Okay okay. The Best & Worst lists are coming, slowly but surely. We’ll try to deliver one of these per weekday over the next few weeks. In between juggling my duties for Medium.Com/Cuepoint, regular HipHopSite.Com updates, and DJing, it’s been hard to find the time to do these. So let’s begin with 2014′s best major label album releases. Indie label releases up next…

10. YG – My Krazy Life – Def Jam – Initially we didn’t love YG’s Interscope debut, but as time went on it slowly grew on us. Fully produced by DJ Mustard, the album captured and subsequently resurrected the sound of the west coast, harking back to early classics from Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and the Death Row era. We’ve heard the word “classic” thrown around when discussing this album, and while we have come around from our initial opinions on it, we still believe that it more borrows from the classics rather than lives as one. Still a solid out the gate debut from the young Blood.

9. Common – Nobody’s Smiling – ARTrium / Def Jam – Truth be told, Com’s Chicago-centric Nobody’s Smiling LP was better in theory than in execution. Despite No I.D.’s sometimes too experimental production, in terms of poignancy, what he was saying about the city’s gang violence epidemic far outweighs the topics of pretty much anyone else on this list. For that alone, it deserves inclusion. Lyrically on point.

8. Rick Ross – Mastermind – MMG / Def Jam – Due to his bloated, excessive persona, Rick Ross is the rapper we love to hate, however damn if he doesn’t pick good beats. At least he did on Mastermind, while Hood Billionaire was made up of more dumbed down, baller anthems. Mastermind found the then still heavy-set Ross channeling his inner Barry White with soulful samples and lush grooves, as he describes his over-the-top lavish lifestyle. We ain’t mad at it.

7. DJ Mustard – 10 Summers – Google Play – We’re going to go out on a limb and put Google in the “major label” category, considering they probably have more money than Def Jam. Mustard’s 10 Summers was the hottest producer of the year’s answer to Dr. Dre’s 2001, even paying homage to it in the opening sketch. He accomplished what YG’s My Krazy Life couldn’t – variation – by simply extending the guest list. The all-star cast of all the biggest names in hood hits rounded out 10 Summers nicely, creating an album of anthems suited for radio and the club.

6. Childish Gambino – STN MTN / Kauai – Glassnote / Universal – While Gambino’s Because The Internet topped a lot of the industry’s 2014 year end lists, it actually was included on our 2013 year end list. We had since moved on to his brilliantly crafted STN MTN / Kauai project, which is marketed as a mixtape and an EP, but really was an album in two parts. Gambino trolling in true fashion once again.

5. Eminem – Shady XV – Shady Records / Interscope – Face it, Eminem’s scraps and leftovers are better than most people’s albums. Who knows how much of Shady XV was meant for The Marshall Mathers LP 2, but this indirect sequel featured even more mind-blowing rhymes from the original rap genius, while showing off the talents of his Shady 2.0 roster. Lyrical miracles are back, bitches.

4. The Roots – …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin – Def Jam – …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin is a highly pretentious concept album. However, it’s also good. And it is very digestible, clocking in at just over 30 minutes, marking The Roots shortest LP to date. So it doesn’t require large amounts of patience. Like any solid album, it gets better with each consecutive listen, and its theme becomes apparent the more times you hear it. Bravo.

3. Schoolboy Q – Oxymoron – TDE/Interscope – Following Kendrick’s good kid, m.a.a.d. city, Oxymoron is largely an album that seems untampered with by pesky A&R’s. Amidst Q’s cinematic tales of gangbanging and drug problems, he also impresses with his delivery, lyrical styles, and dark, subterranian production. Oxymoron is a triumph of a rap album, because it signifies a return of “underground” rap to the major label scene.

2. J. Cole – 2014 Forest Hills Drive – Dreamville / Columbia – The best-selling rap album of the year (650,000+) is from a semi-conscious rapper who rhymes over his own self-produced beats built around funk and soul samples and drum loops. Sorry Iggy, sorry Nicki. A change gon’ come.

1. Big K.R.I.T. – Cadillactica - K.R.I.T.’s second LP for Def Jam may be one of the lowest selling albums on this list, but it’s also quite easily the strongest. It’s probably hard to market a Southern artist that raps about important topics, produces his own beats, and makes albums that sound like they belong in the Outkast catalog. Maybe that will change next year.

Gambino performs “Sober” and “3005″ on Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel.

From the Kauai EP available now.

THC grabs Childish Gambino and Kent Jamz for “Perfect.”

Produced by Patrick Paige II of The Internet.

Available on Selah Sue’s new EP, available now.

Childish Gambino helps out Lion Babe on “Jump Hi.”

Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino is very much a product of “Internet rap,” or as the title of his last album would tell you, he exists as an emcee Because The Internet. With the release of that project, he embraced online culture completely, releasing an interactive screenplay / short film built around the album. The album was a series of experimental tracks that showcased his talents as both an emcee and a singer.

To everyone’s surprise, he saw two of that album’s tracks blow up, “3005″ and “Telegraph Ave,” hitting mainstream radio without the need to hire hot producers, guest artists, or follow standard go-to formulas. This all came after an announcement last year that he was leaving his cush NBC gig as a star on Community to pursue rap full time. This is a bit like putting the cart before the horse, as most rappers want to leave the game to act. But he did it, and it worked.

At surface value, his new mixtape / EP combination project may seem like a bit of a departure from the material on his last album, as he bills the STN MTN (pronounced “Stone Mountain”) portion as a Gangsta Grillz mixtape, even having it hosted by DJ Drama. And it might seem like that at first, but what this really is, is conceptual album masquerading as a mixtape, and more aptly, a love letter to his hometown of Atlanta. This is all revealed in the album’s opening and unfolds as the project progresses.

Set up as a “Dream” which finds him as the hottest rapper from the ATL, Gambino spits over a series of dirty south hits, such as Ludacris’ “Southern Hospitality” and Future’s “Move That Dope,” as well as forgotten local cuts like “Partna Dem” and “Nectel Chirp.” He gives making authentic Atlanta rap a serious try, with songs like the Ca$h Out influenced “Money Baby,” “AssShots (Remix),” and “All Yall.” The difference is, he’s delivering intricately penned lyrical bars, yet over beats that sound like they should have some kind of disposable dance attached to them.

It’s clear he’s half-joking about the whole mixtape concept on the “Childish Gambino @ The Atrium” sketch (we won’t spoil it here), but also serious about this dedication to his hometown with his cover of Usher’s “U Don’t Have to Call.”

Ultimately it’s an experiment that finds him trying something new and seeing what the reaction is. It’s brilliantly played, because if it’s panned, he can simply say he was “Trolling, trolling, trolling these n***as,” as he said on Because The Internet‘s “Life…The Biggest Troll.” But if it works-like how “3005″ happened to naturally catch fire-he can continue down this path. And its likely he will.

And make no mistake, this is all part of Gambino’s campaign to become King of The Internet (Rappers), which he is succeeding in. The delivery of this mixtape and accompanying EP plays into that, especially with the album’s secret track, an acapella of a “3005″ remix buried in the deep web, which was discovered by Reddit users. Syncing up this acapella to the instrumental beat of the Kuaui EP’s “V. 3005 (Beach Picnic Version)” rewards fans with a fully realized remix of his hit record.

The antics don’t stop there either, on “Pop Thieves,” a catchy 80′s R&B tune, he toys with the listener with the following lyric: “Now that we have found this love, baby / These haters can’t say shit / I know sometimes it’s hard when I’m so far / I know you miss this di love.” This purposely, poorly edit of the word “dick” is him again trolling the audience, and it’s pretty hilarious.

He spends much of the EP showing off his vocal chops, and while Drake comparisons will be inevitable, he’s actually much closer to Pharrell. This comes off in the production and in his vocal style, as heard on “Retro [ROUGH]” and “The Palisades.” The case is made even on the STN MTN half, as two of the songs he covered are Neptunes produced (“Southern Hospitality”, “U Don’t Have to Call”).

Upon first listen, STN MTN seems like a sloppy mess of freestyles and unfinished tracks, while Kauai comes off like a brief EP with too much singing and too many skits. But when put together, something magic happens and a whole album is born. Childish Gambino has captivated his audience with a unique blend of song-writing, vocal talent, and practical jokes; maybe leaving NBC for rap wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

NYC duo Lion Babe gets guest rhymes from Donald Glover. Nina Simone on the sample.

Gambino’s hit from Because The Internet… gets video.

Watch the all new gameplay trailer from Far Cry 4 game, featuring the track ‘Crawl’ and created in collaboration with Childish Gambino. Childish Gambino, is the alter ego of rapper, actor, writer, comedian and producer Donald Glover.

Here is the secret track to complete your Childish Gambino STN MTN and Kauai collection.

Childish Gambino promised a new mixtape was coming, and here it is. He also promises a new project for iTunes called Kauai coming soon.

1. Dream_Southern Hospitality_Partna Dem
2. Fucks Given (prod. Nick Banga)
3. No Small Talk (feat. Kari Faux, prod. Black Party + Kari Faux)
4. Money Baby
5. Move That Dope_Nectel Chirp_Let Your Hair Blow (feat. Young Scooter; prod. Zaytoven)
6. AssShots Remix (feat. R O Y A L T Y; prod. Big Soj)
7. Childish Gambinio @ The Atrium
8. U Don’t Have To Call (prod. Ludwig)
9. Cander Road (1st half prod. Tim Suby_2nd half prod. Childish Gambino)
10. All Yall
11. Go DJ

Words from the Gambino: “It’s a Gangsta Grillz mixtape that goes into an EP. The Gangsta Grillz mixtape is a dream, and the dream ends when I wake up in Kauai. And they go into each other; it’s one complete project. You can download the mixtape and you can go buy the EP. The money from the EP goes to help keeping Kauai clean.”

S-X: “I was going to drop this song over a year ago but things stalled so I leaked it. It was supposed to be my first single but whatever, it still can be.”

From Childish Gambino’s upcoming STN MTN/Kauai project, starring Jaden Smith as “The Boy.”