Underlining the national prominence of our local hip-hop scene, Pitchfork's Paul Thompson has just published a round-up of the best Minnesota hip-hop of 2014. "Minnesota Nice is well established," writes Thompson, "but 2014 was the year for Minnesota Weird in the Minneapolis-St. Paul hip-hop scene."

Topping Pitchfork's list is thestand4rd, the group who debuted this year and shot to instant national prominence, buoyed both by the viral phenom Spooky Black and the rising rapper Allan Kingdom—who just won this year's City Pages Picked to Click poll. "The Stand4rd is as infectious as it is lonely," writes Thompson, "as fly as it is dejected." Thompson even makes a point of noting that thestand4rd are not from Minneapolis: they rep for the Capital City, St. Paul.

Other prominent mentions go to Lizzo, Chantz Erolin, Mike Mictlan, deM atlaS, and Muja Messiah, who Thompson praises for doing "the year's best out-and-out rapping" on God Kissed It, the Devil Missed It. Even Prince (who did a little rapping on his new album ART OFFICIAL AGE) gets a shout-out. "It was a good year," concludes Thompson. Indeed.