Some of this year’s most unforgettable local songs didn’t come from comfortable experiences. They sounded fed up, and particularly urgent in a year marked by growing inequity at home and multiple slayings by police in places that didn’t feel far away.

In one of the year’s rawest rock songs, Thaylobleu cranked up its guitars to tell a personal story of police harassment. Chain and the Gang and Jack On Fire assailed gentrification with wit and hyperbole. Punk band Priests declared everything right wing. Two remarkable hip-hop works channeled frustration and fatalism among young black Americans: Diamond District’s Oddisee cried, “What’s a black supposed to do — sell some crack and entertain?”, while Virginia MC GoldLink rapped about all the glorious things he imagines happening to him — when he dies.

Not that peace and love felt impossible in 2014: In a touching song released two years after his death, Chuck Brown sang of a “beautiful life” enriched by the warmth of community. Promising newcomer Kali Uchis made us kick back with a soulful number steeped in giddy infatuation. Experimentation thrived in D.C. music: Young artists built on the region’s strong punk pedigree and expanded its boundaries. Mary Timony’s band Ex Hex embraced a classic sound and made one of the country’s best rock ‘n’ roll records. Local bands with shorter but distinctive resumes — like Laughing Man, Two Inch Astronaut and Deleted Scenes — sounded better and more creative than ever before. A Sound of Thunder and Gloom reminded us that the D.C. area is still a reliable producer of top-notch metal.

As expected, Bandwidth contributors faced hard choices while making this list of the year’s best local songs, and not only because it’s our first one. Up until deadline, we were still hearing new D.C. songs we wanted to include. But in a place where mounting wealth has created a challenging environment for art, that’s not a problem, really. It’s a testament to a music scene that perseveres despite long odds. —Ally Schweitzer

Warning: Many of these songs contain explicit lyrics.

Much of the credit goes to up-and-coming director Jay Brown, who gave “First Step” a smart little narrative arc, with MCs Uptown XO and yU hopping through D.C. to share a hookah with bandmate Oddisee. The sequence feels thoroughly authentic. And the video for the 1978ers — yU’s duo with producer SlimKat — is mildly trippy and yet perfectly representative, with the rapper rhyming while piloting an eccentric cast of customers around D.C. in a pedicab.

“No one wants to take time to make a video right anymore,” Brown says about the current glut of visual hip-hop content. “They’re just like, ‘Oh, let’s just get this dude, give him a camera, get iMovie, slap something together.’ The quality of everything has taken a huge hit, in my opinion.”

It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Brown — a 27-year-old skateboarder and resident of Portland, Maine — finds inspiration in the genre-busting classics of Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry. The director’s previous efforts include a paranoid video for “The End” by L’Orange that incorporates some of the self-aware tone in the work of his heroes.

“Going into anything, I always try to do something that I’m not sure how to do … to expand what I can do, and just make something cool,” he says.

Brown’s work with L’Orange led him more tightly into the fold at Mello Music Group, the label for both Diamond District and The 1978ers. He says he’s shot one more clip for each group, to be released later this year, and others could be on the way.*

I asked him to give the backstory for the first two videos. (Both songs, by the way, come from critically acclaimed albums: March On Washington and People Of Today.) Here’s what Brown said:

About “First Step” by Diamond District: “The goal of that one was to give an idea of each of the artists. Not necessarily just through the locations, but how it’s shot, how it’s edited … When you meet them, you realize they’re all homies and they vibe well with each other, but they’re so different than each other. Their styles are so different. And I think that was the goal — that’s why it seems a little bit like puzzle pieces, I guess. … We wanted to capture each one of their styles, and show off who they are as individuals, but have it all come together at the end, and show off how as a team, they’re amazing, but as individuals they’re equally amazing.” (Oddisee is indeed a hookah fanatic, Brown adds: “He’s the shisha king.”)

About “OneNine7-T-8” by the 1978ers: “[The pedicab idea] was all yU. That was the man himself. He used to operate a pedicab, so he had all the connections to make that happen, and I was game for it. I have a really good relationship with Mello at this point, so the concept development with all these videos is very healthy — between the artists, and myself and [the label]. But that was largely yU. … He was like, ‘Man, I used to drive a pedicab, and I’d love to shoot a video riding people around — riding SlimKat around — in that.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, that’d be dope.’ And from there it was like, ‘Well, the album’s called People Of Today, so why don’t we load it with all different kinds of people.’ … From there, it took on a life of its own.”

* When interviewed last week, Brown wouldn’t say when the new clips would drop. One of them — Diamond District’s “A Part Of It All” — came out today:

The 1978ers, “People Of Today”

The duo believes in a higher power, of course: yU (Michael Willingham, Jr.) raps occasionally about his faith and how it pushes him through. Meanwhile, SlimKat (Zachariah McGant) is finishing a gospel-themed beat tape, among other projects. But that “God is good” line is sarcastic: the lyrics on “Sacreligious” denounce a preacher who uses his influence in salacious ways. He’s a slick talker, more interested in lining his pockets and sleeping with church women than spreading the good word.

“Got a limp like a pimp, a lotta rings up on his hands,” yU rhymes over SlimKat’s organ-driven beat.

“Sacreligious” deals with corruption in a religious context, but its ideas stretch further than that. “It’s about when people abuse their power,” yU says. “They’re supposed to lead, but eventually mother nature takes over.”

People Of Today marks the long-brewing full-length debut of The 1978ers. yU (who’s also in hip-hop trio Diamond District) and SlimKat have been making music together since 2001. They recorded “Sacreligious” in 2012, and some cuts from the album are even older: centerpiece “P.O.T. Act III” wrapped in 2008. The two met in the late ’90s at a State of the Union show in Northwest D.C. At the time, yU worked with a crew called The Remainz; SlimKat was a member of Khemystery with MC/producer Blackberry Jones.

“We grew as friends and started exchanging ideas,” SlimKat says. “We always made songs. We always knew we’d collaborate on something.” yU’s previous solo albums — 2010’s Before Taxes and 2011’s the EARN — had a ’78ers stamp on them. The two often run ideas and unfinished tracks past each other before they release them into the world.

Alongside his work with The 1978ers and Diamond District, yU is finishing an instrumental album, Culture > Couture and a solo LP called In the Listener’s Stance. SlimKat is finishing another instrumental beat tape called D.R.U.M. on top of his gospel beat tape.

None of those projects have firm release dates, but there’s no rush: The 1978ers understand that good songs age well. “If you can release a song with that much time on it and it still gives you that good feeling,” yU says, “maybe it was meant to stay.”

Like “First Step,” the first March on Washington single Diamond District dropped on us several weeks back, “Lost Cause” sets the mood with a soul sample or two—but producer and MC Oddisee tells the Village Voice it’s actually a subtle change of pace for him and his collaborators, yU and Uptown X.O.

“Traditionally, Diamond District has been deep-rooted in boom-bap early ’90s hip-hop, with the tempo ranging between 86 and 96 [bpm], and this one is a half-tempo beat,” Oddisee tells the paper. “Even though it’s familiar with our sounds, it’s a little bit outside the range of what people would usually expect from us. We chose this track because of content matter and to display some diversity from us.”

The 14-track project was recorded over two weeks in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, where the group’s founder and lone producer, Largo native Oddisee, now lives. While the group’s earlier work expressed a commitment to boom-bap, “First Step” negotiates a sweet spot between hard-nosed hip-hop and electronic funk—a testament to Oddisee’s creative growth. Lyrically, the record isn’t as politically charged as its title would lead you to believe.

“It’s definitely not about the march back in the day,” says yU. “It’s about inspiring folks to keep pushing. A lot of people strive for trophies, but won’t even go the full length. They want the end result before it’s time. And this is more so us saying that we’re pushing on.”

Producer: SlimKat78
Stats: Age 36, Deanwood
Notable Collaborators: yU, Bilal Salaam, Eric Roberson

If you’ve attended a show at Bohemian Caverns/Liv lately, you’ve probably seen SlimKat78: The producer works the soundboard for the historic U Street venue. But the Deanwood resident is a formidable composer in his own right, having produced music for singers Maimouna Youssef, Bilal Salaam and Muhsinah, among many others.

Like many artists, SlimKat started young: As a student at Duke Ellington School of the Arts, he played music over the loudspeakers in between class periods, and later bought a sampler and began to create his own music. Still, the budding artist didn’t release anything until the mid-2000s. In 2010, SlimKat released a beat tape, Soundfreakers Vol. 1, which collected heavy drums and old vocal samples. Elsewhere, he’s produced singles for singer Nicholas Ryan Gant and California rapper Trek Life.

These days, SlimKat is working on several of his own instrumental projects: one with live instrumentation, a gospel-themed beat tape and another called D.R.U.M., which Slim says will be an expansive mix of percussive sounds. But his most anticipated project arrives later this year, when he and D.C.-area rapper yU—known collectively as the 1978ers—release a promising collaborative album. The forthcoming People of Today deals with the broad theme of people’s lives, from D.C.-based MC Grap Luva to philandering preachers. The project was conceived almost five years ago, SlimKat says.

“Mike [yU] and I are lifetime friends, and a lot of the album stems from agreements and disagreements we’ve had,” says the producer. “It’s like a discussion we’ve had amongst ourselves.”

Producer: Kev Brown
Stats: Age 38, Landover, Md.
Notable Collaborators: DJ Jazzy Jeff, Gods’illa, Phonte

Kev Brown once preferred rapping over making beats. But after a few performances in the local open-mic scene, Brown decided he wanted to rhyme with original music. In 1998, the Landover native—who cites Pete Rock as a major influence—heard a copy of Rock’s landmark project, Soul Survivor. “I thought, ‘Whoa, this is how you make beats,’” Brown says. His production style combines the music he grew up on—Dilla, A Tribe Called Quest, Wu-Tang Clan—with his own low-key vibe.

In 2005, Brown released a solo album, I Do What I Do, on which he rapped alongside members of the local Low Budget crew (Kenn Starr, Quartermaine and Oddisee) with rapper Phonte (now a singer with The Foreign Exchange) and vocalist Raheem DeVaughn.

Yet over the years, Brown hasn’t rapped as much. He’s released a slew of instrumental projects and spit a few bars on other work, but he doesn’t enjoy it as much as making beats. “I’m not that technical,” Brown says. “It’s like school to me to write. I might as well be in math class or something.” With that said, Brown is finishing a new project that includes more of his own rapping, but it won’t be like I Do What I Do. He says it’s more like “I’m doing whatever I want.”

Kev Brown image by Daniel Love

Deleted Scenes, “Lithium Burn”
April 15, Park the Van/Nevado

Deleted Scenes’ 2011 breakthrough album, “Young People’s Church of the Air,” shifted the D.C. indie-rock band in a more experimental direction, but the hyperactive “Stutter”—the first single from the group’s forthcoming followup—indicated that the foursome has definitively taken off the parking brake. That song might be the most loopy on the album. But Deleted Scenes’ less madcap singles, like “You Get To Say Whatever You Want,” showcase the skills of producers Brian McTear and Jonathan Low (also known for their work with Sharon Van Etten, Kurt Vile, and The War on Drugs), who have cast off the impenetrable haze of “Young People’s Church of the Air” and sharpened every element on the record—most notably singer Dan Scheuerman’s formidable voice. (Valerie Paschall)

Typefighter, “The End of Everything”
April 22, Huge Witch Records

Since releasing its first EPs, Typefighter has ditched the banjo and acoustic guitars and turned up to 11. Songs like the anthemic single “Much” show that the quartet can do triumphant guitar riffs just as well as Titus Andronicus—though Typefighter hasn’t yet veered into rock-opera territory. But the band still knows how to channel a moment: On the album’s title track and the sentimental “I Like the Way You Are,” they set aside noise and let singer Ryan McLaughlin’s raw voice hang either forlornly (the former) or gratefully (the latter) in the ether adding depth to what is otherwise a perfectly welcome stomper. (Valerie Paschall)

Protect-U, “Free USA”
May 13, Future Times

If “Time 2 Technique” offers a preview of what’s in store for Protect-U’s first LP, “Free USA” should be one of the year’s must-have electronic albums. D.C. musicians Mike Petillo and Aaron Leitko have released tracks here and there, laying a foundation with beats that would get even the most sedentary listener’s head bopping; but now, they seem to have mixed the funky beats that made “Motorbike” so urgent with the twinkling synths that colored their early tracks like “U-Uno” and “Double Rainbow.” There aren’t many albums that can work for people in any mood and any setting, but this could be one of them. (Valerie Paschall)

Gods’Illa, “Believe in Gods’Illa”
June, self-released

It’s still unbelievable when you think about it: That Gods’Illa‘s 2011 project, “CPR: The Blend Tape” was hosted by the great Erykah Badu. That’s not a slight against the Forestville, Md., hip-hop trio. But the famous vocalist’s appearance seemed to validate the group—which spits conscious bars just as ably as lyrics about nothing—and brought more attention to what truly was an excellent tape. Its new album, “Believe In Gods’Illa,” arrives with just as much promise—even without a celebrity endorsement. (Marcus J. Moore)

Priests, “Bodies and Control and Money and Power”
June 3, Don Giovanni/Sister Polygon

On its earlier material, D.C. quartet Priests shredded through angry, political, surf-flecked punk rock—and both releases spoke to the band’s immense potential. Now, having honed its sound and message with incessant touring, the group has become the most promising torchbearer of D.C.’s vibrant punk and riot grrrl traditions. “Right Wing,” Priests’ first single from this summer’s “Bodies and Control and Money and Power” is almost startling in its cleanly produced and spot-on D.C.-via-L7 sound. If the rest of the album is as laden with hooks and sing-along refrains as its first single, the band may have to sink their fingernails into the dirt to keep from being dragged out of the underground. (Ron Knox)

Martyn, “The Air Between Words”
June 16, Ninja Tune

It’s odd to think of Dutch-born house/dubstep/techno producer Martyn as a local artist. The Northern Virginia resident doesn’t play many local dates, and he hasn’t made much of a mark on D.C.’s electronic-music scene since he moved to the area (for love) in 2009. But Martyn is kind of slippery that way anyway; he subtly changes sounds almost as often as he boards an airplane. His second album, the thrilling 2011 LP “Ghost People,” traded in quick-footed, high-energy house music, but his debut LP, 2009’s “Great Lengths,” borrowed a little more from dubstep. For his third album out this summer, Martyn promises yet another shift: something closer to his debut, but still different, he told Resident Advisor. No word on live D.C. dates yet, but I won’t hold my breath. (Ally Schweitzer)

The 1978ers, “People of Today”
July, Mello Music Group

yU is always thoughtful, from his elaborate rhyme cadence to his evocative beats. For his solo work, namely 2010’s “Before Taxes” and 2011’s “the EARN,” yU riffed on daily endeavors and kept an eye toward brighter times. On “People of Today,” yU will join producer SlimKat as The 1978ers—both were born in 1978—for a thoughtful narrative about everyday folks. That’s not surprising, given yU’s low-key demeanor and common-man ethos; there’s a reason he’s called the “humble king.” (Marcus J. Moore)

Warning: This song contains explicit lyrics.

Diamond District, “March on Washington”
September, Mello Music Group

Released in 2009, Diamond District’s “In the Ruff” arrived the same year President Obama took office. But while huge swaths of the city celebrated the country’s first black president, “In the Ruff” kept D.C.’s blight in full view with its grainy beats and raw rhymes. Since then, group members Oddisee, Uptown XO and yU have made significant strides, and “In the Ruff” is considered a landmark album for DMV hip-hop. What will they do for an encore? (Marcus J. Moore)

Warning: This song contains explicit lyrics.

Ex Hex’s debut album
Release date to be announced, Merge

Some of the best parts of Wild Flag’s 2011 LP happened when Mary Timony channeled her inner ’70s crotch-rocker, and Ex Hex is basically that distilled into one band. The trio’s first 7-inch, released last month, is a power-rockin’ blast, especially “Waterfall.” It’s music for leather jackets and Miller Genuine Draft—about fun and not much else—and that’s part of what makes Ex Hex one of the most exciting new D.C. rock bands in years. (Ally Schweitzer)

The Black Sparks’ debut album
Release date to be announced

The term “high school band” usually serves as an excuse for terrible music. But the high schoolers in The Black Sparks have played together for five years, and if last month’s show in Bethesda with Priests, Give and Vile Faith offered any indication, the band’s sound is maturing quite nicely. The Black Sparks established themselves as a solid hardcore act. Now their new material finds them snaking through a more complex (albeit still brutal) instrumental attack rather than merely pummeling the audience with a two-minute adrenaline rush. There’s no name or date for their forthcoming album yet, but they’ve just recorded their material at Inner Ear—a good omen in itself. (Valerie Paschall)