Top 10 Songs of 2019

End of the year again, same list, same rules. However this year I’m excluding any Kanye song from making this list. I dove really really really deep into ye discography this year and I feel like including Mr. West would feel unfair to the rest of the competition since I could make up like 8-9 of the top songs this year from Kanye songs alone. So here’s the rest of the list.

Honorable mentions this year are Ghostin (Ariana), Porno (IDK), Excuse Me (Rocky), and Still Loving You (Scorpions).

10. Liquor Locker - Vic Mensa / Ty Dolla Sign

Not gonna pretend I know a lot about Vic Mensa. He seems like he tries to be a lil edgy sometimes and it comes off a lil corny. But he does make a good song here and there and I really liked Liquor Locker. It’s a cool acoustic hip hop song which doesn’t come up a lot. Ty dolla sign also puts in a mean verse. I really wish his name wasn’t that or that he didn’t have it tattooed front and center on his neck cause he’s really good on features but I hate saying I like ty dolla sign lol.

9. Over My Dead Body - Drake

Take care is really a cornerstone album for modern hip hop, which is weird cause at the time it was really groundbreaking for Drake. The opening track jus lays out the expectations for the album in one of Drake’s most underrated songs ever. The chorus vocals are original which took me by surprise too so good job on that one.

8. Don’t Matter To Me (Demo) - Drake

This is what Drake’s lane of music really should be. He sounds really good on this one and it fits the vibe of his voice a lot more than how the finished song came out on Scorpion. No disrespect to the king of pop or anything but Michael Jackson’s vocals sound really forced, and it woulda been better without the feature. This type of sound is really what I thought Take Care would evolve into, but Drake decided to go the cash route and I can’t blame him. This demo is one of the only songs I’m really about from Drake in years tho.

7. Christian Dior Denim Flow - Good Music

Not counting this as Kanye as it’s technically from his label, but I thought I’d throw it in here anyways. This is a great song to capture maximalist Kanye as it was in the works leading up to MDBTF. Mostly everyone on this song gives excellent verses, but it was definitely essay format with weakest 2 verses in the middle if you catch my drift. But Cudi does this song justice on the hook that grounds the entire song and with the last verse transitioning to the guitar solo to finish off.

6. The Devil is a Lie - Rick Ross / Jay-Z

This song is like 75% carried by the insane Gene Williams sample that makes up most of the melody in the instrumental. Don’t get me wrong the verses are all really strong and cohesive but like holy moly this beat slaps. Ross is a way better MC than I anticipated and tbh I only heard him in features before but I might hafta go through some albums. Jay-Z always does his thing too and when he said “is Hov an atheist I never fuck with True Religion” that was a hot ass line cause true religion ugly af.

5. Gravity (Live in LA) - John Mayer

Always got a soft spot in my heart for this album. Watching the clips of this show is insanity, this is prolly in like top 3 shows I wish I coulda gone to, up there with TLOP tour and prime Hendrix. If John Mayer was prominent in the 80’s or 90’s this guy would prolly go down as an all time great artist, but the reality is that the appreciation for this type of music is way less in the limelight now. The Live in LA versions of his songs have some of the best soloing I’ve ever heard, including the Slow Dancing in a Burning Room solo. The gravity solo here is one of the simplest and most linear solos but it still hits every note super hard. This man is definitely one of the greatest guitarists alive.

4. Civil War - Guns n Roses

Going through Use your Illusion II I forgot the tonal shift from Use Your Illusion I. This opening song is both a melodic banger which ground itself with excellent repetitive guitar riffs but also with social commentary on war and the price of human life. Apparently I really like opening tracks this year lol. The outro to this song is also one of the best I’ve heard in rock music. The rain effect with the minimalistic guitar and that “what’s so civil about war anyways” makes me feel some kinda way every time.

3. Cleanin Out My Closet - Eminem

Honestly quite a few songs from the Eminem Show coulda made my top 10, but goin with Cleanin Out My Closet was an easy choice. This song was on straight repeat for like a week at least. This was eminem while he was still lyrically liberally aggressive, while also on the path to becoming more comfortable talking about his own personal struggles (prolly the optimal amount of both, since music before was mostly anecdotal and music after started becoming corny…). This song is like the antagonist to Kanye’s “Hey Mama” and I’m just as much about the ugly side of it as I am the hopeful side. It’s an amazing ode to imperfection. Also the fact that each verse builds up momentum (he only mentions his mom once in the last line of the first verse) is also one of my favorite aspects of this song.

2. Cinderella - Mac Miller / Ty Dolla Sign

Damn again w the Ty Dolla Sign features I just really wish he wasn’t called that. This year aside from the deep as fuck dive I took into Kanye music I also looked a lot more into Mac Miller, which is unfortunate after his death. The Feminine Divine is prolly up there with Swimming in terms of his best albums. Maybe not as complete, but still incredibly thematically cohesive and with a distinct sound. Cinderella is supposedly his only song about Ariana but really there’s references all throughout his songs. The first half of this song works you up to paint a picture of longing for intimacy, but the second half knocks you back down to conclude that all good things must come to an end.

1. 2009 - Mac Miller

This was an easy number 1 song choice for the year. I think the situational importance of this song for how my year played out (esp during May/June when I first heard it) pushed it over the top. This was the crown jewel on Swimming, which I’m still salty lost the grammy to fuckin Cardi B. 2009 is a journey of self acceptance, and taken with the context of Mac’s suicide tells listeners to truly count your blessings. The simple wordplay on here frames the central message, and when I hear the way he starts his first verse with “you gotta jump in to swim” it still hits jus as hard as when I first heard it. The string orchestra he used in the intro gives off a somber vibe, but surprisingly transitions to a fairly optimistic instrumental. Taken together with the lyrics it elevates gloomy subject matters to have a hopeful tone. Even the transition from the reflective nature of the first verse to the forward acceptance of the second verse was excellent. This is one of those songs that you should listen to front to back, while doing nothing at all, at least once. There is also a great live performance of this on Tiny Desk Concerts.