I can’t believe how fast this year has come to an end. 2011 was a great year for the 7th Boro. From meeting Saigon, getting emails from Stretch & Bob bigging us up, rocking with Rock Steady, adding our third member (Shouts to Smu), and linking up with Hip Hop Karaoke; It’s been a memorable year. If you think 2011 was good, wait til 2012. You haven’t seen shit yet. Smu, Mills, and I are going to take this to the next level. With that said, we bring you our Best Of 2011 Awards. Keep in mind that Mills, Smu, & I, although lovers of Hip Hop, have somewhat different tastes and you will see that in these selections. It’s the LOVE for Hip Hop that makes the 7th Boro. It’s all of you that make the 7th Boro. If you agree or disagree with our selections, feel free to leave a comment or hate message. Bless.

 Smu: Saigon: Greatest Story Never Told

Y’all might agree or disagree with this one but to me 2011 was Saigon’s Year after dropping several mixtapes,Free Tracks the wait for this Album was finally over. It felt like a lifetime just waiting for it to drop. I gotta give it up to Just Blaze for (mainly) crafting his dope production on this project.

Honorable Mentions: The Roots – Undun (too dope to be missed out),  Common – The Dreamer,The Believer

 

Stroydnaire: Saigon: Greatest Story Never Told

Major props to Mills for putting me up on Saigon. This album has been in heavy rotation since the day I opened my autographed copy.  Every single is a banger on this album. The combination of Saigon’ lyrics and Just Blaze’s beats is so fuc**** sick.  If you don’t own this, beat yourself over the head with a sock full of D batteries!

Honorable Mentions: Common – Dreamer/Believer,  Danny Brown – XXX,  Rasheed Chappell- Future Before Nostalgia

 

Mills:   Saigon:  Greatest Story Never Told  
I been waiting for this album for over 6 years.  People kept telling me it “will NEVER see the light of day” but I kept believing and waiting.  It FINALLY dropped this year and did NOT disappoint!!  I recall telling everyone about his mixtapes and listing him as a Top 10 MC, but most people kept sleeping.  This album proves how dope an MC he is and how timeless his music is.             
 
Honorable mentions:  J. Cole- Cole World: The Sideline Story,  The Roots- Undun

 

 

 Smu: Crooked I

I don’t think i need to explain why he’s one of the best MC’s for me this year. He absolutely murdered almost every verse he got featured with or dropped as a freestyle especially the Funk Flex Freestyle. Keep your eyes on this man for 2012. Mark my words!

Honorable Mentions: Black Thought,  Mos Def aka Yasiin,  Blu

 

Stroydnaire: Saigon

The lyrics and delivery on The Greatest Story Never Told definitely earn Saigon this title. Listen to “Friends” & “Enemies” back to back and you’ll get an idea of why I made this choice.

Honorable Mentions: Common,  Eminem (That verse on the BET freestyle was sick!)

 

Mills:  J. Cole
After all the rumors about his album not dropping, how Jay wasn’t supporting him,  all the pressure of trying to top his mixtapes and repping RocNation; Cole came thru with a very dope debut album.  Dropped alot of nice freestyles, dope videos, and gave us some teasers with his Any Given Sunday series.  I feel he was consistent all year and like he said: “Cole under pressure, what that make Diamonds”.
Honorable mentions:  Black Thought,  Crooked I  

 Smu: Tech Nine, Andre 3000, Bun B, Nas, Shyne & Busta Rhymes – Interlude & Outro 

This “Posse Cut” right here was my favourite collaboration this year.  Leaving Lil Wayne’s Dumb Verse from the intro aside you got some of the great MC’s out there trading bars.

I mean nowadays you don’t get collabos like these very often.

Honorable Mentions: Saigon & Faith Evans – Clap,  Common & Nas – Ghetto Dreams

 

Stroydnaire: Common & Nas – Ghetto Dreams

Common and Nas go back to back over this heavy drum No ID production. Two Hip Hop legends on this one. A gift from above.

Honorable Mentions: Ghostface, AZ, Lil Fame – Legendary Weapons,  Raekwon & Nas – Rich and Black

 

Mills:  Pharoahe Monch ft. Jean Grae & Royce Da 5’9″- Assassins
Off a great album… this mixes 3 of the sickest lyricists on the planet.
Honorable mentions:  Common and Nas- Ghetto Dreams,  Saigon and Joe Budden- Bring Me Down Pt. 3,   Tech Nine, Andre 3000, Bun B, Nas, Shyne & Busta Rhymes – Interlude & Outro  

Smu: Saigon Feat. Faith Evans – Clap

A really dope Video from my personal Album of the year. The Visuals deliver a positive Message and the way it was directed made the song even better to most of us.

 

Stroydnaire: Willie Evans Jr. – Introducin’

I knew this would be my “Best of 2011” selection from the moment I watched it. Besides having cameos from some of my favorite Hip hop artists, this video portrays the duality of a woman’s personality. They love you one minute, then they hate you the next. Sick video!

Honorable Mention: Reks – Kill em’

 

Mills:  The Roots- Undun.

 

A 9 minute video that includes many tracks off the Undun album.  If you heard the album, this paints a nice picture of the life of Redford Stephens.

Honorable mentions:  Lupe Fiasco- Words I Never Said,  Nas- Nasty

 

 

 Smu: Elzhi & Will Sessions  – Elmatic

This mixtape is a very,very dope homage to one of the best Albums in Hip Hop History.  The Instrumentation from Will Sessions man…

Honorable Mentions: Fabolous – The Soul Tape,  DJ Premier – Heavy D Tribute Mix

 

Stroydnaire: Elzhi & Will Sessions – Elmatic

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m a crazy Nas fan. So when I heard Elzhi was dropping this I wasn’t real excited.  There were many Illmatic knock offs before this one and this one would be no different right? WRONG! He managed to pay homage to one of the sickest albums ever and still maintain his identity and a sense of originality. This is a must cop if haven’t already. It’s free….

Honorable Mentions: Willie The Kid – The Fly 2,  Jon Connor – Season 2

 

Mills:  Lupe Fiasco- Friend Of The People
His Lasers album was far from his best work. (blame it on the record label for trying to mold him).  But on this mixtape, he did it HIS way.  Lyrically second to none with his double and triple meanings and crazy and complex metaphors.  You will NOT get everything the first or second time you listen to this, but that’s what makes it so great.  The replay factor is second to none.
Honorable mentions:  Money Making Jam Boys- The Prestige,  Jean Grae- Cookies Or Comas

Smu: Common – Blue Sky

The Production and those Lyrics. A very positive track that everybody should’ve heard by now.

Honorable Mentions: Saigon & Joe Budden – Bring Me Down Part 3;  Evidence – You

 

Stroydnaire: Nas – Nasty

Whenever Nas and Salaam Remi link up, 9 out of 10 times it’s going to be a classic. I don’t know why they haven’t made an album together. This is classic Nasir right here.

Honorable Mentions: Common – Blue Sky,  Reks – Kill Em’

 

Mills: Chino XL- N.I.C.E. 
 
Now It’s Chino Everything.  No album from Chino, but this single is exactly what I expect it to sound like.  With insane lyrics and crazy energy, this song was in heavy rotation since it was released early this summer.
Honorable mentions:  Nas- Nasty,  Common- Blue Sky

 

 

 

Smu: Statik Selektah

This Man’s worth ethic is second to none. One of the hardest working producers out there on the East Coast at the moment.

Honorable Mentions: DJ Premier,  Black Milk,  Will Sessions

 

Stroydnaire: No I.D.

After listening to Common’s Dreamer/Believer, I give this one to No I.D. Every track on this album compliments Common’s voice and delivery perfectly. His use of filters on “Blue Sky” totally perfected the sound of that track. A masterpiece if you ask me.

Honorable Mentions: Statik Selektah,  Just Blaze

 

Mills:  No I.D.  
Incredible work on Common’s album.  That alone made him top producer for me… but also dropped Cocaine 80′s: The Pursuit EP  and worked on PL3DGE, WTT and Cole World.
Honorable mentions:  Just Blaze,  Questlove