Best of 2010

The artists and labels who adapted to the current music climate, managed to compete and enjoy a good year.

Producer Of The Year – Kanye West
The defining factor was West’s versatility. He was able to craft records for the radio and the die hard hip hop fans. Not to mention his production on the critically acclaimed release – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Label Of The Year – Cash Money Records
For their ability to release back to back gold and platinum records while breaking new artists in the process.
It appears that the label has successfully crossed over to different genres as well with artists such as Jay Sean & Kevin Rudolf.

Rookie Of The Year – Lex Luger
At 19 years of age Luger brought a bass heavy sound that could be heard from the traps of Zone 6 to the nightclubs of NY, LA & Miami.

Draft Pick Of The Year – Wiz Khalifa to Atlantic Records
Had a sold out tour and a Gold single. Nuff said.

Album Of The Year – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Well balanced record that combines West’s introspectiveness with commentary on society, fame and love.

Rapper Of The Year – Lloyd Banks
The PLK was the sharpest lyricist out – if we’re talking about straight back to basics MC’ing.

Verse Of The Year: Nas – Victory
The lyrical equivalent of Rocky Balboa eating raw eggs and running up the steps in Philly.

Mixtape DJ Of The Year – DJ Drama
It’s almost becoming cliche’ but he brought us “quality street music” from Cam’ron & Vado, Jadakiss, LEP Bogus Boyz to mention a few.

Most Improved Player – Tyga
After tightening up his flow and developing his content, Tyga was able to appear on 2 hit singles. One for the future.

Guilty Pleasure of The Year – Flockaveli
The album may have lacked thought provoking & technical material, but it helped to provide some much needed aggressive content.

Indie Release Of The Year – Pilot Talk 2
Curren$y’s tales of weed, women and wheels over fresh sounding instrumentation was a must have for those who wanted something to ride and zone to. It was uplifting in a strange kind of way.

Mixtape Of The Year – Boss of All Bosses 2.5
There is no way anybody heard every mixtape this year. Out of the many I heard, I was most impressed by this one. Cam’ron sounded hungry again and Vado showed his versatility from the underground hit Speakin Tounges to the back to basics records such as Soul Plane and Fuck A Freestyle.