The Best Music of 2008

[This is an excerpt]

Grip Grand , Brokelore

Now that hyphy has come and gone, albums like Brokelore define the new paradigm of Bay Area hip-hop. Grounded more in worldly balance than the extreme of going dumb, Oakland emcee/producer Grip Grand’s excellent second record masters retro (“Hip-Hop Classic”) and progressive (“But Anyway”), gangsta (“Handle That”) and conscious (“Remember the Time”), funky (“96 Tears”) and jazzy (“Paper Cup”), all while tiptoeing the line between indie ethics and mainstream appeal. Grip tempers his genre’s requisite braggadocio with humility and humor (as in the career-defining single “Poppin’ Pockets”), and understands that nothing is owed to him; not only did he write all fourteen songs, but he produced half of them. So when he says Broakland is the best place, we know he’s being real. (Look Records)