The Underground: Albums of the Year

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God damn, this was a good year for unsigned bands – or at least, their musical output. This was the year I finally, finally sat down and started working on The Underground – something I'd wanted to do for a long time. And you know what? Not only was I sharing music I had discovered earlier, but I myself discovered way more music than I thought I would. Good music. In fact, if you were to ask me whether I preferred the creative outputs this year of the signed or unsigned, I'd genuinely be … [Read more...]

Year In Review: Hip Hop in 2011

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Widely regarded as an unforgiving, volatile, and sometimes bleak genre, Hip Hop experienced one of it's brightest years in 2011. Fundamentals were kept intact while many innovations in the scene pushed the boundaries and increased potential for this culture made out of cultures. While Adele, Lady Gaga and other popular artists topped the charts, hip hop artists maintained their status in the industry by either dominating first week sales or participating in extensive touring. While there were … [Read more...]

Top 25 albums of 2011

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Our very talented writer James Brightman recently wrote up his top 20 albums of the year, and fellow writer and long time friend of mine Michael Starr is about to write his. All due respect to those two, but neither of them know what they're talking about and this is definitely the right list and you may as well not even read the others. Or, at least, I should make very clear it's my top 25 anyway. I'm Will. Hey. Writing this listed proved to be a tad more difficult than I originally thought … [Read more...]

Top 10 Mainstream Hip-Hop Albums of 2011

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With 2011 coming to a close, I can now say that I am proud of all the quality Hip-Hop albums released this year. Although it was a huge year for the independent scene, that doesn't mean that the mainstream didn't create a splash. Whether you agree or disagree, let us know how you feel. 10. Wale: Ambition: The man that leaves women's knees weak as he spews haikus that speak to the very depths of their souls. Many question if Wale is progressing in the right direction, but it's hard to debate … [Read more...]

Top 10 Indie Hip Hop Albums of 2011

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2011 has been an excellent year for hip hop as a whole, especially from the independent spectrum. With the lines between mainstream and underground getting more and more blurred, most indie rap albums released this year were either critically acclaimed across the boards or achieving breakthrough crossover status (Tyler, the Creator and A$AP Rocky being prime examples). I found it very difficult to rank the top 10 as I thoroughly enjoyed the overall energy and creativity flooding out of the indie … [Read more...]

Twenty Best Albums of 2011

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20. Clan of Xymox – Darkest Hour The progenitors of Dutch darkwave, Clan of Xymox are now in the third decade of their existence – a spectacular feat by most standards. To consistently produce quality albums within those thirty years, that is even more spectacular. But it seems that Ronny Moorings and company have surpassed themselves with Xymox’s thirteenth studio album. The inevitable comparisons to early Cure and even early Xymox themselves will appear. But is that necessarily a … [Read more...]

The Best TV of 2011 (That No One’s Watching)

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Those of you who read The Underground will know that I'm all about spreading the word of undiscovered quality. However, as I adorned my hipster-cape to write this “Best TV No One's Watching” list, something really quite sad hit me, really hard. I think if I were simply writing a “Best of TV” list, it would be pretty much exactly the same as this one, except for the additions of Mad Men, Homeland and Boardwalk Empire (Boy did the latter of really step its game up this year!). A common … [Read more...]