Hughie, who most know as Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire, is an elite rapper without debate. You might also know him from “Huzzah!”, his breakout track that came out in 2011, which set the blogs ablaze, and is a really fun rap song. I believe it led to a lucrative record deal at the time (if my memory serves me correctly), as he demonstrated that he could make a popular record. So what did eX do with this big record deal? He dropped the most underground project he possibly could make, and for the last decade has somewhat disappeared into the background, and imo now claims the title as the most underrated rapper on the planet. Does he care that he lost his underground fame? eX is fearless when it comes to self-expression, and my interpretation is that he did at one point care, but I’m absolutely convinced at this point that he gives zero fucks, and zero fucks led to him changing his name to Hughie, and dropping an album with a very unique title that clearly gives no fucks. But make no mistake, he gives many many fucks about the music he makes, as he delivered what I consider to be a masterful album and my not-so-easy top pick for 2022 in I Love Y.O.U cuz Y.O.U Ugly Vol. 1. 

This year also featured one of my favorite releases from Roc Marciano and Alchemist. If you know anything about hip-hop you know Alc, and he delivered imo his best body of work as far as the beats go, and Roc Marci (top 5 rapper imo) blessed the mic with more godliness than the Pope, allowing them to drop the best rapper producer collab since NxWorries. I know Roc and Alc’s album will be considered a classic. The reason I chose Hughie’s album over Roc & Alc’s is because the depth of the lyrics are not even comparable. Roc will occasionally share an introspective lyric here and there, but Hughie’s introspection/thoughts/philosophies are the foundation of his music and are more thought-provoking, personal, and intelligent than any rapper I’ve ever heard. But who cares about lyrics today? Basically no one, though I love lyrics, but lyrics don’t stick when the music isn’t there. 

Luckily, the production on Hughie’s album is also excellent. He got two beats from Madlib on here, one from CONSTROBUZ, an underrated producer that Hughie has worked with in the past, and also worked with a variety of names that I’m not familiar with, though a producer named EV comes through with some great beats, as do all the producers here. The only instrumental I didn’t like was oddly enough a Madlib one, the track Bubbleguts. I feel like this write up is already too long and I’ve hardly said anything. 

I was shocked that not one blog had this listed on their top 50, which proves to me that they aren’t listening, because this album is insanely dope from front to back, some of the beats are downright gorgeous, others are hard-hitting, and Hughie raps like he has nothing to lose. I could literally highlight endless bars from every song here, this album is brilliant. 

I’m too lazy to go track by track and you’re probably too lazy to read that much anyways, so absolutely check this out. The track “Shango” about his uncle actually made my eyes well up, which has never happened to me from a song. if you’ve lost someone important to you, this song is your comfort food. This album also features what is possibly the most laid back stoner type track he’s ever made, “Space Invaderz”, and some of the hardest hitting. “Weight of Water Pt. 2” has one of the craziest Madlib beats I’ve ever heard. 

If Madlib is tapped into Hughie, how come nobody else is? People call themselves woke, but their music taste is the polar opposite of that, musically 99.99% of Americans are sleeping on great music, which is why so many hip-hop artists go to Europe, because Americans are all brainwashed by clout. Go listen to this album with an open mind, or some weed to open your mind, and turn that shit the fuck up and prepare to get mindfucked by genius. 

P.S. Fuck the blog Passion of Weiss, as the head of it, Mr. Jeff Weiss, has Fatboi Sharif signed to his label (Sharif and Hughie collabed on a great track in 2022). Somehow the Passion of Weiss aka PoW didn’t include Hughie on their top 50, and they claim to be one of the only authentic underground blogs left. Yet he somehow didn’t include Hughie’s album and many of the great hip-hop albums that dropped this year, but did include a lot of hypebeast trash.  That shit is what motivated me to write again, I feel like the best music is being disregarded by even the underground blogs, so this shit is just infuriating to me, and I will use my rage to fuel my writing and give proper credit to the best shit out. Fuck all you blogs, especially Pitchfork and The Needledrop for their crimes on hip-hop, though I will forever love the blog HHID (Hip Hop Isn’t Dead), Max over at HHID runs my favorite blog ever. 

Anyways: AOTY, though you could make a case for Roc Marci/Alc, but there’s nothing with an ounce of the sincerity that “Shango” possesses on Roc/Alc’s album, so I think my pick wins the debate.