Year in Music 2021: The Year in Hip-Hop

One of the most important things for the greater Nashville hip-hop scene to do in 2021 was keep its momentum, building on the incredibly strong work local MCs and producers did and the increased attention they got in 2020. The shout-outs from national media haven’t been as frequent this year, but there have been other kinds of recognition, including publishing deals and track placements in film and television. While it’s not as exciting on the surface, that kind of progress is also very cool because it can be the financial foundation for the kind of infrastructure the scene needs to sustain itself in the long term. 

In any case, artists and producers across the spectrum did their part, right from the jump: Virghost’s Shiloh Dynasty-inspired Searching for Shiloh EP and $hrames’ feature-heavy Get the Loot full-length both landed in the first few days of January. Petty launched his #53 Fridays series, in which he’s been releasing a new track every Friday, and it’s still going strong. In February, rapper-singer $avvy made a splash with his phenomenal EP Boys Wear Pearls and Reaux Marquez released his full-length No Roads. 

No Roads is a masterwork of storytelling, and we crowned it Best Album in our Best of Nashville issue; it also came in at No. 3 on our Top Local Albums Critics’ Poll, which you can see on p. 20. Throughout the record, Marquez draws on the strengths of others — MCs like The BlackSon, Tim Gent and Lul Lion as well as tremendous singers like Jamiah, Yours Truly Jai and Lauren McClinton — and makes sure they get the spotlight too. 

It’s all about lifting everyone up, and that collaborative spirit has been at the heart of many outstanding Nashville hip-hop releases this year. Riding high on his 2020 solo release Aphelion’s Traveling Circus, Namir Blade teamed up with former Nashvillian L’Orange on Imaginary Everything (which took the No. 9 slot in our poll). Gee Slab and Negro Justice got together for the jazz-kissed EP Resplendent, while Heru Heru (rappers Ah-Deli and Foundation with producer Konscience Beatz) dropped their ’80s- and ’90s-leaning LP The Legacy. Rashad tha Poet and S-Wrap, who met while working with literacy program Southern Word, released a sterling record called The Other Side that puts a spotlight on the blurry boundary between spoken-word and hip-hop.

There are lots of other ways that the hip-hop community is banding together too. An array of showcase livestreams and festivals (like Live on the Cumberland and Unapologetically BLK) included Nashville MCs. The extended ThirdEye & Co. family, whose members include superb rappers Chuck Indigo, Ron Obasi and Intro, capped a banner year with a fantastic outdoor show at The Dive Motel.

All the same, sometimes you have to be on your own to dig down to new layers of introspection. The great Daisha McBride eschewed feature appearances on her second LP Let Me Get This Off My Chest, her rawest release to date. 

Once again, we’re just scratching the surface of the wealth of hip-hop talent in the city, but that’s a great problem to have. Mike Floss, long one of the strongest voices in Nashville hip-hop, began the year with a leaner, trap-inflected EP called God’s Leather, and finished it up with a warmer, richer-sounding EP called Oasis. The new records mark an inflection point — after a few years on the periphery of the local scene, as he’s strengthened connections in other cities like Atlanta, he’s refocusing his energy on Nashville. That’s a tremendously exciting prospect for anyone who appreciates incredible storytelling and powerful, thoughtful bars.