This category has undergone some facelifting this time around. Formerly existing for Best Debut, we found it too restrictive for what we wanted to emphasize most: a band/artist coming out and giving us the craziest impression. This year seemed abnormally easy when it came to the end of it all, but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t deserving artists, we could have picked any of these and we would have felt comfortable with the choice. Grimes was most obvious on a macro level and Joey Bada$$ made total sense, but all of our discussion went down to one act in particular.
Daughn Gibson does not follow a trend. Even the concepts revolving around his record “All Hell” are enough to say “no one else does this and I don’t know why.” Not only that, those concepts are executed with near-perfection — basically nobody has done samples & Country music quite like Gibson. Like Grass Widow, Dope Body, Joey Bada$$, and Lil Ugly Mane this was a debut record. The difference between “All Hell” and all those other records is built off Daughn Gibson’s incredible idea and vision for things, and more subtle than anything, it’s all spoken with genuine curiosity. He is wondrous of his boundaries and you can tell he loves that about making his music. It’s also easy to hear the life experience flow through the songs — Gibson’s occupational standouts as a former trucker, life events, and truly real admiration and respect for both his synth/sample contemporaries as well as the Country artists that inspire the overtone of the record. “All Hell” is a magnificent album through and through and serves as a first edition to a promising future for Daughn Gibson in 2013 and beyond.
Fermata over Whole Rest 