I think it's late enough to declare that DOOM's 'That's That' = Best track of year
 

Seriously, it's been like 10 months + since I heard this on myspace prior to the release of Born Like This, and I have listened to it at least triple the amount of any other track this year, if not more. Something about it just means that I'm totally obsessed. I've found myself blasting it a high volume up to like 10-15 times in a row on several occasions. The flow is just so sick it's almost physically difficult to take. As in like when it grabs me I literally find myself shaking because I'm so goddamn locked into the awesomeness of what DOOM is spitting. Maybe no one else feels quite the same about it, but I don't care, because

"Already woke, spared a joke, barely spoke, rarely smoke
Stared at folks when properly provoked, mirror broke
Here, share strawberry mornin, gone an more important spawnin
Torn in, poor men sworn in
Cornish hens switchin positions, auditionin' mortitions
saw it in a vision, ignorin prison
Ignoramuses enlist and sound dumb
Found em drowned in cows dung, crowns flung
Rings a tinkerbell, sing for things that's frail as a fingernail
Bring a scale, stale ginger lingers
Seven figures invigor
Nigga, fresh from out the jail, alpha male
Sickest ninja injury this century, enter plea
Lend sympathy to limper simple simon rhymin emcees
Trees is free, please leave a key
These meager fleas, he's the breeze
And she's the bees knees for sheez
G's of G's
Seize property, shopper sprees, chop the cheese
Drop the grease to stop diseases, gee wiz pa!
DOOM rock grammer like the kumbaya!
Mama was a ho hoppa, papa was a rollingstone
Star like Obama, pull a card like oh drama!
Civil liberties
These little titties abilities riddle me, middle C
Give a MC a rectal hysterectomy
Lecture on removal of the bowls, foul technically
Don't expect to see the recipe
Until we receive the check as well as the collection fee
More wreck than section Z
What you expect to get for free?
Shit from me, history
The key, plucked it off mayor
Chucked it in the ol tar pit off La Brea, playa
They say he's gone too far
DOOM'll catch em after Jumar on cue lacka!!
Do what'cha gotta do, grarrrr
The rumors are not true, got two ma
No prob, got the job, hot barred heart throb
Scotch Guard the bar the with cotton swabs, dart lob
Bake a cake, sweet
Jamaica trade in treats on the beach
Make a skeet til her feets meet

Can it be I stayed away too long?
Did you miss these rhymes when I was gone?
As you listen to these crazy tracks
Check them stats then you know where I'm at
And that's that."

And that really is that I guess.

BORN is an incredible album.

It really is. Actually think that it's going to be my album of 2009 too (although I still haven't really sat down and given Embryonic the time, so that's the only potential competition I can think of).

It's not my album of the year. But it will be in the Top 10. Stay tuned.

it is a great album, but i think ballskin and cellz are better songs.

I've had lots of people say that (and they're both amazing songs), but That''s that has for some reason always been the one that just KILLS me. One of my favourite ever beats.

What criteria are there for "best track of year"...? Or what cemented it for "That's That"...?

Basic criteria for me:

Track that most defined a moment in time for the year: That's That gets it because I really associate with buying the album as a pre-release because I have a friend who works in a record store and sold it to me, and then I bumped it obsessively for like a whole month. Also, that was back when I was just getting into hip-hop for the first time at the beginning of the year, and I really connect it to that. Seeing as hip-hop has been the main music for me this year, that's important.

Most listened: There's definitely no track this year I've listened too half as much.

Still sounds great now: There's no track that hits me with as much visceral pleasure STILL at years end as this does.

About sums it up.

"Cellz" is awesome. But I think "Ballskin" is one of the weaker tracks on there. "Batty Boys" is the worst. But what do I know? I love "Supervillains" which a lot of people seem to hate. SO whatever.

'Ballskin' is badass. My favourite part of the album though is that 3 track, super short, all flow, run of 'Microwave Mayo', 'More Rhymin' and 'That's That'. 6 minutes of pure genius. Individual tracks wise, my second favourite is probably Angelz, but that's because I wasn't already familiar with it's awesomeness prior to the album coming out, so I got the full punch.

"Microwave Mayo" is insane. Don't get me wrong, I love the whole album, but I'm just saying some songs are weaker than others. "Angelz" is a great track, but other than an extra drum track, yeah I had defiinitely played the song out by the time it ended up on an LP.

See, I guessed that would be the case with Angelz. It was only like the 3rd Doom album I bought, so it was still totally fresh for me. And yeah, everything's seriously fucking good, but some are definitely weaker. Like Rap Ambush or yeah Batty Boyz. Those are still amazing tracks by non-Doom standards, but seem a bit rote coming from him.

Mos Def's Auditorium is another great hip hop track from this year.

EDIT: Actually that track just makes me want a Madlib produced Slick Rick album.

Mos + Lib + Slick Rick = great track.

I think you've figured out the thing with Doom already... you can compare his work to other rappers work, in which case it's often completely in another league. Or you can compare it to his own past work, which is a lot more fair.

Which just makes all the non-appearing promised Doom stuff all the more annoying. Where is that second King Geedorah record?! Or Monster Island Academy?! Or Swift and Changeable for christ's sake??!!!

a while ago I made a long long long list of every non-appearing Doom LP that was announced... it's in another thread somewhere. But yeah.

Oh and apparently Wikipidea says he's working on a project with Dave Sitek? Reall? I mean that would be amazing, clearly, but really?

i don't like this album too much... That's That is a really great track though. as is Mayo and rhymin... most of the album was a miss for me though.

i like mos def's album better this year, though i haven't listened to it as much, yet.

ghostface disappointed me. what a weird album. lacks balls most of the time. i just don't enjoy it

the Ghost album is pretty bad. Maybe his worst actually. But at the same time, I give him credit for making it. The thing about Ghost is he'll have another album in 2010. Plus some mixtapes most likely. He's fucking prolific. So to him, this was just like a concept that he wanted to say he completed. But it's not like he's gonna tour this shit for 3 years before another album. So whatever. He wanted to make an album that his wife wanted to hear. That's cool.