Most readers are probably well past their "end of the year" list saturation point by now, but there's one more that deserves special attention: Passion of the Weiss's The 50 Best Hip-Hop Songs of 2009. The blog has compiled a fantastic downloadable mix that gives equal weight to trappers, backpackers and all styles in between (for the traditionalists, there are even a couple of great DJ Premier-produced tracks). It's a great grab bag, especially for those who didn't pay as much attention to the genre this year as they might have liked. A lot of year-end roundups have dismissed 2009 as an awful year for rap, but these songs tell a different story.
A few of my favorites from the list are embedded below:
