Sonically speaking, this year was special. Listeners from all over the music spectrum were treated to a wave of fresh projects, many of which will be remembered as pioneering or genre-defining, while only a few, for once, will be left behind, dismissed as either too ahead of their time or overly experimental to avoid being labeled as outright failures.
For many artists, 2024 marked a turning point in their career. Steering away from the title of “up-and-comers” to embrace a more established status, this year was, for a handful out there, the year taking risks finally paid off. Be it tackling a topic that could be considered controversial or diving deep into a niche only a select audience might fully appreciate, as music journalist Danny Hajjar aptly put it, “it feels as if music this year took a bit of a pause to find its purpose and meaning, especially with the ongoing genocide happening in Palestine”— a statement we can only agree with.
“What I think we saw more this year was a bit of reflection from artists in terms of what they felt it meant to approach art, what they were seeing through their art, and challenging their respective genres. There have been stronger years musically for our region, and this one didn’t really pick up consistently until later in 2024,” the Lebanese writer told me MILLE before commenting on some of this year’s standout acts.
“I think artists like Zeyne and TUL8TE had massive breakthrough years, and I’m interested to see how they build on that momentum in 2025,” he shared. “Stormy further solidified himself as one of Morocco’s best rappers while Narcy reintroduced what it means to have a physical relationship with music, as his double album was only sold through his bookstore. All of the artists on the list—and many more that were considered for this list—are talented in their own right and should continue that success in the new year,” he added.
Of course, not every body of work struck gold. A few projects split opinions, unable to break into the mainstream bubbles of music and encounter widespread commercial success. That said, when we asked Hajjar to curate this last ranking before we see the year off, he explained that even those divisive projects had their own unique merit. And while rap continues to dominate most positions on the charts, he emphasized that the diversity of this year’s releases showed a growing desire for variety in the region’s soundscape—an observation that shines through this list, despite his own personal inclination toward all things hip-hop.
“The way I came up with the list was impact of lyricism, production, accompanying visuals— be it marketing, rollout, album covers, music video— buzz around the releases, and, vibes. The list leans more rap, mainly because that’s what I listen a lot to. That being said, there are some great albums of other genres on here,” he confessed, reflecting on how challenging it was to be as inclusive as possible when picking his selection of favorite albums of the year. “This list was meant to be inclusive and encompassing of all of MENA, not just certain countries. There are many artists that I wanted to add, and many other albums and mixtapes and EPs that deserve recognition and praise that didn’t make the cut not because they weren’t great, but because narrowing it down was tough.”
So, without keeping you waiting any longer, here’s the list of all the albums that defined 2024, according to Danny Hajjar.
1. ‘ICEBERG’ – Stormy
2. ‘To Be An (Arab)’ – Narcy
Editor’s note: This project was exclusively released in physical format. SWORD is the only track from the project to be available on streaming platforms.
