2. Mavado, “Cyaa Hold Me Again”
Most of the talk surrounding Mavado this year related to his signing with DJ Khaled’s YMCMB-affiliated We the Best label. While that was a big move, in our eyes the biggest thing the Gully Gad did this year was release the most positive, simple, life-affirming dancehall tune of the year in “Cyaa Hold Me Again,” on Stephen McGregor’s Tenement Yard riddim. We haven’t always been there with ‘Vado as he’s moved away from the hardcore badman tunes that established him a half-decade ago, but this is the place we want to see him going.