AM - 8 mile w/u, 4x200m w/ 200m recovery in 27.9, 27.5, 27.7, 27.3. mile c/d
been a looong time since i ran this fast. about the best starting point i could ask for in terms of speed.
overall a great year for running. i set new PRs in longest run by 10 miles, highest mileage day by 24 miles, highest mileage week by about 90 miles, highest mileage month by over 160 miles, and broke my yearly mileage PR by over 500 miles too. even though i haven't been as consistent as i'd hoped i'm in a super good place to make 2020 a hell of a year.
PM - 5, then gym, except it was closed, so ran another 3 after airing out an ex-blogger that shall go unnamed for saying some of the of the most pretentious and gross things i've heard this year.
as promised, my top ten albums of the decade:
10.) JPEGmafia - Veteran(Real Nega); it's hard to describe this album, honestly. hilariously violent and aggressive lyrics over some of the weirdest hip-hop beats produced since the money store, the entire album is pure adreneline in the same way L.L. Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" and ODB's "Brooklyn Zoo" are. this album could make a monestary start a mosh pit.
9.) Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Pinata(sh*tsville); in 2004, rapper MF DOOM and producer Madlib came together to make Madvilliany, the most celebrated underground hip-hop album of all time, and an album i'd argue against any fan of the genre is a top ten hip-hop album. 10 years later, Madlib struck gold again with Gary, Indiana rapper Freddie Gibbs. with a pallette of instrumentals so unique and creative that only Madlib could have made, this album sounds more like the soundtrack to a blaxploitation film than a true-blue hip-hop album, and Gibbs rides every track like it had a metro boomin tag.
8.) Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city(sing about me, i'm dying of thirst); there's honestly so little i could say about this album that hasn't been said already. one of the best albums in it's genre to come out this decade, and one of the greatest concept albums of all time, the album deserves all the praise it's garnored.
7.) Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy(POWER) - this album is so universally acclaimed i feel as though i need to justify it's placement being so low more than it's need to be on this list. Kanye West is easily my favorite artist of all time. on christmas 2008 i got a speaker for my ipod and proceeded to play his performance of Stronger at the grammys about 30 times in a row. although i personally prefer the jazzy soundscape of late registration, the gaudy and godly instrumentals elevated hip-hop to a place never before reached thanks to the genius of the man who got his start producing classics for Jay-Z. it's only fitting over such lush and extravagant instrumentals he be just as extra, however as i grow older some aspects of the album grow old as well. Runaway is arguably one of his best songs ever, until the 5 minutes of auto-tune riffing after. Blame Game sounds amazing, but the lyrics leave a bitter taste in my mouth the more times i listen. still, one of the best albums from one of the greatest artists of our time, and the grandidose moments like the start of POWER and Nicki's verse on Monster are some of the best things to happen in music this decade.
6.) Tyler, The Creator - IGOR(WHAT'S GOOD); the latter half of this decade saw a resurgence in the sounds of soul music. rather than using the nostalgia to make it's appeal, Tyler instead gives the album an update for the modern age on his 5th studio album. the inspiration taken from innovators before him like Kanye and Pharrell can be found all over this project, and IGOR would stand out as one of either artist's best works.
5.) Death Grips - The Money Store(Hacker); if the dark web were condensed into an album, it would be somewhere in between this album and Veteran. however, there is nothing hilarious about the violence and aggression here. MC Ride portrays someone on this record so off the mark in terms of relatability this album might as well have been recorded by an escapee from death row. the production is some of the oddest-yet-catchiest of the decade, music you can play in the car, but might just crash that car into a government building.
4.) Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want(Daughter); when Kanye was helping produce Jay-Z's Black Album, he said he thought of an album as the soundtrack to a movie rather than just another record. if that's the case here, this is the soundtrack to the most terrifyingly blood-curdling movie you've ever seen. the kind that probably got investigated after to make sure all the gore was actually fake. completely harrowing and utterly ingenious.
 
3.) Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition(When It Rain); the album's title gets it's name from a Joy Division song. although frontman to the legendary and innovative punk-rock band Ian Curtis died soon after the project the song was on was released, surely he'd approve of the namesake. Brown raps every verse like he's on the precipace of a deadly overdose, and the instrumentals he chooses on this album are so insane you might think you're OD-ing right along with him.
2.) Frank Ocean - Blonde(Pink + White); not many people can get Beyonce to sing uncredited background vocals, but Frank's just that good. showing why he was ghost-writing for the likes of Justin Bieber and John Legend long before anyone knew his name, this abstract masterpiece shows everyone's favorite recluse being not just as creative as he can be, but as creative as anyone can be.
1.) Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly(Alright); it feels unfair to label this as hip-hop, or even music, because this isn't an album. it's art. and it's damn good art at that. recruiting some of the best musicians and producers alive to make the best instrumental hip-hop album since Madvilliany and Endtroducing... , the real show comes in kung-fu Kenny's lyrics. one moment he's talking his sh*t, the next he's giving us a list of why he isn't, has never been, and will never be sh*t. he's giving us anthems of survival and moments later telling us he's the biggest hypocrite in 2015. truly a benchmark for hip-hop and music at large.
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