Meyhem Lauren’s “Black Pinot” and Drakeo The Ruler & OTM’s “Cliffhanger (Remix)” were the two hardest tracks that I heard in 2022. Meyhem’s track had been debuted on his Instagram all the way back in 2019 with a short 30 second clip. Never in my life have I gone back to an IG post to obsessively listen to a teaser of a song. NEVER. I went back to this Meyhem track so many times, and I was the biggest nerd in the comment section asking when this would drop. Little did I know it would take 3 years. That’s a solid chunk of life. I also didn’t know it was part of a full length album with Daringer, the producer who built the Griselda sound that we know and love today. If you don’t know Griselda, you’re lucky, go have fun with that. Daringer’s beat for Black Pinot is the ultimate score to commit crimes to, there’s something about it that just makes me wanna do bad things. Meyhem rips it to shreds, and it also features Bronson. It was the intro to his album too, which means its probably my top album intro of all time, sorry Meek Mill.

Switching gears: Drakeo’s music video with his verse on OTM’s Cliffhanger dropped on YouTube a few weeks after he was disturbingly ambushed and murdered a few weeks before at a mainstream Snoop Dogg sponsored hip-hop festival. Still will never understand how this happened. I love the way they let the beat build before it drops, and man does it drop. Drakeo drops a scene-stealing verse that I only wish was longer. OTM does their thing too, as rapping alongside Drakeo is no easy task. Perfection was achieved here. A lot of people were talking about Darkeo’s eerie line “tell God save a bed for me coming soon.” Drakeo wasn’t scared to die, that’s for sure. Long Live Drakeo!!!!!