CLICK HERE for Top 12 Favorite Songs of 2020

Curated by Flare Tha Rebel

We are so ready to leave 2020 behind. But, there are no promises in 2021 so although this year dealt us a landslide of difficulties, it may be most practical to focus on what should not be forgotten. Maybe it’s memories of loved ones lost that will live forever in our hearts or maybe your focus is maintaining that fire for racial justice – maybe it’s both. Or how about the memory of where you were the day it was officially announced Trump lost the election? That one wasn’t so bad. Also, as a Kansas Citian, I have to add the moment the Chiefs won the Super Bowl. Did that really happen??

Oh, and by the way, 2020 produced amazingly contagious music that’s ready to be played again in crowds full of party people, as soon as that vaccine is as mainstream as an Ariana Grande single.

Below is list of my favorite tracks from 2020 in descending order.


12. “Levitating” by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby

This song was blasted on repeat in our home this year but not by me. I’d hear it often as my wife Lauren practiced her bass guitar to it. I’ve been blown away to see her transform her time not playing hockey due to COVID-19 into a creative outlet learning to play the bass. Continues to be a badass she does. After many listens, I began to love this song and appreciate Dua Lipa. For me, I really dig this remix version with a DaBaby verse sprinkled over it.

The UK’s Dua Lipa set the States a blaze with her Future Nostalgia album. What makes her different from a typical pop singer? It’s those funky bass rifts! Instrumentation game is just on a higher level. Sometimes I feel the US has forgotten how amazing funk, soul, and disco can but UK artists continue to keep these genres in their pop charts. But, all that isn’t to take away from Dua Lipa’s vocal range and overall catchiness. She’s a star. “Don’t Start Me Now” is another funky pop song I really dig from Dua Lipa.

11. The Adventures of Moon Man & Slim Shady by Kid Cudi & Eminem

Shoutout to Kid Cudi for this banger. For me, it’s Eminem’s lengthy verse that takes this track over the top. I love that the string section of this beat is reserved for Eminem’s portion, adding to the royal lyrical prowess that Slim Shady still carries. It’s loaded with witty punchlines and also tackles COVID-19 – “don’t wanna wear a mask and they’re just scoffing / and that’s how you end up catching the shit off ‘em / I just used the same basket as you shopping / now I’m in a fucking casket from you coughing”.

Wear that damn mask!

10. “Mains” by Skepta, Chip, & Young Adz

If “Mains” was created by US American rappers I may not have paid it much attention. Just another song talking about trappin’. But when it comes from bruvs out of the UK it’s pure petro. Get me? Introducing me to tings I haven’t heard around my ends. Translation…it hits different. I’m so tired of that phrase by the way but it was fitting here.

With a lot of time on our hands this year many of us discovered something new. For some, it was cooking sourdough bread or whipped Dalgona coffee (for the longest time I thought this coffee had giant scoops of peanut butter on top). For me, it was going down a rabbit hole of UK Drill music. Outside of Dizzie Rascal’s Boy in the Corner album I wasn’t familiar with much Hip-Hop from the UK and considering this Dizzie album came out in 2003, I clearly needed an update. Outside “Mains” here’s a list of some of my other favorite more recent UK tracks – “L.L.L.L.” by Dizzie Rascal featuring Chip, “Sparko” by Chip, “Brum Bitz” by K2, “Deh Deh” by Unknown T, and Fredo’s Daily Duppy feature with GRM Daily.

9. “Nature of The Beast” by Black Thought featuring Portugal. The Man & The Last Artful, Dodgr

Black Thought can’t be stopped! He hit us with Volume 3 of his Streams of Thought series this year and it’s loaded with heat. There are plenty of tracks that feature more of his raw rhyming style but I found myself listening to this sing-songy track the most. The times that Black Thought switches it up and sings rather than raps he stays in the pocket, but it’s laced with a unique emotive fullness that I’m always excited to hear.

8. “Identical” by Phoenix

Phoenix is a favorite of mine so I was excited to see them get the nod to produce music for the new Sofia Coppola film On the Rocks starring Bill Murray, Rashida Jones, and Marlon Wayans (what!) I was less excited to learn this film required an Apple TV+ subscription. After already adding three more streaming services in 2020 I just couldn’t succumb to adding another. Anyone see this film? Is it as good as this dope synth-forward indie pop track by Phoenix that I can’t wait to dance along to with others in a post-global pandemic world?

7. “Ultra Black” by Nas featuring Hit-Boy

What does it mean to be Ultra Black? It’s to be unapologetically Black. It’s to recognize the shared experiences of being Black. It’s to celebrate the diversity of being Black. We are not a monolith. Love is Black. Success is Black. Pride is Black. Ultra Black is to say it loud in 2020 I’m Black and I’m proud.

Decades in the game and Nas still drops gems at the top of his game. King’s Disease was my favorite album of 2020 and well deserving of two features on this list.

6. “Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You)” by Bombay Bicycle Club

Synth, drum, guitar. Simple format that gets me all the time. Technically, this song was released in 2019 but for some of us we didn’t get hip to it until the full album version dropped in 2020. Maybe it was meant to be though considering the eat, sleep, wake, portion of the title does a great job of summing up the mundane groundhog day moments produced by 2020. The twist here though is that it’s a love song. A great reminder to truly cherish those we hold dear, especially since we don’t know how long we’ll get to spend together.

5. “10 Points” by Nas

The base line of this beat runs with a captivating pulse, encouraging a clinched fist of resistance. But, once the horns of the song hit the motivation for that fist is to raise it victoriously. As one of our veteran Generals of Hip-Hop, Nas outlines keys to success with lyrics that read like good advice for Black and Brown youngins’ that may need a reminder of their potential and ability not to succumb to ruthless stereotypes. Add this track to the litany of songs released in 2020 that powerfully reminded Black and Brown communities of their inner royalty.

4. “Breathe Deeper” by Tame Impala

Over six minutes long is this adventure of a song and I am here for every second. Tame Impala jump in with some 90’s pop R&B drum machine and piano vibes at the start but soon bobs and weaves in wide variety of directions that all fit together seamlessly. The track itself and its title – “Breathe Deeper” – was generally good advice for 2020.

3. “JU$T” By Run the Jewels, featuring Zach de La Rocha, Pharrell Williams

Music from Run the Jewels was made for the uprisings of 2020 before anyone had any idea 2020 would get so wild. This is simply what they do and they do it better than pretty much everyone, maybe only rivaled by Rage Against the Machine. But, that’s okay because lead RATM emcee Zach de la Rocha returns for another RTJ collab and destroys his verse with all the angst you need. Pharrell’s smooth addition to the hook makes one feel the obvious contradiction displayed in the chorus’s lyrics of “freed” people still enslaved by the all mighty dollar. Killer Mike and EL-P handle the rest with their usual dagger sharp lyricism.

Set something on fire from 2020 and dance on top of it to this song! It’ll be therapeutic.

2. “Lockdown” by Anderson Paak featuring Jay Rock

“You should have been downtown, the people are rising” is how Anderson Paak opens “Lockdown”, a song that’s as groovy as it is reflective.

For me, this song capsulated the racial justice reckoning of 2020 mixed with a global pandemic. But, don’t get it twisted, the only thing new is COVID-19. Racism has been alive and well in the States since Founding Father’s left the majority of our land’s inhabitants out of the mix when they considered who deserved “unalienable rights”. But, as oppress peoples fight to make sure our country’s ideals match its actions, every once in awhile an oppressor stops to think about how their privilege is fueled by how f’d up our society truly is.

Takes a lot to get us to this point though but when a pandemic takes away our day jobs, privileged social outings, and overly consuming sports commitments, we’re left with a veil removed. Hard to see the world without its distractions and not recognize how intentionally vile it can be.

Wait, the “land of the free” actually placed a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, pathological liar in the Oval Office? Whoa, our police force that was initially created to catch runaway slaves is actively discriminating and killing people of color? Damn, the 13th amendment band slavery and yet people of color are systematically and disproportionately fueling prisons that corporations utilize to increase profits and access free labor?

Well shit…I guess we should do something!

1. “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd

Oh, the irony! In a year where clubs, bars, and dance halls emptied due to a global pandemic The Weeknd dropped possibly the most danceable song of his career. The Weeknd has been dropping danceable gems since 2012 but this new-age 80’s influenced vibe (I Ran by A Flock of Seagulls with a little Maniac by Michael Sembello mixed in) transcends on so many different levels. I could be staring at a laptop screen sitting at my dining room table turned work desk in sweatpants, but when this song hits I’m transformed into an entirely different world. A world with rooms filled with people, bright lights, drinks flowing, and folks dancing until they sweat (that good sweat though). This is one of those songs where you can’t judge someone’s dance moves, it wasn’t made for that. It was made for losing yourself in the moment. The kind that comes and goes quickly but feels like it was meant to last forever.

Honorable Mentions: “35.31” by Childish Gambino, “All Bad” by Nas featuring Anderson Paak, “a few words from the firing squad (radiation)” by Run the Jewels, “Wildfires” by SAULT, “Funny Thing” by Thundercat, and “Objectivity” by Ryan Marquez.