What a year. As charged as any I've ever known. As far as the ostensible focus of my column, 2014 started out with a local rap act doing three sold-out nights at KeyArena. And hits kept coming. J. Pinder working with hiphop's first billionaire, Dr. Dre? "It" producer DJ Mustard signed Central District rep Royce the Choice (maybe just Choice now?) to his 10 Summer imprint; check the "Road to 10 Summer Records" clip on Worldstar and see him G5'ing it up with Mustard and RJ (with whom he's got an upcoming single, "Rich off Mackin'"). Alpha-dog villain Nacho Picasso signed to producer Harry Fraud's SRFSCHL imprint. Porter Ray joined Shabazz Palaces and THEESatisfaction on Sub Pop Records. You should already know all this.

Around these parts, a whole new generation of dusty boom-bap revivalists has moved into the local underground. Thraxxhouse, a post-#based massive straddling the rosters of Moor Gang and UDF with a ton of members (now split between here and SoCal), relocated into the vaporous realm of the digital underground, growing a cult via SoundCloud and YouTube. Tacoma put in major work with some of the region's most compelling rapping. BeanOne's ear for young talent and gift for neoclassical hiphop continued to not fall off, and maybe even improve. Shabazz Palaces dropped Lese Majesty, a masterful, dark-matter-heavy follow-up to Black Up; they're the only artist/album listed in this column you'll see on any national year-end lists (number one on Gorilla vs. Bear, not bad). Pop-rap got more pop-ular here than ever—though today's Mack & Ryan–inspired strain sounds nothing like the old KUBE 93–aspiring stuff of the mid-2000s. However, it moves me about as much, which is to say not much. (Get yours, though!) Who asked me? Hey, you're here, aren't you?

Out of all the local rap that's dropped this year, there's a bunch I'd recommend you know about in full—in no particular order, mind you, because I hate lists, and because the average rapper's psyche (even more so than most people's) is fragile and driven by their need for love, acceptance, and unconditional praise. Let's see: Porter Ray's Fundamentals, Donte Peace's Locals Only, UGLYFRANK's Bobby Hill, Bruce Leroy's 10 Feet, Leezy Soprano's Never Enough, Gifted Gab's G-Shit, Bolo Nef's Sol Invictus, Mackned's Alice Glass and Aquarian God Form, Key Nyata's Cosmic Dad, SneakGuapo's Lighthouse on Jupiter, Steezie Nasa's Lucky 7, Avatar Darko's Soviet Goonion 3, Yuk Mob's 199Yuk, Raz Simone's Cognitive Dissonance: Part One, AD's Intelligent Design, the Bar's Barkada, Gabriel Teodros & SoulChef's Evidence of Things Not Seen.

Is there a bunch of stuff I forgot? Definitely, but I won't beat myself up about it. That's what January is for. More questions: Did Dave B ever put out the Doughnuts EP? Wassup with Avatar Darko's dreads? (Don't let the Feds think he's a Juggalo.) Do we have an official stance on Drake calling Toronto "The Six"? Is it similar to Oakland's (and Tacoma's) stance on Seattle calling itself "The Town"? How happy am I to be listening to a new D'Angelo album (over and over and over) right now? (Very.) See you on the flip side. recommended