#1Rapsody, 'Crown'
List is not ranked.
The North Carolina bar-slinger had the only non-Kendrick rap verse on To Pimp a Butterfly, and we've been waiting extra hard for her to follow up 2014's Beauty and the Beast EP ever since. She knew it, opening this one with the powerful, "Hey, hey, you there—where's your crown? / You didn't leave the house without your crown, did you? / Just as sure as the Earth is round / We bounce back up when they throw us down / So...so don't forget your crown." The tape serves us vintage soul and hip-hop waves, appearances from Anderson .Paak, Raphael Saadiq and Ab-Soul, and a brand of insistent, relevant lyricism you can't find anywhere else. –Zach Dionne
