soul with the Devil’s integrity, yeah he sucked out my soul with the Devil’s integrity/I am a witness, acrylic an institute, fuck me I’m heavy, I’m fucking incredible/Mess with my lesson, devotion my heaven in question is heavy and mental addiction adventure I’m down on the floor and the rug is a mess/I’m a crab with a kiss and a squid on my chest, I can feel you beside me, feel you around me, equation is algebra lesson/Confession, I need you be near me, I kill you, endear me, I kiss you, I catch you, I kid you, I want your protection, I jump like a tango, a kangaroo/Monogamy song is a mess, my address, I’m all sweaty, I need you beside me like Sisyphus, down on me, holdin’ me/Thrown like a knife, he’s found in the stone, but I know he’s a killer, the weight of the pillar, my theories are thriller, my stories are filler, I feel like venom, I’ll bite you despite you, I wanted to be like/But I’ll suck out your soul with the Devil’s integrity, I’ll suck at your dick with the Devil’s integrity.”
__________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment