Hip-Hop in 2012

In the wake of Lupe Fiasco’s departure from hip-hop, the universe seemed intent on maintaining its balance. For there were artists and albums that managed to transcend hip-hop, ensuring that it would forever remain an artform of eloquent expansion and grace. The earliest parts of 2012 saw a meshing of genres that seemed to take the basic construct of hip-hop back to its roots — sampling genres and artists to create beats and rhythms that made people dance and become awestruck with its innovation.

My first taste of the spectacular was Wes Felton. His album Handle With Care (my #8 New Sound of 2012), and later Heavy Mellow, brought soul and R&B together to create a sound that was at once hip-hop and a bit of modern art. Indeed, Felton was one of a few artists who managed to bring the smooth texture of soul music to the genre and create something that most would try to label as “conscious rap”, but is, in fact, more an understanding of music as whole.

Producer Ohnomite released his album Oh No and housed some of the most promising artists and sounds of the year. His collaboration with one of my favorite jazz artists Jose James and one third of one of my favorite hip-hop groups Phife Dawg on track Dues N Don’ts was smooth, clear [1]. It was the sort of track that makes people fall in love with music, fall in love with its scope and purity. It combined the intricacy of jazz and the grit of soul to give the world an in-depth peek into what music is: boundless and full of elegant potential.

Ohnomite wasn’t the only producer to create some astonishing cross-genre hip-hop. Tall Black Guy’s Brazilian Chronicles (my #6 New Sound) took traditional samba rhythms and infused his brand of airy beatmaking to create something that was equal parts stunning and almost emotionally compromising. Indeed, I was almost thrown into hysterics when I first got my hands on the album. It served to put the almost unabashed prettiness of hip-hop in the spotlight, something that most people don’t usually see in the genre. It was truly and simply a beautiful piece of work.

And then, oh then, there’s Flying Lotus. His Until The Quiet Comes was more than just an expansion of hip-hop, more than just an electronic interpretation of sounds to give the artform greater depth and meaning. Rather, Flying Lotus’s album was reflection, a once unexplored part of the hip-hop universe that he traversed and gave form, line, and plane to. His work this year was nothing short of a revelation. He opened up the world of hip-hop and poured molten brilliance inside. What we have goes beyond the genre and becomes a sort of soul synesthesia in which every beat, every bump, every sound acts on one synapse and forces the others around it to jump until the entire body is awash with sensation. This album is an amalgamation of everything that hip-hop seeks to do: inform, enlighten, and inspire.

Until The Quiet Comes sort of served as the paragon of hip-hop this year, highlighting the grandiosity of the genre in 2012. What hip-hop did this year was powerful. It managed to do something great and unprecedented, brought back legends and made newer stars of the genre legendary. It brought in nuance and excitement, new voices to usher in the dawning new era of the genre and give the world something filling. There was the fluff and pop of the radio — some of it good, but very little of it interesting. However, what these artists did was bring in the substance as well as the style, bringing innovation and maturity to a craft that’s become questionable in the past decade and a half. I don’t know what it was about 2012, but somehow every artist with a voice to bring about change did just that and gave us all something exciting to look forward to in 2013.