What is there to be excited about in 2010? Well I have to say there’s plenty of noise coming from the Slaughterhouse group (well supergroup). In the past hip-hop supergroups have been nothing but significant flops, here’s looking at you ‘The Firm’. However this group consisting of some the great names of noughties Hip-Hop (Royce 5’9, Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, and Crooked I) have begun their quest to conquer hip-hop. Now they are following up their first album with Slaughterhouse 2.0, and I am certainly expecting great things from this album, with their ability to inter-play with one another with great confidence and all having great flows, I feel this foursome could break through this year.
Joe Budden is also releasing The Great Escape the continuation of his Padded Room series, and its final album. Having listened to Escape Route, especially considering this album is made from the cut of The Great Escape, I am almost certain The Great Escape is going to be something brilliant.
Nas also returns to our shelves this year, or the iTunes equivalent of shelves, with the long awaited collaboration with Damien Marley. If the noughties thought us anything it’s that Nas is never dead and gone (Stillmatic and Hip-Hop is Dead both being defining albums) and it also thought us that alternative is the business. Furthermore Nas is returning after his politically charged album Untitled, so this collaboration is definitely going to be cutting at the problems of America and possibly the world.
What’s more Aftermath are making a significant return to the scene with the promise of two albums from Dr. Dre and Eminem. However I am greeting this news with a certain degree of trepidation. Firstly I wasn’t the biggest fan of the pre-packaged, commercially driven Relapse; Eminem knows how to play towards his target audience, and if I have to hear another song about him lampooning his public persona I might kill myself. Dre’s album should also be met with some disdain; his production of late has been definitely been lacklustre, he has dropped off the face of the earth when it comes to significant underground collaborations and as a result probably has alienated some of his more noteworthy ghost-writers.
Outside of the main-names in the game I am certainly looking forward to more independent work: Jedi Mind Tricks, Madlib (two albums on the cards so far), DJ Green Latern and Styles P are finally releasing their album, and Comrega is returning to the scene too (one of my favourite underground returners from the 00s.)
So in summary, it’s going to be a decent year for hip-hop.