This thread picked up somewhere from a discussion of "Best of 2011" record lists, partly fueled by Seth's philosophizing in the introduction to his list for The Awl.

Ted struck me as being rather cosmopolitan in his taste when he published his list, so it surprised me to see where this conversation led.

This tweet had me thinking that the discussion would be broad in scope - sort of a "what is art" discussion that I've made tentative attempts at diving into in my blog.

There was some discussion of Ted's list on Monday evening between Judd and Nate, which I found after digging deeper into the past timeline.

Said past discussion reveals that Judd's PhD research covers the work of MCs in American hiphop, which he reminds us farther along.

The peanut gallery chimes in from time to time, but I think that the intense debate between the key players kept others from joining in a more robust conversation.