6. Schoolboy Q - Habits and Contradictions

Did Schoolboy Q make the greatest hip hop album of the year? Critics will probably reserve that spot for Killer Mike's R.A.P. Music or more likely Kendrick's Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City. While I really enjoyed these albums, I can certainly say without a doubt in my mind Habits & Contradictions is my favorite. Coming off the wake of the insane amount of underground hip-hop released last year, I was looking for something new to fill that void in 2012. Enter Schoolboy Q, the void-filler. Habits & Contradictions kills, start to finish, from the brilliant THIS IS ME of "There He Go," to the drug induced "Oxy Music," and the uplifting, bliss of "Blessed." It also features guest appearances from A$AP Rocky, Curren$y, Ab Soul and Kendrick Lamar. Earlier this year, I was showing a friend a bunch new hip-hop artists I was into, Schoolboy being one of them. Whenever we would hang out, he'd be like, "Play that Schoolboy album again." So I asked him why he preferred Schoolboy over the likes of Danny Brown, Main Attrakionz and others, and he replied with the most simple, yet powerful statement, one that has stuck with me to the writing of this very blog. What he said was, "I believe this guy." I believe that says it all.