Best of 2018: The Songs We Couldn’t Stop Playing

Best of 2018: The Songs We Couldn’t Stop Playing Another year, another year end playlist…

We’ve already given our ‘State of R&B’ verdict in our piece on 2018’s best albums, so we’ll quickly get to what you’re here for.

All 50 songs on our playlist gave us fuego to rock to all year, but here’s some call outs to wet your appetite: Childish Gambino blew the whole damn world away with his powerfully nuanced take on US racial politics and is a no-brainer feature on any year end list.

Mahalia had an outstanding year coming off the success of her 2017 COLORS show, releasing a number of stand-out singles including I Wish I Missed My Ex, the ultimate song of the summer.

One Night Only, her collaboration with Kojey Radical, who similarly saw a 2018 breakout, also made the list.

EMPRESS, the long-awaited follow-up project from Ray BLK, also gifted us Mama, a standout banger reminiscent of a gospel-influenced Tupac remake.

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So we’ve all had that moment listening to that new track on the radio (or, more likely these days on Spotify / Apple Music). That moment when some lyric hits us and we’re like ‘eeeeerrr’ à la Nene Leakes above. Or we’re listening to that song with some really, erm, ‘colourful’ lyrics and our parents are present to hear the offending line…

Somewhere in social media parlance such moments have been termed ‘No chill’. When someone does or says something that crosses some line of appropriateness, often with hilarious consequences for others (ergo, Amber Rose’s clapback at Kanye dragging her kid into his beef with Wiz Khalifa – google is your friend if you were living in a cave and missed all this), that person is said to have ‘no chill’.

That’s the theme of this week’s Mood playlist. All these songs have moments when things have, arguably been taken too far. But we love them anyway. Don’t lie, you really do. I mean, Omarion’s ‘Post to be’ featuring Jhene Aiko and Chris Brown, was the song of last summer so clearly we we’re all bumping to eating groceries. Some even say that line was the reason it was such a hit. Either way, it’s a jam.

‘No chill’ may also simply be a moment of brutal honesty. Kehlani and Bryson Tiller’s offerings on this playlist are apt here.

But enough talk. Time to get to the music. See if you can spot the ‘no chill’ moments in these songs, but more importantly, rock out to the music.