Somehow Billy Jam's top 10 list for 2007 fell through the cracks here at WFMU Centralia, and we apologize for the tardiness of its presentation. If you missed out on 2007 listmania, click here.
Billy Jam's Top Ten of 2007
1) The number best thing of the last year for me was getting to do a show on WFMU every Friday afternoon and having the fortune to be on before Bronwyn C's great show and to follow the two wonderfully creative FMU DJs Bryce and Scott Williams.
2) OCDJ "Hooray" (Wildfire Wildfire)
Speaking of cool ass WFMU DJs to follow on the radio, my old on-air partner OCDJ who I had the pleasure of following on the air but who sadly left WFMU about a year ago to sail the Atlantic, make music (among other things), and relocate to Baltimore where he hooked up Wildfire Wildfire to drop one of the best fuckin albums of the year with this lil puppy (Hooray indeed) that is underground cool with the potential of being global pop - if it were given the right push with a proper budget behind him. Fuckin brilliant!
3) V/A "Soul Jazz Singles 2006/2007" set (Soul Jazz)
Wow! What an amazing 3-CD compilation this one is. And near every damn track included is on hit. How do they do it? I don't know but I do know that Soul Jazz is one of those few rare labels these days that you can almost blindly bank on being good just by the label name. Remember when Def Jam was like that? Ah, I miss the old days.
4) Emcee T's Bay Area version of the Sopranos intro (watch on YouTube).
Since leaving the Yay Area I miss it but I love the State that WFMU
dwells in - New Jersey - home of the Sopranos - so when I first saw
this Bay Area version of the Sopranos intro by Emcee T, it was love at
first sight, since it brought together NJ and da Bay. Yay!
5) Zeph & Azeem "Rise Up" (OM)
One of the today's best emcees teams up with one of today's best DJs
(both Bay Area) and voila - you got one of the best hip-hop albums of
the past year.
6) Born in the Bronx (Rizzoli Books)
Another great hop-hop history book of which I can never get enough.
Unlike say "Can't Stop Won't Stop" by Jeff Chang, who contributes a
little to this publication as does b-boy Fabel and scratch creator
Grand Wizzard Theodore among others, Born in the Bronx is less essay
and text and more straight up historic hip-hop photo and fliers
collection style book.
7) Copperpot "WYLA?" (EV Productions)
Another slept on release from 2007 from super talented American
producer featuring tons of great guests including British emcee
Braintax and US emcee master blaster KRS-One.
8) Ultimate Force "I'm Not Playin'" (Traffic)
Just one of the numerous great classic hip-hop CDs released by the
Boston based Traffic label. Most of their stuff is reissued material
but in this case the great golden era hip-hop never got released in the
first place Traffic rescued it for us to enjoy.
9) MF Grimm "The Hunt for the Gingerbread Man" (Class A Records)
Wow! Talk about a great album that fools slept on. Besides MF Grimm's
obvious skills, this dude has been to hell and back in his personal
life (life dealt him some shitty cards that landed him crippled &
confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life - plus he spent
several years locked up in prison) and he still managed to come out
with this powerfully uplifting and lyrically strong album.
10) edIT "Certified Air Raid Material" (Alpha Pup)
Kinda like the aforementioned Soul Jazz, Alpha Pup is a label that I
have come to depend on for innovative, hip-hop based music - usually of
the more abstract, beat driven end of the spectrum.
A certain Spazz and Rex were also excluded from the lists. And it hurts me so bad - so very bad.
Posted by: Andy | January 23, 2008 at 08:33 AM
Dang. I'm sorry I missed Bryce's on-air cooking show. I can't seem to find it in the archives either...
Posted by: CheeseSnobWendy | January 24, 2008 at 10:45 AM