M.A.A.D City
2012 · From good kid, m.A.A.d city
Sounwave and THC build the first half, Terrace Martin the second, and MC Eiht walks in from Compton's own past.
★ 7.7
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2012
Showing 62 songs from 2012
Money Trees
2012 · From good kid, m.A.A.d city
DJ Dahi slowed Beach House's guitar intro and ran it backwards, and Jay Rock's verse steals the whole record.
★ 7.6
Thinkin Bout YouFrank Ocean
Thinkin Bout You
2012 · From Channel Orange
Ocean wrote it for Bridget Kelly's album, kept it instead, and the falsetto he reaches for does the rest.
★ 7.5
Swimming Pools (Drank)Kendrick Lamar
Swimming Pools (Drank)
2012 · From good kid, m.A.A.d city
T-Minus made the beat for Trey Songz, who passed; Lamar turned the rejected demo into a study of addiction.
★ 7.4
PyramidsFrank Ocean
Pyramids
2012 · From Channel Orange
Cleopatra dragged into the present, two halves hinged on a midpoint beat switch, and John Mayer's uncredited closing solo.
★ 7.4
Wicked Games
2012
Doc McKinney and Illangelo built the guitar figure and the fog; Tesfaye gave away House of Balloons for free.
★ 7.0
Latch
Disclosure and Sam Smith
2012
Too weird for radio, not clubby enough for clubs, by the duo's own reckoning; Sam Smith's falsetto settled it.
★ 6.8
I Knew You Were Trouble
2012 · From Red
A wobble bass drop grafted onto a country breakup song, and Swift's full move to pop became inevitable.
★ 6.8
New SlavesKanye West
New Slaves
2012 · From Yeezus
Projected onto sixty-six buildings worldwide before anyone had heard it, with Frank Ocean closing over a Hungarian prog sample.
★ 6.5
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
2012 · From Red
Twenty-five minutes with Max Martin and Shellback, by Swift's account, and her first Hot 100 number one followed.
★ 6.3
Summertime Sadness
2012
Two labels rejected Cedric Gervais's remix; Radio 1 played it anyway, and the remix took a Grammy and number six.
★ 6.3
Poetic Justice
Kendrick Lamar and Drake
2012 · From good kid, m.A.A.d city
Scoop DeVille built it from Janet Jackson's "Any Time, Any Place", heard on the studio radio, and Drake glides in.
★ 6.0
Mercy
Kanye West and Big Sean
2012 · From Cruel Summer
An old dancehall toast opens it, the beat switches mid-song, and 2 Chainz walks off with the whole posse cut.
★ 5.8
Merry Go Round
2012
A pun on two Marys, overheard from a co-writer's mother, seeded a debut single that won a Grammy.
★ 5.8
Closer
2012
Greg Kurstin's four-on-the-floor and mid-nineties Erasure worship turned the Quins into a dance-chart number one.
★ 5.7
Hold On (Alabama Shakes)
2012
Four Alabama day-jobbers paid for their own sessions at a Nashville home studio, and Rolling Stone named it 2012's best.
★ 5.7
Blue Jeans
2012
Del Rey wrote it with Emile Haynie and Dan Heath, then sings a doomed vow over surf guitar and strings.
★ 5.6
Gangnam Style
2012
First video on YouTube to pass a billion views, built on a horse dance Psy worked out over thirty nights.
★ 5.6