2019 List Week: The Top 10 Guest Features Of 2019
10. Travis Scott - Mile High by James Blake
James Blake has had a habit of releasing remixes of some of his tracks with hip hop artists like Chance The Rapper and Vince Staples, but after becoming more of an industry mainstay than ever before last year he dropped the hazy Metro Boomin co-produced track Mile High. Paired with James spacious synths and cloudy singing is a slick Travis Scott feature that features the rapper giving a part rapped part sung performance that goes brilliantly along the songs dark and shimmering aesthetic. While Travis Scott doesn't do anything we aren't used to him doing his performance perfectly matches the energy of the song and made for a fantastic hazy trap banger.
9. Denzel Curry - Black Balloons Reprise by Flying Lotus
While the most recent Flying Lotus record was highly anticipated when it finally arrived not many were pleased with the result. One of a handful of tracks that received acclaim from across the board was the Denzel Curry featuring Black Balloons Reprise. While many of the features on the record seemed out of place Denzel was more than capable of adjusting his typical style to a sharp and tight series of measured flows that fit perfectly into Flying Lotus' jazzy electronic landscapes.
8. Andre 3000 - Come Home by Anderson .Paak
Last year Anderson Paak gave us a west coast hip hop classic in Tints which featured an effortlessly stylish Kendrick Lamar verse that landed on last years features list. This year .Paak took it east coast and teamed up with Atlanta legend and one half of Outkast, Andre 3000, to put the finishing touches on the excellent opening track to his new record. 3 Stacks drops a killer verse filled with lyrically creative half rhymes and constant flow adjustments that manage to perfectly match his soul inspired instrumental.
7. Slowthai - High Beams by Flume
Slowthai had a fantastic 2019 as he established himself as a premiere voice in Grime music, dropped a fantastic record, and popped up in genres across the spectrum of music making fantastic appearances everywhere he went. The best of his features this year came on one of the only tunes he hopped on capable of matching his energy and flare, Flume's High Beams. The track is a bass heavy futuristic EDM driving anthem that inspires living fast with the help of some killer bars in Slowthai's already classic and instantly recognizable demeanor. Flume has a history of linking up with rappers and bringing out the best in them and topped this list years ago with his Pusha T collab Enough so expect to see both his and Slowthai's name return to this list going forward.
6. GZA - Ibtihaj by Rapsody
On Ibtihaj Rapsody pays tribute to Ibtihaj Muhammad an Olympic medal winning fencer, but on top of this it pays tribute to GZA's classic Liquid Swords. She even coaxed D'Angelo out of hiding to perform his own interpretation of the tracks classic hook. And fittingly enough the man himself jumps onto this track to spit an absolutely excellent verse of his own. GZA throws it back to 1995 with a classic series of old school New York hip hop bars that both celebrates his legacy and shows he is still just as talented as he was when he was making the classics that have inspired so many.
5. Young Thug - Proud Of U by Earthgang
One of the most infectious qualities that have made Earthgang such a hot young group is their relentless energy, sounding like the exciting southern rappers that served as pioneers before them. One of the best examples of this from their record Mirrorland this year is Proud Of U, and a large part of that is the fact that fellow Atlanta native Young Thug joins the fray and matches the duos energy with every step. Lacing the track all over with his eclectic adlibs and dropping the best verse of the song between Venus and Dot's verses Young Thug shows up and makes the most of his opportunity to let his personality and individuality shine on this fantastic tune.
4. Anderson .Paak - RNP by YBN Cordae
Anderson .Paak was just one of those names that popped up on almost every good hip hop record this year, and YBN Cordae's excellent debut record The Lost Boy was no different. This track really relies on the absolutely effortless and often hilarious chemistry between Paak and Cordae, and as they trade off bars so effectively it is clear each one is pushing the other to work at the top of their game. Combine this with the buttery smooth beat and a slick absolutely killer chorus from Paak and you get one of the most objectively fun hip hop songs of the year, not to mention the music video.
3. Amine - Jailbreak The Tesla by Injury Reserve
Last year when Ritchie With A T from Injury Reserve hopped onto Amine's Campfire it made for one of the best hip hop singles of the year and appears to have birthed a shining rap friendship as Amine showed up on one of Injury Reserve's singles this year to drop an absolutely show stopping verse. Jailbreak The Tesla features a wordy opening verse from Ritchie followed by a pounding hook and electronic breakdown. But the second half of the track is all Amine who shows up and absolutely killed the song with a sharp, fast and hilarious verse that features two perfectly executed flow switch-ups. His ability to stay so tightly on theme while penning hilarious and contemporary lyrics with a lights out flow is one of the grandest accomplishments of the year and Amine deserves a ton of credit for it.
2. Playboi Carti - Almeda by Solange
In 2019 the general public learned what those in the know had already learned in 2018 or even earlier, Playboi Carti's baby voice is a strange sounding odyssey that is one of the most refreshing things ever to happen to trap music. The best song on Solange's excellent When I Get Home is good enough with its swelling instrumental and great performances from Solange and The Dream, but it gets sent into the stratosphere with a short but career defining verse from Playboi Carti. Given that Carti had a breakout song this year that was a leak never even officially released in Kid Cudi, probably the single best moment on Tyler, The Creator's IGOR and definitely the best moment on Trippie Redd's !, it is safe to say he had an amazing year despite the fact we didn't hear him release one single official new song. But despite all his success and his many great features Almeda saw him shining the brightest and he is a name to look out for on this list for years to come.
1. Pusha T - Palmolive by Freddie Gibbs
Freddie Gibbs and Madlib proved themselves a rap dream team this year on Bandana, but pairing one of the best beats on the record with a provocative Freddie Gibbs verse and a short but sweet hook from Killer Mike you may have one of the best songs on your record. Adding in Pusha T for a classic rendition of one of his ruthless, cutthroat performances and you have a legendary collaboration on your hands. Pusha T meets the socially charged track with bars about his history drug dealing, if you can believe it, but it is much more in the cadence than any of the lyrics in his delivery. Pusha T's bars are as sharp as ever lyrically but his delivery manages to be so brutally precise without even feeling like he's trying. The way his bars flow off the tongue is met with the sheer venom of his performance to come together and create one of the most badass rap verses you'll hear in 2019, feature or otherwise. In a year where it felt like Pusha T was everywhere he saved his best featured verse of the year for the best rap album of the year, and it payed off big time.
Thanks for reading!
Check out last years list of the best guest features here
Or read through yesterdays Artists Of The Year piece for some more Freddie Gibbs here
