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MUSIC: The CouchSessions Music In Review 2015
It's that time of year; you've got your mistletoe, bad gifts, upcoming champagne hangovers and LISTS. LOTS AND LOTS OF LISTS. Here's what we loved, hated, chuckled over, and have planned revenge for in 2015 at the Couchsessions. It's a glimpse of what amused us and while we are here we hope that your 2015 was as great as ours. SEE YOU IN THE NEXT YEAR FOLKS!!!
BEST MEME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQRwFn7WPk8
If 2012 was the year that memes were that thing that made you funny on the Internets, 2015 was the year that memes actually put money in people's pockets. Of course Drake has been a walking meme for a minute now, craftily aligning his marketing campaigns around how the Internet reacts around him. However, it was James Wright's comically passionate horizintally filmed video that not only put the fledgling Patti Labelle's pies on the map, it put a reported $2 million dollars into Patti's pockets and created a unrealized market on eBay for the holiday staple.
BIGGEST FAIL OF THE YEAR
This year you had MC Hammer find a way to lose all his money, again. You had the normally reliable pro-black Common go respectability politics on us. But there was no bigger fail then Meek Mill who decided to fuck up his most successful album of his career by picking a fight with Drake. What happened next is something of legend; where even corporations took time from shilling their products to crack jokes at his expense. He also managed to end the year most with possibly going back to jail for handing in water instead of urine for his mandatory drug test.
ALBUM COVER OF THE YEAR
While people were using cheap stock photos for their album covers, Miguel went full sexy for his album Wildheart. A throwback to the classic album covers of the 70's that many of us conceived to its a visual nod to the fact somewhere in space, beautiful brown people are getting it on. One question though; what exactly is his right hand doing?
COMEBACK OF THE YEAR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO_3Qgib6RQ
I even feel bad putting this topic in this category. Simply put while a little too many modern R&B scarlet’s are borrowing from the Aaliyah blueprint not enough are talented enough to steal from where she got her swag, Missy Elliot. As a producer, singer, songwriter, and dancer she was a the forefront of pop and R&B for a decade and her videography can stand next to Michael Jackson and Madonna as some of the most innovative piece of musical films ever put to celluloid. After a decade long absence she’s finally releasing music again, and as a result it seems less of a comeback for her (since she made her mark already) but a chance for R&B to come back to its senses again. You’ve been missed.
THE GUCCI MANE RAP SHEET OF THE YEAR AWARD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE0N9tTs2Ho
Love em or most likely hate them what amazes me is how the heck does Migos find time to tour, shoot at people, rack up charges that keeps one of them in jail at any given time, and are still able to release multiple album quality mixtapes every year? A month ago Migos member Offset got out of jail after going in for multiple drug and gun charges. Don't know how they do it, but I am pretty sure whoever their manager is probably working on their third ulcer this year.
ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Without officially dropping an album (If You're Reading This...was technically a mixtape, along with the underrated Future collab What A Time To Be Alive) Drake ruled the rap world with an iron fist; doling out swift and harsh justice towards infidels like Meek Mill, helped inspire a new Badu mixtape with his biggest hit to date with "Hotline Bling" and even got drunk with Swedish twins and woke up with their tattoo on him for good measure.
SELLOUT OF THE YEAR
Remember when the Weeknd was expanding R&B's horizons by bringing in Massive Attack/Portishead levels of atmosphere and gravitas to a genre that found itself in pop and hip-hop heavy doldrums? Remember when we had no idea who he was but yet he still managed to keep his aesthetic clean with his American Apparel from hell iconography? That guy's dead. Instead we got a bootleg Michael Jackson selling vape pens.
LIVE ACT OF THE YEAR
We go to plenty of live shows a year and hip-hop shows can be a chore to go through. While it's as exciting a genre as ever on wax in live form more often then not its a sloppy mess of MC's with no stage presence or breath control, rapping too low over their own pre-recorded vocals. Boring. That Run The Jewels?. Whew. Their secret for being one of the best touring acts in the world today? They actually love what they are doing, and it shows. They are doing God's work in showing where live hip-hop should be.
VIDEO OF THE YEAR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZTYgq4EoRo
Damn, this is a tough one. Kendrick Lamar though. "For Free" was probably one of the most absurdly delicous videos I've seen in a long time. How often does a music video spark a 2 hour discussion about it's meaning and symobolism? Gotta credit Kendrick for pushing things foward.
BEST CONTRIBUTION TO MUSIC
Apple's Beats 1 Radio. Let's face it....music engagement is in it's dire days. WIth Beats 1, Apple has selected a group of DJs and Celebrities who actually give a damn about music. Who are passionate about the craft. And even thought they pay a lot of Drake (gotta get that $40 million worth), that station has singlehandlely recreated my music collection this year.
BEST ALBUM THAT YOU PROBABLY DIDN'T LISTEN TO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z32HJ7PHnKY
The Internet - Ego Death. The once Odd Future side project really came onto it's on with Ego Death. Their sureallist expression of low-key R&B is their best work to date, and their Grammy nomination is much deserved
