What To Expect In 2012: Albums/Mixtapes

We’re already in 2012, and I still haven’t listened to all of the mixtapes that came out on 11-1-11. Last year was filled with lots of music for almost everyone’s tastes. My favorite part of the year was when The Throne just dropped their album on us, and everybody was listening to Watch The Throne at the same time. That was cray! Hopefully they follow up with a part 2. We had major albums from just about every big rapper in the game: Bad Meets Evil, Tha Carter IV, Cole World, The RED Album, Section.80, Goblin, Take Care, Rolling Papers, Finally Famous, Camp, Self Made Vol. 1, All 6’s and 7’s, TM 103, The Dreamer/ The Believer, Ambition, and undun. Damn, what a year! Seems like everybody was dropping albums except Dr. Dre. 2011 was a solid year for music, let’s see what 2012 brings.

The 1st big album scheduled to drop in 2012 is Rick Ross’ God Forgives, I Don’t. Tracks like “All The Money In The World” from Teflon Don have me looking forward to Ross’ forthcoming album. This tape he just dropped hyped me up even more. Rich Forever was just a tiny sneak peek in my opinion. GFID will be Ross’ ticket into #1 rapper debates.

While we’re on the Ross subject, his collaborative project with Drake titled YOLO is going to crash the internet for good. Bloggers all over better gear up for this monster release. Queue the Drake is soft critics…..now.

We’ve also heard of a Watch The Throne Part 2 happening, and possible solo albums from both Kanye and Jay-Z. It sounds to good to be true, especially if Kanye is also working on a G.O.O.D. Music album, and DONDA. 3 quality albums in 1 year is nearly impossible, we’ll see if Kanye can pull it off. After all, he is a genius, right?

Another project I’m looking forward to is Kendrick’s follow up to Section.80. He hasn’t given out a name or time frame, but I don’t think he’ll go a whole year without dropping some sort of mixtape or album. IF IF we’re lucky, we might get that Kendrick Lamar-J.Cole project.

Tip and Jeezy are also working on a collaborative project of their own. The streets are going to be riding to this project for a long time.

Aside from working with Jeezy on a mixtape, T.I. is set to make his return with Trouble Man. This after nearly serving a year in federal prison for a probation violation. Telling from F#ck Da City Up, Trap Muzik T.I. is back!

An album I’m not looking forward to is Wayne’s alleged Rebirth II. Personally, Rebirth was ok, and Wayne was simply trying to tap into a different audience, but it was all a waste of time. Mack says we’ll have a part 2? You’re killin’ me. Now I Am Not A Human Being II, I’ll listen to. I feel that maybe Wayne is under too much pressure with Tha Carter series that he’s forcing hits. Although C4 was successful, it failed to deliver any monster hits like “Lollipop”, or “A Milli”. I wish he would come up with different album names too; just making sequels to albums is getting redundant. I’ll take IANAHB 2, but a Rebirth 2? I might have to bring out the YKM for that.

Slaughterhouse will also come through with their Shady Records debut in 2012. Eminem will probably make a feature on the album alongside Yelawolf. Slaughterhouse’s project will undoubtedly be making “The Top 10 Albums of 2012” lists in December.

Seems like Jay Electronica is taking forever with Act II: Patents of Nobility (The Turn), but be patient. 2012 will probably be the year. Greatness takes patience.

A lot of good collabo albums are coming this year. I talked about some of them above. That Drake-Ross YOLO tape is going to be hot for sure, but there’s few combos in Hip-Hop better than OutKast, and Nas & Dj Premier. Having Nas and Premo back in the lab seems more probable at this moment, but I’m optimistic that L.A. Reid will do something and bring OutKast to Epic.

Hip-Hop isn’t dead you fools. It’s beautiful right now. Sure there’s lots of wackness, and things I’d like to change, but the same thing was probably going on in ’96. It’s just that the internet gives you more exposure to all the lames in the game. This year is going to be nothing short of great for Hip-Hop. Especially if DONDA becomes a reality. You know, because it’s going to change our lives and all. Good luck ‘Ye! Just try to give us a solo album, and WTT 2, that’ll make my year.

What albums are you looking forward to in 2012?

Written by @QuezKHH, like me on facebook.

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