Albums:
1. Remy Ma - There's Something About Remy
2. DNA - True Crime: Harm City, Volume 5
3. Jaheim - Ghetto Classics
4. Dem Franchize Boyz - On Top Of Our Game
5. Ne-Yo - In My Own Words
6. Morningwood - Morningwood
7. B. Rich - Born Rich
8. Jamie Foxx - Unpredictable
9. The Sands - 9 song demo
10. YoungBloodZ - Ev'rybody Know Me

Singles:
1. T.I. - "What You Know"
2. Jamie Foxx f/ Ludacris - "Unpredictable"
3. All-American Rejects - "Move Along"
4. Remy Ma - "Conceited"
5. Lil Wayne - "Hustler Musik"
6. Twista f/ Pitbull - "Hit The Floor"
7. Beyonce f/ Slim Thug and Bun B - "Check On It"
8. Prince - "Black Sweat"
9. Ghostface f/ Ne-Yo - "Like That"
10. Foo Fighters - "No Way Back"
11. Daddy Yankee - "Rompe"
12. Lil Kim - "Woah"
13. DJ Khaled f/ Paul Wall, Lil Wayne, Fat Joe, Rick Ross and Pitbull - "Holla At Me Baby"
14. Ne-Yo - "So Sick"
15. Pussycat Dolls f/ Will.I.Am - "Beep"
16. Consequence f/ Kanye West - "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly"
17. Ludacris, Trick Daddy and Luke - "Throw Da D '06"
18. Click Five - "Catch Your Wave"
19. Ray Cash f/ Scarface - "Bumpin' My Music"
20. Three 6 Mafia - "Poppin' My Collar"
21. Morningwood - "Nth Degree"
22. Donnell Jones f/ Jermaine Dupri - "Better Start Talking"
23. Shawnna - "Gettin' Some"
24. Juvenile - "Get Your Hustle On"
25. LL Cool J f/ Freeway - "Whatcha Want"
26. Pink - "Stupid Girls"
27. Kanye West f/ Lupe Fiasco - "Touch The Sky"
28. Don Omar f/ Fabolous and Swizz Beatz - "Dale, Don, Dale" (remix)
29. Pitbull f/ Pretty Ricky - "Everybody Get Up"
30. Lil Jon & The Eastside Boyz f/ E-40 and Sean Paul - "Snap Ya Fingers"
31. Dem Franchize Boyz - "Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It"
32. Heather Headley - "In My Mind"
33. Dilated Peoples - "Back Again"
34. E-40 f/ Keak Da Sneak - "Tell Me When To Go"
35. KT Tunstall - "Black Horse And The Cherry Tree"
36. Nelly f/ Paul Wall, Ali and Gipp - "Grillz"
37. Rhymefest f/ Kanye West - "Brand New"
38. Mary J. Blige - "Be Without You"
39. Imogen Heap - "Hide And Seek"
40. Chris Brown - "Yo (Excuse Me Miss)"
41. Christina Milian f/ Young Jeezy - "Say I"
42. The Fray - "Over My Head (Cable Car)"
43. Pharrell Williams - "Angel"
44. Busta Rhymes f/ Mary J. Blige, Missy Elliott and Rah Digga - "Touch It (Remix)"
45. Mary J. Blige - "Take Me As I Am"
46. Kirk Franklin - "Looking For You"
47. Jagged Edge - "Good Luck Charm"
48. Blue Da Vinci f/ Fabolous and Young Jeezy - "Streets On Lock"
49. Sean Paul - "Temperature"
50. Gwen Stefani f/ Ludacris - "Luxurious" (Zone 4 Remix) (mp3)

I just barely decided to count the "Luxurious" remix, since it's apparently a few months old, but 92Q's been playing it heavily lately. And I like it a lot, especially considering I've disliked all of Stefani's solo singles except "Cool" (and, ugh, "Crash" is amazingly by far the worst yet). It's a total improvement on the original, replacing the poorly employed Biggie/Isley sample with gorgeous strings and a Miami bass-ish beat, switching out the sluggish Slim Thug verse for Ludacris rapping through weird vocal effects, and ditching the horrible "chi-ching" bridge for the "if you ain't got no money take your broke ass home" chant. The complete change of context even makes me like the melody and tolerate her Olive Oyl vocal timbre.

Labels: Baltimore music, hip hop, Lil Wayne, lists, Prince, R and B, singles, T.I.

Favorite Singles of 2006 So Far (most of which admittedly were released in '05 but are peaking in '06)

1. Twista f/ Pitbull - "Hit The Floor" (mp3)
2. Beyonce f/ Slim Thug and Bun B - "Check On It"
3. Jamie Foxx f/ Ludacris - "Unpredictable"
4. Daddy Yankee - "Rompe"
5. All-American Rejects - "Move Along"
6. Remy Ma - "Conceited"
7. Ne-Yo - "So Sick"
8. Pussycat Dolls f/ Will.I.Am - "Beep"
9. Ludacris, Trick Daddy and Luke - "Throw Da D '06" (mp3)
10. Click Five - "Catch Your Wave"
11. Three 6 Mafia - "Poppin' My Collar"
12. Morningwood - "Nth Degree"
13. T.I. - "What You Know About That"
14. Donnell Jones f/ Jermaine Dupri - "Better Start Talking"
15. Shawnna - "Gettin' Some" (mp3)
16. Mary J. Blige - "Be Without You"
17. Ghostface f/ Ne-Yo - "Like That"
18. Don Omar f/ Fabolous and Swizz Beatz - "Dale, Don, Dale" (remix)
19. Pitbull f/ Pretty Ricky - "Everybody Get Up"
20. Dem Franchize Boyz - "Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It"
21. LL Cool J f/ Freeway - "Whatcha Want"
22. Young Jeezy - "Trap Star"
23. Keyshia Cole - "Love"
24. E-40 f/ Keak Da Sneak - "Tell Me When To Go"
25. Nelly f/ Paul Wall, Ali and Gipp - "Grillz"

Labels: hip hop, lists, mp3, R and B, singles, Trick Daddy

Stylus's 05 singles list went up in its entirity today, for which I voted and wrote a blurb for #16, "Trapped In The Closet". A lot of the list is stuff I've never heard or was lukewarm on, but I was surprised by how in sync I was with the top 10, which includes 6 songs I voted for (out of a total 11 I voted for that made the top 50, plus 2 more that were in my top 100). Most of them aren't real surprising in and of myself, except for the pleasant shock of the high placement of My Chemical Romance. "Signs" was nice to see up there, considering it wasn't really that big of a hit. There's also a gigantic and frequently batshit ILM thread about the list.

Note: In light of the end of Stylus in 2007, I decided to archive the text of all my reviews for the site on this blog for posterity, since I don't what the future holds for the Stylus domain:

16. R. Kelly – Trapped In The Closet

If the idea of a continuous multi-song suite that has thus far expanded over 12 parts and 40 minutes appearing on a singles list bugs you, then you can consider this entry representative for Chapter 1. After all, it got the most radio and video-play of all the story's chapters, and remains one of its most cohesive and legitimately suspenseful. But if you have a problem with R.'s brilliant and frequently hilarious musical soap opera being praised at all, then that's where you're out of luck, because no one else at his level of fame came up with such a ballsy idea this year, and actually carried it out to such unpredictable extremes.
[Al Shipley]

Labels: singles, some shit I wrote, Stylus

26. Toni Braxton - "Take This Ring"

Fucking amazing track and easily one of Rich Harrison's top 5 best productions. I don't know if this is even officially a single yet (supposedly it's going for adds in early '06) but it's gotten some spins on my local station and I can't get enough of it.



27. Franz Ferdinand - "Do You Want To"

I hated "Take Me Out" for the whole year it was inescapable, and even looking at that picture up there I still kind of hate them, but this one won me over pretty quickly even though I guess it's not that different from "Take Me Out". I think it's the intro that hooks me mainly.



28. Lil Mo - "Dem Boyz"

This set the D.C./Baltimore airwaves on fire back in the spring, and I'm so mad that it never really took off nationwide, even after the video with all the Baltimore scenery dropped. Chucky Thompson was Rich Harrison before Rich Harrison was Rich Harrison, bringing D.C. flavor to mainstream R&B, and there's a shitload of Go-Go in those drums.



29. Juelz Santana - "Mic Check 1, 2"

Neo Da Matrix from Ruff Ryders brings one of the hottest beats of the year and the kid who's even wack by Dipset standards manages not to ruin it.



30. Gucci Mane f/ Young Jeezy - "Icy"

Some people dragged it out for 6 months, but the whole Snowman bullshit was really only funny for about 5 minutes, and it was these 5 minutes.



31. Lil Jon & The Eastside Boyz f/ Usher and Ludacris - "Lovers & Friends"

As just another Usher slow jam this would be pretty subpar, but then they shoehorned in a Lil Jon verse to justify it being on his album, and then a Luda verse to complete the "Yeah!" triumverate, and ended up with something much more interesting. Lil Jon almost sounds like he's crying on his verse. Favorite lyric: "are you sure you wanna go this route?/let a nigga know before I pull it out".



32. Bobby Valentino f/ Lil Wayne - "Tell Me"

Weezy at his worst, but amazing beat and it more or less renders "Slow Down" unnecessary.



33. Fall Out Boy - "Dance Dance"

"Sugar, We're Going Down" never really did anything for me, but this one hooked me, especially the 2nd verse and the bridge into the chorus.



34. System Of A Down - "B.Y.O.B."

The week this dropped was maybe the first time since I was a teenager that I've been glued to the radio in anticipation of hearing a new hit rock song again and again.



35. Tony Yayo f/ G-Unit - "I Know You Don't Love Me"

50 hilariously playing into his own image as a paranoid, insecure superstar who worries that his groupies are running out the door to chase whatever other rappers are in town.



36. Black Eyed Peas - "Don't Lie"

The chorus sounds almost like a country song to me. And I swear, there have been a couple times that the Taboo verse actually got me a little emotional.



37. Toby Keith - "As Good As I Once Was"

Don't double dog dare me now.



38. Young Jeezy f/ Akon - "Soul Survivor"

I found a lot of Jeezy's celebratory trap shit kind of distasteful ("Icy" being celebratory non-trap shit), but this is the one track that really won me over, maybe the bleakest hit rap song of the year?



39. Nickelback - "Photograph"

What the hell is on Joey's head?



40. Coheed and Cambria - "The Suffering"

I'd apologize, but this is fucking great.



41. Damien Marley - "Welcome To Jamrock"

Overrated as hell but still not bad.



42. Rihanna - "Pon De Replay"

Run run run run everybody run run.



43. Jae Millz - "Who"

Another Nth generation New York mixtape rapper whose album will never drop but just keeps on churning out hot songs. Granted, it's no "No, No, No", but then, what is?



44. Purple Ribbon All-Stars - "Kryptonite"

Three 6 stutter hooks and S&C chopping aside, noone in rap ever really seemed to catch onto the subtle little repetitive vocal edits that various Native Tongues messed with in the early 90's (I'm thinking "Steve Biko (Stir It Up)" and one of those radio skits from De La Soul Is Dead), so it was cool to finally see someone pick up on that approach.



45. Webbie f/ Bun B - "Give Me That"

5 foot 7, a hundred and thirty nine pounds, etc etc.



46. Destiny's Child - "Girl"

I BEEN KNOWIN' YOU SINCE YOU WERE TEN!



47. T.I. - "U Don't Know Me"

Maybe never sounded better than in the context of the snippet at the end of the "Bring Em Out" video, but it was still cool to see it do well as its own single.



48. Lee Ann Womack - "I May Hate Myself In The Morning"

Classy award magnet country that's better than "I Hope You Dance".



49. Common f/ The Last Poets - "The Corner"

Couldn't stand it for a while, but it's a serious head-nodder.



50. Tyra - "Country Boy"

The best use of triplets this side of the Boyz N Da Hood single. Another one of those great R&B singles that fell through the cracks this year.

Labels: hip hop, Lil Wayne, lists, R and B, singles, T.I.

76. T.I. - "ASAP"

After a fair amount of crossover bullshit made its way onto Urban Legend, T.I. impressed me and a lot of other people by releasing hard songs like this as singles. Apparently T.I. didn't realize what a good choice he made, though, just because the song didn't go top 40, and he recently told MTV.com that he regrets releasing "ASAP" as a single and should've gone with "Get Loose" instead. Listen, man, pushing a wack song with Nelly didn't make Fat Joe go double platinum and it wouldn't have helped you, either! Stick to what people like you for.



77. Juvenile f/ Wacko - "Sets Go Up"

As a single, it didn't really go much further than some minor radio play and an appearance on a Southern Smoke mixtape, and it probably won't even be on Juve's next album, which is really a shame, because it's a fucking amazing track.



78. Snoop Dogg - "Ups & Downs"

Another great underperforming single by a popular rapper, hard as hell beat with a Bee Gees sample, really slipped uder the radar between all those slick Neptunes songs.



79. Kelly Osbourne - "One Word"

I don't know what song or artist from the 80's this is supposed to be ripping off and I don't really care, but the hook is pretty enormous in a weird subdued way.



80. The Killers - "All These Things That I've Done"

Even though they were already double platinum and had maybe the biggest rock single of the year by the time the Killers released this as a single, there was a serious feeling of them blowing it somehow by letting Anton Corbijn shoot a repulsively stupid video for the song that could have been their big grandiose U2 moment (ironically, Corbijn is of course one of U2's favorite video directors, but even U2 didn't let Corbijn touch "One" until they'd already shot 2 other videos for it!).



81. Marque Houston - "All Because Of You"

A pleasant soul beat and tons of vocal hooks from a consistent R&B underdog, slightly deflated by a no-name's guest verse.



82. Cam'ron f/ Kanye West and Syleena Johnson - "Down & Out"

Kanye has somewhat understandably dropped off in both the quality and frequency of his productions for other rappers while building up his solo career, but he managed at least one undeniable heater lately. But then again, this song supposedly dates back to the Come Home With Me sessions.



83. Weezer - "Perfect Situation"

Weezer is a band I've always loved to hate, but now and then I have to admit they come up with a pretty strong hook.



84. Alan Jackson - "The Talkin' Song Repair Blues"

Like Weezer, Alan Jackson knows the difference between a good and great single is stunt casting TV actors to lip sync in the video.



85. Sawyer Brown - "Mission Temple Fireworks Stand"

As bright and shiny and over the top as anything by Big & Rich, but a little more trad and I guess without enough of an ideological hook to get the same kind of attention.



86. J-Kwon f/ Petey Pablo and Ebony Eyez - "Get XXX'd"

Action movie rap that unfortunately didn't do much for an action movie soundtrack.



87. Good Charlotte - "I Just Wanna Live"

Hilarious squeaky fame whine complete with hilarious band-dressed-as-food video. I really do think the 2nd verse is a great piece of lyric writing, though.



88. 3 Doors Down - "Let Me Go"

I never liked "Superman" but this is a pleasant little power ballad.



89. Tony Yayo f/ 50 Cent - "So Seductive"

For the first couple months it was out I thought this was one of the worst singles of the year, mostly for that white noise snare buzz that the track's covered in, but it really grew on me over time. It sounds like some kind of cartoon superhero theme music, and "50 Cent! Back on that gangsta shit!" is "Go Speed Racer! Go Speed Racer! Go Speed Racer go!"



90. Paul Wall f/ Mike Jones and Bun B - "They Don't Know"

I heard the original version w/out Bun back when Chick Magnet came out and someone put it on a mix for me, and for a long time it was one of the only new school Houston records I was really feeling, and that new black & white video goes really well with it.



91. Brad Paisley - "Alcohol"

Generally I prefer his sillier tracks to be more "Me Neither" subtle than "Celebrity" broad, but this is pretty good for an example of the latter.



92. Mars Volta - "The Widow"

Better than anything else I've heard by them because it's short and slow and the dude sounds like the chick from Heart.



93. Young Jeezy f/ Mannie Fresh - "And Then What"

As an upbeat lead single for one of the biggest new artists of the year, this is pretty weak, and it's no wonder Jeezy was desperate to get "Icy" on his album. Even with big first week sales, it wasn't that much of a hit, especially compared to the much darker (and better) "Soul Survivor". Still, there is something I like about it, mostly the boom-boom-clap and the guitar melody.



94. Lil Jon & The Eastside Boyz f/ Bo Hagon - "Get Crunk"

Rips most of Lil Jon's formulaic hits from this year to shreds, and even though I've heard barely anything else by Bo Hagon, I love him just on the basis of the first few bars of his verse.



95. Hot Hot Heat - "Middle Of Nowhere"

I had plenty of reasons to hate Hot Hot Heat based on things like their name, their previous singles, and their singer's horrible voice and striking resemblence to Steven Cojocaru, but I have to admit this song is a pretty pleasant little jangly tune.



96. Dierks Bentley - "Lot Of Leavin' Left To Do"

Dierks Bentley is, like, so into his dog. He even makes out with it in the video. I bet there's some playful joke in the liner notes for his album, like that the dog played bass or something.



97. Audioslave - "Be Yourself"

Soundgarden were great and I'm very bitter about how shitty Audioslave usually is, but this song is pretty nice.



98. Shania Twain - "I Ain't No Quitter"

What does it mean that it's kind of surprising to see Shania Twain in a cowboy hat?



99. 50 Cent - "Hustler's Ambition"

Definitely not the somber universal crossover "Lose Yourself"-type record he would've needed for the movie to take him to the next level (or at least beat Chicken Little at the box office), but good nonetheless.



100. Toni Braxton - "Please"

If only there was a Grammy for Outstanding Achievement in Incorporating Sleigh Bells Into A Non-Christmas Record.

Labels: hip hop, Kanye West, lists, R and B, singles, T.I.