Three The Hard Way (pause)

Time flies especially when one of your aliases is "The Fly Boys." It's been 10 years since the Cam'ron, Jim Jones, Juelz Santana and the rest of that "hooligan gang" the Diplomats (a collective of Harlem hustlers and goons) released their double disc effort, Diplomatic Immunity. Since then they've gone through more then their fair share of label drama, beefs, break ups and make ups. To celebrate the fact that they were able survive the turbulent rap game, they are commemorating the 10 year anniversary of Diplomatic Immunity with a concert tonight at B.B. King.

Of course such an event deserves some shine so we compiled a list of their best songs as a group. No solo spots, just songs where at least two of the three star players rocked out together. Say it with us now... DIP SET! DIP SET! DIP SET! Owwwwwww!

See also: Live: Dipset Brings Pandemonium To The Best Buy Theater

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Who the hell needs real bands when there are so many great fictional ones? Here's some of the best -- our list goes to 11, of course:

See also: Top 10 Concert Films to See Before You Die

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This promises to be a fantastic year for electronic music, as the calendar is peppered with releases from some of the most exciting names around. Here are some acts to make sure you keep an eye on throughout the year.

A quick note: You can classify much of the music that follows as dubstep, a genre tag that's become almost altogether meaningless and not particularly useful when trying to describe a sound. (For instance, nothing below sounds remotely like Skrillex.) I'm of the opinion that many, if not all of the artists listed are exploring past the bounds of standardized genres and subgenres. But those of you who thirst for taxonomy can feel free to shorthand it as dubstep, with smatterings here and there of trance, house, and purple, if it'll help you sleep a little easier.

See More
-The Ten Best New York City Rap Albums of 2012
-The Best Reissues of 2012
-Top 12"s of '12: Last Looks, People

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Now that Christmas is over and the presents are all unwrapped, you have no excuse but to switch off the computer, get up, wrestle on a cardigan and a sweater vest, grab your smart phone, and hit the streets. Vacate. Go. Get out, and look at some Christmas lights. Because, look, your hood didn't risk their necks and court the flu turning every available inch into an electrical fire hazard just so you could waste away December inside on Twitter, headbanging to Grimes and clipping your toenails. Christmas is awesome, hideously wasteful light outlays are awesome, and someday soon we'll all be living in a Mad Max-ian world where we'll miss having had a choice as to whether or not to spend the entirety of an evening goggling and bedazzled. So tour your local holiday lighting extravaganzas hard, dear reader, and often--and allow Sound of the City the pleasure of soundtracking your quest.

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Wait, she had a record this good in her?

This list of the year's best country albums is assembled with two important premises in mind: First: If the people who record and listen to these records consider them country, than they're damn well country. Purists who argue that country should still sound like '68, '76, '84 or whenever are in the interesting position of being more conservative than Nashville radio.

I have nothing against the opinion that Hank Williams--or whatever other well-marketed figure of authenticity you prefer-- would love to see Rascal Flatts knocked on their J.C. Penney-endorsing asses. But I also accept that that opinion matters much less than those of the few million people who still actually buy CDs.

Second, Taylor Swift is now beyond country the way that Kanye is beyond hip hop or J.R. is beyond Dallas. She simply is. Red would rank highly here if I were to waste a slot on it, but TS belongs on more broadly focused lists, like maybe "Best Things in General in Recent Years."

This list has fewer men than women, mostly because Nashville's suits allow the he-hunks a more meager emotional range than the spitfires. The fellas are forever singing about some upcoming beer-in-a-cooler party (Wade Bowen's "Saturday Night," Lee Brice's "Parking Lot Party," Chris Cagle's "Wal-Mart Parking Lot") or all the little details that make being in love worth it (Easton Corbin's "Lovin' You Is Fun"; Jason Aldean's "When She Says Baby"). Maybe once per album they're permitted to feel something more complex. Of course, if male country stars sang about their real lives, every song would be called things like "Two Hours at the Gym and a Protein Shake."

See Also:
- The Ten Best Metal Albums of 2012
- The Ten Best New York City Rap Albums of 2012
- The Best Reissues of 2012
- The Ten Best Noise Tracks of 2012

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Sean Price

There's been a repetition about year-end New York rap round-ups for a while now. They usually involve noting how the city isn't the commercial powerhouse of hip-hop it once was (shocker!), and then speculating on whether a few artists might be somehow bringing it back (from precisely which era is never quite specified). Tradition dictates there's also some fleeting talk about Nas's one customary moment of excellence (this year: "The Don") before he adds another installment to his stockpile of bat-shit crazy long-players. (Disclaimer: Nas stans, this might not be the list for you.)

In truth, the industry's changed to the point where it shouldn't be about musing on New York's place in some fictional rap league of influence, but celebrating the music that's being proudly created on the doorstep. Which is what we've done here, by rounding up the ten greatest albums of the year from hometown artists. Salute!

See also:
- Meat Guns, Weed Brownies, and Riesling: Our Conversation With Roc Marciano
- Every Food Reference on Action Bronson's New Album Rare Chandeliers
- Sean Price: "Cornell West Is the Devil"

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?uestlove's stock is at an all-time high. His stint as house band-leader on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon was recently complimented by a profile in The New Yorker; you might even peep his face on subway billboards around the city as he clocks up his Sonos endorsement money. Tonight he'll be spinning at one of his regular Bowl Train shindigs at the Brooklyn Bowl--a night where he's known to stray from airing out the sort of hip-hop he makes with the Roots to delve through his eclectic crates. With that in mind, here's a bunch of notable selections from ?uesto's (vast) non-rap vault, as both producer and drum-master-for-hire.

See also:
- Q&A: Booker T. Jones On His First Visit To New York, Scoring Films, And What Working With Kanye West Might Be Like
- Amy Winehouse, R.I.P.
- The Roots' Walk-On Music For Michele Bachmann Was Ha-Ha Funny, But...

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Killer Mike's Got Bars

Tonight, one of Atlanta's favorite sons, Killer Mike, plays with Wu-Tang Clansman GZA at Irving Plaza. In many respects, this has been a banner year for Mike, whose El-P produced album R.A.P. Music has given him the most accolades of his career, as well as his work touring with the Into the Wild tour that's seen him bring his swaggering bulldozer of a stage show across the country.

See Also:
- Live: Killer Mike Rolls Hard At Brooklyn Bowl
- Q&A: GZA On Wrestling, His Hip-Hop Beginnings, Chess Metaphors, And The Chances of a Wu-Tang Kung Fu Flick

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Danny Brown in black and white.

Over the past three years, Detroit MC Danny Brown has been amassing one of rap's most loyal cult followings. A student of the game, his diverse arsenal of styles has proved challenging for some rap listeners to pin down exactly what makes him such an intriguing figure. He's performing at Roseland Ballroom tomorrow night with A$AP Rocky. To help new converts familiarize themselves with the man's many faces, we've assembled five very different, defining songs of his.

See Also:
- Danny Brown CAlls Playing the Gathering of the Juggalos "Kind of Cool"
- Danny Brown Seizes the Moment At The Rap Yard
- Q&A: Danny Brown

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Courtney Love, facepalming on behalf of all of us.

"Good music programmers are rock stars to the women of this generation, just as guitar players were for their mothers."
—From the Beloit College Mindset List, in which two dudes at a Wisconsin college attempt to get a bead on What The Freshmen Class Might Be Thinking via the making of a list with claims both rooted in fact and, er, less so. This item—No. 41 on the list, which is crafted with people born in the year 1994 in mind—stuck out in particular, since 1994 was also a year in which quite a few women made their own stamp on the pop, rock, and R&B worlds, proving that they didn't need to flutter their eyes and faint over men in order to participate in the musical agora. (Also, what does "music programmers" mean, anyway? People who decide what gets played on radio stations?) Below, an extremely partial list of songs that, after I recovered from my rage blackout, immediately came to mind and fueled my anger so much I almost passed out all over again.

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