Best of the year: (clockwise from top left) Thundercat, Mackned, DoNormaal, and Young Thug. DONORMAAL BY UNA BLUE
“Black art thrives in times of revolution,” said Twitter user @infiniteideal earlier this month. (Note to corporations: Always give proper credit to black people for shit they put on the internet.) Hiphop, a black art, pulsed with urgency and intent through the tumult of 2015—it wasn’t always revolutionary, but the best of it was all very fucking free.
Okay, the best show (possibly ever, really) was indeed D’Angelo at the Showbox. The best song: Thundercat’s “Them Changes.” The collaboration that ruined my best pants: Shabazz Palaces jumping in the pot with Flying Lotus and Thundercat as WOKE. The best rapper of 2015: Young Thug, obviously—the freest rapper on earth…