Every year a list is made from one outlet or another and it draws a lot of attention on our timelines and newsfeeds. Mainly from people who go back and forth about who should and shouldn’t be added, who should be over who, and what the order should be. Maybe these lists are done this way as a publicity stunt? They may purposely put an artist who doesn’t deserve to be above another artist to draw crowd of people to object and lead them to their website or to @ them on twitter? Great promo tactic. But here at TRUE, we just thought there were artists that weren’t mentioned in this list that we have constantly been seeing their names come up in these conversations that the great MTV has sparked. So, we brought them to your attention. No particular order
Wale: There has been a lot of talk about how Wale isn’t the same artist that he used to be. People are saying that he is trying to fit into the hardcore hip hop genre that his other teammates from MMG are in. Then again, we hear songs like “Diced Pineapples” and are reminded that he is still that poetic rapper that he has always been. Think about it like this, don’t we all strive to get better at what we do and expand our fan base in some way? Isn’t the point of everything that we do to get to a certain point so that we can make ourselves more marketable? That would be the purpose of everything from a college degree to collaboration with a pop artist. Wale was and still is one of the hottest artists out there in our opinion. His word play is on point, he appeals to the young market, the ladies, and the creative side of hip hop. We hear the song “Bad” from his mixtape Folarin and see chicks quoting him and filing themselves under the “bad” category of women that our culture is so obsessed with.
The Game: Every hip hop head out there has respect for the Game. He has actually been the most lyrical guy that we have seen from the west coast in a long time (next to Kendrick Lamar as of recently) His album Jesus Piece has already been called a classic and one of the most hardcore albums of 2012. With Game featuring every hip artist that we love to hear right now from Kanye and Common to Jamie Foxx, to Chris Brown, it was destined for success. Also, I guess when you are mentioning the word “hot” you can’t forget that his reality show “Marrying the Game” has been a hit as well. It was the first time that people actually got a chance to see a hardcore street and gang affiliated black man in father and “husband” mode (aside from T.I.) Which I think is very uplifting to our community to see. And please don’t forget, he’s on the cover of TRUE magazine!
French Montana: If you are from the east coast, you remember French Montana from a few places. Beefing with Jim Jones and Dipset, his Cocaine City DVD’s, or running with Max B during his wavy days before he went to prison. Who would have thought that French would be on top right now? After signing with Diddy, French’s career took off. Being that right now he is really the only New York artist out there that people constantly hear on radio, French has really made his mark. Normally, we expect New York artists to be super lyrical, but French makes up for that with his swag on the track and his collaborations with other hot artists. If you really know hip hop, you could see that French’s hits are all sampled from a 90’s track, some known and others underground. Remember “Funky Child” from Lords of the Underground? French turned that into “Shot Caller.” Recall “Stay Schemin” from Nas? (Most of you probably don’t, but you can google it now that I’ve educated you) well French added Drake and Rick Ross, switched the beat up to something more modern, and kept the same hook to make it a hit record. Don’t forget Fat Man Scoop’s club mix that used to get played in every club on the east coast. That turned into “Pop That” So yeah, French should be about number 7 or 8 on that list. And oh yeah, he was featured in TRUE magazine in 2012 also!
Tyga: Man did this Young Money artist come up in 2012. Did we forget about Rack City even though it did technically drop in December of 2011, it still drove airwaves crazy for a minute in 2012. As well as “Make it Nasty” and “Faded” TRUE had a chance to cover his “Careless World Tour” stop in Philly and caught a glimpse of T Raw, YG, DJ Mustard, and Honey Cocaine backstage and on stage as well. Tyga has definitely made a name for himself as one of the biggest West Coast artists that are out right now. We didn’t even mention his mixtape “Well Done 3” which was a smash hit and dropped with perfect timing. I would say that with all of this, Tyga is definitely honorable mention in the top artists of 2012 list. Oh, and he was also featured on the cover of TRUE magazine. Nice!
Now, we tried to think hard of a 5th artist, you know, just to even things out. Then we thought, if you have to think that hard, they really shouldn’t be named, right?
