As part of our end of year review, we asked some of our favourite artists of 2024 what they’ve been listening to and watching this year.
New Jersey rapper, Fatboi Sharif is the otherworldly innovator of the hip-hop underground. His collaboration with Roper Williams, Something About Shirley, was no. 5 in our top EPs of the year. He recommends his top albums, songs, and movies of 2024.
Top Albums
ELUCID – Revelator: Once again ELUCID proves that he’s a one of one as far as the way he attacks his artistry and the new album is no different. It’s a album that deserves repeated listens and each time you’ll get a new experience, and the layers you dig thru create a force in every way possible.
Beans – ZWAARD: An album that I fell in love with and put a bunch of people onto that will forever stick with me. You’re always transported to a different planet whenever Beans drops an album and that’s exactly what you get from this. I can’t explain the brilliance of it in words, it’s something you have to hear for yourself.
Dis Fig & The Body – Orchards of a Futile Heaven: I saw them live a few months back in NYC, where they where touring in support of this, and it was one of the greatest shows I’ve ever been to, and that elevated the greatness of the album to a whole ‘nother level for me. Separately, Dis Fig and The Body have amazing catalogs of music that I’ve always loved – you gotta do yourself a favor and dig into some – so them connecting was truly a match made in heaven for me.
ØKSE – ØKSE: The Backwoodz Studioz self-titled from the international experimental jazz quartet, who before this project I never heard of, but after this release I’m certainly eager and excited to hear what they cook up next. A project that will have you guessing what sound you’ll hear next and amazed on how it’s distributed with guest vocals from Billy Woods, ELUCID, Cavalier and maassai.
Top Movies
The Substance: Films like this is the reason I feel in love with movies from the beginning. To me, true filmmaking creates worlds that you may have not seen before or you may not even know how to react to for years, and this did exactly that for me.
Alien: Romulus: An amazing add-on to the Alien legacy. I saw it like three times in the theater and each time fell in love with it more and more. The feeling and vibe it left me in straight thru was unmatched and I’m excited to see where they take it next.
Strange Darling: A very strong gem this year that before I actually went to see it I only saw the poster and from that I was interested. Going into it, I was completely blind on what it was about and for certain I was in for a wild ride. Half way thru I was bit confused, eager, and left on the edge of my seat until the ending.
Cuckoo: The trailer for this had me hooked when I saw it for the first time a couple months before it was released and I’ll be the first to say the final product is every bit as off the wall as it seemed and more. Very creative, original and leaves you with an uneasy feeling that you wanna revisit.
Top Songs
Beans – ZWAARD 10: One of the best tracks on ZWAARD that, at this point, I’ve listened to over 100 times. Each time with just as much joy and excitement.
Roper Williams – Act Like U Know (ft. Lungs): The first single off the new Roper Williams album, Too Beautiful To Die, has been getting heavy rotation from me as well. I heard this track over a year ago on this beat set Roper did; safe to say I was blown away by it and never forgot, with its hypnotizing loop and soul-snatching vocals from Lungs (Another Planet 4 and Carrot Season are two of my favorite albums from the past few years as well, that he’s done with Phiik). This track stands on its own quality-wise.
Previous Industries – Braids: Big shout out to Open Mike Eagle, Video Dave and STILL RIFT. Their Service Merchandise album from this past year was huge for me, with it’s feel of cypher-style rhyming, but content-wise layered with much more, and production from a platter of different sounds from mostly Child Actor, Quelle Chris and Smoke Bonito. Braids was one of the early singles that dropped in support of the project and I think sums it up in a great way; from where the guys take it lyrically, to just their incredible and flawless chemistry with each other.
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