What were your favorite projects/songs from January? Any potential AOTY contenders?

For me the only one that I think is on that level is a 4 song EP. Phro. & Guilty Simpson - Guilty By Association. I hope they have more music together coming.

Any albums I'm sleeping on? This is what I checked out and my ratings for whatever they're worth. I am known to be overly generous. I switched to a 10 point scale with hopes that it will help me rate things more realistically. I would say it's fair to subtract 0.5 to 1.0 pt from my ratings. Typically a 9.5 and above is AOTY contender level. Since these are just ratings based on my first listen I do expect they will all fall some after more listens.

Phro. & Guilty Simpson - Guilty By Association (EP) 10.000
Raheem DeVaughn & Bee Boy$oul - Back 2 Love 9.625
Cordae - From a Birds Eye View 9.556
Sinéad Harnett - Ready is Always Too Late (Deluxe) 9.333
Rick Ross - Richer Than I Ever Been (Deluxe) 9.222
The Weeknd - Dawn FM 9.056
Your Old Droog & Tha God Fahim - Tha Wolf On Wall St 2: The American Dream 9.000
Kota the Friend - Lyrics to GO, Vol. III 8.850
KYLE - It's Not So Bad 8.758
Earl Sweatshirt - Sick! 8.750
Che Noir - Food For Thought 8.593
Mello Music Group - Mandala 8.578
2 Chainz - Million Dollars Worth of Game (EP) 8.278
The Musalini & 9th Wonder - The Don & Eye 8.273
FKA twigs - CAPRISONGS 8.214
Bonobo - Fragments 8.030
Papoose - December 7.111
RJ Payne - Beautiful Payne 4 7.000
Killah Priest - The Three Fantastic Supermen Epics (EP) 7.000
Rich Brian - Brightside (EP) 6.667
Token - PINK IS BETTER 6.463
FNKPMPN - Subatomic 5.583
Gunna - DS4EVER 5.404