Best Albums of 2015 So Far (Jan 1st-March 31st)

2015 has started off with a great first 3 months for music! MUCH better than all of 2014 besides 2014 Forest Hills Drive and My Krazy Life respectively. There are already five projects in 2015 that would have made my 2014 top five list with flying colors. I know some people would even argue that Lupe Fiasco's new album should make this upcoming list. *Spoiler alert* It didn't. Yes I listened to it and no I did not like it. Let's get started with the second tier or B list if you will. These projects will be ranked in order from 5th best to the best album of the first 3 months of the year..... If worthy*

*I haven't listened to Ludaversal yet so that will be in the halfway point post*

5. Wale - The Album About Nothing 

I was actually very pleasantly surprised by this album. Huge improvement from his The Gifted album. Like HUGE improvement... Because that album was horrendous. At first listen I was skeptical and wasn't a huge fan of it. After a few more listens I could not deny the quality of the songs and I really started to enjoy it. If you did not like this album I suggest open up your mind just a tiny bit more and give it another listen because the talent displayed is undeniable. Wale has gotten a reputation as being soft or an under achiever. Whenever I listened to a Wale project I always ended it wanting something more from him and he delivered on The Album About Nothing.

Top 5: The Intro About Nothing, The Pessimist, The Body, The Middle Finger, The Girls On Drugs.

Worst Song: The Summer League.

The reason there is a top 5 and only one worst song for this album is because this album is that solid. Are all of the songs amazing? No. But they are all solid enough to stay off of a worst songs list. I just really could not get into The Summer League. Oh and The Girls On Drugs is big time major flames people, at the absolute least check out that song.

OVERALL RATING: 8.7/10 definition of solid 

There is a two way tie for third and it may be an unpopular opinion, but, I don't really care soooooo...

The two tied projects are:

3. Big Sean - Dark Sky Paradise

This album is some of Big Sean's best work. I still feel as though Detroit will always be Big Sean's best all around body of work. But this album has some of his best songs to date on it. This is somewhat of the same story as Wale's album except instead of just the one great song Sean put together 4 great songs with a bunch of solid songs and a couple duds on it. The thing that separates the two projects making Dark Sky Paradise better was a little bit of hit factor, and even though he had more than one bad song the good ones were just a little better than wale's good ones. Therefore, Sean beat out wale overall for the spot that ended up being a tie for 3rd.

Top 5: Blessings, All Your Fault, IDFWU, Stay Down, and Paradise.

Bottom 2: Play No Games, One Man Can Change The World.

Really did not like those two songs. On the other hand, Sean has one of the biggest hits of the last year with IDFWU. Also he really just goes absolutely nuts on Paradise. He had some great features from Drake on Blessings and Kanye on All Your Fault that helped make those songs great.

OVERALL RATING 8.9/10

Now for the album tied with Dark Sky Paradise:

3. Rae Sremmurd - SremmLife

You can say WHATEVER you want. But you ABSOLUTELY cannot deny the fact that these kids can make HUGE, COLOSSAL hit songs. They have arguably the top 2 hit songs of the last year with 2 more songs quickly climbing up the charts. They just have that x factor of being able to make crazy hits without beingn hated by hip hop lovers unlike Flo Rida, and Pitbull just to name a couple. Something about these kids just amaze me and I cannot get enough of their music. Guaranteed you get everybody fired up and dancing no matter the situation when you play there songs. I thought these kids would be the next Trinidad James type deal with one hit and just dissapear forever, but, they keep sticking around and hit after hit keep coming from them. Also, the fact these kids are 19 and 21 respectfully is... Well... To quote Chaz Michael Michaels it is just

You know just so crazy it's trapping my mind.... Like in a bottle.

Top 5: Come And Get Her, Throw Sum Mo, Up Like Trump, No Flex Zone, and No Type.

Worst Song: Safe Sex Pay Checks

Again I didn't have enough bad songs to put a bottom 3. These kids just know what they're doing and only know how to make bangers. Once the buzz of Throw Sum Mo and Up Like Trump dies down I guarantee the songs Come and Get Her and YNO blow up because just listening to those songs you can just picture hearing it on the radio and in every DJ's playlist, pure bangers.

OVERALL RATING: 8.9/10

For the top two albums I am going to keep the same format as these three previous albums rather than the song by song ratings that I did on my other post.

This is a very tough decision because these two albums are great but the top album just offered a little bit more than the other. So that being said lets get into the album ranking second.

2. Drake - If You're Reading This Its Too Late

This album was just more Drake doing big things. He did his usual few songs of him singing and I do not really care for Drake as a singer, he's not bad I would just prefer him as a rapper. He had some mega hits on this album and almost no bad songs which seems to be the theme going on in 2015 people are just making great projects and exceeding expectations. Great production, lyrics, and all around song making ability (no surprise) on this album. 

Top 5: Songs 1-5 or Legend, Energy, 10 Bands, Know Yourself, No Tellin'

Worst Song: Company 

Not much to complain about from Drake here. Company was pretty bad but other than that he was pretty consistent with being really good. There was a point where EVERY TRACK.... That's 17 tracks were all in the billboard hot 100. This man had a whole album and some other songs he was featured in on the hot 100. In total he had 23 songs, nearly a quarter of the list, on the hot 100 list. Great album and he's still dropping Views From The 6 later this year.

OVERALL RATING: 9.4/10

1.Kendrick Lamar-To Pimp A Butterfly 

This man Kendrick Lamar is a genius amongst us ladies and gentlemen. He hit us with an album that will probably be the most influential of this year. Every singgle song on this album served a purpose and none of them were bad. In fact I haven't heard a legitimately bad song from kendrick since....... Ever. It's just more of the same Kendrick on this with great lyrics, flow, and unreal production on this album. 

Top 5: u, i, Alright, King Kunta, and Hood Politics.

Worst: N/A

This is probably one of the most well put together albums since.... Well, Good Kid m.A.A.d city also by Kendrick. The production on this album is unbelievable. To shed some light on what this album was all about. The whole album was a spoken word and the first three tracks are a prologue to the spoken word. Then each song after that he starts his whole spoken word and cuts it off after a little while. Everytime it gets cut off that sets up the theme for the next song. Then at the end of the album after all of the spoken word it is revealed that the entire album was about Kendrick RECITING HIS SPOKEN WORD TO TUPAC SHAKUR! That is the reason this album is one of the best, most well put together albums I have ever heard. Instant classic.

PS: I love the fact that he put the live version of i on the album cut. Made it much better in my opinion

PSS: I don't know how true this is but if anyone were to do some shit like this, Kendrick Lamar would be the one to do it 

OVERALL RATING: 9.6/10

If the rest of the year keeps giving us great projects like this then we are all in for a historical year in music.