29. The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002)

This is the tenth studio album from the great Canadian band, The Flaming Lips. This band has covered a lot of ground in their career, and this album is one of the best. This electro alt rock album focuses its lyrics on serious issues like death, love, pacifism and fighting the good fight, all while telling the epic tale of Yoshimi. Yoshimi is a black belt in karate and she fights a pink robot, yadda yadda. This story is told through a few of the songs, but it is not a real concept album. The psychedelic noises in some of the songs are a bit excessive for me, especially in the middle of the title track. I really do like this album however, and Are You a Hypnotist? And It’s Summertime.

28. T.I. - Paper Trail (2008)

In this album T.I. displays a perfect rap attitude; he is the shit, but he also warns other rappers not to follow in his gangster footsteps and focus on their rap careers. This album has some great songs featuring other artists such as Kanye, Lil Wayne, Jay Z, MIA, Ludacris, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Swizz Beatz, and John Legend. That is one hell of a lineup. There are some club songs that you’re going to hear all year in bars and on the radio, but there are also some great rap songs. My Illy is one of the best flows I’ve heard in a long time. Swagger like us is my other favorite, it was also nominated for Rap song of the year at the Grammy’s. Usually I wouldn’t mention it but I thought that all the people who contributed to this track did a good job performind at the Grammy’s, especially MIA who gave birth to her kid a few hours later. Props to that.
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