It’s the most wonderful time of the year, of course
I’m not talking about Christmas, I’m talking about end of year lists time.
These videos are always my favourite to make (not to mention they perform kinda nicely)
so I am hyped to finally be here telling you what my 10 favourite hit rap songs of 2018
were.
Keep in mind for songs to be eligible they have to have charted on the Hot 100 at some
point, and that’s pretty much the only requirement.
So yeh, make sure to click that subscribe button and notification bell (even though
you haven’t seen the content I’m asking you to sub for yet) to make sure you don’t
miss out on any of my end of year lists.
So with all that being said, this is CDTVProductions, and let’s look at the 10 best hit rap songs
of 2018.
10 - Lil Baby & Gunna “Drip Too Hard”
I’m not exactly the biggest fan of Baby or Gunna, Drip Harder was relatively enjoyable,
but they do kinda strike me as 2 guys who stumbled across a Slime Season album one day
and went “YES... that could be me”.
But it’s hard to deny that they made a really fun track with this one.
The flows are so slick from both of them, they just easily breeze over the smooth guitar
and skittering drums on the instrumental, and they work really well with this more lively
sound.
I can give these guys props where it’s due, there’s not many tracks I love Gunna on
so I really appreciate it when I like what he does, and Baby is alright but a little
repetitive most times, but yeah they both do a really nice job on this.
9 - Logic “Warm It Up” (feat.
Young Sinatra)
It went like this.
Logic announced Bobby Tarantino 2.
I looked at the tracklist for Bobby Tarantino.
I see a track featuring Logic’s alter ego Young Sinatra.
I proceed to get very.
VERY. excited.
And did this track deliver?
Absolutely, making for one of the strongest tracks on the project it came from.
It’s a track that perfectly fuses the trap sounds found on the Bobby Tarantino tracks
with the boom bap sound of the Young Sinatra tracks, and massive props have to be given
to Logic and the producers 6ix and Tee-WaTT for that.
The way the drums alter so quickly between the boom bap sound to a trap one between the
verses and the hook happens so abruptly, but they make it sound so natural, and Logic rides
over the percussion in both segments effortlessly.
Mixing the nostalgia of the Young Sinatra sound with the hype of a Bobby Tarantino track
is a cool concept, and it’s executed perfectly here.
8 - SOB X RBE “Paramedic!”
This was the song that put me on to SOB’s music, and I’m very thankful that it did
that.
To this day, I’d still probably say this is their best track, allowing each of the
4 members to showcase what they can offer within the group and display their chemistry
at the same time.
Slimmy B has the most intriguing voice, Lul G pulls of some nice melody rapping, Yhung
T.O. does the same just a bit smoother as he’s the best singer in the group, and then
we have Daboii who is my personal favourite on here.
His bold, aggressive delivery has a contagious energy to it, and he easily has the most entertaining
line on the whole track.
I’d say it has a slightly different vibe to the rest of their music, but I think this
type of sound is really fitting for them.
Hearing Kendrick team up with these guys to make a west coast banger was amazing, they
made something special with this one.
7 - ScHoolboy Q, Saudi & 2 Chainz “X”
And straight away we have yet another track from the Black Panther soundtrack, honestly
that soundtrack just blew me away and I think this was the best track from it.
Everyone provides exactly what they need to, Saudi gives a bit of a lowkey autotune verse,
ScHoolboy Q comes through with some wild sounding cadences and his distinctive voice, then finally
we get a beat switch as soon as the 2 Chainz verse starts and he wastes no time giving
us a great verse, impressing with his flow from the first bars.
Seriously, 2 Chainz has had an amazing track record for guest verses in 2018, a fact that
I hope doesn’t go under-appreciated.
And of course Kendrick has a great contribution with the hook which is sure to get you amped
up.
That Black Panther soundtrack was something else, and we got some extraordinary material
from it.
6 - Metro Boomin “No More” (feat.
Travis Scott, 21 Savage & Kodak Black)
Before I heard this track, when I saw Kodak Black, Travis Scott & 21 Savage listed as
features on a Metro Boomin produced track, I assumed we’d be getting a dark, gritty
banger track, something in a Without Warning style, and to an extent we do get that...
but I didn’t expect it to be a track that covers the pitfalls of addiction and how it
can make you feel like a failure.
Like this has a way more depressing mood to it than I pictured it would, and it makes
for something pretty special.
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Kodak on here.
Something about his slurred rap singing sound a little more pained than usual, very fitting
for the subject matter, and he’s got some bleak lyrics.
The high point is easily 21 Savage though, who comes through with one of his career highlights
in terms of verses.
Him talking about wanting to quit drugs but being unable to and feeling weak because of
that, it makes for pretty heavy stuff.
Then the song closes out with all 3 features performing their own versions of the hook
over the intoxicating production from Metro, bringing the track to a really satisfying
end.
This was dark, gloomy, and realistic, definitely the highlight from Metro’s album for me.
5 - Joyner Lucas & Chris Brown “Stranger Things
So I’m assuming the Angels & Demons album is just chilling along with The Harverd Dropout,
Eternal Atake, Yandhi, and 2Pac in Cuba, but at least we got this gem out of it so far.
I really wasn’t sure how a Chris Brown and Joyner Lucas collab would work going into
this, I knew Chris could rap as well as sing, but I wasn’t convinced it would be a good
mix until I actually heard it.
Joyner and Chris have a surprising amount of chemistry, taking turns rapping their respective
verses before they eventually merge their vocals together, delivering this amazing harmonised
rapping segment towards the tail end of the song.
It’s basically a track with more of a focus on brag rap and being a flow clinic, and I
have no problems with that, it works as that.
After this I am completely sold on the idea of a whole Joyner & Chris Brown collab album,
now we just have to hope we actually get one from them.
Hell of a track though.
4 - J. Cole “ATM”
Listening to this song with no context, it may be kind of easy to mistake it for a materialistic
track about wanting money and not much else, but then if you take a deeper dive into the
lyrics and look at where it came from, it actually serves as a commentary on what can
happen if you get addicted to money, which is what the “ATM” in the title stands
for.
Of course the message isn’t super subtle or anything, but I always really enjoy songs
that can serve as a mainstream hit as well as having at least a bit of substance under
the surface, and that’s what ATM provides, analysing the deluded thoughts of someone
who thinks money will be the solution to all the pain in their life.
This is rapped with Cole’s words hitting all the right beats over the bouncy rhythm
of the drums, which was apparently the hardest part of the track to get right.
He definitely perfected them with this being the final result though.
Due to this, plus the easy to remember hook, Cole made a very addictive track about an
addiction here.
3 - Travis Scott “No Bystanders” (feat.
Sheck Wes & Juice WRLD)
First off, I may have a deep,searing hate for Mo Bamba, but I’ll never deny that Sheck
Wes ad libs can make literally anything more hype.
So yeah, suitable choice for the hook on this one.
The thing I love the most about this one though is the Days Before Rodeo style rapping Travis
comes through with on the first and second verses in particular, maybe I’m not remembering
correctly but I think it’s been a long time since we’ve heard him really spit a verse
like that.
His lyrics mainly focus on a reckless party lifestyle, before a beat switch occurs and
brings out a more introspective verse from Travis, and while they’re both good sections,
I do have to say I prefer the first part of the track.
And while Juice WRLD comparatively has a very small contribution to the track, it does help
to add a depressing undertone to it, kind of representing the aftermath of a night out
partying.
This song is incredibly solid, and the chorus almost makes me forgive big Shecky boy for
Mo Bamba.
Almost.
2 - Lil Wayne “Mona Lisa” (feat.
Kendrick Lamar)
If there’s one thing you can say for Kendrick and Wayne, it’s that they know how to tell
a story and keep every second of it captivating with their breathtaking flows and their frantic,
varying vocals.
On Wayne’s verses, he spins a narrative of him setting up people to be robbed with
the help of a woman named Liz, who seduces the targeted men so they’re sitting ducks
when Wayne comes in to rob them.
The whole time while he’s telling this story, despite his intensity, it’s hard to not
have a smile on your face the whole time due to Wayne’s great comedic timing and sense
of humour in his lyrics.
Mona Lisa in these verses refers to the girl tricking the men she sets up, being deceptive
just like Mona Lisa’s smile.
Then Kendrick comes in with some dizzying flows and spins a story where he switches
perspectives halfway through, telling the tale of a woman who cheats on a man with rappers
such as Kendrick and Wayne.
This eventually leads down the path of the man feeling so heartbroken and devastated
that he takes his own life, and Kendrick’s voice conveys this distress exceptionally
well.
This story Kendrick tells also ties into the Mona Lisa theme, with deception playing a
large role in it again.
I honestly love everything about this song, the story, the flows, the intensity of the
vocals, all the layers to it, it’s just such a fun listen and easily one of the songs
with the highest replay value in 2018.
Thank god Tha Carter V finally dropped and we got to be blessed with this masterpiece.
1 - Eminem “Lucky You” (feat.
Joyner Lucas)
As someone who has an entire series based around counting the fastest verses from particular
rappers, a series in which I’ve covered Joyner twice and Eminem three times, this
song made me absolutely MOIST.
Ok, ok, obviously that isn’t the only reason that I like it, it would be doing it a dis-service
to call it purely a fast rapping track with not much else, because it definitely is more
than that.
I like the idea of the track, with Joyner representing the underdog who’s always working
hard, but never seems to fully break through into that upper echelon of hip hop acknowledgment,
then Eminem mirrors some of the flows and lyrics from Joyner’s verse and flips them,
giving his perspective from that upper echelon, as a man who made it to the pinnacle.
It’s a really cool dynamic and it was great to see them work off of each other like that.
Of course it’s almost a guarantee I would love this track as Eminem introduced me to
rap and Joyner is one of my favourites out right now, so seeing them come together was
a beautiful moment.
Not to mention, I just think Em sounds great over banger-style beats like this one.
The fact that they have another track together coming on Joyner’s upcoming album has me
even more excited, especially as it seems it’s going to be more storytelling focused.
Either way it’ll have to be something good, because Eminem & Joyner set the bar for their
collabs very, very high with this one.
(Outro)