OPINION: 2024 was a year filled with a lot of good music from both legacy and newer acts kickin’ in the door.
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
What a year 2024 was musically! Obviously, 2024 was the year of Kendrick Lamar. What started with one verse on one song released in March (“Like That” with K. Dot, Future and Metro Boomin) set the tone for a summer of beef with one of music’s biggest stars, Drake, and ultimately led to the Compton MC’s biggest year yet. While that fracas was happening, a lot of other wonderful music was being released, especially in the world of hip-hop and R&B. Several artists delivered remarkable and game changing albums that had both the critics and social media buzzing. Here’s TheGrio’s list of the top 10 albums of 2024, ya know, according to yours truly.
Beyoncé “Cowboy Carter”
“Cowboy Carter” is hands-down my favorite album of the year, and if I’m being honest and perhaps even a little controversial, is my second favorite album of hers, after only 2013’s self-titled fare. “Cowboy Carter” wasn’t just music, it was a history lesson and an aggressive reimagining of what the landscape of country and Americana music looks like with us at the helm. Black artists have always been, and are currently working and creating, in country but the recognition is often missing.
White people, and a lot of Black people, feel country is the white man’s domain, and that’s odd considering the narrative of the genre as one built around storytelling. Who has more stories to tell than Black people? “Cowboy Carter” has jams, ballads, features artists in the genre and tells a story. It’s important and it mattered, even if we all kind of found out some Black folks don’t love country that much, even if Beyoncé is the one making it.
Doechii “Alligator Bites Never Heal”
When Doechii’s album (or mixtape, though who knows the difference these days) landed,the conversation started up immediately about whether or not it was the album of the year. Doechii can rap and sing with the best and her creativity on records in both the delivery and content was a revelation for those of us who knew her but weren’t truly familiar. Consider me changed; before her tape came out, I was familiar, now I’m a fan and think she might be one of the most talented artists, regardless of genre, making music today.
Tyler, the Creator “Chromakopia”
As far as albums in 2024, Tyler’s album is among the top three conversation starters for album of the year purposes. Musically it’s creative and interesting, something we might take for granted because that’s just what Tyler does. Conceptually, it’s a more mature take on the life of Tyler, the Creator; family and fatherhood and growing up. We also get some of the most vulnerable, gut-wrenching thoughts and bars of his career on “Like Him,” where he questions if he’ll be like his father only to be told that that relationship didn’t really have a fair chance to exist by his mother, who guides the entire album. Tyler is an artist who requires a genuine and considerate listen and who is gracious enough to provide a sonically enjoyable palate to do so. “Chromakopia” is an album that rightfully belongs at (or at the least near) the top of any list discussing 2024’s musical offerings.
Kendrick Lamar “GNX”
The only thing Kendrick’s year was missing was an album. He had the biggest singles and took down one of music’s biggest juggernauts and was THE conversation of the year. Then, in November, we got a surprise album drop in “GNX” that effectively ensured that 2024 belonged to one artist and one artist only. “GNX” is almost more important for existing than it is good, and it is plenty good! Songs like “tv off” and “squabble up” are likely to be chart mainstays while songs like “Dodger Blue” have folks trying to do new line dances. Point is, Kendrick popped out and showed folks that he is not to be played with and “GNX” is the feather in that cap for 2024.
GloRilla “Glorious”
I don’t know anybody who doesn’t love GloRilla. But does that love for her mean she makes amazing albums? In this case, it does. “Glorious” dropped with a LITANY of hot singles that aren’t just good for the club, but the ride, for the picnic, for leaving church and definitely for Friday night. “TGIF” and “Hollon” were the mainstays on radio and basically all over TikTok and social media — it was basically 95 degrees on Friday for months on end this summer if you let the streets tell it. With banging beats and GloRilla’s charm and penchant for catchy bars and hooks, no conversation about albums of 2024 is complete without “Glorious.”
Common and Pete Rock “The Auditorium, Vol. 1”
Two of hip-hop’s most celebrated and respected craftsman joined forces for an album that had the potential to be 25 years too late but was just about right on time. Common wrote and rapped with inspiration. Pete cooked up beats both reminiscent of boom bap’s glory days while sitting very nicely in the pocket for 2024. Quite simply, the album is just dope. Common and Pete (and LL Cool J with his album release, “FORCES”) demonstrated to younger generations you can keep doing that thing you love, successfully, decades into your hip-hop career and still be relevant.
Muni Long “Revenge”
I almost feel a little bad for Muni Long. She had a surprise viral hit on TikTok with 2023’s “Made For Me” and the label took too long to get her album out. In today’s world where social media relevance is currency, had her album come out at the end of the year or top of 2024, she would have killed the game numbers wise. Be that as it may, when August 2024 rolled around and we got “Revenge” I was amazed at how good of an R&B offering it was. The album was written and produced with a who’s who of creatives and it opened up strong with “Superpowers.” I’m telling you, the album is good from start to finish and Muni has a voice that everybody should hear. “Revenge” might not have gotten the love it deserved, especially being released in the mix of 2024’s landmark releases, but it’s an album that’s just as good, and better, than most.
Leon Thomas “Mutt”
I wasn’t even familiar with Leon Thomas until 2024’s edition of The Roots Picnic in Philadelphia. I walked in on his set and was immediately caught up. When his sophomore album, “Mutt” dropped, I was floored. It was vibes-meets-the-R&B I know and love with a singer who has the chops and the songwriting. The whole album just rides and I imagine it would be insane to see live. His lead single “Mutt” stayed on rotation on end and I can’t get enough of “Lucid Dreams” with Masego. Apparently I’m not alone, and for good reason. “Mutt” was an album everybody on my socials can’t stop, won’t stop talking about. It is easily one of the best offerings of 2024.
Tierra Whack “World Wide Whack”
Tierra is an artist whose music is so creative and imaginative that it is either embraced or passed over by the masses who don’t quite get it. For my money, when I first pulled up “World Wide Whack” I was impressed and surprised at how many styles and variations in sounds she waded into and out of. With songs that work in the car, the club or even your yoga session, Tierra’s second offering was vastly overlooked but not for quality but because, well, maybe folks are still trying to catch up.
Future and Metro Boomin “We Don’t Trust You”
Future and Metro Boomin are mainstays in music these days. And their March release “We Don’t Trust You” is jam-packed album full of bops and Future being textbook Future, it is also the album that turned the heat up on the simmering Drake and Kendrick Lamar feud with the song “Like That,” a song that hit number one on the Billboard charts and was inescapable. But the whole album is full of aural gems for any occasion. It was one of those albums that played while everything else was happening because you just had to get back to that song you loved.
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio and host of the award-winning podcast, “Dear Culture” on theGrio Black Podcast Network. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest) but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said “Unknown” (Blackest).
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