Y’all might have noticed the lack of blog posts in the last week or so. That’s because we’ve been in Austin, Texas at SXSW, bitches. We barely had internet, plus with the whole attending panels/checking out a billion shows/drinking all day, there just wasn’t time, goddamnit.

So in the last fortnight, I’ve been at Canadian Music Week and SXSW and seen so many incredible shows, it’ll take me all day to write about it. Some of the highlights from CMW included: Shad, French reggae outfit Dub Inc, Eric Hutchinson and Janelle Monae. SXSW awesomeness came courtesy of folks like James Blake, City & Colour, Shad (I saw him like 3 times in a week(, Slaughterhouse, South Dakota soul rockers ShowBaby, Los Rakas, Collie Buddz (STRAAIIIIIIGHT!), Yuck, J. Cole, Melanie Fiona, the AMAZING Marsha Ambrosius, Miguel, Bliss N Eso, Blue King Brown (and having dinner with the band after, awesome people), Black Milk, Curren$y, and Big K.R.I.T. I actually nearly cried when I was denied entry to see Jamie Woon on the last night. He was at the top of my list and I don’t know why I left seeing him til the last day. I was genuinely gutted.

The most upsetting part was that Blu and Odd Future both sucked ass. Check out the video below from a vlogger we met at the panels, Anthony Fantano from The Needle Drop.com. Anthony and fellow vlogger Sami (and another dude, forgot the name, sorry guys) were the funnest bastards I’ve ever encountered on a panel, so it was both entertaining and informative. Plus Anthony was a real nice guy, so double win. But check his review of his SXSW experience below, particularly the Odd Future review, which is spot on.

Dope tune. Dope video. Dope MCs. Dope beat. Dope mixtape. On the real, ‘Friday Night Lights’ was prolly the illest tape of 2010. Cole is gonna be a fuckin’ monster when the album drops. Love it.

In The Morning Video from Jermaine Cole on Vimeo.

As with our 2009 wrap up, this is a bit late, but that’s life.

What we decided to do this year was rather than list everyone’s answers to every category, I combined all the responses and made an overall list. And from the blog contributors/Fam members who hollered, it seems we all pretty much agreed. Peep the details after the jump…

Songs of the year
Kanye West – Runaway
Laws ft. Emilio Rojas and Big KRIT- Hold You Down (Remix)
Angus & Julia Stone – Yellow Brick Road
Aloe Blacc – I Need A Dollar
Bruno Mars – Liquor Store Blues ft Damian Marley
Miike Snow – Plastic Jungle
Travie McCoy – Billionaire ft Bruno Mars
Chris Brown & Tyga – Deuces
Kanye West – See Me Now ft. Beyonce & Charlie Wilson
Asking Alexandria – Final Episode (Let’s Change The Channel)

Hip Hop Albums of the year
Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (album of the year, hands down)
Kid Cudi – Man On The Moon 2
Nas & Damien Marley – Distant Relatives
Freeway and Jake One – Stimulus Package
The Roots – How I Got Over
The Roots and John Legend – Wake Up
N.E.R.D. – Nothing
Rick Ross – Teflon Don
Statik Selektah and Termanology – 1982
Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot… The Son of Chico Dusty
Celph Titled – Nineteen Ninety Now
Shad – TSOL
Kno – Death is Silent
B.o.B. – B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray
Black Milk – Album Of The Year
Drake – Thank Me Later
Eternia & MoSS – At Last
Hezekiah – Conscious Porn
Skyzoo & Illmind – Live From The Tape Deck
Yelawolf – Trunk Muzik
Cee & Bekah – The Soul Movement Originals

Albums of the year (other genres)
These are pretty much in alphabetical order as I’m going through my iTunes to see what I was feeling in 2010:
Aloe Blacc – Good Things
Angus & Julia Stone – Down The Way
The Black Keys – Brothers
British India – Avalanche
Bruno Mars – Doo Wops & Hooligans
Cee-Lo – The Lady Killa
Chromeo – Business Casual
Dead Letter Circus – This Is The Warning
Delphic – Acolyte
Ellie Goulding – Lights
Erykah Badu – New Amerykah Part Two (Return Of The Ankh)
The Foreign Exchange – Authenticity
Jamie Lidell – Compass
Karen Elson – The Ghost Who Walks
Kids of 88 – Sugarpills
Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can
Miike Snow – Miike Snow
Plan B – The Defamation of Strickland Banks
RPA & The United Nations of Sound – RPA & The United Nations of Sound
Tame Impala – Innerspeaker
Tinie Tempah – Disc-Overy

Mixtapes of the year
Wiz Khalifa – Kush and OJ
Wale – More about Nothing
Laws – 5:01 Overtime
Freddie Gibbs- Str8 Killa No Filla
Emilio Rojas- Life Without Shame
Chris Brown & Tyga – Fan Of A Fan
J. Cole – Friday Night Lights
The Movement Fam – The Movement Fam LIVE @ The Evelyn Hotel (27th March 2010)
Notion – On The Corner of Notion & 9th: A Tribute to 9th Wonder

Videos of the year
Kanye West – Runaway
Erykah Badu – Window Seat

Verse of the year
Emilio Rojas – Hold You Down Remix
Nobody even came anywhere near as dope as Emilio came on this joint. Incredible.

Show of the year
These were my favourite shows in 2010, the year where I saw more shows than the last few years combined:
Alexisonfire / Norma Jean / Four Year Strong (Sound Academy, Toronto)
The Temper Trap (Festival Hall, Melbourne and Phoenix, Toronto)
Florence & The Machine (Festival Hall, Melbourne)
dead prez (The Espy, Melbourne)
Mayer Hawthorne (The Corner Hotel, Melbourne / The Bowery Ballroom, New York)
Asking Alexandria / Born of Osiris / All That Remains (Phoenix, Toronto)
Dilated Peoples (The Espy, Melbourne)
B.o.B. (Billboard, Melbourne)
Richard Ashcroft (The Palace, Melbourne)
John Mayer (Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne)
Laura Marling (Hi-Fi Bar, Melbourne)
Drake (Fox Theatre, Atlanta)
Black Milk (Revival, Toronto)
Emilio Rojas (A3C, Masquerade, Atlanta)
Duck Down (CMJ Showcase, Le Poisson Rouge, New York)
La Roux (Festival Hall, Melbourne)
Angus & Julia Stone (The Palais, Melbourne and Bell House, Brooklyn)
Paul Dempsey (CMJ, Rockwood Music Hall, New York and Ariel Hyatt’s house, Brooklyn / Drake Underground, Toronto)
Newton Faulkner (The Palais, Melbourne)
British India (The Corner Hotel, Melbourne)
Urthboy (The Corner Hotel, Melbourne)
Jamie Lidell (The Corner Hotel, Melbourne)

Rookie of the year
J. Cole
Laws
Freddie Gibbs

Overachiever of the year (artist that did way beyond what was expected)
Wiz Khalifa
I just can’t understand this whole phenomenon. To me, his music is nothing short of average. I’ve tried on numerous occasions to get into the tunes but I can’t. Definitely achieved way more than expected.

Underachiever of the year (artist that was expected to do a lot but didn’t)
Emilio Rojas
His latest mixtape had a damn near superstar line up (production from J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, features from B.o.B., Killa Mike, Yelawolf, etc) and was presented by Travis Barker’s clothing line yet it made minimal noise. Folks will wake up in 2011.

Biggest disappointments
Drake – Thank Me Later and Nicki Minaj – Pink Friday
Both of these albums were almost unprecedented in their anticipation, yet both were average at best. The still spawned hits but definitely let folks down; or perhaps the hype was just too much for them.

Producers of the year
Kanye West (did you HEAR his album?)
Statik Selektah (he grinds damn hard and is always consistently good)
Tokyo Cigar
Statik Selectah
Buckwild
Apollo Brown

Dopest artists discovered in 2010 (whether they debuted this year or not)
I was MEGA late on a lot of aritsts, but 2010 was my year of discovery. I heard more new music in 2010 than ever before, and it honestly changed my life:
J. Cole (Cyclops’ inclusion)
Laura Marling
Angus & Julia Stone
The Shins
Alexisonfire
Miike Snow
The Temper Trap
Florence & The Machine
Paul Dempsey / Something For Kate
Stone Temple Pilots
Pretty Lights
Ellie Goulding
Pixies
Passion Pit
Parkway Drive
Paramore
Panic! At The Disco
Muse
Mazzy Star
The Mars Volta
Katie Noonan / George
Joshua Radin
James Morrison
Doves
The Dillinger Escape Plan
Bertie Blackman
Beirut

Movies of the year
Stone
Buried
Unstoppable
Twelve
You Don’t know Jack
The Killer Inside Me
The Social Network

Predictions for 2011
Kanye will clean up at next years Grammys
Music will continue to get better, just as it did in 2010 after a shitty 2009
British music will absolutely kill shit. Already artists like Jessie J, Jamie Woon and James Blake are making some serious noise with their unique sounds, including the relatively new genre of post-dub step.

If y’all ain’t already heard, Jay Electronica done signed with Jay-Z over at Roc Nation, joining NC representative J. Cole on the roster.

Check out the video below of Jay rocking a new song at ‘The Box’ in NYC where they announced the signing the other night. Apparently Diddy was tweeting about the signing and isn’t happy…

At first I was really diggin’ J. Cole. ‘Lights Please’ was one of my favourite joints from last year. Then he kinda just went bland. But this joint has kinda brought him back up there for me.

Video is cool; looks like it was shot in one take but I doubt it. Joint is dope too; verses are fresh and quite tech and witty, and the hook is catchy and simple enough to stick in your head all day. Keen as for the album now.

Dig this track and dig this show. Wish this sorta shit happened Down Under.

I effs with both of these cats.

J.Cole ‘A Star Is Born’ Documentary Part 2 from Chris Knotti on Vimeo.

“In what will be a four-part series, Knotti chronicles the rise to stardom of a future legend, Jermaine Cole. You happen to know him as J. Cole.

This episode features footage from an interview earlier this year and a performance of “Grown Simba” at his “The Warm Up” mixtape release party on June 15, 2009.

Just 4 months ago, me & Karen were right next to Cole on that bench he’s standing on in that screenshot. Now he’s on a nationwide tour with Jay-Z & Pharrell. Crazy.”

J Cole – A Star Is Born Documentary Part 1 from Chris Knotti on Vimeo.

Spotted @ 2DopeBoyz.

“Karen Civil introduces the world to Jay Z’s protege J Cole in this 4 part documentary series. In this episode J Cole discusses moving from North Carolina to New York to pursue a rap career, getting signed to Jay Z’s Roc Nation & preparing a classic album.”

Spotted @ 2DopeBoyz.

J. Cole stays murkin’ it. Apparently Beyonce was by the stage spittin’ along with J, so big things are happening for dude…