HipHopDX’s first Top 10 of 2014 finds Drake leading the pack with the continued success of his holiday-released single “Trophies.” Besides the #1 spot, the Toronto rapper’s name is attached to five other Top 10’s songs.
Drake let “Trophies” loose shortly after Christmas and tallied up enough New Year plays to appear at #1 this week. Eminem follows at #2 with freshly liberated audio from his November appearance on a special “Rap City” installment of “106 & Park.” Em, who chose to deliver his verse acapella, topped HipHopDX’s list of Most Disappointing Albums of the year with The Marshall Mathers LP 2. A HipHopDX exclusive in the form of Game remixing YG’s Drake featuring “Who Do You Love” single fills out the Top 3.
The rest of the list is rounded out by appearances from Slaughterhouse, Migos, Lorde, and more.
Drake Rings In The New Year With “Trophies”
Pulled from the same sessions that yielded his newest album, Nothing Was The Same, Drake released a song that helped preview the record in a trailer but was never fully released. Dropping just days shy of the New Year, “Trophies” was produced by Hit-Boy and has reportedly been a staple in the Toronto artist’s recent tour performances. Relying on a repetitive horn riff throughout much of the song’s verses, the track finds Drake maintaining throughout that the release isn’t meant to be a love song.
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“Trophies” begins with a self-reference to the rapper’s first popular mixtape. “Had hit records on my demo / Did y’all boys not get the memo?” he raps. At the end of the second verse, Drake expands on the song as something other than a love song. “I told y’all motherfuckers, man, this shit is not a love song / This a doing me and only God can judge song / I do not know what the fuck you thought it was song / Pop some fucking champagne in the tub song, nigga, just because song,” he raps.
In an interview with Vibe Magazine, Drake recently explained the process of making Nothing Was The Same and referred to the album as his “first time [having] no strife.” “This album is probably the most aware of self that I’ve ever been,” he said. “I did this album all over the place but for the first time have no strife. I’m here. I’m gonna own this now.”
Eminem Releases Audio Of His BET Backroom Freestyle
Appearing on “106 and Park” in November alongside his label signees Slaughterhouse, Eminem chose to perform an acapella verse to close out the special segment meant to promote his album The Marshall Mathers LP 2. Following verses from Joe Budden, Royce Da 5’9, Joell Ortiz, and Crooked I, Eminem asked Just Blaze to cut the !llmind beat out for his verse. The appearance, which reintroduced the “Rap City” programming as a one-night special, also included a lengthy interview with the Detroit rapper about his career, relapsing, and his latest album.
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Halfway through the verse, which is littered with the type of multisyllabic rhyme schemes Em is well known for, the rapper addresses the prevalence of other emcees following his form. “I’m intolerable, too volatile, screw it I don’t got to make the honor roll / To be on a roll, I don’t know much, what I do know I do it pronto though / So knock it off, all these knock of me’s / The last thing the world needs is another me / But if you think this is Part 2 to Recovery / Or “Love The Way You Lie” Part Twelve / Or something heart-felt, you about to make a discovery.”
Eminem’s original appearance on “106 & Park” alongside Slaughterhouse can be streamed in full below.
HipHopDX Releases An Exclusive Remix Of YG’s “Who Do You Love” Featuring Game
Following the release of the original single earlier in the week, Game’s added verse on YG’s debut album single was premiered exclusively on HipHopDX and finds itself in the Top 3 at the end of the week. The original, which also appears on the list and features a solitary featuring verse from Drake, included an empty slot for a third verse upon its initial release.
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The Bay Area veteran emcee Rappin’ 4-Tay took to Twitter to express disapproval of Drake’s “Who Do You Love” verse given the appearance of apparently borrowed lyrics from his own decades old hit “Playaz Club.”
Rappin’ 4-Tay’s original lyrics appear in slightly modified form on YG’s newest single. “I got a ho named reel-to-reel / She got a buddy named SP 12, now you know the deal / We gets freaky in the studio late night / That’s why the beats that you hear are coming real tight,” 4-Tay rapped on 1994’s “Playaz Club.”
On YG’s “Who Do You Love,” Drake begins his verse with the following rap: “I got a shorty named Texas Sin / She got a buddy named Young JB and now you know the deal / We turnt up in the studio late night / That’s why the songs that you hear comin’ real tight.”
Game, whose added verse fills in the third slot on the remix, raps about his relationship with Young Money on the song. “Me and my nigga Drizzy / Running through Miami like Lebron shout to Nikki / Shout to Tune shout to Ricky / Back to the town roll a pound shout to Nipsey,” he raps.
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This Week’s Top 10
1. Drake – “Trophies (Prod. by Hit-Boy)”
2. Eminem – “Acapella (Freestyle)”
3. YG f. Drake & Game – “Who Do You Love (Remix)”
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4. Slaughterhouse f. Dido – “I Am What I Am”
5. Drake f. Soulja Boy – “We Made It Freestyle”
6. YG f. Drake – “Who Do You Love”
7. HipHopDX Disappointing Album Of The Year: Eminem – “Berzerk”
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8. Lorde f. The Weeknd – “Royals (Remix)”
9. Migos & Drake – “Trophies (Remix)”
10. Future f. Drake & Juicy J – “Shit (Remix) [Prod. by Mike WiLL Made-It]”
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