This is not a “best of 2011” music list. I didn’t hear or read or see all the music this year. Did you? Perhaps after consulting with a suitably large staff, a publication could reasonably claim to draw a box around, say, the best music of the year. I tend to count myself rarely satisfied with these attempts, though, even if I'm consulted. How about you?

No, don’t even start, as I’ve seen every single one of you beefing on Twitter about a subjective list. You weren’t wrong to do so! Lists are always wrong. It’s a part of their power, this axiomatic guarantee of failure. A list might “start a discussion” or draw clicks (not the same thing), but it’s always gonna anger. Even should it focus narrowly on a single genre, the better to claim total knowledge, it’ll fail, because yup: a judicious myopia rankles, too.

Now: at this point, if you like, you could just jump straight to go listen to this promised music.

But it's interesting how frequently we continue to make and read lists. I’ve set all mine, for music at least, already. The aggregate sorting and assessing included decisions about classical albums I was asked to nominate for one publication, choices for a nationwide jazz-critics’ poll that’s due in the morning, some hip-hop entries for another spot. I couldn’t really make the list for one genre without figuring out how I felt about everything. Excuse me: “everything I heard this year.” See what I did there? So what follows is not a rebuke of everything you heard and/or liked that I didn’t in 2011. It’s a list of my favorites. Hey, look: we got rid of the word “best.”

Though maybe we didn’t, quite; perhaps we never do. It’s a difficult word to escape. Paste kicked off the silly season in music criticism the other week by being more or less first out of the gate to publish a “50 Best Albums” list— before The Roots’ "undun" came out (or was even furnished to press via protected streams). That list (and a few others) also came out before Anthony Hamilton’s "Back to Love" hit NPR’s First Listen the other day. (I’ve already listened a first time, and a second, third, et al etc.)

The Paste list, to the extent that it claims to represent “the best” of music’s overall pile, expresses some eyebrow-raising inferences about aesthetics in 2011. Hip-hop doesn’t have many ambassadors to the summit as defined here; apparently Paste would have us believe that the best rap record of the year came from that one guy who acts in “Community,” followed by that other guy whose sweaters are undeniably meme-worthy and used to be on another show. R&B’s influence is similarly limited to global sensation Adele and cause mîcroblog-célèbres Frank Ocean. Modern jazz and contemporary classical: they can go get their respective shineboxes. This list took a lot of flack along “LOL, white ppl” lines, despite the problematizing reality that it didn’t much reflect the diversity of music made by caucasian folk, either.

Not that these blinders aren’t also fronted in the opposite direction. The perspicacious critic Ted Gioia has, of late, gamely worked up a Top 100 albums list, across “all genres" … that has no hip-hop in it. Called out by Times jazz critic Nate Chinen on Twitter, Gioia doubled down:

Now, to Gioia’s credit, he backed off a bit after Chinen (and others) raised the perfectly reasonable point that instrumental prowess is not the same thing as musicianship. (Which isn’t to suggest that instrumental prowess can’t be observed in hip-hop, either.) He solicited requests for rap that he might listen to, and expressed a willingness to give those recommendations a whirl. As Twitter debates between music critics go, this was a pretty civil, value-adding enterprise.

The “Difficult Listening Hour” column that has run, with varying frequency, here on The Awl since Summer ’09 has traditionally focused on what Sun Ra called “other planes of there.” But it can mean something else, too, aside from a devotion to experimental flights; “difficult listening” might also connote doing the work of a Fitzgerald-ian musical mind, one that absorbs a number of opposed genres and still manages to function.

One time when I was talking to Questlove, I mentioned how something on "How I Got Over" reminded me of a moment on an early Sun Ra side, and he geeked out with me for approximately five minutes. On another occasion, PJ Harvey talked my ear off about the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. (Harvey’s "Let England Shake" places high on my favorite albums list, by the way—as does the Oregon Symphony’s new account of Williams’ Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, on their all-around brilliant disc "Music for a Time of War.")

Comprehensive knowledge remains a chimera, though even if it weren’t, I know I wouldn’t be able to claim it for myself yet: there is only one “Latin”-tinged album on my “Favorite 50 Albums” list, which follows. This is an oversight I’d like to address in the future. (And I’d be happy to take some recommendations in the comments.)

While I’ve spent plenty of time with the classical and jazz over the years, I remain convinced that almost everything from those genres in the list to come is capable of speaking to listeners who may be less versed. The buzzsaw-noise keyboard samples that kick off Annie Gosfield’s recent piece “Lightning Slingers and Dead Ringers,” as performed on a new EP by pianist Lisa Moore, pack as thrilling a low-end grind as anything I heard in techno this year. (Though Lone’s “Explorers” is good on that score, also.) The one exception, so far as avant-newbies go, would be Anthony Braxton’s four-hour absurdist-modernist opera "Trillium E: Wallingford’s Polarity Gambit," which would be a terrible place to start listening to Anthony Braxton. However, if you cherish your 8-CD Complete Arista Recordings as much as I do, you have to check out this first full studio recording of a Braxton opera. (If you don’t have the Complete Arista, maybe ask for it as a gift this holiday season.)

Were we suffering from an era of musical scarcity, I might have to grapple more vigorously with the fact that I find Kanye West both very talented and very annoying to let into my life for more than five minutes at a time. But we don’t live in that era of scarcity; No I.D. and Flying Lotus contributed beats to Killer Mike’s "Pl3dge" that seem to me as good or better than any on "Watch the Throne." I might also have rated Beyoncé's "4" twenty or so positions higher, if not for the witless and class-deaf nonce word “swagoo.”

I liked Annie Clark’s piece for the yMusic chamber ensemble better than anything on her latest recording as St. Vincent. And my liberal philosophical cast takes comfort in seeing women gaining ground in the sphere of “classical” composition on the whole—as with Kaija Saariaho’s clarinet concerto “D’om le Vrai Sens”—even while Hilary Hahn continues to knock slept-on modern repertoire by the likes of Charles Ives out of the park. When speaking of art that challenges our stereotypical racial constructs, I also like to make note of Yelawolf’s rapping, George Lewis’s chamber music, and Matana Roberts’ visionary approach to the avant-jazz concept album.

There’s a loose genre key at the bottom of the albums list, in case you’d like to reverse-engineer the constituent genre-segregated lists. But really, so what? I’d say to the extent that lists from critics serve any useful purpose at all, this happens not by constricting and defining anything with too much certainty, but by promoting and celebrating perceived values as widely as possible.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to see a bunch of movies before turning in my film-critic ballot next week.

The “Difficult Listening Hour” 50 Favorite Albums of 2011

(Some of my very favorite jazz of the year isn’t so much on Spotify. YouTubes are embedded in this list for a couple of incredible albums that don’t show up on the playlist.

50. Dave Douglas / So Percussion – GreenLeaf Portable Series Volume 3: Bad Mango (!)
49. Tech N9ne – All 6s and 7s (@)
48. George Lewis – Les Exercices Spirituels (!)
47. Jean-Michel Pilc – Essential (!)
46. Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (@)
45. Tyshawn Sorey – Oblique I (!)
44. Eleanor Friedberger – Last Summer (#)
43. Action Bronson – Doctor Lecter (@)
42. Beyoncé – 4 (@)
41. Now Ensemble – Awake (!)
40. Rihanna – Talk That Talk (@)
39. The Men – Leave Home (#)
38. Matthew Shipp – Art of the Improviser (!)
37. Radiohead – The King of Limbs (#)
36. Yelawolf – Radioactive (@)
35. Wild Flag – Wild Flag (#)
34. Keiji Haino / Jim O'Rourke / Oren Ambarchi – in a flash everything comes together as one there is no need for a subject ($)
33. Kepler Quartet – Ben Johnston: String Quartets Nos. 1, 5 & 10 (!)

32. Wye Oak – Civilian (#)
31. Oregon Symphony / Carlos Kalmar – Music for a Time of War (!)
30. Red Fang – Murder the Mountains (#)
29. Nikkiya – Speakher [free mixtape] (@)

28. Tim Hagans – The Moon Is Waiting (!)
27. Fucked Up – David Comes to Life (#)
26. Anthony Braxton – Trillium E: Wallingford's Polarity Gambit (!)

25. The Roots – undun (@)
24. Nico Muhly – Seeing is Believing (!)
23. Anthony Hamilton – Back to Love (@)
22. Stephan Crump / Steve Lehman – Kaleidoscope and Collage (!)
21. Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra – Saariaho: D'om le Vrai Sens / Laterna Magica / Leino Songs (!)
20. Big K.R.I.T. – Return of 4eva [free mixtape] (@)
19. Meshell Ndegeocello – Weather (@)
18. John Luther Adams – Four Thousand Holes (!)
17. Death Grips – Exmilitary [free mixtape] (@)
16. Tom Waits – Bad As Me (%)
15. Miguel Zenón – Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook (!)
14. E-40 – Revenue Retrievin': Overtime Shift / Graveyard Shift (@)
13. Nicholas Phan / Myra Huang – Britten: Winter Words / Seven Sonnets Of Michelangelo / Six Folk Song Arrangements (!)
12. Raphael Saadiq – Stone Rollin' (@)
11. Peter Evans Quintet – Ghosts (!)

10. Marsha Ambrosius – Late Nights & Early Mornings (@)
9. Percussion Group Cincinnati – John Cage: The Works for Percussion I (!)
8. Pistol Annies – Hell on Heels (^)
7. Killer Mike – Pl3dge (@)
6. Matthew Friedberger – Old Regimes (&)

5. Hilary Hahn / Valentina Lisitsa – Ives: Four Sonatas (!)
4. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (#)
3. Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de Couleur Libres (!)

2. Liturgy – Aesthethica (*)
1. Craig Taborn – Avenging Angel (!)

Loose genre key / statistical splits:

Jazz/Classical (!): 21
Hip-hop/R&B (@): 16
Punk/Hardcore/Alt-Rock/Traditional Indie (#): 8
Noise ($): 1
Tom Waits (%): 1
Country (^): 1
Autodidact-Harpist Singer-Songwriter (&): 1
Somewhat Contentiously Filed Under “Black Metal” (*): 1

And now!

THE AWL'S "DIFFICULT LISTENING HOUR" 100 SPOTIFY TRACKS FROM 2011

If you're on Spotify, you can just click right here to enjoy in that form. Or try this!

Below is a readout for non-Spotify users who may or may not want to look this stuff up elsewhere. No ranked order, though the sequence as presented is meant to work okay-ish, with appropriate spaces for pop in between the concerti/symphonies/multi-movement chamber works/jazz cuts. About ¾ of the artists from my favorite albums list are represented.

Killer Mike – That's Life II
John Cage – Credo in US
Pistol Annies – The Hunter's Wife
Fucked Up – Ship Of Fools
Goapele – Money
Miguel Zenon – Olas Y Arenas
PJ Harvey – The Last Living Rose
Death Grips – Lord of the Game (ft. Mexican Girl)
Rihanna – Watch n' Learn
Aurora Orchestra – Byrd: Miserere Mei
Liturgy – Returner
E-40 – 43 Feat. B-Legit
Jean-Michel Pilc – Mack the Knife
Marsha Ambrosius – Hope She Cheats On You (With A Basketball Player)
Annie Gosfield – Lightning Slingers and Dead Ringers: I. With enthusiasm and a little violence
Annie Gosfield – Lightning Slingers and Dead Ringers: II. Languid and layered
Annie Gosfield – Lightning Slingers and Dead Ringers: III. Machine-like, but with some groove
K'LA – All Your Love – Explicit Version
Lone – Explorers
Micachu & The Shapes and the London Sinfonietta – Low Dogg
Britney Spears – Gasoline
WILD FLAG – Boom
Red Fang – Wires
Statik Selektah – Cliff Notes
Meshell Ndegeocello – Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear
Kari Kriikku – D'OM LE VRAI SENS: I. L'Ouie
Kari Kriikku – D'OM LE VRAI SENS: II. La Vue
Kari Kriikku – D'OM LE VRAI SENS: III. L'Odorat
Kari Kriikku – D'OM LE VRAI SENS: IV. Le Toucher
Kari Kriikku – D'OM LE VRAI SENS: V. Le Gout
Kari Kriikku – D'OM LE VRAI SENS: VI. A mon seul desir
Raphael Saadiq – Heart Attack
2562 – Winamp Melodrama
The Men – Bataille
The Roots – One Time
The Roots – Will To Power (3rd Movement)
Now Ensemble – Waiting in the Rain for Snow
Eleanor Friedberger – My Mistakes
Beyoncé – 1+1
PJ Harvey – The Words That Maketh Murder
Brad Paisley – A Man Don't Have To Die
Yelawolf – Slumerican Shitizen
Nicholas Phan – Winter Words Op. 52: Before Life and After
Liturgy – Generation
Lucinda Williams – Convince Me
Kitchener Waterloo Symphony – Popcorn Superhet Receiver / Part 1
Kitchener Waterloo Symphony – Popcorn Superhet Receiver / Part 2a
Kitchener Waterloo Symphony – Popcorn Superhet Receiver / Part 2b
Killer Mike – Ready Set Go
Tom Waits – Bad As Me
John Cage – Imaginary Landscape No. 5
Tune-Yards – Powa
Wye Oak – Dogs Eyes
Anthony Hamilton – Woo
Death Grips – Takyon (Death Yon)
Eric Church – Drink In My Hand
Beyoncé – Love On Top
Akira Sakata & Jim O'Rourke With Chikamorachi – Nagoya 1 [Part 2]
Meshell Ndegeocello – Rapid Fire
Pistol Annies – Takin' Pills
Yelawolf – Growin' Up In The Gutter
Jean-Michel Pilc – Caravan
Rihanna – We Found Love
Beastie Boys – Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win (featuring Santigold)
Marsha Ambrosius – Lose Myself
Miguel Zenon – Incomprendido
Ryan Adams – Invisible Riverside
Oregon Symphony – Symphony No. 4 in F minor: I. Allegro
Oregon Symphony – Symphony No. 4 in F minor: II. Andante moderato
Oregon Symphony – Symphony No. 4 in F minor: III. Scherzo: Allegro molto
Oregon Symphony – Symphony No. 4 in F minor: IV. Finale con epilogo fugato: Allegro molto
Big K.R.I.T. – Sookie Now – Explicit Version
Beastie Boys – Lee Majors Come Again
Raphael Saadiq – Good Man
Dave Douglas – One More News (feat. Dave Douglas & So Percussion)
Fucked Up – One More Night
yMusic – Proven Badlands
Goapele – Play
Pistol Annies – Beige
Aurora Orchestra – Byrd: Bow Thine Ear
Radiohead – Codex
Miguel – Sure Thing
Now Ensemble – Change
Red Fang – Hank is Dead
Matthew Shipp – Take the A Train
Roman Patkoló – Penderecki: Duo concertante
Wye Oak – Holy Holy
Big K.R.I.T. – Country Sh*t (Remix) – Explicit Version
International Contemporary Ensemble – Son of Chamber Symphony I
International Contemporary Ensemble – Son of Chamber Symphony II
International Contemporary Ensemble – Son of Chamber Symphony III
Paul Simon – Dazzling Blue
The Men – LADOCH
E-40 – Serious Feat. T-Pain
Nicholas Phan – Winter Words Op. 52: Midnight On The Great Western
Mary Halvorson – The Pseudocarp Walks Among Us
Killer Mike – Swimming
Valentina Lisitsa – Ives: Sonata for Violin and Piano No.4 "Children's Day At The Camp Meeting" – 1. Allegro
Valentina Lisitsa – Ives: Sonata for Violin and Piano No.4 "Children's Day At The Camp Meeting" – 2. Largo – Allegro (con slugarocko)
Valentina Lisitsa – Ives: Sonata for Violin and Piano No.4 "Children's Day At The Camp Meeting" – 3. Allegro

Seth Colter Walls is a culture critic and reporter for Slate, the Village Voice, the Washington Post, Capital New York, and also a contributing writer to XXL Magazine.

The biggest opera house in the United States concluded its performance on time last night, at 11:15 p.m. Many of the nearly 4,000 people in attendance at the Met lingered in their seats for a bit, the better to praise the cast, orchestra and conductor—as well as to see if Philip Glass would take a curtain call. A number would have heard that the composer of Satyagraha, an opera about the life (sorta) and philosophical lineage (more consequentially) of Gandhi, was meant to have already spoken, at 10:30 p.m., to the Occupy Lincoln Center group just outside. When Glass did at last appear on stage, he was met with a rowdy harmony of cheers from what sounded like all levels of the opera house. Seeing a living composer take a bow in person after some masterful interpretation of his or her work can often carry a charge. But this time, the aggregate cheer's decibel-level felt augmented as well by the collision of the piece in question, first performed in 1980, and the specific time and place of its present revival. Police-evicted Occupy Wall Street protesters could be seen from the windows of the balcony-level's intermission space as patrons departed. READ MORE

The first in a series on collaborations that we now take for granted but initially made little sense. READ MORE

This morning, as I was walking down the street—on one of those uber-hyphenated strolls that freelance journalists colorfully like to describe as the "are-you-kidding-I-can't-afford-to-take-a-cab" variety—I momentarily tripped across a small fissure in the concrete. And then I got to thinking about the 6.4 magnitude earthquake that rocked the Calaveras fault in California, back on July 1, 1911. Today, were that earthquake still alive and happening, it would be READ MORE

Seth Colter Walls: Hi Cord Jefferson! Is there any new rap music that you have thoughts on or that you like especially? And if you say "Tyler" or "Odd Future," I will stab you in your esophagus!

Cord Jefferson: Ha! Yes, I feel like I've said all I need to say. Everybody's said all they need to about Tyler and Odd Future.

Seth: Oh, they will pull you back in before long, I'm sure. But yes, let's talk Rap A.T. (After Tyler.)

Cord: Within the past two weeks, I have developed a deep, deep obsession with a rapper out of Queens called Action Bronson. I'm more excited about him than I've been about any rapper since I was about 15 or 16.

Seth: Where did you learn of him? Message board? Record review?

Cord: A friend from Arizona texted me a couple weeks ago and told me to listen to him on YouTube. And since then I've done that thing where you watch literally every YouTube video about a person, whether it be a song or just some dinky, terribly produced interview.

Seth: Aha. Correct. And there are lots of videos of Action Bronson on the internet! He has a cooking show.

Cord: His cooking show! I've watched all of those twice even though they're all so meat heavy and I'm a vegetarian.

Seth: He has some weirdly charming freestyles where his throat dries up and he has to take a sip of water.

Cord: You've hit the nail on the head with the word "charming." Everyone I've introduced AB to has used that word.

Seth: Yeah—it's ... refreshing? He's not a softy by any means, but it's rather easy to root for him. (Slash, look past the obvious Ghostface influence.)

Cord: Very. Charm is a lost artform in rap.

Seth: When did it die, do you think?

Cord: Biggie had it, Ghostface has it, Tupac had it to an extent. I really don't know if you can pinpoint when it died. But there are very few rappers anymore who approach the music with a playfulness.

Seth: I think Yelawolf is actually pretty good at this, though!

Cord: I agree with that. I think the problem is everyone trying to "out-real" one another. Goofy and silly is no longer a virtue. There is a scene in the video for "Get Off My PP"—

Seth: (Also: that title! It's like a Funkadelic song.)

Cord: Totally! But in this scene, AB is standing on some overpass in loafers, basketball shorts, an old rugby shirt of some kind and what looks to be a fur fedora. And you can see in his eyes that he knows he looks ridiculous, but he just doesn't care.

Seth: Yes: it seems an actually pure form of not "giving a fuck"!

Cord: And I remember thinking to myself—as I do a lot when watching his videos—that there is maybe two or three rappers around right now with that sort of mentality. And what makes it even more amazing in AB's case is that he's not even that famous!

Seth: Lots of people profess to give very few fucks. But look quite studied while insisting on this.

Cord: It would be one thing if he were at the top of the rap game and giving a big middle finger to everyone else. But as of now he's a relative no-name, and he's still saying fuck convention.

Seth: Do you think he can blow up? The new album, "Dr. Lecter," is admirably focused (40-some minutes) and basically a party from start to finish.

Cord: Yeah, I think he's going to be huge. This is very adult rap! And adults are looking for some good rap!

Seth: The line that really won me over came in "Ronnie Coleman" (which has lots of good lines, about Action's weight issues and food desires, etc.) ... but it was "I wanna wear Italian clothing / but it just don't cut it."

Cord: That song is brilliant.

Seth: Even when he is rhyming "me" with "me," his flow is really great? "Lock the refrigerator / there's no controlling me / Steak and chocolate got they mothafuckin hold on me"!

Cord: YES! Do you think he sounds like Ghostface?

Seth: Mostly in the nasal department I guess? Not in terms of flow. Or in terms of, like, patois. Action's not on any kind of abstruse Wu-style lexicon.

Cord: "Barbecues get thrown with EBT cards/ land, sea, and the air, three stars." I think you're exactly right about the Ghostface comparisons. He can't really help how his voice sounds or ditch his regional accent, and aside from those, there's really no similarity whatsoever.

Seth: Also, Ghostface hasn't been this hungry ... since Supreme Clientele! (Sorry, I do love that song from Fishscale, "The Champ"!)

Cord: (Me too.)

Seth: (Just Blaze!)

Cord: A funny story about that song is that I once played it for my then-girlfriend and at the part when he says, "Rip your guts out like a hysterectomy," she said, "That's not how a hysterectomy works." Not a big rap fan.

Seth: Ladies all literal all the time. So here is a question. Will it matter that Action is, or will be read as, The White? (I think he's Albanian. But, you know, he will be read as caucasian. The Times goes with "white.")

Cord: I don't know! I feel gross to admit that I've wondered about his race. Haven't you?

Seth: I've seen the question crop up in a lot of comment threads already. I came to Action through a YouTube rip of a song off of Dr. Lecter. One of those YouTube rips that's just an album cover. And the Dr. Lecter cover is a cartoonish thing! There's a hint of a Ginger-ish beard on it? But I really didn't realize (by googling in other tabs) until the end of the song that he might be white, etc. Which was interesting, because I was already quite sold!

Cord: Unlike Eminem's, his voice contains no traces of whiteness. Here's the thing about his whiteness. The only reason I feel it may be a hindrance is because of where he's from. If you look at all the most successful white rappers—Em, Atmosphere, Yela, etc.—you'll notice that they all come from very specific places with not necessarily the strongest rap scenes. So cutting it as a white rapper in the birthplace of hip-hop might be a challenge. That said, I think his flow is simply far too great to go unnoticed because of his race. I'd really like to think so, at least.

Seth: So I only have Dr. Lecter (I paid for it on Amazon! C'mon people, it's a self-released thing. Pay for it.) Have you heard the mixtapes and such?

Cord: I've heard Dr. Lecter. I've heard some singles he put out. Specifically the Statik Selektah produced "Cliff Notes," which is probably my favorite yet because it sounds like it was produced by DJ Premier.

Seth: And here is a freestyle over a Primo beat, from it looks like 2009?

Cord: Now, I think we'd be remiss if we didn't compare it to Odd Future, especially after last week.

Seth: GRRR.

Cord: Despite what I said earlier!

Seth: Ha.

Cord: OK, this may be long but here's the thing: I really, really tried to listen to "Goblin." I really did.

Seth: Uh huh.

Cord: But at a certain point, I honestly felt ridiculous. There I was, a guy pushing 30, and I'm listening to a 19-year-old kid scream "BITCH SUCK DICK!" over bad beats. And I thought, "Hmmmmmm. Why am I doing this to myself? What purpose does this serve?" I like Steely Dan and waking up early, man!

Seth: It's not a great record? (And I liked Bastard!) But it will win this year's award for Record That Will Receive The Largest Haul of Excuses From Critics. Which counts for something.

Cord: Oh, totally. The accolades it's getting already are astounding! Are people listening the same thing we did?

Seth: I'm not sure, in light of your earlier Root piece, that it's all about White Critics fetishizing either. (Though that's an element.) I think, to draw an analogy to the economy, that as an Internet Concern, Tyler has become too big to fail. If it's the case that his 73-minute record is just overbloated and doesn't have much new to offer, we can't SAY THAT—because it retroactively invalidates about 100,000 lines of journalistic credit that are tied to thinkpieces which would then be underwater.

Cord: That's an amazing description and I'm jealous I didn't write it.

Seth: I mean, like the economy, Tyler will fail EVENTUALLY if he doesn't restructure. But the critical culture will artificially extend that lifeline for a bit.

Cord: That is so right on. To me, how this relates to Action Bronson is that he's the first rapper in a long while—and I believe I said this earlier—who is for adults.

Seth: And not like, in a uber-serious way, either! It's like for adults who remember and still have emotional access to fun. Which is a tricky balance.

Cord: Not only does his flow harken back to a different time in hip hop, he also raps about eating capers and drinking good wine and getting stoned. Exactly, like, getting stoned and cooking elaborate meals? I KNOW THAT PERSON! I AM GOOD FRIENDS WITH THAT PERSON SEVERAL TIMES OVER!

Seth: Hurray for adulthood. It Gets Better, children.

Cord: Does it ever.

Cord Jefferson writes for The Root. Seth Colter Walls writes for his Tumblr.