Blender's 1001 Downloads: The 33 Best Albums of 2008

20. Wale, Mixtape About Nothing
Jerry Seinfeld is Wale’s Scarface—the hero he gets his life lessons from and can’t stop quoting. On this breathlessly clever collection of clattering conga beats, the Lil Wayne–endorsed D.C. smartass raps like a Jewish standup: “What’s the deal with makin’ money?” Wale (pronounced wall-AY) asks. “My account is like a brunch at a synagogue,” he brags. “Get it, y’all? That’s a lot of bagels!” It isn’t all laughs. On “The Kramer,” Michael Richards’ racist tirade inspires an astounding meditation on the N-word, white boys who use it and black self-hate. 
Download “The Opening Title Sequence,” “The Kramer,” “The Feature Heavy Song”

21. Erykah Badu, New Amerykah: Pt. One (4th World War)
Mama’s on cocaine, brother’s in Iraq and the Man is laughing his fat ass off. Just another day in New Amerykah. On her first album in eight years, the thoughtful vegan from Dallas praises the Nation of Islam, gripes about her figure and struggles to find salvation in a world of greed and hate. Outre producers hook her smoldering pleas to murky hip-hop, founding a foreign country that’s no tourist stop.
Download “Honey,” “The Healer,” “Soldier”

22. Coldplay, Viva La Vida
The thing about being rock’s biggest neurotic? You not only weep about bad press, you take it to heart. After critics dissed Coldplay’s X&Y as a U2-aping gas factory (psst! they were sorta right!) the band decided to rethink their sound from scratch. The result is their messiest album yet, high on oblique images, low on wedding-vow sentiment, full of unfamiliar sounds. There’s African riffing, string-choppy disco, thudding hip-hop—for a band so pedicured, it’s a thrill to hear them refusing to add up.
Download “Yes,” “Reign of Love,” “Lost!”

23. The Cool Kids, The Bake Sale
On their debut EP, Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish appeased late-’80s hip-hop fans and wet-behind-the-ears hipsters of their own generation with spare, zap-clatter beats, rat-a-tat Fruity Pebbles shout-outs and a wardrobe that consisted almost exclusively of day-glo buffalo plaid and high-top Jordan II’s. That’s Stupid, a follow-up mixtape, is a must-download supplement, further proving how much swagger these Chicago boys can wring from a snare, a clap and a Sega Genesis reference.
Download “88,” “A Little Bit Cooler,” “Gold and a Pager”

24. The Roots, Rising Down
This Philly hip-hop crew’s eighth studio album, named for a landmark study of global political violence, is as hard and tight as a fist. Arms dealers, child soldiers, greenhouse gases, pharmaceutical giants, racist plutocrats—all find their way into rapper Black Thought’s cross hairs, over synths that menace like a coming storm and snare cracks from ?uestlove as loud as rifle shots. Dark, paranoid and unforgivingly grim, it’s an all-too-apt soundtrack for 2008.
Download “Rising Down,” “Criminal,” “I Can’t Help It”