It’s that time of year for Spotify to prove that it is the superior music streaming platform. It’s my favorite thing about the new year. 

Spotify wrapped occurs at the end of November, it calculates your top songs & podcasts of the year and gives you a cute little slide show presentation. The creativity gets better and better with each year. 

In the great year of 2020, I saw that my Spotify wrapped playlist was virtually the same as the previous year. As a result of my own disappointment, I made a promise to myself that my Spotify wrapped would not only be different, but it would be immaculate.

I took a look back at my top songs from 2016. Two of my top five were by Kehlani,  (Did I and Runnin’). Kat Dahlia made it up there with Tumbao and her rendition of Gangsta. 

2017 came around and now nostalgic anthems like Bodak Yellow and DNA found their way to my top five. I was also entranced by Kevin Gates (Luca Brasi intro & Really Really). This was the year I was blessed with meeting the late great up and coming Lexii Alijai. Her song Dime Breezy is always a good choice.

2018 was the year I graduated high school and finally realized that I might be depressed. Personally, I think this is when my music taste started to mature and really represent Sabrina. My fifth most played song of that year was Compton by Kendrick Lamar. Kodak Blacks Roll In Peace was my anthem every morning.

When 2019 happened I was listening to nothing but Jhene Aiko and Dreamville. 2020 was a repeat of that with some Pop Smoke sprinkled in there. 

Now, here we are, five years since the first Spotify wrapped and I’m proud to say that I did it. I made sure my wrapped playlist wouldn’t be a sad repeat of pre pandemic jams. I also listened to a hefty one thousand new artists this year, this includes artists I ignored because they were mainstream. 

My top five jams of 2021 were as follows:

1. Lately by BbyMutha (ft. Rico Nasty). Bbymutha is an underground rapstress from Tennessee. I love that she includes her kids in her music and she’s a lyrical assassin. If you’re a Rico fan you might be disappointed in the feature but the song is a bop overall.
2. Dark Knight Dummo by Trippie Redd ( ft. Travis Scott).Whoever is on his engineering team is an artist and I hope they have a good life. I used to hate on Trippie simply because he was a new artist. Don’t be like me. I’m mad about all of the years of hits I have to catch up on.
3. Another BbyMutha song called Roaches Dont Die. All I can say is please listen. If you like how Kodak Black can rap without stopping you’ll love this song. In the beginning of the song she raps about teaching her son consent. That’s raw.
4. Ride by Clockworkdj. Put this song on during your next road trip and let it happen. 
5. Black Boy by Chuuwee. This song belongs in the opening credits of the next Jordan Peele movie. He was able to be so creative with the theme of I Got 5 on it. Anytime this song plays I get mad that nobody has realized the potential here. 

In conclusion, I love looking at my music and seeing how I’ve evolved from a sophomore in high school to now. If you’re not a huge fan of rap and you don’t know where to start, here’s some reference.

Ftouhi can be reached at [email protected]