Top 5 Albums of 2018 (So Far)

When boredom strikes, that's when I love to provide my opinion the most. Since this mood comes quite seldom, I've decided to take advantage of this lull and provide you, the viewer with what I believe to be the top five albums of the year, so far. Of course they'll be missing genre's such as heavy metal or country, but that's only due to the fact I believe those genres are incapable of producing any form of quality material. Without further ado, here's my top five albums of 2018, so far.

5.) Isolation by Kali Uchis

This spot was nearly taken by U.S Girl's album "In A Poem Unlimited" but the smooth sounds of Kali Uchis simply had more tracks that catered to my more daily vibes, so I'm a bit biased. During this project, listeners are treated to tracks filled with a songwriter's coming-of-age confidence and show stealing guest verses. Featuring guests such as Bootsy Collins, Jorja Smith and Tyler, The Creator, this album completes one of the more difficult tasks of making an album of 15-tracks flow together, almost effortlessly. Whether its Kali's underrated vocal range, or her superb beat-selection, I've yet to take this album out of my rotation and I encourage you to give this album a listen if you haven't yet.

4) Invasion Of Privacy- Cardi B.

So what she yet to write a single lyric. So what she can't pronounce her T's or S's (hmmm did I put that correctly or is it "esses" honestly not sure) her album is hot. The Bronx Queen came with an album that'll far outlast the petty opinion of hip-hop purists such as myself, it'll very well beat the test of time itself. The single reason why this album didn't make it higher on my list is because of the blatant ghostwriting. Should it have been completely written by her, I might have put this album at #2.

3) Kids See Ghost.

C'mon! its a Kanye West and Kid Cudi collaboration album, what more could you want!

Whether it's Kanye West 's top-notch production or those iconic, melodic-hums of Cudi, this album gives you everything you could want in a collaborative album between the two artist. Despite the album being seven songs long, it still feels like a breath of fresh air in hip-hop. What truly distinguishes this album from its peers is the ability to address social issues such as mental-health while keeping listeners interested within its sonically pleasing tracks. While this is far from either artist's best work, this album allows hip-hop fans to a reminder that hip-hop is still in great hands.

2) Daytona- Pusha-T

On Daytona, commercial hip-hop fans discovered something that many hip-hop purist already knew, Pusha-T is really REALLY good. Pusha-Thanos effectively puts forth one of his best solo-efforts alongside Kanye's classic production. While this is another case of the 2018-Kanye-seven-machine, all seven tracks on this album are flawless. On Daytona, not a single bar is wasted, not a single second of production is flawed, every feature serves a purpose and every message is received.

While it's understandable that Pusha-Terrance's style may not be for everyone, his shortcomings within the subject matter department are masked though Kanye West's brilliant production. West's darker-toned production style helps paint the perfect picture for listeners far before Pusha-Tea spits a verse. This album is art, this album paints the gritty picture of hip-hop while delivering an classic trap-rap album.

1) Dirty Computer- Janelle Monáe

While I don't believe that it's possible for the perfect album to exist due to music's ever-growing nature, I do believe that this is the closest we'll receive in the year 2018. I don't believe it's possible to give this album too much praise as Monáe has single handily delivered an unapologetic musical masterpiece. Without providing too much hyperbole, I'll simply put it this way, as a project, this album is put forth as a single song that's ever-growing and changing little-by-little track-by-track but still remaining one cohesive record. While that maybe impressive on its own, it becomes further impressive once you realize that she's singing, rapping, and performing better than most artist today.

As an album its as ambitious as Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp A Butterfly" in-terms of talent level, its as skilled as Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy." There's little-to-nothing wrong with this album as Monáe's raw talent shines through alongside her polished artist exuberance, creating a project that's nothing short of an album of the year candidate.

Thank you for reading this.