This year was, for the most part, a good year for local hiphop, though we saw no new acts escaping the gravity of the 206 and entering the orbit of the big time. Macklemore dominated the year, of course, and we watched his fame stabilize in a region of stardom that very few humans reach or can even comprehend. Indeed, it is a region so far from reality for almost all humans that it has more in common with the fantastic stuff of dreams than the physically hard things we see daily with our own eyes. To use words from R. Kelly's "Did You Ever Think": Did you ever think that you would be this rich? Did you ever think that you would have these hits?... Did you ever think that you would sell out tours? Have a show with fifty million viewers? Macklemore should do a cover of that tune.

But back on earth—back on the streets, back in the home studios on Beacon Hill, Capitol Hill, and the University District—some new and established local rappers and producers generated a good number of solid LPs and EPs, my favorite five of which are listed below. But before naming them, I want to quickly bring up something that my man OCnotes recently tweeted: He does not want to be recognized as a hiphop producer, but only and simply as a musician. This declaration surprised me because, for one, I do feel that musicians are very different from hiphop producers, and two, hiphop production is as serious an art as the production of what is traditionally identified as music. Why would OCnotes not want to be known as a hiphop producer? What's wrong with the methods, processes, and aesthetics of hiphop production? I think the statement may not pertain to the older arguments about whether hiphop is music or not, but is an expression of an emerging mood among many in the 206 community. More and more producers are working on projects that are hard to define or have little to no relationship with what is commonly known or understood to be hiphop. In a sense, OCnotes just wants to be honest about this fact. He is not making rap, jazz, indie rock, or house. He is just making music.

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