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In the making of this list and the yearly introduction that preludes it, the focus was to highlight cultural moments of awe from the year, while paying homage to the artists we\u2019ve lost and other signals of commentary. But as I was exploring my Twitter homepage, mindlessly wasting minutes between writing assignments, I was surprised to witness another onslaught of lay-offs within the media\/ journalism space. Some of the heaviest hitters within Hip-Hop journalism exiting from companies that could never exist without them.\u00a0 Creative arts have never been in a more dire state of affairs, leading to more \u201copen to work\u201d LinkedIn profiles than I\u2019d like to see. Art and art commentary play critical roles in countless communities, large or small, but seem to be the first to be cut when funding runs low. This year alone saw the national radio service losing federal funding. Artificial intelligence utilizing stolen data to recreate soulless music in digital Black Face. Your favorite music streaming service paying your favorite artist less than a penny while investing millions in military technology. Some of these events sound too obscure to be real, but they are. It may feel fictional, but this is real life.<\/p>\n
This year provided challenges that I never imagined, but provided new lenses to seek comfort through. The endless need to create persists even as our material conditions can best be described as fantasy. Art manages to persist, to thrive even in the most detrimental environments. The world around me continues to burn, and the data center next to my house will inevitably be my downfall, and I can\u2019t pay my rent. But until the walls come crumbling down, when the Timbaland AI girl gets canceled for grooming underage fans, when Palantir becomes the main sponsor of Bonnaroo, I have this MIKE album to keep me company. At the end of the day, it\u2019s the music that grants you strength and the art that results from it, and this year has supplied plenty of means to do so.<\/p>\n
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50. ‘Belong’ \u2013 Jay Som<\/strong><\/p>\n Indie singer\/songwriter Jay Som\u2019s first album in six years feels more diverse than anything she\u2019s put out before. She fully embraces pop punk on \u201cFloat\u201d with Jim Adkins<\/strong> and navigates distortion on both \u201cCards on the Table\u201d with Mini Trees<\/strong> and \u201cPast Lives\u201d with Hayley Williams<\/strong>. But Jay Som still manages to shine on her own, as solo cuts like \u201cAppointments\u201d and \u201cCasino Stars\u201d show clear mastery over the sparse, stripped-down style she does best, while \u201cA Million Reasons Why\u201d sees her use a rare falsetto. Lyrically, the album sees Jay Som dealing with change in different ways. She avoids fighting with her partner on \u201cDrop A\u201d and tries not to lose her sense of self on \u201cFloat,\u201d but she also accepts changing friendship dynamics on \u201cCards on the Table\u201d and lets go of someone desperate to leave on closer \u201cWant it All.\u201d Belong<\/em> is the perfect title for this album, as listeners will feel an intimate connection with the material before its 33-minute runtime is up. \u2013 Raniel Santos<\/p>\n