JAY: Easy there A$AP Yams, 2014 was not the worst year for hip-hop ever. Was it as glamorous as previous years? Maybe not. But with the slew of great things that happened this year (and mind you, the year isn’t even over yet), it’s hard to call 2014 the WORST EVER. Here’s why.

Let’s start with the albums that dropped: YG’s My Krazy Life, ScHoolboy Q’s Oxymoron, Isaiah Rashad’s TDE debut Cilvia Demo, Rick Ross’ Mastermind, Pharrell’s G I R L, J. Lo’s A.K.A., Ab-Soul’s These Days…, PARTYNEXTDOOR’s PARTYNEXTDOOR 2, Wiz Khalifa’s Blacc Hollywood, Tinashe’s Aquarius, Logic’s debut album Under Pressure, T.I.’s 9th studio album Paperwork and we’re still hoping to get a new Dom Kennedy album and Carter V before the year ends. Now take a second and look at those albums, without thinking about how much they sold — still think 2014 was the worst year ever? Didn’t think so.

Fans and industry folks alike are hung up on the “no albums went platinum in 2014” thing and it has everybody going wild. But uh, reality check everyone: the only three people who had platinum selling albums in hip-hop in 2013 were Jay Z, Eminem and Drake — arguably the 3 best. And if Jay Z didn’t sell a million copies to Samsung prior, who knows if he would’ve pushed the platinum mark with Magna Carta Holy Grail. My point is, an album can be amazing whether or not it went platinum. Don’t blame the platinum-less albums in 2014 on the quality — blame it on the fans and the economy for not purchasing these albums.

Social media is a gift and a curse right? But for you guys reading this, the hip-hop fans, please realize that the way social media has affected hip-hop in 2014 completely benefits us. We have even more access to our favorite artists, we have the ability to listen to their music the way we want to listen to it and we can interact with our fellow fans about the multiple things that took place. For 2014, we saw Bobby Shmurda and the Shmoney dance make its way to Jay Z and Beyoncé because of Vine, DeJ Loaf’s “Try Me” has officially blown up because of the Internet’s response (and the slew of freestyles from other artists), Rae Sremmurd’s “No Flex Zone” catapulted the duo into stardom with the help of Mike WiLL Made It, etc. For the upcomers out there, if 2014 doesn’t give you hope that you can make it someday, then nothing will. Hip-hop in 2014 was the year of social media, and that my friends is a positive thing.

Another major reason 2014 can’t be considered the worst year of all time is because of the G-Unit reunion. Now, before you MMG and Game supporters yell at me, understand that whether or not you idolize 50 and the Unit or despise them, they made a mark on hip-hop in the early 2000s that will last a lifetime. And after 50 pretty much told us countless times that a reunion would never happen, he waited until he had the perfect platform — the 2014 Summer Jam stage — to welcome back Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo and Young Buck as G-Unit. That alone makes 2014 no longer a candidate for the Worst Year Ever award.

The bottom line is this: 2014 was not the best year for hip-hop by any means, but it was far from the worst. Focus on the music and not the numbers — that’s what supposed to matter anyway.