by Dan O

Criteria: While most would take MVP as “best that year” my scope is different. The focus is about who reached a new level this year. Who worked hard enough, consistently enough, to make it somewhere in their career they’ve never been before?

AJ Suede–Given the criteria above a rational person in the know would be right to say “2022 is when Suede should have been in line for this. Hundred Year Darkness, Oil On Canvas, Darth Sueder 7: Rogues Gallery, and Metatron’s Cube had everyone talking Suede!” 2023 Suede proved out form. A lot of folks will give you a big year with big collaborative albums then slow down, shrink back to their mean. Suede gave us albums with Televangel (Parthian Shots) and Steel Tipped Dove (Reoccurring Characters) yet somehow my favorite release is still Ark Flashington which was produced mixed and mastered by Suede. The argument for 2023 Suede is proof of consistency. The same way societies are judged by how they treat those in pain, those with nothing, as a listener I think about Suede in terms of the worst. Ask yourself where and when was Suede at the lowest point in 2023? What was your least favorite Suede? Now compare that low point against the market. That standard of output isn’t just about the strength of bars where he can go from talking about the death of print media to Velvet Underground. It’s world-building from the cover art (Parthian Shots is one of the best covers of 2023) to crafting a unique sonic identity. Suede already has full projects with Steel Tipped Dove, Small Professor, Camouflage Monk, and Televangel. I’m reading Kobe’s Mamba Mentality book right now and having spoken to Suede a few times I see some common ground. Kobe believed in study and work on an elite level, but always left himself the space to adapt. He didn’t have one practice/warm up routine he let his body and the upcoming game lead him. That combination of discipline and loose serenity is very present in Suede and it has raised his stock for people like me who buy stuff from artists actively. I have never wasted a cent on AJ Suede.

Andrew–I’ve talked to writers who are intimidated by the blank page and its expectations. My mind works oppositional to this. Starting the work is the best part because I can do anything I want. The story can begin from a bubble popping in the main characters bathtub if I want. Andrew MUST feel like this. Dude works a full-time job and put out 4 projects this year (Smoke Chain with Pagez, Don’t Forget Me, Bluest, I’m Fakin’ My Own Death Just To Get Some Rest by sleepingdogs, and The Trumpet’s Obviously Been Drinking with Steel Tipped Dove) entirely different but related to one another. I picture the Philly producer and spitter completely inebriated on the creative possibilities he’s had since the release of 2021’s Pop 1967. That was the first album he produced for himself and this year marked real growth for Andrew the producer and lyricist. Living Blues is a perfect Andrew production swirling Blues, Gospel, and Soul into sing rapping about car lighters, vegetable stew, and letting life toughen you into someone you can work to be proud of. It’s a beautiful song because the warmth and polish is applied to the pain. Pain is at the very center of the Andrew experience. Lyrically, the sleepingdogs album proves that out. Name a rap hook in 2023 sadder than Pigeon! It’s a hook that starts out horrifying then becomes a brag…only to end in true Charlie Brown fashion. It’s important that Charlie Brown is on that cover because the album carries that kind of jaunty playful depression. Most impressively 2023 wasn’t just Andrew leaning into his strengths. Steel Tipped Dove gave him sparse sounds he has never rapped over before. I’ve never heard an Andrew song like Moldy. As a game planner Andrew is an adventurer in love with finding new spaces to inhabit. The freshness of perspective and dazzling catalog of Dad-jokes-to-tell-your-therapist has a cult of Andrew forming. The most Andrew punch line of 2023 is on Don’t Forget Me, Bluest. The song is Novella and it’s intense. A posse track full of introspective and vocally dynamic emcees. OKnice kicks off swimming through high tide anxiety, fear, and self-doubt. Love, Ulysses talks about repairing the relationship with his father in such vivid beauty I made my whole family listen to the verse. Andrew’s first line is “They say it always rains when a good man dies. So the day I go, the sky is gonna be bone dry. “As broken as Andrew can feel once you make it beyond the kaleidoscope color mixing of his innovative hooks and rich sample choice, its always delivered like a joke told during a work smoke break. One that makes you laugh till you cough.

Estee Nack–People can feel the force at which you work. When Snoop Dogg came into our consciousness part of the allure was that no matter how perfect the songs came out, how chant-a-long the hook was, it felt completely effortless; like this verse slid out next to the last. Nack is the opposite, a puncher with a furious work rate who made a big splash in 2023 with his Griselda debut Nacksaw Jim Duggan and it may be my least favorite thing he put out during the year. Other projects include Chango Macho: The Book of Dreams w/ Starker, Live At The Tabernacle produced by Mike Shabb, #MINIMANSIONDUST vol. 6, Gia…A La Carte with Raz Fresco and Nicholas Craven. Aside from his five projects he just kept showing up places (example: Westside Gunn’s And Then You Pray For Me) album. His work this year was overpowering but a blunt instrument. We always get a lot of work from Nack and while we got more this year, in previous it was themed so differently it was fascinating. Going from JOANMANUELSERRAP to #AFRIKANFOLKMUSICFROMOUTTHEDIASPORA in 2018 carried the muscle of the work rate while being genuinely artistically innovative. I wrestled with Nack as MVP all year, which certainly earns a spot for him in the Honorable Mentions.