MJF Presents: The 1st Annual RAJYS

January 4, 2012 11 comments

Ladies and Gentlemen, I welcome to you the first annual RAJYS awards! Kinda like the Grammys and Emmys combined, but way better and less biased. Ever year we see list after list of the same ‘top’ albums that appear on numerous blogs. What’s the fun in that? I’ve decided that creating a faux award show might make things more interesting (or maybe it won’t.) Plus, this is the only kind of award where you won’t have to wait three months to see both the nominees and the winner of each category. All the voting is done by me. Shall we begin?

Best LP

Foster The People – Torches
Kanye & Jay-Z – Watch The Throne
Kendrick Lamar – Section .80
The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow
Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi – ROME

and the winner is…


Mark Foster and his people for creating one of the most timeless albums of our generation. This category in particular was the hardest to choose from, but I stand by my decision for the winner. Torches will never get too old for me, even when “DJs” are constantly remixing the same 2-3 songs off the album.

Best EP

Washed Out – Within and Without
Reptar – Oblangle Fizz, Ya’ll
Kids These Days – Hard Times
Childish Gambino – EP
King Fantastic – Death of Summer

and the winner is…


The kids from chi-town! Can’t remember the last time a group released an EP that was so fresh and full of variety. A nice blend of hip hop/funk/jazz takes the cake for this category.

Best Mixtape (or “Free Project”)

Elzhi – ELMatic
StartYourOwnRebellion – LP 3020
The Dean’s List – The Drive In
XV – Zero Heroes
The Weeknd – House of Balloons

and the winner is…


Congrats to the SYOR crew for winning the Best Mixtape RAJY! These Dreamvillain fools have been able to prove their brilliance through one mixtape over all Ratatat beats. Okay, fine – maybe brilliant isn’t the word, so I’ll just go call it ‘innovative.’ Props!

Breakthrough Artist

Milo Greene
Big Gigantic
A$AP Rocky
King Fantastic
Kids These Days

and the winner is…


Remember the name…A$AP! What up Bloody Loco?

The Kanye Award (biggest attention-whore)

V-Nasty
Kim Kardashian
Ray-J
Lindsay Lohan

and the winner is…


Get outta here V! Especially you, “Riff Raff” Both of you will never amount to anything in the music industry so please just give up now and find a new hobby.

MJF Freshman of the Year

ASAP Rocky
Kevin Abstract
The Weeknd
Danny Brown
Tito Lopez

and the winner is…


Danny Brown!! #Style. I’ll admit, I was not the biggest fan of XXX but then I delved into his past work and realized he has some raw talent. Caught him opening up for Das Racist a few months ago and he killed it live, so I’m expecting some big things from this potential freshman for 2012.

Biggest Disappointment

Drake (Take Care)
Lupe Fiasco (Friend of the People)
Lil Wayne (Carter IV)
Yelawolf (Radioactive)
Wiz Khalifa (Rolling Papers)

and the winner is…

Really, all of these albums should “win” this award but there can only be one. I’ll just give it to Lupe, just because he had a disappointing year all around. Shame on you for thinking that your career could be saved by rapping over brostep. Shame on you!

Best Career Move

Wale – Signing to Maybach Music Group
Tyler, The Creator/Odd Future – Signing with XL Records/OF Collective Label
J. Cole – Releasing an album through RocNation
ASAP Rocky – Signing with RCA Records

and the winner is…


UNGH! MMMMMMAYBACH MUSIC! When this was announced in February, I’ll admit to not being sure how well it was going to pan out for his career after getting the cold shoulder from Interscope. Now I can see why it was all done. Rozay clearly saw Folarin’s vision and turned it into reality. As a Wale fan since the first mixtapes, I’m extremely happy that he is getting the shine that he deserves, despite the drama that comes with it.

Worst Career Move

Machine Gun Kelly – signing with Bad Boy Records
Matisyahu – shaving the beard after 10 years
Juicy J – joining Taylor Gang
Yelawolf – signing with Shady Records

and the winner is…


WHAT? Who is this guy? Certainly not the lovable, majestic Hasidic musician who used to serenade me with his reggae vibes.

Best Remix/Use of a Sample

G-Scott – Sonic/Robotnik Fight Theme (SkyLife)
Pretty Lights – All of the Lights (All of the Lights Remix)
Kanye/Jay-Z – I Can’t Stop (Who Gon’ Stop Me)
Cris Cab – Black and Yellow (Black and Yellow)
The Polish Ambassador – Perth (Perth Remix)

and the winner is…

Derek Smith, also known as the mastermind behind Pretty Lights. This remix went hard when I saw him perform it for the first time last year, and each time I hear it I get taken back to that night. Most importantly, he strips the unimportant (Fergie) and retains all the important aspects that make the song what it is.

Best TV Show of 2011

Homeland
Breaking Bad
Angry Boys
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Parks & Recreation

and the winner is…


To sum up Season 4 of Breaking Bad in one word: Perfect. Especially that finale. You can’t not love every single character in this series.

and last, but certainly not least…

Top Producer of 2011

Clams Casino
Seven
The Awesome Sound
Lex Luger
Xaphoon Jones

and the winner is…


Maaaaaan, this one was tough. I wish all of you could get this award, but I gotta hand it to Seven. He had a big one this year, making production credit debuts with chart topping rappers including Weezy and Tech N9ne. We all know by now that he used to be pretty exclusive just working with XV but it’s good to see him branching out and taking his talents to other artists. Clams Casino is a close second, but he has plenty of time to hone his skills for a potential candidate of the 2012 RAJYs.

So this wraps up the first annual RAJYS. Congrats to all of the nominees and winners – I don’t have your trophies yet but will consider that possibility for the next one. Thoughts? Do you disagree with some of the nominations and/or picks? Lets hear them! It won’t matter since they are all set in stone. As aforementioned, I wanted to do something outside the norm of just picking and choosing albums for a list. I know there are many projects/producers/artists that weren’t named that could’ve easily made any of the categories, but the ones chosen stood out to me the most. Hope you enjoyed it, and MJF will see you next year (assuming we are all still here) for the 2nd annual RAJYS!