Atlanta had the hottest year hip hop has ever seen in terms of commercializing one sound and they essentially monopolized rap on the radio by dominating the charts week after week. Obviously New York and LA had their time in the pre-historic era but neither of those cities were getting heavy rotation from multiple artists over the radio waves. Toronto did decent this year with Drake creating a cultural phenomenon that had white suburban teachers dancing like him from his video ‘Hotling Bling’ which we’ll say was “heavily inspired” by D.R.A.M’s ‘Cha Cha’ (lol) or the fact that he along with Quentin Miller made the first timeless song of our generation with ‘Know Yourself’. The Weekend had a dramatic year with continuing to rock a hair style which romanticizes America’s homeless culture and supports at least 3 forms of life. He also put out “Beauty Behind The Madness” which debuted at No. 1 on the extremely relevant Billboard charts.
But Atlanta.
Atlanta consistently bombarded us with hit after hit making every DJ set a 30 minute to an hour collage of Atlanta anthems. With Thugger having a year of insanity, Rae Sremmurd dominating the radio, Guwop obviously still king, Future being the hardest working major label rapper in the game this year, 21savage coming from the underground and making one of the best mixtapes of the year, Awful Records creating major waves with their unhinged talent, Raury being the new generation’s blend of Cudi and Andre 3000. Not to forget Migos, Waka Flocka, 2 Chainz, Peewee Longway, Young Scooter and producers such as Metro Boomin, Southside, 808 Mafia, Mike Will Made It, Zaytoven, Honorable C-Note, Sonny Digital, DJ Esco who’s phones haven’t stopped ringing since 2014 there’s no way anybody can say they didn’t have the most successful year almost in rap history. Any point you have against it is asinine and should only be engaged for the art of debating. Atlanta killed it this year and although hip hop purists despise the way their o’ so sacred genre has evolved no one can argue that Georgia’s capital isn’t doing the most to help establish rap as a staple of popular culture (well maybe Kanye, but we’ll save that discussion for later). Yeah it’s filled with auto-tune and has drugged up kids rapping in triplets over 808s that would blow any cars speakers made before 2003, but these kids stayed true to a sound, it blew up, the world ate it up and they conquered. My hat goes off to Atlanta for having a wonderful year.
All this to say, this song is nothing different. It has A$AP Ferg on it rapping in triplets, Future continuing to be Future, and my favorite producer Honorable C-Note continuing his streak of making the hardest hitting beats in the game. It’s going to be played in clubs for maybe 3 weeks (generously) then die, but its a nod to everything Atlanta accomplished this year and it’s worth the click for a 4 and a half minute turn up.
Also Chicago is taking over next you better believe it.
A$AP Ferg – New Level (feat. Future)
