In years past Spotify wrapped is a very anticipated and talked about event and this year was no different. With a record number of people sharing their wraps this year and talking about it in 2023, I wanted to join in on the fun and talk about my own. With most of my pieces in 2023 transitioning from sports to more music and album review based content I figured you, the reader, should know what I listen to in my free time. Music is a huge thing for me as I listen to music all the time, whether I am awake or sleeping I usually have music playing in the background. I listened to 168,528 minutes of music on just Spotify this year which is a little under a third of the time in a year. A lot of my personality is also based on the music I listen to as well, as my closet is filled with graphic t-shirts of my favorite artists, songs and albums. I will talk about my top 5 artists and some of the reasons they ended up being on that list.
#1- Blondie
From mid-July of 2022 to around February of 2023 I listened to almost exclusively Blondie, with my peak listening month of 2023 being January. I fell in love with Blondie after I heard their 1980 song “Rapture”, and it became one of my favorite songs instantly. I then talked to my mom about my new favorite song and asked her if she knew who Blondie was, she said yes and told me to listen to “Heart Of Glass” and I loved that song as well. I would drive around for hours as I had just gotten my license, and just bump Heart Of glass or Rapture on repeat with the windows down, at this point I knew I had to dive deeper into their music. I went through and listened to their albums starting with Eat To The Beat, which an online article told me was their best album. I listened to it and liked almost every song immediately. I then went through their discography and liked 3 albums from them even more than Eat To The Beat with Autoamerican being my favorite with Parallel Lines and Plastic letters following behind. Next thing I knew I was putting their catalog on shuffle play for months on end. Initially I was drawn towards Debbie Harry, the lead singer of Blondie, because of the aura that surrounds her. The level of cool and the way she sounds on her tracks just makes it seem like you’re listening to something greater than other rock singers. It’s kind of hard to explain why I was drawn toward her so much, but I definitely was and still am. What kept me coming back and sticking around though, was the rest of the band members. Drummer, Clem Burke is one of the greatest drummers of all time in my opinion, Bassist, Nigel Harrison is also incredible and is one of the main reasons I loved “Rapture” so much when I heard it the first time, coming through with one if the best basslines of all time on that song. The rest of the band is great as well, all having incredible chemistry throughout their first 5 albums that lead to them being my number 1 artist, with 30,426 minutes listened this year, which I feel like has to be number 1 in the world, but I will take top 0.001% of listeners. Also, 4 out of my top 5 songs of the year were from Blondie with “Kung-Fu Girls” at 1, “11:59” at 2, “Here’s Looking At You” at 3, and “Love At The Pier” at 4. This surprised me, as there were a lot of songs that come to mind of me I had on repeat this summer, but I guess I just forgot how much I actually listened to Blondie at the beginning of 2023.
#2- MF DOOM
I first discovered MF DOOM during the beginning of my sophomore year in high school when I heard his song “Hoe Cakes” off of my now favorite album of all time, “MM..FOOD.” Initially I just thought the “Super!” adlib that would come in after he would finish a bar was cool, but after actually listening to the song I realized it was very good. I had been aware that DOOM had passed, and that many people regarded him as one of the greatest rappers of all time, so I figured I should listen to more of his stuff. That led me to listen to some of his most popular songs at the time like “All Caps,” “Meat Grinder,” “One Beer,” and a couple others. I was drawn in by DOOM’s always incredible beats and rapping performances, the aura around DOOM was also very encapsulating to me. The fact that I didn’t know what the guy looked like, didn’t know the backstory around his character of his brother dying, the music industry throwing him to the side while he lived homeless and without a clear path, Creating the super villain back for revenge character based off of the marvel supervillain Dr. Doom. I ended up becoming a huge fan after listening to his catalog, introducing him to a number of my friends who now also have their own love for him and crown him as one of their favorite rappers of all time. I knew that DOOM was one of my favorite artists ever when I ordered a CD of MM.. FOOD and would listen to it in my mom’s car while she taught me how to drive. Also, Christmas of that year brings back memories of helping my mom wrap presents and cook with my headphones on, listening to MF DOOM. His music gave me a unique feeling when listening that I had never experienced with music, and only have with Blondie since. I could go on about memories I have shared with his music forever, but I’ll just keep it at some of my favorites. I have No Doubt that DOOM will be one of my top 5 artists for many years to come. I crown DOOM as my second favorite artist of all time, and it tracks here. After taking a bit of a break from his music in 2022 he was my number 1 artist for the second half of 2023.
#3- Kendrick Lamar
I have been a Kendrick Lamar fan since I was very young, the first artist t-shirt I had ever owned was a kung fu Kenny shirt back in 2017, which was about the time I discovered Spotify and started listening to more rap, opposed to the pop on the radio I was listening to before. I started listening to rap around the time DAMN was released and I loved songs like DNA, LOVE and HUMBLE and other popular songs off of that album, and Kendrick has been in my rotation ever since. I had a lot of songs in my playlist from his 2022 album Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers which bled over to the beginning of this year, and I also went through some of his classic albums and discovered songs I hadn’t really given much thought to before like “Real” off of Good Kid M.A.A.D. City, and “For Real” off of To Pimp A Butterfly. Kendrick is an artist that seems to always be one of my top artists and I don’t realize how much I really listen to him as he was my number 3 artist last year too.
#4- No Doubt
I was introduced to No Doubt this year sometime around the summer, as I heard my friend singing the song “Spiderwebs” and I recognized the song immediately from the NBA 2k15 soundtrack. I asked him for the song name, and it was my favorite song of the year it being my 5th song in my top 5 with only a half year of listening potential. I listened to the rest of the album Tragic Kingdom that Spiderwebs is on, and it is now one of my favorite albums of all time. Some other songs I really loved from No Doubt this year were “Just A Girl,” “Sunday Morning,” “Sixteen” and “Excuse Me Mr.” off of the Tragic Kingdom album. I also loved “Oi To The World,” “Its My Life,” and “Underneath It All.” This also inspired me to listen to some of Gwen Stefani’s solo songs and they were pretty good.
#5- Lil Uzi Vert
This spot surprised me a bit when I first saw it, as I haven’t been listening to Uzi recently as much as I used to. But when I think about it, he has a lot of songs in my playlist. Songs from his old albums like, “Ps and Qs,” and “The Way Life Goes” are some of my favorite songs of all time and his old albums are all consistently good. Uzi used to be one of my favorite artists back in middle school and early high school and I have a tapestry of LUV vs. The World 2 in my room. However, after his release of “Eternal Atake” in 2020 which I loved by the way, he has been pretty underwhelming. None of his singles have really hit and Pink Tape wasn’t a great album in my opinion. I am holding out hope that his next album will be more of an authentic Uzi project, but I also understand that his best days are probably behind him. With all of that being said he will always have a spot in my rotation and his music brings back good memories, which is why he was my 5th artist this year.
I am excited to see how my Spotify wrapped will pan out for 2024, I am curious to see if Blondie will hold that number one spot again, if No Doubt has a higher spot in 2024 or if an artist I don’t listen to currently, will make its way into my top 5 next year, but for now it is still early. As always email me album suggestions you would like to see me review at [email protected].
