It's funny to think that not that long ago, there was a 7-year stretch where the only things of note Nas did were a song called "Nas Album Done" and then, 2 years later, the deeply mediocre 7-song min-album Nasir. But he ended 2021 with his second excellent album in a year and broke the I Am/Nastradamus curse, and it's inspiring to see. Hit-Boy seemed like he had the tools to become one of the best producers of his generation a decade ago, and these albums have really put him back in that conversation, the "Speechless" and "Hollywood Gangsta" beats are amazing. 

The New Jersey-based punk jazz band Joy On Fire is another act who was already in my top 50 albums of 2021 list but then released another record in December that's possibly even better. Unknown Cities feels a little heavier than their other stuff, John Paul Carillo has great grimy distorted bass guitar sound on a lot of the record, and it's just full of great moments like this really memorable sax line Anna Meadors plays at the end of "Kung Fu Tea Party" or the 11/8 groove they get going on "China, North Carolina." 

I already put this on my list of the best EPs of 2021. And considering that Tierra Whack's only album to date ran under 15 minutes, she really underplayed releasing 26 minutes of music in December by spreading it across three EPs, we got a nice little pack of music from one of the most promising rappers in the world. Rap? and especially "Millions" are my favorite of her December releases, but Pop? and R&B? have gems too. 

This, like the Tierra Whack record, already placed very highly on my list of the best EPs of the year. "Instant Night" came out as a single in 2021, and the other three tracks include a remix and an instrumental miniature, but Beauty Pill remains one of the most exciting and unique bands in the world and I'm glad Chad Clark is trickling out great new songs like the funky, slippery "You Need A Better Mind" on EPs since so many years tend to pass between the band's full-length albums. And even that instrumental track "Common Chokecherry" is a delightful little thing showcasing Devin Ocampo on brushed drums. 

Havoc is an all-time great MC/producer and had a lot to do with what made Mobb Deep legendary, but of course Prodigy was always the bigger star, and looms even larger over the group's legacy after his death. And that has left Havoc, who never had a lot of solo success, kind of unfairly adrift in the last years. But Wreckage Manner is a brilliant move, pairing Havoc with another great MC from his generation who was also never the biggest star in his group but has carved out a niche for himself over the years. I'd love Havoc to do more collaborative projects like this, have him produce a whole Griselda record or something, show people how much he originated production styles that are still beloved today. 

Big Sleepover is another cool duo project from a couple of '90s veterans that kind of fills a certain void well: Big Boi clearly wishes Outkast still made albums, but Andre's never coming back, and making an album with other Dungeon Family guys (including Cee-Lo, Big Rube, Killer Mike, Backbone and the rest of Organized Noize) is the next best thing. Big Boi and Sleepy Brown could easily just coast on their reputation and make a lot of smooth stuff in the tradition of "The Way You Move" and "So Fresh, So Clean," and there are some songs in that vein like "Animalz" and "Can't Sleep," but there's a lot of variety and harder-edged stuff too. 

I don't look at or think much about Narrowcast web traffic stats, but occasionally I take a glance and notice weird unexplained trends, and for the past year the big one has been my Alicia Keys deep album cuts post from 2015 suddenly consistently getting lots of clicks half a decade later -- it's literally my most popular post of all time now, almost 10 times as many hits in 2021 as anything new I posted last year. In the off chance I now have a large readership of Alicia Keys fans, here's my take on her new album. Keys is one of those double albums with two versions of most of the songs. The 'originals' on disc 1 are some of the most stripped-down piano-based tracks she's released since her first two albums, with occasionally great results. But the 'unlocked' tracks on disc 2, mostly remixes by Mike WiLL Made It, are largely unnecessary and occasionally embarrassing -- I would go so far as to say that there's at most one or two songs that are better the second time around, "Old Memories (Unlocked)" has a cool Bruce Hornsby-via-Ghosttown DJs thing going on. But disc 1 is really all you need, especially the Raphael Saadiq collaborations, and "Love When You Call My Name" is one of the most gorgeous things Alicia Keys has ever done. 

Saucy Santana is at that sort of transitional point between a social media personality and a rap star that Cardi B was at before "Bodak Yellow" -- he started out as City Girls' makeup artist/friend and then started making his own songs a couple years ago, and he's never charted or anything, but there must have been dozens of times 'Santana' trended on Twitter and it was always about Saucy, never Carlos or Juelz. His music isn't all the way there yet, but it's improving, his verses on "Pressure" are great. 

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