9. Frank Ocean – 'nostalgia, ULTRA'

Frank Ocean's late November New York live debut turned heads with no-frills excellence, whetting a potential mainstream audience for his upcoming 2012 Def Jam album debut, turning up an already palpable heat generated by the download-only "nostalgia, ULTRA" mixtape, which earned a straight A from veteran rock critic and MSN Expert Witness blogger Robert Christgau, who reported, "His romantic laments are models of texture, respect, and profound loss, their beats subtle, seductive, weird, and seized like time." Comparisons to other new R&B and hip-hop stars, notably Drake, have only been favorable.