What do you listen to when you've lost all faith in the music you grew up on? If you're a hip-hop fan, you've no doubt spent the last couple of years asking yourself that very question. Rap music, as we all know, is a hot mess right now. The choices on offer are beyond bleak. Do you want to bump records from teenage boys chanting about booze and booty? Or perhaps you would like to hear grown men, desperate for a market share, acting the fool and spitting maddeningly macho clichés about the streets? No, thank you. Last year my answer was to make hip-hop sleep on the couch. This year I kicked hip-hip to the curb (with the exception of oddball geniuses the Roots, Cadence, Weezy, and Kanyeezy), and caved to the crooners' seductive advances.

Usher Here I Stand
Apart from the requisite banger "Love in This Club", Here I Stand is where Usher-who recently got hitched to his stylist and had a baby son-officially turns in his pimp cup and explores the joy and pain of actual adult relationships. As in the kind that last longer than one night.

Kanye West 808s and Heartbreak
Leave it to the Louis Vuitton Don to pull off singing his way through an entire outing, in spite of a mediocre voice and a seriously skeptical hip-hop audience. I bow in the presence of his greatness.

Akon Freedom
Akon knows how to take a winning formula and beat it to death. I should be sick of listening to him get all hot and bothered over slickly produced beats, but apparently I'm not.

Beyoncé I Am”¦ Sasha Fierce
She's a shy southern church girl by nature, but something happens to Beyoncé when she hits the stage: the booty-shaking, catwalking Amazon alter ego Sasha Fierce takes over. This double disc explores both personas, proving Mrs. Jay-Z is still a whole lotta woman.

Robin Thicke Something Else
Because the world can never have too many syrupy-sweet lover-man ballads.

Lil Wayne Tha Carter III
Oh, Wayne, you had me at "I go hard like geese erection".

Cadence Weapon Afterparty Babies
The 22-year-old boy wonder from Edmonton comes with a fresh perspective, a witty sense of humour, and staunch individualism, making Afterparty Babies a thoroughly refreshing listen.

The Roots Rising Down
Imagine a member of a hip-hop group once hit up your blog and allegedly talked trash in the comments section, claiming you were "nothing but a pretty face". Now pretend you were so starved for good music, you still included the group on your year-end list. What would that say about the state of hip-hop?

Mariah Carey E=MC ²
Sometimes, it's best to leave one's guilty pleasures undefended.

Seal Soul
Frankly, it's astonishing that he found time to record an album, what with all the paparazzi-friendly public make-out sessions he had scheduled this year with his supermodel wife, Heidi Klum. Still, no limelight-loving antics could ever overshadow the pure pleasure of hearing Seal's smooth voice soar through a catalogue of stirring soul classics.