Year In Review: The 10 Best Albums Of 2010
Album: Jazmine Sullivan's Love Me Back
Must-Download: "10 Seconds," "Redemption"
Everything You Need to Know About the Album in 30 Words or Less: What sophomore curse? Just try not to be blown away by Jazmine's powerful pipes and ballads. A sturdy replay-worthy follow-up to her 'fearless' debut.
Album: Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday
Must-Download: "Roman's Revenge," "Right Thru Me," "Blazin"
Everything You Need to Know About the Album in 30 Words or Less: Love her, hate her, don't give an F about her—it's just good to have a female MC back on the scene. Good to see you again, old friend.
Album: Big Boi's Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
Must-Download: "Shutterbug," "Tangerine," "You Ain't No DJ"
Everything You Need to Know About the Album in 30 Words or Less: What else can we say except...FINALLY! Label politics couldn't stop Big Boi from crafting an album that sounds right at home next to the other albums in OutKast's discography.
Album: The Roots' How I Got Over
Must-Download: "Dear God 2.0," "Now or Never," "How I Got Over"
Everything You Need to Know About the Album in 30 Words or Less: Between all the touring and their gig on the Jimmy Fallon Show, how do these guys find time to make music that's this good?
Album: T.I.'s No Mercy
Must-Download: "Welcome To The World," "Castle Walls," "All She Wrote"
Everything You Need to Know About the Album in 30 Words or Less: Sometimes solemn, sometimes remorseless, T.I's eight LP is what going to jail (again) sounds like. You can't be mad at him after an effort like this.
Album: Janelle Monae's The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III)
Must-Download: "Tightrope," "Cold War," "Locked Inside"
Everything You Need to Know About the Album in 30 Words or Less: Weird. Strange. Outside-the-box. Eccentric. Eclectic. Different. Spacey. Far out. No matter what words you used to describe Janelle Monae's debut, there's only one that truly sums it up: Great.
Album: Eminem's Recovery
Must-Download: "Talkin' 2 Myself," "Not Afraid," "Love The Way You Lie"
Everything You Need to Know About the Album in 30 Words or Less: Better. Than. Relapse. What more can we say?
Album: Drake's Thank Me Later
Must-Download: "Over," "Fancy," "Light Up," "Miss Me"
Everything You Need to Know About the Album in 30 Words or Less: Drake's first album was the most anticipated debut album since 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' in 2003. And just like Fif, Drake delivered.
The Album: Rick Ross's Teflon Don
The Must-Download Songs: "Free Mason," "Super High," "B.M.F. (Blowin' Money Fast)," "Aston Martin Music"
Everything You Need to Know About the Album in 30 Words or Less: Almost every song on the album—with the exception of "All the Money in the World," featuring Raphael Saadiq—could have been listed in the section above. Now, that's boss.
Album: Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Must-Download: "Monster," "Runaway," "Blame Game"
Everything You Need to Know About the Album in 30 Words or Less: So what if the G.O.O.D. Friday promotion meant we heard most of it before it actually came out? 'Ye's fantasy still sounded like a dream to us.
