e_Paper (25 November 2016)

30
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2016
DT
Showtime
Top 10 hip-hop artists of 2016
• Nowsheen Nowar Ahmed
Beyonce
Unless you live under a rock on a distant planet, you are probably
aware of Beyonce’s new released album - Lemonade, which celebrated
black womanhood, and intimated Jay-Z, who had been unfaithful,
and basically snapped the Internet in two. With Lemonade, Beyonce
made 2016 about her, by having the highest selling album of the year.
Through dint of her own genius, glamour, smarts, and artistry, the
moment has been hers. You go Queen B!
Drake
It’s official, Drake pretty much won 2016. The Canadian rapper, now
known as the “6 God,” “Champagnepapi,” “Drizzy,” celebrated his
many wins this year. Summer sixteen has been all about Drizzy after
dropping his album Views, which was the second highest selling album
of 2016, aside from the other hit singles, ‘’Work,” ‘’No Shopping,”
‘’For Free,” featuring top artists like Rihanna, French Montana, and Dj
Khaled. The “One Dance’’ rapper hasn’t wasted any time reaching the
top of the mainstream music world. He just released his new singles
“Sneakin,” “Wanna know,” and “Two Birds, One Stone” last week,
which are already booming.
Future
Future is a constant work in
progress. After delivering several
hits in 2015, which includes ‘’Low
Life’’, ‘’Where ya at’’, ‘’F**k up
some commas’’, ‘’Jumpman’’ he
decided to collaborate with the
highest selling artist Drake in
his album Views and mix-tape
“What a time to be alive” after
dropping his own album Purple
Reign in 2016. He accompanied
Drake throughout his summer
16 tour because obviously the
people wanted to see the artist
who featured half of the songs in
the album. The Atlanta rapper got
nominated for 10 awards in 2016
with a net worth of $8 million in
the last ten months.
Travis Scott
2016 has been a huge year for
Travis Scott, who released his
stellar debut album Rodeo
in 2015, mercilessly teased a
mystery project with Kanye,
and finished the year as an
opener on The Weeknd’s ‘The
Madness tour.’ Sure, there were
some stumbles along the way
— like his recent guilty plea of
reckless conduct for making
a single against the president
elect, Donald Trump — but there
was still a lot to celebrate. The
“Antidote” singer teamed up with
The Weeknd for “Wonderful,”
a jubilant toast to the good life.
Then comes, “A-Team” (no, it’s
not an Ed Sheeran cover — I
know you’re surprised), finds
Travis flying solo for a trumpetsampling
celebration of firststring
life, during which he
advises, “please don’t try to play
us.” 2016 has already shaped up
to be another banner year for
Travis, who’s released the hottest
singles ‘’Uber Everywhere,”
“Whole Lotta Lovin,” ‘’Pick up
the phone,” “3500,’’ and many
more featuring top artists.
G-Eazy
When talking about other
rappers, the “Me myself and I’’
rapper isn’t any less. Probably
the first white rapper in our
generation to have made a
place amongst all the rap and
hip-hop. Dressed up as Joker
from The Dark Knight for all
his performances during the
Halloween week, we can already
tell how dedicated the rapper
really is. Of course he had his
struggles starting from 2008, but
in recent years, his hard work
finally paid off. Aside from his
hits ‘’Me Myself and I,” ‘’I Mean
It,” ‘’Drifting,” he performed with
Britney Spears throughout 2016
with their new single “Make Me,”
and now he stands with a net
worth of almost $4 million.
Post Malone
A freshman rapper Post Malone,
takes the world with his singles
“White Iverson,” “Go Flex,”
“Too Young.” His musical career
started in 2014, and his first song
was released in the beginning of
2015. This means that the rapper
didn’t have enough time to earn
a fortune, but he’s already got an
amazing increase of his wealth.
In 2016, his net worth is around
$5 million. The Iverson singer is
all set to drop his album Stoney
very soon, and the hype is all
over already!
The Weeknd
It is of no surprise that the
Canadian Rapper has broke into
the music scene with the 2011
mixtape, House of Balloons. He
went on to work with Drake,
Wiz Khalifa, and others, while
building his own career as an
artist. In 2015, The Weeknd
enjoyed huge success with
the album - Beauty Behind the
Madness. Despite his growing
popularity, he managed to hide
himself from the public at large.
The Weeknd refused interviews
for a long time, and chose to
use images of women for his
2013 album, Kiss Land, rather
than pictures of himself. Some
of the mystique he built around
himself was intentional, but it
also reflected the shyness and
insecurities that troubled him
early in his career. But he’s all
over the scene with his new hit
single “Starboy,” “False Alarm,”
and the new video which just got
released yesterday called “M A
N I A,” which comprises a sneak
peak of all the songs he is soon
going to release, and that overall,
sure did come late but pretty
much summed up 2016 for him.
Partynextdoor
Brathwaite, better known for
his stage name “Partynextdoor”
is also a Toronto-based artist
experimenting with a fractured
blend of minimal hip-hop and
R&B, that has drawn natural
comparisons to fellow Canadians,
Drake and The Weeknd. The
first artist signed to Drake’s
Warner Bros, supported OVO
Sound label, Brathwaite made
his self-titled debut on the label,
in July 2013. A low-key release
with Drake featured on one cut,
reached number 34 on Billboard’s
R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. In
2016, he dropped his own album
P3 which featured the biggest
hits of the year, “Not Nice,”
“Only U,” and “Come and See
me,” which also featured reality
star Kylie Jenner in the music
video. It’s now safe to say that
the party is really going on with
Brathwaite!
Young Thug
Young Thug is an Atlanta-native
rapper, who quickly rose to
fame in 2011, after the release
of his mixtape I Came From
Nothing. Since breaking out onto
the music scene, Young Thug
collaborated with and received
the support of many celebrity
rappers, including Kanye West,
Drake, Birdman, Usher, T.I, and
Gucci Mane. The rapper took
2016 with many hits featuring top
artists, apart from his exceptional
singles like “Pick Up the Phone,”
“Digits,” and many more!
Bruno Mars
This
guy
here
barely
needs
an
intro.
It
might
seem that Mars appeared out of
nowhere, co-writing, producing,
and performing on BoB’s number
1 - “Nothin’ On You,” followed by
Travie McCoy’s chart-climbing
“Billionaire,” but he makes one
thing clear: “It’s not an overnight
success.” Mars is a multi-talented
singer, songwriter, producer,
and musician, who feels most
at home when he’s performing.
Throughout the years, he has
been giving us a lot of hits even
it’s one or two per year. He took
the internet by storm with his
new single “24K” in 2016, and
people all over the world are
definitely grooving to it! •