Top 7 Disappointments of 2010

12/26/10 | By | 49 Comments

Reflection Eternal Sliver Top 7 Disappointments of 2010

1 Reflection Eternal – Revolutions Per Minute

Maya Sliver Top 7 Disappointments of 2010

2 MIA – Maya

Wake Up Sliver Top 7 Disappointments of 2010

3 John Legend & The Roots – Wake Up!

Leftback Sliver Top 7 Disappointments of 2010

4 Little Brother – Leftback

adventures of bobby ray sliver Top 7 Disappointments of 2010

5 B.o.B – The Adventures of Bobby Ray

Penny Sparkle Sliver Top 7 Disappointments of 2010

6 Blonde Redhead – Penny Sparkle

karata school sliver Top 7 Disappointments of 2010

7 Ski Beats – 24 Hour Karate School

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  • http://emay.bandcamp.com Emay

    as soon as i saw the word disappointments, i knew reyn would be the writer. :D

  • David Reyneke

    You think you are funny don’t you haha

  • P.

    Seriously: Is Talib Kweli not the most frustrating MC in the game? Here’s a guy who arguably is one of the best active lyricists who, for some reason, has the WORST taste in beats. The absolute WORST. Would somebody please introduce dude to Von Pea or J. Rawls or DOOM or, hell, anybody else?

  • Rich

    Just about every anticipated rap album that’s come out this year has been disappointing. That Reflection Eternal was a yawn fest, just like the new Tron movie. 24 Hour Karate School could’ve been better, had the tracks that didn’t make it actually made it on there. The new Slum Village wasn’t good. Murs & 9th Wonder was disappointing, so was the 1982 project. Little Brother’s Leftback wasn’t supposed to be great, just tracks that didn’t make it to other albums, but some of those joints were pretty good. The only good/great rap album that came out this year was Skyzoo & !llmind’s Live From the Tape Deck.

  • Zach Cole

    Clearly.

  • angelo maizzi

    sorry friends but john legend wake up is one of the top album of the year….Questlove and the roots are the fantastic producers and best group of the year…

  • http://www.twitter.com/craigsjenkins Craig Jenkins

    Three of these don’t belong here. How could anyone really be disappointed in the Little Brother joint? So many bangers on there. And Legend showed out on that Roots album. That thing’s got some of their most fully conceived grooves on it. Plus, Reflection? C’mon, son. You guys let your expectations get in the way of enjoying these albums, I swear.

  • David Reyneke

    I am disappointed in you, Craig. John Legend has no soul. Little Brother was ass compared to prior projects. Talib was dismal on RE…

  • Corry

    why would someone talk about bad albums? thats just like talking about bad sex.haha

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/elcattiv0?feature=mhum EZ

    oh man oh man… i mean everybody had huge expectations on couple of this albums. but 1,2 and 7 do clearly not belong there.

    it’s obvious you can’t expect another “train of thought”.. thats 10 years back. hip hop has changed and evolved since then. Reflections per Minute has a lot of songs on it, maybe too much. but still, there are a few songs, that already take the album out from this list. the beats which hi-tek made are so diverse and really hard to make. talibs lyrics are not as special as you would expect, but a few songs are really worth to listen to more care fully. especially “black gold”. lyrics at the top and and a really actual and concern topic. especially concerning the situation for african countries.

    John Legend & The Roots – Wake Up! you couldn’t expect a banger album just few weeks after the “how i got over” album. but still, if you don’t concern the lyrics, as u said John Legend is boring, the instrumental work is very good. its some real nice blues and soul. i mean already the track “i can’t write left handed” takes this album out of this list. even john legends lyrics are over the average in that one.

    Ski Beats – 24 Hour Karate School was some how disappointing, not concerning the beats, but the choice of rappers. other vise, its a “good to go” album. especially the tracks with mos def are very nice.

    anyways, i see some how what u try to show us with that list, but this list isn’t necessary, especially not, if you don’t really comment what is bad or disappointing.

    cheers

  • David Reynek

    No one said they were expecting a “Train of Thought 2″. But what was expected was maybe a good-great album, since the first time around they created one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time.

  • afan

    couldn’t agree more with your list.

    but my top 3 would be.

    1. Method Man, Raekwon & Ghostface – Wu Massacre
    2. Little Brother – Leftback
    3. Ski Beats – 24 Hour Karate School

  • Zach Cole

    To those discussing Wake Up!, I offer this: Musically it was nice and groovy. But overall the cheese factor was just THROUGH THE ROOF! Additionally, John Legend needs to take a note from his old self and mellow out from time to time. No need to kill your vocal chords with every note (cc Alicia Keys).

  • Jon

    I dunno what you guys are talking about, I honestly really liked Reflection Eternal’s album. It wasn’t my album of the year, but I honestly really liked it and in fact, happened to be listening to it right now. A coincidence I swear, but I really enjoyed the album, and have to disagree with you on that one. I tend to agree with your other choices though.

  • afan

    Eminem’s recovery album.

    now that’s the worst album by a respected artist released this year.

  • JustPlans

    What Rich said pretty much sums it up, and I’d add Authenticity to the list

  • stanus

    maybe time to TOP 5 SURPRISES ?

  • tom

    wake up??? how dare you? clearly no sense.

  • Georgia H.

    Interesting, so you delete comments that you don’t like?

  • http://www.hgraphiks.com Kid Captain Coolout

    Yall aint put Nicki Minaj up there? I know yall was anticipating that one, lol.

  • http://potholesinmyblog.com/ Fred Castano

    The new RE album wasn’t nearly as disappointing as Wu-Massacre. All three MCs have classics to their name and are by far the most relevant Wu members right now and they gave us THAT?!

    Also, fuck I Am The West. I had low expectations and it STILL disappointed.

  • http://e frank_be

    I’d like to applaud everyone who is waving the RE flag of quality. That’s a good album. Wake up is cheese. 24 Has some cuts, but was a let down. Eythang else I didn’t care to listen to. Ill get around to Maya one day though

  • Rich

    I forgot about Wu Massacre: DISAPPOINTING. yet another in the long line of disappointing rap albums this year. how can the 3 of them make “House of Flying Daggers” and “New Wu”, but then make a lame album? just another case where the album cover is harder than the album

  • http://janarlist.wordpress.com Jai

    disagree with one and twoooooo. wow

    RPM, dope. one song i could bear without is Midnight Hour
    but i can listen to it all the way through, as well as MIA’s
    Wu Massacre. flat. Returned that…as well as Wake Up, .they both had dope album covers thought, which is partially why i bought em,
    too bad i slept on BOB, wishy washy. Little Brother, no good reviews or..no reviews at all…and
    Ski Beats, flew past me.. i was waitin for it too!
    But i am overly proud of RPM and MIA

  • http://twitter.com/CraigSJenkins Craig Jenkins

    Wu Massacre should’ve been up there. Pink Friday should’ve been up there. MGMT’s Congratulations should’ve been up there. T.I.’s stink bomb No Mercy should’ve been up there. Lil Wayne’s hot garbage ass I Am Not a Human Being should’ve been up there. But you guys chose to go in on Little Brother, Kweli, and John Legend, who all turned in fairly good albums? Anyways,

    @Reyn
    Little Brother was ass? Khrysis murdering instrumentals and Te and Pooh spitting acid is ass? Leftback has a couple of my favorite LB joints on it. 24? Tigallo for Dolo? Curtain Call? Table for Two? C’mon, son. For an album we all knew was comprised of leftovers from the previous album, Leftback did real well. You don’t judge a cutting room floor compilation against fully conceived albums. By that logic, I could say Past Masters is ass compared to Sgt. Pepper and Revolver. Point is, it’s still the fucking Beatles. An album can be good even though another album was better. Less good don’t equal bad.

    @Zach & Reyn
    Legend being cheesy goes without saying. We know this going in. He’s a big ham, but he’s also a good singer. A technically proficient singer over a technically proficient, crack band deserves credit. It isn’t necessarily his job to make me feel anything when he sings. There’s plenty of engaging singers out there that don’t have “soul” that still carve ass on the mic. I’m about to put on “I Can’t Write Left Handed” right now lol.

    Also, I’m puzzled. If y’all don’t like Legend, how can anything he does stand to disappoint you? Furthermore, I’m puzzled as to what about a soul covers album is cheesy. I think it says a lot about this generation’s taste for songwriting that something as simplistic and direct as Wake Up is considered to be schmaltzy.

    These are not bad albums. I’m not saying they’re fantastic, but an album with a handful of bangers on it and a handful of decent tracks is not my definition of a disappointment. Plenty of egregious, soul-crushing shit happened in 2010. Whatever.

  • http://ignantwitted.com rek

    i was most disappointed by war report 2 and pink friday.

    horrible.

  • http://KevinNottingham.com Justin

    Solid list. I enjoyed the RE album for what is was but I understand being disappointed in it. I think if they shortened it, it would’ve been much better. Definitely a bit surprised to not see Wu-Massacre on there.

  • JustPlans

    man why would you even mention Pink Mafia or T.I? nobody had no expectations for them so how exactly can they be disappointing. If an artist whose previous albums have been genre defining or just plain dope (LB) now releases an ok album at best that’s the definition of disappointing. and I think it says more about our generation if you turn to legend when you’re lookin’ for some good songwriting

  • http://twitter.com/CraigSJenkins Craig Jenkins

    @JustPlans

    1. Whether you enjoy his music or not, T.I. is a good rapper.
    2a. Minaj was heavily hyped all year, and many were interested to hear what her album sounded like. That “Monster” verse had a lot of heads turning, and I’d personally be lying if I didn’t secretly want that album to be good. Just to see how people reacted to it lol.
    2b. That’s Pink “Friday”.
    3. John Legend did not write 90 percent of those songs. They’re covers. Marvin Gaye, Bill Withers, Nina Simone, Donny Hathaway, and Harold Melvin are not bad songwriters. Nor are they cheesy.
    4. Leftback IS dope is my entire point.
    5. I love LB, but “genre defining” will never come out of my mouth about them. Let’s be honest.

  • http://www.wevegotthejazz.com/ Futura

    Murs and 9th Wonder need a spot up there.
    Wu-Massacre also.

  • afan

    @craig jenkins

    little brother never made a bad album until Leftback. So of course its disappointing.

    No one was checking for nicki minaj. i could name 20 better females rappers from the 90s and i don’t have to include latifah, lyte, kim, foxy or ms hill.

    her lyrics on monster were good. but so what? just like lil wayne and drake she belongs to a label that buys its own records and buys her way onto tracks. so she only has a fake buzz going around the industry.

    and t.i is a good rapper…. but a shit musician. He would have been good rapping over the southern beats in the 90s which were heavily westcoast influenced. he needs to forget about crunk because he sounds better over beats like the one on rick ross’s album.

    and i agree about john legends album. there is nothing ‘cheesy’ about the music he sang. they are all classic songs. and better then 90 percent of modern r&b. (2000-2010)

    but the album was terrible. because it didn’t sound right. he stuffed up the unstuffable in my opinion.

  • http://twitter.com/CraigSJenkins Craig Jenkins

    Also, I don’t think I even know anyone who listens to Blonde Redhead. Also, Bobby Ray was not a tenth as bad as people act like it was. Basically, I’m calling shenanigans.

  • @Top5DOA

    @Craig Jenkins

    You’re definitely playing the Devil’s Advocate role here, in addition to nitpicking each critique. Your arguments are solid, but for the sake of the discussion a little bit too technical. Let’s assess the hip hop audience of this blog and not the overall spectrum of the genre. There’s no way in hell this topic should include Lil Wayne, Nikki Minaj, MGMT (u serious?), or T.I.. I’m almost upset that B.O.B. was included, none of the aforementioned albums garnered any expectations from me therefore there was no disappointment. I’m more disappointed and congratulatory in the fact that u gave all them joints the time of day.
    Anyways as everyone has said RPM and Leftback were disappointing to say the least…yeah maybe they had a track or two worth mentioning, but when was the last time u felt satisfied with something being 10-20% quality when ur use to around 80%, i think that’s why most people were disappointed.

    I have no quarrels with your John Legend POV.

  • http://potholesinmyblog.com/ Fred Castano

    I’m patiently waiting for someone to mention My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. You know it’s coming…

  • @Top5DOA

    By the way, i don’t know who on earth Blonde Redhead is.

  • http://twitter.com/CraigSJenkins Craig Jenkins

    @Top5DOA
    I’m not playing devil’s advocate. I don’t agree with the list. It’s that simple. I think there were bigger letdowns in 2010. I have a list, and only one of these is on it.

    Also, as far as what should and shouldn’t be included in this discussion considering the hip hop audience of this blog, I’d like to reiterate that Blond Redhead is on this list.

  • @Top5DOA

    Well then i’ll be the first to say Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as a HUGE disappointment. Originally rooted out of the fact of the initial rumors of him getting back to the boom bap Hip Hop sound of old with production from DJ Premier and other greats. Then the Free Friday tracks that he leaked started the flow of disappointment. The tracks lacked replay value and what was worse is that most of them transferred over to the album with a few additions to them. 6 or 7 purposely leaked tracks out of the 12 or 13 total tracks is losing. Reminded me of Wiz and Curren$y’s old tactics of putting tracks from mixtapes on albums. “Blame Game” is the only track off that album i check for.

  • http://www.potholesinmyblog.com Andrew Martin

    Thanks, Craig, because now I have to comment. I listen to and enjoy Blonde Redhead, just not that LP. And yeah, Bobby Ray was super-boring.

  • http://twitter.com/davidreyneke David Reyneke

    This is way too much to respond to, but Craig, did you really just compare The Beatles to Little Brother? hah..

  • http://twitter.com/CraigSJenkins Craig Jenkins

    Top5DOA,
    You shoulda never believed Kanye. The glory days are gone. Stop waiting for rap Jesus to bring us back to boom bap paradise. It ain’t happening. Progression is about moving forward, not constantly revisiting the past. Also, you do know that Kanye’s album is our #1 album of 2010, right? Now you sound like the devil’s advocate.

    Dave,
    I’m making a point about albums versus posthumous b-side compilations.

  • @Top5DOA

    @Craig,
    I’m not lookin for rap Jesus to come down and rescue us from the evils of “Billboard 100″, but that doesn’t mean that i wouldn’t be intrigued by an artist of today with a boom bap production styled album. I’d view it as paying homage rather than being regressive. Prince Ali’s “I Miss 1994″ or Diamond District’s “In The Ruff” had a classic boom bap sound AND were dope as hell. As far as Kanye’s album, I was just shedding light on how i was disappointed, my taste and/or POV has a tendency to not reflect the mass majority.

  • D. $cience

    This is pretty funny, considering that today I was rearranging my CD collection and I picked up Revolutions Per Minute and shook my head. This was no doubt the most disappointing album I copped this year. And I feel bad, because I want to like this album; it just bored me. Even “Just Begun” bored me. It’s sad too because the hecklers who claim Talib Kweli and other “conscious” rappers are boring, sometimes they’re right, unfortunately. The rest of the list I don’t give a f*** about; I didn’t even know Leftback came out this year.

    Sidebar: Did PIMB do a Most Slept On Albums list yet??? Because Marcberg, How I Got Over, and Stimulus Package are one of the most slept on albums of this year.

  • D. $cience

    Oh, and I can’t believe nobody mentioned Thank Me Later. Was it because he actually sold records? I think Drake is wack, but even I know that So Far Gone was better than Thank Me Later.

  • http://www.potholesinmyblog.com Andrew Martin

    Great point on Thank Me Later. That album was shite compared to So Far Gone.

  • http://dayandadream.com Brando

    This list should have started and ended with Wu-Massacre. Rushed product built off of the wave of OB4CL2. You knew what you were getting with LeftBack and even some of the cuts that were new (i.e. Tigallo For Dolo) were still dope in their own regards.

    For the most part, I think it was the writer’s own high expectations of certain albums instead of a general consensus. Because I don’t think you can hate on a great covers album by John Legend & The Roots.

  • Kara-Lis Coverdale

    @Top5DoA Potholes IS Rap Jesus.

    @P Until hearing (yes, David nailed it, the extremely dissapointing) RPM, I was confident another full-length collaboration with Tek would wipe away the grit from the shitty frequencies Kweli has jumped on since Train of Thought. Because RPM is a straight doozy though, I guess I’ll have to wait and see what washes up with Gutter Rainbows.

    And all this talk about Leftback. Am I the only one who would love to hear Phonte put the rap back into The Foreign Exchange?

  • @Top5DOA

    @Kara I’d say Potholes is a rap disciple, but more so an assortment of musical grace from all genres.

    Anyways, yeah Drake “Thank Me Later” sucked ass and was just a Matrix-like sequel of “So Far Gone” … If ur going to bridge the R&B/Hip-Hop gap on ur mixtape in one way, it’s best not to tread that exact same path with your album … Why waste ur time and produce a lower grade of what u just did, but i guess artists do it all the time *Cough* Common *Cough* Finding Forever *Cough*.

  • DLOtheIceman

    BPM was disappointing and boring.it only had two joints I could play twice. The mixtape they released was way better. Kanye’s LP was dope because he did alot of unexpected things with the production & mixing.

  • Nephrite

    RPM wasnt a disappointing album in the least.. it wasnt as appealing as say, Train of thought.. but it was still a solid album.. i liked it overall..

    wu massacre was kinda of disappointing.. so i can understand that.. but it was decent.. and it was actually in a ways a somewhat decent return to form for an offshoot wu album..cause there were some bangers ..it just wasnt as focused as it should have been.