The Best Albums of November 2013

As the year winds to a close, we take a look at last month's best albums.

Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

November was a pretty low-key month for hip-hop music. With the exception of Eminem, whose new record is considered by many fans as a return to form, the genre's heavy hitters had already released their big records earlier in the year.

It's a strange change for the industry. When commercial rap albums were dropping with great consistency in the early '00s, November and December were packed with releases being unloaded for the Christmas stocking stuffer season. There are still a few records yet to drop (Childish Gambino, etc.). But for the most part, it's been thin for major crossover hip-hop artists.

But there were a few worthwhile moments. Insanul takes a look at the latest release by Action Bronson, while David listened to the Three 6 Mafia comeback record (as Da Mafia 6ix) and the first new Rich Homie Quan tape since his "Type of Way" blew up this summer. Claire Lobenfeld analyzes M.I.A.'s latest record, while Ross Scarano took a listen to Blood Orange, aka Dev Hynes, who worked previously with Solange Knowles and Sky Ferreira . All that and more: these are the Best Albums of November 2013.

Written by Ross Scarano (@RossScarano), Insanul Ahmed (@Incilin), Claire Lobenfeld (@clairevlo), Brendan Frederick (@bfred), Dave Bry (@DaveBry9), Khal (@khal), and David Drake (@somanyshrimp).

Da Mafia 6ix 6ix Commandments

With Juicy J's solo career as a musical frat party totem taking full flight, the rest of the Three 6 Mafia—or what once was the Three 6 Mafia—no doubt felt a tinge of injustice. "Juicy was the main brain behind Three 6 Mafia," Juicy J's brother Project Pat contended in an interview we conducted with him earlier this year. True as this may have been, the Mafia's strength was always in numbers. Although they only reached true crossover success as they shrunk to a two- and three-man team, the group's strongest material was always about an interplay of different personalities that formed like some sort of satanic Voltron.

So DJ Paul, who says "it's about to go down!" fiftyeleven times on this tape, took the helm of Da Mafia 6ix, bringing together Mafia members and affiliates past and present. It's not a project that'll measure up against the crew's classic late-'90s records, but hearing Gangsta Boo, Koopsta Knicca, La Chat, Lil Wyte, Lord Infamous, and yes, Crunchy Black back together is rare enough that one hopes a street in Memphis gets renamed in celebration. For SpaceGhostPurrp, a rapping producer who's made a minor career out of aping the mid-'90s regional rap sound pioneered by Three 6, the chance to produce for the real deal on "Murder On My Mind" is no doubt a personal highlight. But the tape's real standout moment is the epic, 9-minute "Body Parts," a massive posse cut that kicks off with an unexpected, unlisted Juicy J guest spot. —David Drake

Rich Homie Quan I Promise I Will Never Stop Going In

After a summer spent pumping out of car windows, blaring in the courtyards of tenement housing, and floating dutifully over carefully manicured suburban lawns, Rich Homie Quan's "Type of Way" has indisputably placed Quan among Georgians like Cash Out, the Migos, and the Young Jocs who've spent a summer or two dominating the pop charts and hip-hop radio. It remains to be seen if he can make the transition into a sustained national hip-hop star, but I Promise I Will Never Stop Going In is a step in the right direction.

From "Man of the Year," which swipes a familiar piano loop (mostly known these days as the home of a classic Big L and Jay Z freestyle session) to the chiming, hypnotic "Real," the tape is an argument for Quan as a multi-dimensional artist and star, rather than a "mere" hitmaker. It's a much stronger tape from front to back than Still Going In (give or take a Toto sample—seriously?). But the release's highlight is still one that originally appeared as a bonus track on that tape's re-release, Still Goin In: Reloaded. "Party" has an unconventional structure (the chorus doesn't come in for nearly two minutes, and only appears twice) but has an undeniable hookiness that by all right should make it a club smash. —David Drake

Denmark Vessey Cult Classic

Do you still have friends that say "Thank you, Based God" to express appreciation for random acts of kindness? It's annoying, right? That joke is so old! Well, someone has figured out how to put it to good use. Three years since peak-Lil-B, producer Scud One hooked up the grooviest organ, bass, and bongos loop you've heard all year for Denmark Vessey to spit Gospel over like a storefront church preacher with a half-empty bottle of E&J in the folds of his robe. "They claim that they've seen Mary in some burrito in Mexico," he croons. "If you see Jesus at Taco Bell, tell him you need to let him know/I said 'Thank you Jesus/Thank you Lord..." A choir answers "Thank you, Based God!"

It's awesome. And even though it's little more than an interlude on the album this Detroit/Chicago team two have made, Cult Classic, it's a very representative one. Reminiscent of early Kanye, some Mos Def, Denmark rhymes a thrilling story of an honest man's fight against false gods. And Scud One's beats could come right out of a 1971 Curtis Mayfield session. Hallelujah. —Dave Bry

Mat Zo Damage Control

For most people, their beef with EDM is based on the stigma the scene has amassed over the last few years. This stigma is perpetuated via the mainstream media, which knows fuck-all about quality dance music. We get so bent out of shape over the opinions of those who shouldn't have them, yet use those same opinions to inform ourselves. Don't play yourselves...instead, play Mat Zo's album.

To understand why there's hope for the EDM scene in the near future, listen to Mat Zo. He's only been knocking out beats over the last four years, but has truly come into his own over the last two. Early 2013 saw the release of "Easy," one of the biggest dance records of 2013, and a collaboration with Porter Robinson. But that was truly just the tip of the iceberg. Mat's debut album Damage Control packs a number of punches. There's the twisted electro-funk of the Chuck D-featuring "Pyramid Scheme" (Chuck actually re-recorded his vocal for it when Mat couldn't clear that legendary sample), a UK garage-leaning rework of "Easy," the intoxicating trance of "The Sky," and the thought-provoking dubstep on the album's closer, "Time Dilation." You want to see 2013 EDM done right? Look no further than the damage Mat Zo has inflicted. —khal

Christopher Ellis Better Than Love EP

Christopher Ellis is the youngest son of the late great Alton Ellis, a Jamaican singer also known as the "Godfather of Rock Steady." Raised in England, Christopher inherited his father's love of music, and also had the privilege of touring with him, singing on stage with the legendary vocalist, and learning all aspects of the reggae business along the way. Following his dad's death in 2008, Christopher linked up with Stephen and Damian Marley in Jamaica, who wasted no time bringing him into their Ghetto Youths International crew, thus continuing a musical lineage that began back at Coxsone's Studio One, the storied sound lab where the elder Ellis and Marley both learned their trade. Christopher and the Ghetto Youths got straight to work, releasing a string of outstanding singles, including a cover of Alton's classic "Willow Tree," a haunting love song called "End of Time" also featuring Stephen and Jah Cure, and an uptempo tune called "Don't Change Your Number," seasoned with a DJ verse courtesy of Bay-C from the dancehall group TOK.

It's already clear that @ellismuzicchild, as he is known on Twitter, paid close attention while working alongside the master. Not only does he hit each note with precision and feeling, but he knows how to bring a song to life through his subtly controlled phrasing. Such nuances are increasingly rare (and thrilling) to find in the Auto-Tune era. The title track sounds like it could have been recorded in Jamaica during the mid-60s heyday of rock steady, a style characterized by love songs sung with sweet harmonies at a cool tempo. Ditto for "Left Unsaid," a cautionary tale about the dangers of uttering the "L" word too soon in a relationship.

But Damian Marley's pitch-perfect production will come as a revelation for those who might have him pegged as the "Welcome to Jamrock" guy. The EP's five tracks play like a time machine rolling through the Jamaican hits of yesteryear, tapping into a trend of retro reggae cuts like Shy FX's "Soon Come" and Bitty McLean's work with the Peckings label. On "Roller Coaster" Ellis drops words of wisdom over a lively ska beat, while "You Babe" finds him exploring the ins and out of a love triangle backed by a tastefully arranged horn section. The dry and heavy reggae track "Spoiling Me" plays like the follow-up to that drama, with Ellis marveling at the woman who stood by his side despite all that he's put her through. Taken as a whole, this first EP shows how much Christopher Ellis has already learned from his father and suggests how much farther he can go. The challenge will be to blend his vintage appeal with a more modern feel. —Rob Kenner

Jhene Aiko Sail Out EP

After flirting with fame as a B2K affiliate in her teen years, LA-based singer/songwriter Jhene Aiko has reemerged as one of the most promising new stars of the post-Frank Ocean/Weeknd R&B world. Starting with her 2011 mixtape Sailing Soul(s) and a string of guest appearances on critically-acclaimed TDE projects, she set herself apart from most female singers with her delicate vocals and pensive approach to songwriting. Collaborations with Big Sean and Drake landed her on the Billboard charts this year, and now Def Jam has gotten behind her first commercial release, the seven-song EP Sail Out.

Produced by longtime collaborators Fisticuffs (best known for Miguel's "Quickie"), Sail Out is a solid introduction to Jhene's relatable persona. She sings passionately about the highs of good love ("The Vapors"), the lows of bad love ("The Worst"), and being way too high on drugs ("WTH"). It's mostly a dark, brooding affair, but the easygoing Childish Gambino duet "Bed Peace" (a Yoko Ono/John Lennon reference) brightens things up with instantly-lovable lyrics like "Gotta call your job tell 'em you won't make it/Ain't nobody here baby, lets get wasted/We should just get naked!" Jhene has the appeal of your friend's cute, cool-ass little sister, but Sail Out proves that her talent has matured and she's finally ready to step into the spotlight. —Brendan Frederick

M.I.A. Matangi

It's a good thing M.I.A. named the opening track of Matangi, her fourth studio album, "Karmageddon" because, despite the fact that karma is technically relegated to reincarnation, the album is an apocalyptic bird-flip to everyone who doubted her. After the flop of /\/\/\Y/\, an industrial-dancehall experiment before its time, the London rapper needed to re-emerge with a controlled declaration of her over-the-top power and her not-totally-paranoid fear of government surveillance. Matangi is M.I.A.'s usual quilt of world music influences but more "real hip-hop" than she's ever produced before.

There's the sample of Bonecrusher's "Never Scared" on the Julian Assange-co-written "aTENTtion." There's the two separate Drizzy disses bookending the album. She raps "started at the bottom/but Drake gets all the credit" on the dizzying title track and, later, a song called "Y.A.L.A." (You Always Live Again), in which she asks, if you only life, why do we keep doing such stupid things? There's the party-primed taunting of rave-thrasher "Bring The Noize," an electro-blitz that explodes into a twinkling coda where she interpolates Janis Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee." M.I.A.'s been known to find creative ways to flip other people's music—primarily pulling apart The Clash's "Straight to Hell" for "Paper Planes"—but the crystalline use of Joplin's "freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose" is one of her most haunting examples of using pop music to express fear.

Other standouts include "Exodus" and its reprise "Sexodus," both better version of The Weeknd's "Lonely Star," and the equally languid "Know It Ain't Right." And then there's "Bad Girls," the best song of 2012, which could take the throne from so many songs of this year. The collection is a muscular jolt for a political blowout before the world ends and you've run out of cares to give. —Claire Lobenfeld

Blood Orange Cupid Deluxe

If you download Blood Orange's Cupid Deluxe from iTunes, you won't have the credits for the other artists you'll hear when you listen. There are no features listed in the track names. Blood Orange is the sole artist listed.

Blood Orange is the lo-fi, Prince-adoring project of aesthetic émigré Dev Hynes. Listening to "Chamakay," the album opener and lead single, it's unclear whose voice you hear first. Over deep percussion and marimba, a high-pitched line of "mhms" skate through. The pretty androgyny of the song's opening is Cupid Deluxe in miniature.

Hynes, a UK native turned New Yorker, the artist who wrote Solange Knowles' "Losing You" and Sky Ferreira's "Everything Is Embarrassing," steps in and out of gender and sexuality like those things were comfortable clothes. "I see you waiting for a girl like me to come along," he sings on "Chamakay," joined by Caroline Polachek of the synthpop duo Chairlift.

Dave Longstreth, of Brooklyn vocal show-offs Dirty Projectors, sings on this album, as does Samantha Urbani, Hyne's partner. Queens rapper, and friend of Das Racist, Despot contributes a long verse. UK grime fans will recognize Skepta, who also chips in. He recalls watching Michael Jackson on the telly.

Liminal is a word to describe being in between places, stations, social situations, identities. (Hynes was the victim of homophobia as a teen. Writing for The Fader, Alex Frank describes how Hynes "tried having sex with men in a spirit of queer camaraderie, but found he didn't like it. 'I wanted to try,' he says.") Cupid Deluxe isn't a liminal experience, isn't about confusion or being caught in between. It's something more radical, something I'm not sure there's a word for. It's a word that would mean the ability to be one thing completely and then another. With Blood Orange, sometimes that looks and sounds like androgyny. Sometimes it's being a black man. A white woman. A grime MC. A rapper from Queens.

Liminality can be cause of anxiety and uncertainty; you aren't this or that, you're in the midst of process. You're maybe becoming one thing or another. This album is comfortable, confident, beautiful, itself—whatever that may be in a given moment. —Ross Scarano

Action Bronson Blue Chips 2

Action Bronson and Harry Fraud's Saaab Stories might have been a better move for Fraud than Bronson, because it served as a showcase for Fraud's beats and not Action's personality. Maybe that's why Blue Chips 2 feels like a way for Action to reestablish his brand before the end of 2013—as well as drum up interest for his upcoming 2014 debut album.

The project teams Action up again with Party Supplies, after the duo worked wonders for each other last year with the prequel to this project. Action sounds overjoyed to be working with the producers again. Blue Chips 2 is an album so fun it makes us realize how grim music in 2013 has been. Hearing Action rap over "Tequila" (fans of the movie The Sandlot [ed. note—Or Pee-Wee's Big Adventure] will remember it as the song that goes, "Da dat dada dat da, da dat dada dat da, da dat dada dat da," and then everyone throws up) makes it worth the price of admission alone. The only part I can't figure out is why Action decided to throw a bunch of sports-related ads (real ads, not parody ads Action made) at the end of a bunch of songs. It lead to a series of confusing moments where you might think you're listening to the album on Spotify only to realize, wait, no you're not. But man, I sure could go for some Applebees. —Insanul Ahmed

Eminem The Marshall Mathers LP II

This is the album Eminem fans have been waiting on for nearly a decade. Ever since 2004's Encore, Eminem hasn't been himself. First he was on drugs, then he was flushing them out. Though all of his albums featured distinct charms and highlights, it never felt like the same old Marshall.

But the sequel to his magnum opus is as close to a return to form that any fan could reasonably hope for. Em has his mojo back, and it feels good to hear him on a rampage again. In some ways he hasn't matured at all, as evidenced by his numerous homophobic lines. Yet in others he has; he finally forgives his mother, something that seemed inconceivable years ago. Some of the credit for the album's creative success must go to Rick Rubin, who's been helping to revitalize acts for several years now. It's not clear what, exactly, Rubin told Em that got him back in his zone, but whatever it was, it worked. —Insanul Ahmed