Surprisingly, there wasn’t much good music to accompany the atmosphere of December. This one was a little trickier than others because there wasn’t really an album that “blew my mind.” However, rules are rules, and I must come to a conclusion. There was a lot of thinking involved, but I ultimately came down to my decision.

21 Savage’s “I AM > I WAS” is what one would call maybe a 7/10 kind of album—not great, not terrible, but good enough to listen to. The name of the album pretty much explains itself. 21 Savage claims he is a better version of himself now than he was in previous years. “A lot” is my favorite song. He brings real-life concepts into words by explaining how many times people have cried, lied, cheated, died, etc. The answer to how many times those things have happened: “a lot.” “Ball w/o you” brings out 21’s softer side. He’s mostly known for being violent and aggressive toward anyone who threatens him. This song switches the tone up a little bit. He’s basically referring to a girl and how he’s better with her than without. While I don’t believe this album even compares to his previous ones, it tops the list due to the lack of enjoyable music this month. This album could be compared to an NFL team that won their division with a 9-7 record, just to give you an analogy.

Notable mentions were hard to come by this month. The only one that can even come close to Savage’s album would be “SKINS” by the deceased XXXTentacion. I’ve never been a huge “X” fan, but “BAD!” is a really good song with a solid hook. Why am I not an X fan? Well, for one, I like my songs to be longer than a minute and a half. Two, while his vocals are unique and enjoyable, the content of his songs can’t compare to other artists.

Don’t think I “like” these albums by any means. They’re good, but not great. Like I said, this month was a little more difficult than others. I hope 2019 gets off to a good start with some good music. It would make this bit a lot easier.