I remember when I was around ten or 11 years old, my father went to a relative's house on a Sunday afternoon. It's one of those 'distant' relatives, where it was merely a relation by blood, not of heart. But one thing I could remember while accompanying my father was being there with one of my cousins. She was probably around three years old, and the house was pretty much infested with roaches. I wouldn't dare sit down, as my three-year-old cousin attempted to talk to me. She had on a pink shirt that was smeared with punch, diapers that needed to be changed and she held on to a tattered stuffed animal that looked like it had seen better days. In the midst of her telling me about the house being cold the night before, I saw one of the bugs crawl across her bare foot. What was worse than that was her response, or rather her lack of one. She didn't budge. Didn't flinch, didn't jump, didn't go "eww," but rather continued with her monologue of how cold it was the night before. Her level of numbness to the situation, regardless of how terrible it may have been, haunted me and haunts me to this day.

When I heard the verdict in the Sean Bell case, I felt a familiar numbness. I didn't flinch, as if I was accustomed to the bug of injustice crawling over me and my people on a regular basis.

Random received positive reviews with his 2006 debut album, The Call. (It was chosen as one of the best of the year by hiphoplynguistics.com.) Such feedback seems to have served as motivation, because since then, Random has put in a considerable amount of work. After releasing The Call Remixtape, a collection of remixes with a few unreleased tracks, Random focused on a personal project: the album Mega Ran, in which he sampled the sounds from a favorite video game, Mega Man.

Editor's Note:
A year later. Some things change; some don't. If you read Lyle's list last year, you'll notice some names that have resurfaced in this year's wrap-up. New acts are also given much deserved praise and there's much to be expected from '08. Here we go!

Editor's note

: I'll give you a hint, some of Myles' top songs of 2007 come from these albums we've reviewed this year...