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The Roberta-Flack-via-Dirty-South synth line that opens T.I.‘s “What You Know” was as big a gimme as any DJ could ask for this year — dropping it at any time of night got a reaction from the crowd equivalent to throwing a handful of twenties on the dancefloor. Nothing else on King (Atlantic) was anywhere near that bonkers, but Tip’s at the forefront — alongside Nas, Lupe, and the Clipse — of the best hip-hop trend in forever: making records you can actually sit all the way through in one listen.
I’m fully against the concept of “guilty pleasures” — either you like something or you don’t — but I’m still sort of embarrassed about where the Sounds‘ Dying to Say This to You (New Line) stands in my iTunes rankings. It’s everything its critics complain about — a vapid sugar rush of an album — but it’s also got to have the hook-densest record I’ve heard this year. Deep inside my mind there’s a voice warning me about the long-term effects of ingesting this much candyfloss, but it’s drowned out by the chorus that’s chanting, “More, more, more!”
