Berner & Young Dolph ft. Ampichino – Win Big

Big Bern stays winning on here as this blog’s unexpected champion of 2017 with my top song for September ‘Win Big.’ Whether it was Berner snubbing Yeezys in the first verse or a Trump reference from Ampichino that was as unexpected as it was edgy, or the heavenly beat, Win Big just stormed its way to the trophy. I wrote previously –

“This song has me feeling like me, Berner, Dolph, and Amp just won a big, hard-fought battle in an enemy city and we’re now realizing it’s over and it was costly, but we gave it our all, we won, and we’re all still here and we’re all good. We’re taking our masks/helmets/visors off and putting our guns down and we’re just triumphantly looking around and surveying the carnage and taking it all in, looking at each other and giving a knowing nod to our brothers in arms. Or we just won a championship and Berner hit the winning 3 at the buzzer against all odds and now we’re all just basking in the glow of knowing we achieved glory.

I was already singing the praises of Berner & Dolph’s collaboration project ‘Tracking Numbers’ because ‘Knuckles’, the first track they leaked from it, was already easily one of my favorite songs of the year. Little did I know that by the time this 8 track mixtape was over that another song from it would be right up there with Knuckles as one of my favorite songs, and beats, of the year. The beat for this one is so triumphant and honest and perfectly captures the ‘Win Big’ mantra. I have to find out who came up with this beat. Berner is like Jameis Winston right now; he’s been around for a couple of seasons but now he’s entering his prime and ready to take the league by storm.”

Lil B – Bad MF

If it wasn’t for Berner hogging the spotlight, Lil B very well could have had the top song for September with not only Bad MF, but Berkley, off his new Black Ken album.

“You can’t see me, even with glasses. West Coast motherf*cker and I’m smashin’. I don’t care if you play this on the radio, ’cause they love me from Oakland to Fillmoe.

Yeah I’m from the ghetto, where motherf*ckers will change your whole schedule. You can meet me at the sideshow, I’m a rap star b*tch I don’t drive slow!”

Lil B – Berkley

“Chillin’, high as Mt. Rushmore, yeah baby I’m a drug store. I’m in downtown Berkley, I’m not rich, but I’m working”

Rich the Factor – 1000 

The Martorialist, perhaps the chief purveyor of Kansas City’s underappreciated rap scene, got me on a Rich the Factor binge with his recent post on ‘Aristocrat‘ and I’ve been avidly surfing in this Kansas City whale’s wake ever since, delving into his previous losses. My favorite song by him thus far is ‘1000’ on his last mixtape, appropriately also entitled ‘1000’. Over a really simple but enjoyable beat, Rich takes us back to the 90s with a flow and bars that seem like they could be preserved in time from the golden era of mafioso rap, and does it exceedingly well. There just aren’t too many guys that rap like this anymore. I also love his laid back flow and voice which makes it sound like he’s such a don that he’s never had to rush himself for anyone in his entire life. Some great bars in this one from the aristocrat..

“We gonna eat with our hands or a fat plate, and I’m good in the jungle like a black ape”

Rich is always on the lookout for snakes in the grass and cuts them down quick, I’m just picturing him riding around a lavish suburban lawn at 5 MPH on a pimped-out looking John Deere…

“Backstabber and a rat and the back door, I’m the Midwest whale on a lawnmower. Grass cut got it looking like it’s Arrowhead, it’s a cannon you can tell by the barrelhead.”

Yhung T.O. – Been Through

Yhung T.O. is in beast mode right now…

“Feel like I deserve a trophy, ballin for my homies, gotta keep a 30 in my 40, cause you don’t know what I’ve been through”

“Lately, sh*t been drivin a nigga crazy, I gotta watch my back cause they hate me, so how could you blame me, for putting 50 in this drakie? I gotta make it home to my baby.”

Nipsey Hussle – Grindin All My Life

Damn, they may have Nipsey’s bad side in this thumbnail for the Youtube video because he’s looking old here, but he’s coming out swinging like a spring chicken with perhaps his strongest song to date, Grinding All My Life. This is definitely a good hype song for the car or if you’re not as lazy as me and you actually go to the gym, as Nipsey yells about grinding his whole life over a powerful beat, almost like a Meek Mill on Dreams and Nightmares, with some sick lines. “Don’t know a nigga like myself, I say self-made meaning I designed myself, county jail fade you can pull my file yourself, spot raid, swallowed rocks, I’m getting high myself.”

Mozzy ft. Lex Aura, Lil Durk, Dave East – Outside

I’ve been a bigger fan of Mozzy’s output in 2015 and 2016 then what he’s released so far in 2017 but overall he’s still one of my favorite artists in the game. ‘Outside’ off of his newest album ‘1 Up Top Ahk’ from a couple of weeks ago is a really good song featuring the strange and unexpected supporting cast of Lex Aura, Lil Durk, and Dave East. I’m generally not a big fan of Lil Durk and his verse was nothing special, but Dave East kills it on his verse with one I’ve rewinded over and over again because it goes so hard…

“I caught a couple licks outside, I turned Crip outside, I was taught to spray the whole side if there ain’t no kids outside. If niggas couldn’t find a kitchen water-whipped it outside, I’m lying just need a stove and I could fix about nine. I learned to fight outside, they took my bike outside, whatever in the bank getting robbed if you shoot dice outside, chicken wings and fried rice I broke night outside.”

OMB Peezy – The Hard Way 

Much like his sometimes-collaborator and fellow September top-10 list member Yhung T.O, OMB Peezy is on fire right now with pretty much everything he puts out being a banger. ‘The Hard Way‘ goes hard AF and is one of his most menacing songs to date.

Yhung T.O – Tutu Gang

Yhung T.O getting his Bob Marley on with this beat and making a really good but sad song about his brother dying. This is a deep song; for a young artist Yhung T.O really has the talent of making you feel the pain that he’s seen. This was on the ‘Before the Fame’ EP but it looks like a video for it just came out too.

Ball Gizzle, J. Scott, John Wicks – Still Here 

Caught this one on the Sisilafami Tumblr and I love the message and chorus from Ball Gizzle, and the unique voice he sings it in…

“Every day that I wake up, I thank God that I’m still here; cause I know a lot of niggas, who ain’t make it this year.”

I also love the ‘Gotta grind til everybody say that they your cousin’ line.