Top 10 Hip-Hop Songs of 2020
I have a newfound respect for what the people over at places like What Culture and WatchMojo do on a daily basis. They release lists every single day of the year and here I am, struggling to come up with six ideas for lists. It isn’t so much that I don’t have plenty of things I care about writing and ranking, it's more so that the lists I do for list week this year need to be relevant to sports and hip-hop throughout this specific year of 2020. That inherently narrows my options down a lot more than either of the outlets I mentioned above, but the respect remains all the same.
Today’s list was a particularly hard one to put together. All the other lists have much smaller fields of possible entrants so for me to narrow this year down to its ten best tracks and four honorable mentions was genuinely wreaking havoc on my brain. The other major issue with this list is finding the balance between objectivity and subjectivity. There are two songs that will be on this list that I would never put on a personal list, but due to significance I could not leave them off. Whereas the underground hip-hop scene is underrepresented because I did not have as much time for deep dive music listening this year as I have had in years past. I have compiled a list that I am proud of. I genuinely believe any person that calls themselves a fan of hip-hop should listen to each track on this list and, if the song calls for it, really try to digest the message the song conveys.
Before we get into the top ten I have a few honorable mentions. I won’t list them in any particular order either. The first honorable mention is “Godzilla (ft. Juice Wrld)” by Eminem. Eminem uses fifteen different flows, Juice Wrld’s hook is perfect, and the honestly bittersweet note this song has, knowing how massive of an Eminem fan Juice was and the fact that he never got to see the release of this song, is heartbreaking. Go watch Juice Wrld freestyle over Eminem beats for one hour. It is absolutely stunning to watch. Next I want to highlight “Leader Of The Delinquents” by Kid Cudi. Scott Mescudi released a wonderful album this year, yet somehow I think this song is just a tiny bit better than the songs on that project. Cudi sounds as good on this track as he has at any time in his career and the beat teamed with the humming is vintage Cudder.
“Blue World” by Mac Miller is the next honorable mention for me. This is maybe the most upbeat song on Mac’s posthumous release Circles and it is also the second best (more on this later) in my opinion. The song begins with an old soul sample and quickly flips it into this wubbing synth and this fantastic upbeat drum pattern that still gives me chills when it all comes together. Mac is just talking about how crazy the world is and how you just have to embrace it. This album will be on a list later this week, spoiler alert. The last honorable mention is “End Of Daze” by Spillage Village. This was the lead single of the album they would release later in the year and it’s just a groovy hip-hop track with some heavy hitting bass talking about what their lives would be like if the world just up and ended, which was fitting for the year that 2020 was. With the honorable mentions done, let's get to the list.
Number 10: “WHAT’S POPPIN’” by Jack Harlow
This song is not a lyrical masterpiece. The flows on this song are nothing special or unique. The rhyme schemes don't have this amazing depth to them, but this song has one of the most infectious trap beats and catchiest hooks of the year. The world was introduced to Jack Harlow this year, and this song was a good first impression. The one-liners are witty and every single person immediately added the phrase “what’s poppin” to their vernacular; or I did at least. This was one one of the most popular tracks of the year and is too big to ignore.
Number 9: “Shimmy” by Aminé
Aminé went away for a while after his last release. Then in February of this year the man came back with one of the best pure hip-hop tracks of the year. Aminé gives you three verses each around eight bars, a catchy as all hell chorus, and a beat built off the back of a vocal sample “Ahh”-ing and a simple drum pattern that builds and fades away and has all sorts of little flairs throughout. Boi-1da crafted some hip-hop brilliance with this beat and Aminé would be letting us know that he is very much still one of the best around. He would be solidifying this claim with the fantastic album he would drop later on in the year.
Number 8: “Savage Remix” (ft. Beyoncé) by Megan Thee Stallion
The song was already a hit that had permeated into the daily lexicon and was impossible to avoid. Megan’s flows are brilliant and the beat is the perfect combination of hard hitting and groovy. This song was already going to make a case for top ten song of the year. Then Megan went and added Beyoncé to the mix and the deal was closed. If a top ten songs of the year list does not have this song on it, ignore it. This song is brilliant and is impossible to complain about. It’s not deep or some musical masterclass. What it is, is the boppiest of bops and should be played at every party from now until roughly 2064.
Number 7: “Scottie Beam (ft. Rick Ross)” by Freddy Gibbs and The Alchemist
Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist got together to make one of the most amazing hip-hop albums of the past five years. The production from Alchemist on this track is led by this fantastic low-key jazz piano and the beat never goes outside of itself or takes over. The Freddie verse is all about police brutality and how being black in America puts you at a disadvantage and is inherently dangerous. One of the first lines in the song is “Your execution may be televised.” The song was perfect for the time it was released in as the protest stuff post George Floyd was really kicking off. The only thing holding the song back is Rick Ross’ verse. It’s actually quite a good verse, the theme just doesn’t quite fit.
Number 6: “Baptize (Ft. Ant Clemmons)” by Spillage Village
The second track on their album, Spillage Village came out with one of the best posse cuts of the year. The song has these religious overtones between the lyrics and the almost hymnal sounding vocal sample laced throughout the thumping hip-hop beat focused on its drums. The song is about flipping the meaning of the word baptize to mean an education through the music. Spillage Village is teaching us about what their world is like while also questioning if the plan God has for Blacks in America is the correct one. The track ends in this begging for God to “Fall down on me” but in the more religious sense with his glory. It was another perfect track for the year we had and does it over one of the most killer beats of the year.
Number 5: “DIET_” by Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats
This track came off of the fantastic and way too short “Unlocked” by Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats. Specifically “DIET_” gives us a very tribal sounding beat with these bouncy and hollow sounding drums. Denzel Curry delivers one of his slower and more deliberate flows on this track. The song is aggressive and braggadocious and showcases the brilliant production of Kenny while going back to what made Denzel famous in the first place. Half of the tracks on this EP could have been put here but this one is my personal favorite from the project.
Number 4: “JU$T (ft. Pharell Williams and Zach de la Rocha)” by Run The Jewels
Run The Jewels is the greatest gift to hip-hop. The refrain tells you the whole story. It repeats “Look at all these slave masters posing on your dollar.” Killer Mike and El-P enlisted the help of Pharell on the pre-chorus and frequent collaborator de la Rocha to put together this track criticizing the values of our system and how well they can be built if everything in our world is ruled by money. The song discusses the world’s dependence on money and how that completely warps people into doing things they otherwise wouldn’t. The hard hitting vocals of de la Rocha close out the track with a perfect contrast to Killer Mike’s slower flow and El-P’s more laid back delivery. The way these three mesh tells you all you need to know about why they have made so many tracks together.
Number 3: “Frank Lucas (ft. Benny the Butcher)” by Freddy Gibbs and The Alchemist
This track is named after the gangster that the movie American Gangster is based around. Alchemist continues to produce these simple but hard hitting beats that evolve and change without ever leaving their pocket. Freddy Gibbs talks about dealing and all the things you would expect out of him on a song named after a notorious gangster. The feature from Benny the Butcher is why this song gets the three spot. Benny and Freddie are cut from the same cloth in the absolute best of ways. Neither is trying to outshine each other or get fancy for the sake of it. They do what they do best and focus entirely on telling the best story they can in however many bars they need to tell it. This song is my favorite from this album and this album is, like I said in the previous entry from Alfredo, one of the best of the past five years.
Number 2: “Righteous” by Juice Wrld
This is a little bit of a sentimental pick. The lead single from Juice Wrld’s posthumous album is this acoustic guitar lead instrumental with trap drums underneath. This is one of the most meaningful songs of the year. Juice had been teasing this song for months before he passed away, and when it was finally released it was immediately recognized as one of Juice Wrld’s most impactful songs. The soulful ballad features a combination of rapping, singing, and Juice’s patented version of the auto-crooning he helped make popular. The song covers his usual topics of drugs and fashion, but also goes into his fall into drug use. That being what would kill him makes the song hit that much harder. The song is genuinely a beautiful, soulful track that reminds you of exactly why Jarad Anthony Higgins could have been one of the most talented and successful artists in hip-hop had it not been for his unbelievably untimely death.
Number 1: “Good News” by Mac Miller
I did say we weren’t done with Mac Miller. This is going to be a long entry so buckle in. When this track released, and I watched the music video, I cried. This is the only song of 2020 to make me cry. This was Mac Miller’s first song his estate officially released after his passing in September 2018. The song starts off with a stringed instrumental lead in. The beat is this gorgeous acoustic instrumental. The first verse starts with no drums or bass. We don’t get any percussion until around the forty-five second mark. It took about that long for me to tear up. Mac takes the first verse to lament the constant need from everyone to hear good news about life. Mac asks, “Why can’t it just be easy, why does everyone need me to say?” Mac closes the first verse talking about how there is no better time than the time we are living in, and that even though he is doing his best to figure everything out, he just ends up being the one to apologize.
The hook is simple enough. It conveys the overall message of the song, everybody looking for things that aren’t there and not allowing people to live in their own happiness. The second verse gets a little more into Mac’s psyche. He tries to stay positive but he always ends up being self destructive. He sums himself up perfectly in the middle of the verse with the line “Why I gotta build something beautiful just to go set it on fire?” Mac lives in his own head and even when he tries to talk to people and tell them the truth, he just says things that he wants to hear from himself. He lies but unintentionally.
The third verse is where I personally couldn’t contain my emotions. I struggle to as I write this. Frankly, just go listen to the track. Mac begins talking about the afterlife in a way that is absolutely gut-wrenching for fans of his, and fans of hip-hop in general.
I ranked these songs prior to writing this list. I listened to them all again as I was compiling the list and then I listened again with Genius open as I wrote the entries. I love this list, but I felt weird putting “Good News” at number one. Was I being too emotional and allowing myself to be completely subjective? The deeper I got into the write up of the song and the more I read deeper than I ever had into the lyrics, the more I knew I had made the right choice. The greatest thing music does is give us an emotional outlet. Mac Miller managed to give us the perfect emotional outlet for his passing, and he did it while he was still alive. There is a beauty in that sentiment that is nowhere else in music this year or even in the past decade as far as I can recall. “Good News” is my number one hip-hop track of the year; and I have zero regrets about that.