2012 in Review

There are a few events through hip-hop history that serve as a pivot point for the genre, and Kendrick Lamar releasing good Kid, m.A.A.d city is one of those moments. Everything prior to 2012 could be labeled as BK – Before Kendrick – we didn’t know what we were missing because what he did had never been done before. And everything since 2012 is After Kendrick, because we can’t help compare it to what Kendrick is capable of. Kendrick set the standard for lyrics, songwriting, personal storytelling and flow variety. The album set the standard for how beats, production, features and skits could help paint a picture of the world an artist was living in.

Take a look at the hip-hop landscape in 2012. Some of the titans of the genre like Lil Wayne, Jay Z, Rick Ross, had started to fade, and Kanye West’s Cruel Summer had hits, but was a small step back compared to his previous efforts. Cruel Summer and other collaborations by groups like Young Money also pushed a lot of new voices into the mix, some more memorable and long standing – Future, 2 Chainz, Travis Scott, Meek Mill – than others like Chief Keef and Macklemore, who had hits at the time but never really took off long term.

Having that many artists pop up at once making similar tracks – hype club bangers, sad-robot autotune, and Mike Will Made It beats – mixed with the growing number of underground artists getting exposure really muddied the waters. While everyone had their favorite songs or emcees that they would Stan for, it didn’t actually matter, because we all knew Kendrick was whipping the floor with them. It wasn’t even a contest.

There were other notable releases, namely Frank Ocean’s highly transformative Channel Orange, which kind of reset the expectations of successful, critically acclaimed R&B records.

On radio, as mentioned in the 2011 write up, indie-pop songs from acts like Fun, Imagine Dragons and The Lumineers had their moments, as did EDM tracks. Katy Perry while newcomers that ended up having some long lasting impacts, Carly Rae Jepsen and One Direction, made waves.

Songs of the year

2012 Albums

Album	Artist	Stars	Score	Genre
good Kid, m.A.A.d city	Kendrick Lamar	★★★★★	98	Hip-Hop	West Coast Hip-Hop
channel ORANGE	Frank Ocean	★★★★½	91	Hip-Hop	R&B
Swing Lo Magellan	Dirty Projectors	★★★★	82	Rock	Art Pop	Indie Folk
Lonerism	Tame Impala	★★★★	81	Rock	Psychadelic Rock	Indie Rock
ROYALTY	Childish Gambino	★★★★	80	Hip-Hop
1999	Joey Bada$$	★★★★	79	Hip-Hop
Attack on Memory	Cloud Nothings	★★★★	76	Rock	Alternative Rock	Post-Hardcore
The Haunted Man	Bat For Lashes	★★★½	74	Pop	Art Pop
Synthetica	Metric	★★★½	72	Rock	Alternative Rock	Indie Rock
Bloom	Beach House	★★★½	71	Pop	Indie Pop	Dream Pop
An Awesome Wave	alt-J	★★★½	70	Rock	Indie Pop
Truth	Solange	★★★½	69	Hip-Hop	R&B	Neo-Soul
Light Up Gold	Parquet Courts	★★★½	68	Rock	Punk Rock	Indie Rock
Life Is Good	Nas	★★★½	68	Hip-Hop
Boys & Girls	Alabama Shakes	★★★½	67	Rock	Alternative Rock	Blues Rock
Django Django	Django Django	★★★½	66	Rock	Indie Pop	Indietronica
Babel	Mumford & Sons	★★★½	66	Rock	Indie Pop	Indie Folk
Devotion	Jessie Ware	★★★½	65	Pop	R&B
Sun	Cat Power	★★★	64	Rock	Indie Pop
Visions	Grimes	★★★	63	Pop	Art Pop
Cruel Summer	Good Music	★★★	63	Hip-Hop
Tramp	Sharon Van Etten	★★★	62	Rock	Singer-Songwriter	Indie Folk
Red	Taylor Swift	★★★	62	Pop	Country Pop
Coexist	The xx	★★★	61	Rock	Indie Pop	Dream Pop
Pop Culture	XV	★★★	60	Hip-Hop
Celebration Rock	Japandroids	★★★	59	Rock	Punk Rock	Indie Rock
Until The Quiet Comes	Flying Lotus	★★★	57	Electronic	Instrumental Hip-Hop
In Our Heads	Hot Chip	★★★	56	Electronic	Indie Pop	Alternative Dance
Kaleidoscope Dream	Miguel	★★★	55	Hip-Hop	R&B
Cancer 4 Cure	El-P	★★★	55	Hip-Hop	Alternative Hip-Hop
Shrines	Purity Ring	★★½	52	Electronic	Indie Pop	Electronic Rock
Blunderbuss	Jack White	★★½	51	Rock	Alternative Rock	Blues Rock
Habits & Contradictions	ScHoolboy Q	★★½	50	Hip-Hop
Shields	Grizzly Bear	★★½	49	Rock	Art Rock	Indie Rock
Unorthodox Jukebox	Bruno Mars	★★½	49	Pop	R&B
Finally Rich	Chief Keef	★★½	48	Hip-hop
Luxury Problems	Andy Stott	★★½	47	Electronic	Ambient
The Money Store	Death Grips	★★½	46	Hip-Hop	Alternative Hip-Hop	Experimental
Control System	Ab-Soul	★★½	46	Hip-Hop
The OF Tape Vol. 2	Odd Future	★★½	45	Hip-Hop
Kill For Love	Chromatics	★★	44	Rock	Alternative Rock	Dream Pop
2	Mac Demarco	★★	43	Rock	Psychadelic Rock	Indie Rock
The Idler Wheel	Fiona Apple	★★	43	Pop	Art Pop
R.A.P. Music	Killer Mike	★★	43	Hip-Hop
Food and Liquer II	Lupe Fiasco	★★	42	Hip-Hop
Sweet Heart Sweet Light	Spiritualized	★★	41	Rock	Art Rock
My Head Is an Animal	Of Monsters and Men	★★	41	Pop	Indie Pop	Indie Folk
The 2nd Law	Muse	★★	40	Rock	Art Rock
Living Things	Linkin Park	★★	40	Rock	Alternative Rock	Rap Rock
Unapologetic	Rihanna	★★	40	Pop	R&B
The Lumineers	The Lumineers	★★	40	Pop	Indie Pop	Indie Folk
Dreamchasers 2	Meek Mill	★★	39	Hip-Hop
Based on a T.R.U Story	2 Chainz	★★	37	Hip-Hop
God Forgives, I Don’t	Rick Ross	★½	33	Hip-Hop
Some Nights	Fun	★½	31	Pop	Indie Pop

50 Best Songs

Pyramids – Frank Ocean
Money Trees – Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock
Myth – Beach House
Everything Is Embarrassing – Sky Ferreira
Swing Lo Magellan – Dirty Projectors
Losing You – Solange
Laura – Bat For Lashes
Swimming Pools – Kendrick Lamar
Thinkin Bout You – Frank Ocean
The House That Heaven Built – Japandroids
Five Seconds – Twin Shadows
Genesis – Grimes
Inspector Norse – Todd Terje
Adorn – Miguel
Stay Schemin – Rick Ross, Drake, French Montana
Mercy – Kanye West, Big Sean, Pusha T, 2 Chainz
m.A.A.d city – Kendrick Lamar, MC Eiht
Fuckin’ Problems – A$AP Rocky, Drake, 2 Chainz, Kendrick Lamar
Dissolve Me – alt-J
Fells Like We Only Go Backwards – Tame Impala
Speed The Collapse – Metric
Disparate Youth – Santigold
Serpents – Sharon Van Etten
Sam (Is Dead) – Odd Future, Domo Genesis, Tyler, The Creator
Latch – Disclosure, Sam Smith
Wasted Days – Cloud Nothings
Skyfall – Adele
Where Are You Now – Mumford & Sons
Angels – The xx
Make It Go Right – Childish Gambino
Waves – Joey Bada$$
Terrorist Threats – Ab-Soul, Danny Brown, Jhene Aiko
Sing About Me – Kendrick Lamar
Inhaler – Foals
Default – Atoms For Peace
Elephant – Tame Impala
Unnecessary – Childish Gambino
Oblivion – Grimes
Strange Fruition – Lupe Fiasco
Clique – Kanye West, JAY-Z, Big Sean
Treasure – Bruno Mars
Loco-Motive – Nas, Large Professor
Sleeping Ute – Grizzly Bear
Endors Toi – Tame Impala
Apocalypse Dreams – Tame Impala
My Number – Foals
Wildest Moments – Jessie Ware
Sweater Weather – The Neighbourhood
Chained – The xx
Hands On The Wheel – ScHoolboy Q, A$AP Rocky

Genre Highlights

Rock

Hip-Hop

Pop

2012 Albums

50 Best Songs

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