Young Thug's Jeffery was my favorite album of 2016, and Harambe was my favorite song. To me it's a perfect embodiment of the year that was... a bipolar drumbeat of aggression that's also a gasping, heartfelt paean to love, all in honor of one of the year's most prominent memes... it's perfect.
I'm having trouble thinking about how I'm going to remember 2016. In many regards it's outright been the best year of my life. New Gal and I got engaged, and even though we're still dragging our feet with setting a date, I can't flippin' wait to be married to this woman. We also jumped the gun a bit and bought an incredible house together (if you're ever in the Keewaydin neighborhood come say hi) and our life in this home is so blessed that it hardly even feels real. I've grown so much as a person this year, in ways that a younger me worried would never happen. I really have New Gal to thank for it, as she has been the best influence on me that I ever could have hoped for. 2016 is the year in which I finally started taking my life seriously, and I'm all the better for it.
But 2016 is also the year in which, for the first time in my life, I began being afraid of the future. Like, stomach-clenching-in-the-middle-of-the-night afraid. Please excuse the foray into the forbidden zone here, but I'm not exaggerating when I say that it feels like we are standing at the edge of an abyss. Everything I value in our society is about to be dismantled by a cackling team of ghouls, and every time I think about it I'm filled with the worst sadness, terror, and then a seething, white-hot rage. I can't believe what they are doing. I can't believe they are getting away with it. And I can't believe how many people are cheering them on. The sheer malevolent audacity of it all is so offensive that it feels like a true turning point in the way I see the world, where after this nothing will be the same and there's no going back. This perspective shift colors every moment of my life now, every interaction I have, every action I take. My resolution for 2017 is to find a constructive outlet for all this piss and vinegar, because keeping it bottled up and embracing the new status quo will quite literally make me go insane.
So yeah, 2016, a real sea-change year. I know I wasn't very active here in the last twelve months, which was part of a calculated strategy to spend less time screwing around on the internet and more time engaging with the world around me. With the exception of my incurable twitter addiction, I was actually pretty successful! But I've definitely missed the WGOM crew, and I hope you're all happy and healthy and just as half-baked as I remember. Here's to a watchable Twins team in 2017.
(2 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10)You must be a WGOM Citizen to rate WGOM Videos.
Loading... 
(7 votes, average: 9.57 out of 10)
Ooooh, it's (Not Really at All) New Guy! Thanks for sharing your best of 2016 pick along with your updates--congratulations on all the good stuff that has happened!
I think the only thing you didn't mention that feels particularly relevant to recent events is what your opinion is on the topic of olives. Thank you in advance for your attention to this important issue.
Thanks Pepper! And let it be known that I am 100% pro-olive.
I knew I liked you for some reason.
First an SBG reappearance, now this!?! 2017's looking up!
I'm holding out hope for a Frightwig sighting.
FTLT's been popping up here and there, too.
Good call.
That was well said and congrats on the good things that have happened to you. And welcome back, man.
If I may, I would suggest flying to Vegas for a quick wedding then coming back and just having a party. I desperately wish I had done that.
I didn't have any Young Thug before this, but I gotta admit, I saw the cover of the album and thought, yup, gonna go get this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZwRqGQuJgQ
Yeah it's kinda too bad that he goes by something generic like Young Thug, it really belies the level of creativity he works on. Dude is next-level in my opinion.
I listened yesterday and it's got that modern hip-hop impenetrability that I first started noticing with UK Grime in 2003 or so. I took the time to parse a few Dizzee Rascal tracks back then, but then OFWGKTA broke a few years later and I was lost, lost, lost.
I've given a few bars of many new rappers a chance, but I can't get it.
I feel like I'm missing something. Am I officially old?
Listening again, he's a lot more dancehall than some of the other new opaque rappers. I might have a chance.
I'll admit that I've mentally lumped all new rappers named "Young", "ASAP", "Thug", etc. as opaque to simplify my musical explorations.
It took me a while to get on board with the trend of sing-songy rapping that broke out a year or two ago, but I've really grown to love it. Young Thug, Future, Rich Homie Quan, Desiigner, I love these guys.
IF YOUNG METRO DON'T TRUST YA I'MMA SHOOT YA