Wow. We’re here at the top. Who would have thought! When I look at the songs in this top five, shocked would be the last word I would use.
5. Metal Band by Spose and Jarv
For me Spose is the reason that I have found and enjoy so many other artists. Without listening to Spose, I would have never found JR Specs, MC Lars, Cam Groves, Kristina Kentigian, and now Jarv. And because of that, my ears were blessed with this lyrical masterpiece that Jarv and Spose collaborated on.
A Maine and Vermont alliance that created a toon consisting of audio drops and sick rhymes is the reason that this song is so high on the countdown. Right from the jump, Spose lassos attention. “I'll have the performative poems that make 'em board up their home, And make the sound guy stop watchin' porn on his phone”.
Jarv slides in for the second verse and hammers you over the head crazy flow. Lines like “If you are what you eat then I'm a vagina with an appetite, Ugh, now that's one hell of a sound bite” and “Uh, it's the vagabond, padawans, tattle on, Rappin' as if I were tryin' to battle Mickey Avalon” show his versatility on a track.
The third and final verse is a combination of Spose and Jarv. “All the Wells town councilmen, wanna smack the shit out of 'em, 'cause we don't ever shut the fuck up, And the Windsor PD's always lookin' at me, But they have yet to make a successful buck”. An elite Spose song and one of the best from Get Rich or Die Ryan.
4. Nineteen by Spose and Max Cantlin
When I hear Nineteen, I get teleported to the summer time with me and my friends driving around, or playing basketball, or playing pong in someones garage and I think that’s what Spose wanted to do when he made Nineteen.
Now the summer when I was nineteen was during Covid-19 so the opening line of verse one speaks to my soul. “Like every other college kid, I was a drunk, A nineteen year old punk, waking up around lunch”. I’d play GTA five until three in the morning and then wake up for a nice brunch of cereal and a turkey sandwich, then repeat.
The third verse of Nineteen is my favorite. Again, Spose is talking to me, “I was nineteen, which means I was retarded”. True. Then in that same verse, Spose throws his boy Tom Knight under the bus when he details them long boarding and rising scooters down a huge hill. They both were flung from their vehicles. Spose only ended up with some cuts while Tom broke his ankle. It’s hysterical.
Nineteen is a great song to listen to when you’re cruising with your boys or even on your own taking “the beach cruise”.
3. The Thrill by Wiz Khalifa and Empire of the Sun
Wiz Khalifa and Empire of the Sun ended up on my top artists list this year because of how much I jammed to this song. The Thrill is one of the GREATEST, one of the FUCKING GREATEST summer songs of all time.
I would play this in the summer as the first song when I’d get in the car. It’d be the first song I would toss on when handed the aux cord and it was a smash hit. Wiz Khalifa rapping about waking up drunk in a beautiful hotel and hammering champagne over Empire of the Sun elevates my serotonin levels to a hundred. An unreal song that everyone loves.
2. Ahab by MC Lars
Ahab was the first MC Lars song I ever listened to and from that day on, I found a passion for nerd core hip hop. MC Lars rapping as Captain Ahab wanting to kill Moby Dick sent me straight down a rabbit hole of artists like MC Frontalot and Beefy.
MC Lars morphs into the fictional seaman of the 1800’s, Captain Ahab and raps about how he’s blinded by rage of how he wants to kill the whale that took his leg. If you know the story of Captain Ahab and Moby Dick, you know that Ahab does not come out of this situation smelling like roses.
The way Lars is able to go back in history and take the form of individuals while keeping his artistic flare is beautiful. A great example of when he does this is in the song Flow Like Poe when he raps from the perspective of Edgar Allen Poe. Just genius work.
1. Kanye Go by Spose and Dave Gutter
And drum roll please. The number one song on my Apple Music Replay from 2021 is Kanye Go by Spose and Dave Gutter. Kanye Go is a lot about his development as an artist and person. The opening line is “I worked for so hard so long that I deserve to feel like this”. Spose has been rapping for around twenty years and his hard work has paid off.
I’d say Kanye Go has the same meaning of a song like We All Got Lost because it’s about working hard and maybe being lost. But it differs from We All Got Lost because in We All Got Lost, Spose raps about himself being lost, but Kanye Go is a victory lap and how his music helps people through tough times and how he’s helping “suicidal kids put the knife down”.
The chorus of Kanye Go was what made me put it on repeat initially. Dave Gutter handled the chorus of “I got that shit that makes Rick Ross go (Huh), Make Jay-Z go (Yup), Make Kanye Go (haah?), I know you're at a loss for words, What could you say?”. It’s about Spose having the confidence in his music that even the biggest names bump his shit.
Kanye Go slaps and I’ve shouted this in my car on over a dozen occasions because it is a true banger.
Well, that will conclude my countdown of my Apple Music Replay. I had a lot of fun with this series and look forward to running it back next year.