2016's top five albums:
05. This Is Acting
04. The Life of Pablo
03. The Hope Six Demolition Project
02. Lemonade
01. The legendary bounty of unreleased Prince material that might finally see the light of day, perhaps (???) by year's end
ESSENTIAL NOTE: Numbers 2 and 4 would absolutely, positively not have been possible without the creative precedent(s) established by Prince. Their creators are, in fact, our two most substantially Prince-like contemporary artists, by which I mean, in the first place, superstars who couldn't possibly ever not be; and more specifically, self-involved visionaries obsessed with love/sex, black culture/their place within it, 'royal' iconography, the provocative potential of fashion and self-presentation, and - esp. in Kanye's case - religion.
