Hip Hop: 2024 Plenty More

If anyone was to ask me to define my 2024 with a soundtrack that would be very easy. Music is one of the biggest influences of my life. Every year I have an internal soundtrack that defines the year for me and 2024 was no different. As a matter of fact this was definitely a year for the books.

As always Hip Hop was at the core of my internal soundtrack when defining my year. For me 2024 was a battle for peace of mind and heart. It was also a battle for independence as I was working super duper overtime to get my own place. While I was fighting through this battle of the self, Hip Hop’s battle of the century was going down As the Drake-Kendrick Lamar beef was brewing.

Even though I’ve never been a big Drake fan I’ve always respected him and thought he was a great artist, so when it came to this beef I thought his first diss track “Push Ups” was a great record and it was one of my favorite songs in the showdown. Kendrick Lamar is one of my favorite rappers of the past decade so his crowning song of the beef “Not Like Us” was definitely one of my top favorite songs of the year. J. Cole who is another one of my favorite rappers was thrown into the beef and in the process of dropping his diss track titled “7 Minute Drill” he also dropped one of the first and best albums of the year, “Might Delete Later” which was Cole on a whole new brilliant level. This album was definitely my first favorite of 2024.

The war between Drake, Kendrick and all of their associates wasn’t just the soundtrack to their war with each other, but also the soundtrack to me fighting the war with my inner demons that I was battling with. The songs of the fued in question gave me the energy I needed to get through. Interestingly enough once Hip Hop’s battle subsided, so did mine and out of nowhere the song “Jesus Piece” from the rapper The Game became my peace of mind once I finally got my own place. Even though this song is from over a decade ago it really spoke louder volumes to me in 2024 because it was as if it was symbolizing the peace my spirit felt during my achievement of independence.

Once I got my own place something divine started happening. Not only was I feeling a newfound sense of peace, but out of nowhere all of my biggest heroes of Hip Hop, all of which came from the 80’s and the 90’s started dropping new albums like it was 1993. First off LL Cool J aka “The Greatest Of All Time” drops his first album in over a decade, “The Force”. The album is a Hip Hop masterpiece that mixes LL’s old school style in with the energy of the new school. On songs from the album like “Spirit of Cyrus”, “Praise Him” and “Murdergram Deux” LL shows why he is still the G.O.A.T.

Without a doubt the album release from an OG that I was most excited for beyond everything else came from my top favorite rapper of all time, Ice Cube. During November of 2024 Ice Cube dropped his long awaited album “Man Down”. This was single-handedly the most excited I had been for a new album in seven years. Right off the bat the first two singles off the album “It’s My Ego” and its remix “Ego Maniacs” had me hooked, but the song that resonated with me the most because it’s subtext about the world around me and the rest of the world at large is the song “Not like Them”.

In mid December of 2024 I was in a car wreck. Someone totaled my car in a hit and run and I was struggling with despondency for a week. While struggling to make it through my car trouble three more of my favorite rappers came out of nowhere and once again began dropping albums like it was 1994. My OG’s Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre dropped their long awaited album “Missionary” and one of my top five biggest influences Redman dropped his album “Muddy Waters Too”.

Along with Cube and LL’s albums, Snoop and Redman’s albums played the biggest role in lifting my spirit through this dark time over the holidays, in particular “Don’t Wanna C Me Rich” from Muddy Waters Too” and “Outta Da Blue” from Missionary. These songs made me work harder at my job to fix my current dilemma and reminded me that everything was gonna be okay.

What blew my mind about these albums was LL’s debuted in the top 10 making him the only rapper to have a top ten album in all five decades of Hip Hop. Ice Cube’s song “It’s My Ego” reached number 7 on the billboard charts and “Missionary” from Snoop shot to the top of all the music charts, going as far as the number one spot. The OGs are back and doing just as well if not better than the youngsters and I’m loving every minute of it. Man 2024 was quite a year for me. It had a lot of ups and downs, but was nevertheless a defining moment. I for one am glad to say that Hip Hop told the story of my 2024.