SHAWN: I have loved the change that we have received from the year of 2014 in hip-hop. There has been plenty of new albums and all of the superstars, except one (Hi Kanye), have come out to play. But with the flood of music we have received has there been enough to adequately digest the content and form proper opinions?

So far this year we received stellar albums like To Pimp a Butterfly, The Documentary 2, Long.Live.A$AP., Dark Sky Paradise, 90059, Dirty Sprite 2 and that’s just the tip of the rap iceberg. Then we look ahead and we have releases from Rick Ross, Jeezy, Fabolous and more on the way within the course of two months. Each will dominate headlines but for how long? Will any of them be able to sustain a lengthy momentum or hold a spot on the charts? Where is the breathing room? For the sake of everyone coming during the fourth quarter Future won’t hold true to his promise and drop another project before the end of the year because the hive won’t let it rest throughout the early cold months.

With the ample amount of releases hip-hop has turned into a constant rotation of “who’s hot now,” marking albums to be talked about for a couple of Twitter days and not having a lasting conversation that actually displays how great these projects are or many being overlooked in the surplus. Having a lot of options and quality to listen to isn’t the worst problem to have, however, it is still a problem.

With the outpour of great projects we received this year, what will come next year? Is there going to be content for us to listen to, hopefully we don’t approach a drought like that of the yesteryear, 2014. – Shawn Grant