"Like we always do at this time!" *Kanye voice*

If you're reading this, you're right on fuckin time! Also, if you're reading this, you have managed to survive another year with your boy (Thank you, Korean Jesus) and like I usually do at the beginning of each year, here's my recap of 2015, regarding music and social media. I will honestly say that this year's lists were more thought out as I've spent the last several weeks literally listening to every rap and R&B album that I happened to miss throughout the year, and I didn't miss much (1 time for Apple Music, which in my opinion may have been the greatest thing since Napster). If there was something I missed, then those motherfuckers need to work on their distribution cuz I fine tooth combed everything rap and R&B, so with that said, I'm proud to say that this is the most accurate, thought out "Tubby Blog Awards" out of all of them. Unlike last year, where R&B seemed to be the more dominate genre, rap music came out strong and in my opinion, was the better genre, with several great albums, especially in an era where the full length album is becoming more & more obsolete. Here are my picks for the best and worst in music and like I normally do, I even add some social media commentary as well, cuz let's face it, some of you are just begging for the attention… Ha!

Disclaimer: My picks are based strictly off my taste, and have nothing to do with social popularity and/or soundscan numbers. This is nothing more than the opinion of one man. One man who happens to know and care more about this music shit than most. One man, who sees everything that's going on with music and social media. One man, who has been around, lurking on social media since the Friendster days… And one man, who doesn't give a flying fuck about anyone else's opinion but his own, ha. So agree, disagree, whatever, but these are my picks and the reasons why. Happy new year, kids. Let's get to it!

Top rap albums:
1. At Long Last ASAP - ASAP Rocky
2. All Love Lost - Joe Budden
3. The Incredible True Story - Logic
4. Documentary 2 - The Game
5. Darkest Before Dawn - Pusha T
6. When It's Dark Out - G Eazy
7. Shadow Of A Doubt - Freddie Gibbs
8. The Album About Nothing - Wale
9. Up For Days - Belly
10. Black Market - Rick Ross

The #1 & 2 slots were tough for me, as I went back and forth with who would be numero uno. Rocky put out a solid ass album that came out at the beginning of the year, and Joe (who has been one of my favorite rappers/entertainers for a long time) put out the best (and maybe final?) album of his career with an emotionally driven LP that I listen to from front to back, regularly. Overall, Lord Pretty Flacko Jodye came out on top due to the fact that his album was almost double in length and still solid all the way through (which usually in my opinion, the longer the album, the more potential for "filler records") and for being out for almost the entire year, never lost it's value as I continue to listen to the album now.

R&B/Vocal album of 2015
1. Beauty Behind The Madness - Weeknd
2. Badlands - Halsey
3. Purpose - Justin Beiber
4. Fetty Wap - Fetty Wap
5. Royalty - Chris Brown

Haha, y'all knew gotdamn well, Abel was gonna take that shit, right? Ha. If you listen to R&B, then there's really no need to explain this one.

Favorite Rap Records (In No Particular Order)
1. Lord Pretty Flacko Jodye 2 - ASAP Rocky
2. The Ride - Wale feat. Jeremih
3. Slaughtermouse - Joe Budden
4. Narcos - Freddie Gibbs
5. Might Not - Belly feat. Weeknd
6. Back 2 Back - Drake
7. King Kunta - Kendrick Lamar
8. Best Friend - Yelawolf feat. Eminem
9. March Madness - Future
10. Pullin Up - Meek Mill feat. The Weeknd
11. MFTR - Pusha T
12. Play No Games - Big Sean feat. Chris Brown & Ty Dolla Sign
13. Blacker The Berry - Kendrick Lamar
14. M's - ASAP Rocky feat. Lil Wayne
15. Sorry - Rick Ross feat. Chris Brown
16. Drifting - G-Eazy feat. Chris Brown
17. Retribution - Pusha T feat. Kehlani
18. Know Yourself - Drake
19. God (Remix) - Jeezy feat. Nas
20. Birdman Hand Rubs - Wati Heru

Favorite R&B/Vocal records
Acquainted - The Weeknd
Hotline Bling - Drake
Hold You Down - DJ Khaled feat. Chris Brown, August Alsina & Jeremih
As You Are - The Weeknd
Love Yourself - Justin Beiber
In2 - WSTRN
LSD - ASAP Rocky
Here - Alessia Cara
Hello - Adele
Catfish - Tamar Braxton

Favorite Instrumentals
Rearview - Freddie Gibbs (Produced by Blair North)
Lord Pretty Flacko Jodye 2 - ASAP Rocky (Produced by Nez & Rio)
Back To Back - Drake (Produced by Daxz & 40)
Electric Body - ASAP Rocky feat. Schoolboy Q (Produced by Hector Delgado & Danger Mouse)
Slaughtermouse - Joe Budden (Produced by Araab Muzik)
March Madness - Future (Produced by 808 Mafia)
The Blacker The Berry - Kendrick Lamar (Produced by Boi 1da & Kaz)
Retribution - Pusha T feat. Kehlani (Produced by Timbaland)
LSD - ASAP Rocky (Produced by Finatik N Zac, Hector Delgado and Jim Jonsin)
King Kunta - Kendrick Lamar (Produced by Sounwave & Terrace Martin)

Overall Albums of the Year
Beauty Behind The Madness - The Weeknd
At Long Last ASAP - ASAP Rocky
All Love Lost - Joe Budden
Purpose - Justin Beiber
The Incredible True Story - Logic
Badlands - Halsey
When It's Dark Out - G Eazy
Documentary 2 - The Game
Darkest Before Dawn - Pusha T
Shadow Of A Doubt - Freddie Gibbs

My overall favorite artist brought his A-Game this year, with "Beauty Behind The Madness", a flawless (not 1 bad record on that entire bitch) album that was leaps and bounds better than his previous album, which was still a great LP ("Kissland") that received some constructive criticism. The 3rd most beloved wigger in the game (1 time for Mathers & Timberlake) dropped a very impressive album with "Purpose" and Weeknd's homegirl, R&B new jack, Halsey surprised everyone with a great album called "Badlands". Shit, even that whiteboy from the Bay, Gerald, surprised us all (and probably even himself) with "When It's Dark Out" a great ass album that even I was excited about, and I'm not really a G Eazy fan. As you can see though, rap music was the dominate genre with this particular list.

Favorite Rappers in 2015
Joe Budden
Action Bronson
ASAP Rocky
Pusha T
The Game

Budden made his way to the top of this year's rappers list, off the strength of his great album, the final chapter to his "Love" trilogy, "All Love Lost", along with his very entertaining podcast, "I'll Name This Podcast Later" and his appearance on VH1's "Couples Therapy" which I surprisingly, found pretty entertaining. Budden is an acquired taste, for sure, but as a 30-somethings rapper who prefers making music about his dealings with women, relationships, the struggles of life in general, and being an outcast in the culture, over lying about thuggin, ballin and living lavishly in his music, Budden is my go to guy this year. Bronson was a very close 2nd, with his delightful show on Munchies "Fuck, That's Delicious" along with his album "Mr.Wonderful" and the hilariously entertaining videos that accompanied it. I'm excited to see what Bam Bam brings in 2016.

Best Album/Single artwork
To Pimp A Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar
Fetty Wap - Fetty Wap
Love Story - Yelawolf
All Love Lost - Joe Budden
Wildheart - Miguel

Favorite Visuals (video)
Actin Crazy - Action Bronson
Easy Rider - Action Bronson
Hotline Bling - Drake
Alright - Kendrick Lamar
In2 Remix - WSTRN feat. Various Artists

2015's Most Disappointing
What A Time To Be Alive - Future/Drake
If You're Reading This It's Too Late - Drake
Compton - Dr.Dre

Note: I'm not saying these albums sucked (well, the Future/Drake album sucked. There's no other way to say it. I blame Future & Metro Boomin for that, though. "30 for 30" was the only record I enjoyed and that sounded like a bonus track, that was taken off a Drake album, am I right?) but they didn't live up to my expectations. I felt like Drake's wannabe mix tape (shit's not a fucking mix tape by the way. If it has a barcode on it, and it's all original music, and it's a full length, fucking LP… It's not a mix tape, breh.) had way too many filler tracks and as good as "Compton" is (the production is incredible), I think we all wanted 2001 Dr.Dre. Sorry guys.

Tubby's Annual Death Wish List
Tyga
Tyga
Stitches
Martin Shkreli
Tyga

Top Podcasts
Brilliant Idiots - Charlamagne Tha God & Andrew Shultz
Joe Rogan Podcast - Joe Rogan
I'll Name This Podcast Later - Joe Budden, Marissa Mendez & Rory
The Fighter & The Kid - Brenden Schaub & Bryan Callen
Rap Radar Podcast - Elliot Wilson and B.Dot Miller

Biggest L's of 2015
Suge Knight
Meek Mill
Tyga
Stitches
Lil Wayne

Haha, I don't even need to speak on these guys. Twitter did enough of that for me, this year. Hahahahaha!

Hottest Chicks on Social Media (Local)
Note: these individuals were placed on this list because they caught my attention, either from their pure beauty, the wittiness of their material and/or because of their ambition and drive. I'll let you determine and decipher which one applied to which, ha!

@RavenMcAfee
@julz9oh7
@BrookeBurnett93
@CatastropheKait
@Erin_Wolverton
@Killllaa_
@AliceSojuKitten
@Anastauciakmcd (IG)
@lilbrowneskimo
@letuligasenoa
@delaneydmac (IG)

Favorite People To Follow On Social Media
These individuals were placed here cuz they kept me entertained. Plain & simple. I was either laughing with them, or laughing at them. Either way, they did what they were supposed to do, and for that, I salute them.
@AKBrizzle
@SamsonDarrah
@KeezyFLYdiv
@HeyyDarius
@AK_BMoney
@Dougiefresco_
@howyurderighn
@BrookeBurnett93
Michael Cofey (Starbuks) (FB)
@SnarleyBrown (IG)

Tubby's Annual Guilty Pleasure Award
It felt so wrong, but it feels so good, haha!
1. Fetty Wap
2. Unlock Da Swag - Rae Sremmurd
3. Cheerleader - Omi
4. March Madness - Future
5. Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae) - Silento

I mean c'mon… How could you NOT like Fetty, aka 2015 Nelly. And yes, I sing and dance to the Nae Nae song with my daughter. No shame… Okay, maybe a lil shame.

Top Local Rappers in 2015
1. Darius
2. Keezy
3. Muldoon Manny
4. Tak Havoc
5. Snarley Brown
6. Ben Swann
7. Starbuks
8. Fleetwood Malone
9. Bishop Slice
10. Money Mann

Okay… So before some of you rappers get all riled up, I'ma tell you how this list was calculated. It's quite simple. Quality of work + quantity of work + social relevance + drive/ambition. These are artists who put out material in 2015, stayed consistent with their product/brand and stayed on my radar though out the year. This is not my "Favorite Local Rappers" list cuz if it was, a few of these gentlemen would not be on that list. This is top rappers of the year. Argue amongst yourselves, rappers.

Tubby's Favorite Local Rap Songs in 2015 (That were not released via 907hiphop/Blade Gang)
 1. Dirty Bird - Madd Angler feat. Darius (Produced by Johnny Kohler)
 2. Top Floor - The Sky Division
 3. Back On (Eastside) - Darius
 4. Private Caller - The Sky Division
5. Bitch, I'm From Fairbanks - Bishop Slice feat. Starbuks

2015's Hottest Chicks In The Game
1. Tinashe
2. Ayesha Curry
3. Amber Rose
4. Halsey
5. FKA Twigs

2015's Worst Songs List
Classic Man - Jidenna
Wanna Know (Drake Diss) - Meek Mill
Jumpman - Drake/Future
Sausage - Lil Mama
Anything by Young Thug

Tubby's Favorite MMA Fighters in 2015
Joanna Jedrzejczyk
Conor McGregor
Ronda Rousey
Luke Rockhold
Robbie Lawler

Aaaaaand there you fuckin have it, kids. These are my lists for this year. I put a lot of time into em'. I hope you enjoyed them, I hope they made you happy/angry/depressed and I hope you spend the next 3-6 months analyzing this and using it to motivate you to be even greater/more ignorant and entertaining as we roll into this new year. Hopefully the music/iTunes Gods bless us with wonderful music in all genres (I think next year, I may add more genres to the list. We'll see) and hopefully we all live long enough to meet here, this time next year. Special shout out to Raven, aka "Lil Mama 3-peat" aka my Mexican Ronda Rousey (Holly Holm's coming sooner or later, mamacita, ha!), to AKBrizzle for keeping me laughing (that #TubbysManCaveProject episode is up next, bruh bruh!) and to Darius Dossman, who in my opinion was the hardest working rapper/producer in Alaska this year. Finally, like I normally do at the end of these things… here's a new record from us over here at Blade Gang. "The Deal" by Starbuks, Fleetwood Malone and Kenfolk, produced by Keezy of The Sky Division. Enjoy, and good night!

- Scarface.

Invites Only

Homeward Bound

Unfortunately, as those of you who went, realized, I was unavailable to perform at last night's Waka Flaka show in Fairbanks. I really wanted to. I've been VERY eager to perform back in my beloved hometown for awhile now, as it's been light years, since I've done so, but I bring good news...

I'm coming home.

I want to share more details regarding this very special event, but it's still 8 weeks away and I'm still fine tuning the show (local artists, expect my call in the days to come.) but I promise you, this will be an amazing night that you will not want to miss. I'm pulling out all the tricks in my sleeve, for this one. There will be many pleasant surprises and if you have ever been to a Tubby/Hellrazor show/party, you already know, this is going to be legendary. I'll tell you more in the weeks to come. Spread the word, and save the date. Trust me... You will want to be at this.

Talk to you, soon.
- Scarface

Full Circle

On a cold winter night in 1998, myself, along with my cousin Larry and my childhood friend Roger (aka Jolly Roger. Yeah, the dude who makes those hats) went to Drama City, a local hood spot on the southside of Fairbanks that would later be known as Sunset Strip, to break dance to our favorite rap songs spun by local hip hop pioneer DJ, Don King Trixx as we did every weekend. I was too young to be in there at the time, but a young Tubby was quite the pop and lock dancer so they would let me in to bust my moves, and on this night, the DJ announced that local rap crew/label 50 Belo were in the house and that they were going to spit some raps over instrumentals. I had never seen local rappers before & even though I would toy around with the rhymes in the privacy of my home and at school with friends, I never thought of it as anything more than that. 

 50 Belo came out, a bunch of thug looking black dudes (this is coming from the perspective of a young white/asian kid at 16/17, mind you) along with a skinny ginger (the first white rapper I had seen since Vanilla Ice. This was pre-Marshall Mathers) and I was immediately fascinated. Then the beat came on, and it was Luniz "I Got 5 On It" which thinking back, I may have never heard before at the time, and I instantly fell in love with the instrumental. 50 Belo all took turns rapping over the beat, but it was the ginger, a young white boy who went by Redd, that stole the show and ultimately inspired me and gave me the realization, that this was something anyone can do, and that you didn't have to be black to do this rap shit, and from that day forward, I slowly stopped dancing, and started putting my energy into what came easier for me... poetry over beats. My life changed forever that cold winter night. 

I've mentioned in the past, that before this was all said & done, I would do something with that instrumental that impacted my life in such a dramatic way. I initially had plans of rapping over the original instrumental but then I decided, to do something different, cuz let's be honest, rap nowadays is a bunch of copy cat muthafuckas doing the same cookie cutter shit and I wanted to leave my own stamp of originality to something so special and dear to my heart. I had my producer and musical collaborator, Raw Beatzz remake the instrumental, adding his own touch to the classic, and with the help of my crew, Starbuks & Fleetwood Malone, we took a classic, well known rap record, and made it our own... cuz THAT is what hip hop was originally about. Taking something old, and making it fresh, and making it OURS. That, ladies and gentlemen, is hip hop. I hope you enjoy it. 

 Find the inspiration in your life, and use that inspiration to find you.

Click the artwork to listen to "Half On A Sack" feat. Starbuks & Fleetwood Malone, produced & mixed by Raw Beatzz

I could really eat 10 whole chickens, right now.

Freddie Gibbs "Shadow Of A Doubt" Review

I was bored, listening to the new album by one of my favorite trap rappuhs, Freddie "Gangsta Gibbs, hoe!" and I figured, fuck it, I haven't wrote up an album review in awhile... So, here you go. Enjoy.

"Review"
Dope first track to start off Freddie's 3rd album. The dark production definitely fits the artwork & overall feel of the LP.

"Narcos"
"Dope game hard, rap game, rap game, easier than a muthafucka." - this one's definitely a highlight track. Gibbs is one of the few rappers out there, who actually sounds authentic, and if you know anything about Fred, you know he's definitely not for the fake shit.

"Careless"
Freddie G switches up his flow for this more "lady friendly" joint (much smoother melody than his usual work, but it works.) Gibbs double time flow is better than most. If you listen carefully, you can almost hear a lil Z-Ro in there, which is perfectly fine with me.

"Fuckin Up The Count"
"Teacher told me to go get a job, I told her, where the scale at?" Gibbs spittin the dope boy shit, that I love him for, and as usual, it goes down smoothly. Love the calm production on this one (I didn't read the production credits cuz I didn't want it swaying my opinion during the review).

"Extradite" (feat. Black Thought)
True rap fans know it's always a treat when Black Thought blesses a track with a feature, and once again, Black brings primo bars over a Bob James "Nautilus" sample which is 1000 flame emojis!

"McDuck" (feat. Dana Williams)
6 songs in and the album is solid, thus far… This one features beautiful vocals from Dana Williams, whose voice sounds like vintage Erykah.  The outro with Snoop is a nice added touch as well.

"Mexico" (Feat. Tory Lanez)
This one features Toronto rapper/singer Tory Lanez & though Freddie's cartel flow doesn't disappoint, I'm not a super fan of Tory's hook. Decent track, nonetheless.

"Packages" (Feat. ManMan Savage)
Not really feelin this one… I blame the Migos. Ha!

"10 Times" (Feat. Gucci Mane & E-40)
Initially, I didn't think I was gonna like this one, just based off the features, but I'm feelin it. Gucci surprisingly didn't make me wanna throw up. Dope production on this one. Very bay area. 40 Water was perfect for this one.

"Lately"
"Freddie Kane, Freddie Corleone… Tony Montana, dopeman shit." - Yassss. This one just may be my favorite track, so far. Hard verses, smooth hook. I'm happy :)

"Basketball Wives"
Another one for zee bishes. Gibbs with the auto tune kinda sounds like my boy, Raw Beatzz, haha. Gibbs lightens it up on this one, and I ain't mad at him.

"Forever & A Day"
Okay… This one's my favorite. Haha!

"Insecurities"
Gibbs shows maturity, while keeping it gangsta as usual. "I was ready for whatever, man… I remember I was selling things… I let it go… I let it go…"

"Freddie Gordy"
Excellent production on this one. "I hope my daughter never lives this type of lifestyle…" Freddie gets deep on this one, talking about not only the strife that comes with dealing drugs, but the shame of his own battles with addiction. Definitely one of the album highlight tracks, here.

"Cold Ass N***a"
Good track… Could've been left off the album, though. Mixtape material, in my opinion.

"My Boy"
Same could be said for this one. "Bonus" track usually means the song was recorded separately from the rest of the album (not around the same time) and it's evident with this one.

"10 Chickens"
Another "Bonus" track, however, this one I like. Dope production and Frederick's cadence matches it perfectly. Sidenote: I've been dieting for a week or so, and now all I can think about is a 10 piece chicken mcnuggets. Fuck, I'm hungry.

Overall review: Great album. I expect nothing less from Gary, Indiana's own. MJ would be proud, ha. I give this one 8 out of 10 chickens.

Sweet Home Alabama

If you didn't know where I was... where would you guess I'd be, from this promo vid I whipped up, high in the garage. If I had to take a stab at it... I'da said Alabama. Ha. Crickets = Alabama. Makes sense to me. *Jada laugh*

Cima De Cinco!

Since this week has been all about Top 5 Dead or Alive's, and I got time to kill before UFC 193, I figured, fuck it... Here's some gotdamn lists for ya. Enjoy.

Top 5 Restaurants in Alaska:
5. Turtle Club (Fox)
4. St.Elias Brewing Co. (Soldotna)
3. Glacier Brewhouse (Los Anchorage)
2. Ginger (Los Anchorage)

1. Lavelle's (Fairbanks)

Top 5 Places to rub one out:
5. Shower
4. On a friend's couch
3. In various shopping mall bathrooms
2. Airports
1. In a platonic female friend's bedroom (preferably with 1 of their bras)

Top 5 marijuana strains:

5. Violator Kush
4. OG Kush
3. Grape God
2. Lemon Haze
1. Blue Dream

Top 5 ways to smoke that marijuana:

5. Knife Hits
4. Gravity Bong
3. Regular Bong
2. Raw joint cones
1. Being shotgunned by a naked chick you just met & probably will never see again.

Top 5 ways to die:
5. In your sleep, peacefully
4. While getting banged by a Costa Rican prostitute, while on vacation
3. In a shoot out with crooked white cops (preferably in downtown Anchorage, outside the Pio.)
2. overdosing on some killer blow WHILE getting banged by a Costa Rican prostitute, while on vacation.
1. Stabbed by your wife for writing about banging Costa Rican prostitutes

Top 5 places to snort cocaine (all of which I've done):
5. At The Westmark Hotel, while watching your black rapper buddies run a train on a drunk thot
4. In the Midnight Mine bathroom
3. Lavelle's bathroom
2. At the studio with groupies
1. in the back of a car outside of The Boatel during Solstice Weekend

Top 5 people I'd like to see in a sex tape:
5. Donald Trump (I just wanna see what his hair does in the heat of battle)
4. Betty White (i'm into older women *Kanye Shrug*)
3. Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate (don't act like you don't notice the sexual tension there)
2. The dude from The Hawk Shop
1. Jared from Subway (featuring several bloods, in a jail cell)

Top 5 things to do when bored:
5. Stalk bitches on social media
4. pull out old nudies from ex-girlfriends, add funny shit to them with photoshop, then send them to back to said ex-girlfriends, years later.
3. watch BMoney argue with people on Twitter
2. Wii Bowling
1. Write lists. :)

Content with the content? (the recap)

Let's recap, for a sec, shall we?

2 new fresh joints straight out the Blade Gang oven... A new youtube episode/series fresh out
the stove (or garage, depending on how you look at it)... Rumors of a new Scarface solo project as well as that Tequila Sunrise album, I've been blabbering about for months... and, if you been keepin up, then you already know Fleetwood's cookin up... 4th quarter's coming, kiddos. We ready. Are you?

1. "Say Yeah Freestyle" - Fleetwood Malone (CLICK HERE)


2. "Posted In My Garage (This Thing Of Ours)" - Tubby (CLICK HERE)


3. The 1st episode of #TubbysManCaveProject


and in case yo' ass was sleepin under an Alaskan rock...

4. "Special" - Tubby feat. Muldoon Manny & Darius (CLICK HERE)

5. "The Most Consistent" - Tubby (CLICK HERE)

6. "Goons & Heathens" - Tubby feat. Fleetwood Malone & Starbuks (CLICK HERE)

7. "Hot Box & Hip Hop" episode 2, featuring Snarley Brown & Darius

"Posted up in my garage..."

Just some rap goobers, in a garage... nothing more, nothing less. This is the pilot

for #TubbysManCaveProject. Hopefully, there will be more episodes to come, but this is me, we're talkin about... We'll see. Anyways, enjoy.

"Word 2 God, they'll never take this thing of ours..." (Blade Gang Friday)

Today, y'all gettin that 2 for 1 special from the good folks @ Blade Gang. Enjoy.

Note: neither of these records are on/from "Tequila Sunrise". Those records are next. ;)