The Top Ten Hip-Hop Tracks of All Time
The Top Ten Hip-Hop Tracks of All Time
15. Jay-Z – Brooklyn’s Finest (Featuring The Notorious B.I.G.)
Two Legends on the Rise battle on the Mic like two Scorpions in a Bottle. Biggie wins.
Click Here to Buy Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt
14. LL Cool J feat. Fat Joe, Foxy Brown, Keith Murray and Prodigy – I Shot Ya (Remix)
This track is the one on the list with the most MC’s but each one rips the mic off the cord. Murray opens up by “representing intellectual violence” and destroying commercial rappers. Then P comes through spitting futuristic lyrics about Illuminati and blows minds. Fat Joe then attacks the mic with street silver bullets and ups the ante by calling himself “Keyser Söze”. Foxy Brown raps better than most guys in the current decade (although, she could have been left off the track). Then LL cleans up by reminding us he “Crushed Moe Dee, Hammer, and Ice-T’s curl”. This track is almost like a street corner cipher with each MC daring the other to go further. Almost a game of lyrical “Chicken”, if you will. Trackmasters on the Production tip.
Click Here to Buy LL Cool J’s Mr. Smith
13. Keith Murray – The Most Beautifullest Thing In This World
When Keith Murray first strangled the mic on this track, I thought I was hearing the second coming of Rakim. A True battle MC, who, with any kind of Marketing could have been huge. But most people don’t get him or his lyrics. Breaks the mic down to an organic compound. With Erick Sermon on the production tip and you have a timeless classic.
Click Here to Buy Keith Murray’s The Most Beautifullest Thing in This World
12. Beatnuts ft. Big Pun, Cuban Link – Off the books
Pun opens up the track and leaves wreckage and mayhem from here to the beaches of San Juan. Cuban Link, Ju Ju, and Psycho Les clean up over a track that’s sicker than maggot infested, decaying decapitated bodies.
Click Here to Buy The Beatnuts Stone Crazy
11. AZ – The format (Prod Dj-Premier)
AZ perfects “Pure Swagger” on the mic. Serious. Pure Deadly Swag. Primo supplies the track with the Roberta Flack sample. AZ and Primo are the greatest pairing since Hollow Points and The Desert Eagle.
Click Here to Buy AZ – The format
10. Jeru The Damaja – Ya Playin’ Yaself
Word to future DJ’s of the world: Spin this track in your set and you will be better than 99.999% of club DJ’s in the world. It’s that simple. And this DJ Premier track is that ill. And this track checks everyone. And that means you too.
Click Here to Buy Jeru’s Wrath of the Math
9. Mobb Deep FT. Big Noyd, Give Up The Goods (Just Step)
No track captured the street hustler ethos better than this Q-tip produced trillion cut emerald. Plus, it had the introduction of BIG NOYD with the line that earned him $300,000: “Yo it’s the r – a double pe – r, n – o – y – d Niggas can’t fuck with me”. Not bad for one line.
Click Here to Buy Mobb Deep’s The Infamous
8. Killah Priest featuring Eva Neide “One Step”
Killah Priest (who I hung out with recently) takes hip-hop and puts it on its head. And then does it again. And again. True Master lives up to his name on the prod tip on the greatest WU related track.
Click Here to Buy Killah Priest’s Heavy Mental
7. OC – Far From Yours
Along with AZ, possibly the most underrated lyrical flamethrowers ever. He performs miracles with the mic; ill and mad lyrical.
6. Eric B. & Rakim – Juice (Know The Ledge)
It’s hard to pick a Eric B. & Rakim track. Hell, they could have the whole “Top Ten”. Here they are at their peak capturing gritty streetlife in a bottle and making you drink it. Juice. Dope movie too.
Click Here to Buy Juice: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
5. Nas ft AZ – Life’s a Bitch
Only two verses. But they are two verses of perfection. Makes you wonder what would have happened if they added a third. The earth would have probably started spinning the opposite direction. Hip-Hop would never be the same.
Click Here to Buy Nas Illmatic
4. Group Home, Livin’ Proof
Guru understudies Lil’ Dap and Melachi the Nutcracker destroy this Primo track on the realest hip hop track ever. The track sounds sicker than an acetylene torch on bare feet. Another one DJ’s must spin for a party to happen.
Click Here to Buy Group Home’s Livin’ Proof
3. Kool G Rap ft. Nas, Fast Life
KooL G Rap and Nas go toe to toe like Arturo “Thunder” Gatti and “Irish” Micky Ward. With legendary results. Raising the bets higher and higher in the third verse, I am surprised anyone ever picked up a mic again.
Click Here to Buy Kool G Rap’s 4, 5, 6
2. Big Daddy Kane Ain’t no Half Steppin
Big Daddy Kane plays “Jason” on the track that made it all possible. The word “smooth” doesn’t even do this track justice. Can anyone step to the Kane? No one even tried after this track. If you don’t have every lyric of this track memorized. Do it. You will be a better person for it.
Click Here to Buy Big Daddy Kane’s Long Live the Kane
1. All City – The Actual
This Primo beat is so ill that this track could have made the top ten if two teenage white suburban girls were rapping on it. Fortunately, J. Mega and Greg Valentine cause the apocalypse in 1998. Hip Hop would never touch these heights again.
Click Here to Buy All City’s Metropolis Gold
And I got all this shit on Wax.
(Yeah, I know I put 15 tracks up)
The Rest is Up to You…
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
26/02/2009 at 10:28 pm Permalink
Damn son. You know your hip hop.
Hard to argue with any of these.
26/02/2009 at 10:30 pm Permalink
Come on MPM.
Wheres the love for the west?
26/02/2009 at 11:09 pm Permalink
Where the Big L at MPM?
27/02/2009 at 12:18 am Permalink
No list is complete without Biggie…….
27/02/2009 at 7:32 am Permalink
Good list but I think there are so many better tracks on Reasonable Doubt. Can’t Knock the Hustle, Dead Presidents, and especially Can I Live.
And through that desperation, we become addicted / sort of like the fiends we accustomed to serving
and
I’d rather die enormous than live dormant / that’s how we on it
By far Jay’s best CD.
27/02/2009 at 11:34 am Permalink
“No list is complete without Biggie…….”
Read the list. Biggie is on the first one on it. Fool.
27/02/2009 at 1:39 pm Permalink
Seeking Alpha,
“Good list but I think there are so many better tracks on Reasonable Doubt.”
Yeah, that is an amazing album.
Really you could pull almost any track off it and put it on this list.
The dueling nature of “Brooklyn’s Finest” was too much for me to ignore.
– MPM
27/02/2009 at 6:12 pm Permalink
Nothing good since the mid-90’s…
Sad but true
WTF happened to the 2000’s you may ask? Mainstream and cross-over appeal became major requirements for all hip hop artists. The 2Pac/Biggie beef scared record execs to no end. They saw their empires crumbling and had to declare war on the gritty lyrics and street personas. We were introduced to singing rappers such as Nelly, Ja Rule and Eminem. They had big hits that had catchy hooks and could easily be sung by grandmothers and pimple faced wiggers. Hip-hop was in a coma. It wasn’t until 2003 that 50 Cent made hip-hop awake for a bit, only to return to its slumber when The Massacre flopped. Outkast, Common, Talib Kweli, Mos Def held things down while Wu-Tang fumbled and eventually lost their magic when ODB died. 2010 will hopefully bring new, fresh hip hop, but I’m not holding my breath.
28/02/2009 at 7:12 am Permalink
Remember what you said about making money in the down economy? Well, you were right; people in So Cal really do eat tacos (and fusion cuisine has gotten too popular). On point, as always.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/dining/25taco.html?em
28/02/2009 at 9:27 am Permalink
Most of the list isn’t any justice.
O.C best songs to me where “Time’s Up”(ruthless track the instrumental was used on the 8 mile battles.) Born to Live (he recalls childhood, and death)
And Biggie..where the fuck is “Juicy” and “Party and Bullshit”?(the original not the remixes you find on youtube)
Wheres Big L? By far the most underrated best rapper of all time. Listen to “Put It On”, “MVP”, and “Ebonics”.
Common- “I used to love H.E.R” deserves a spot on their as well.
And as far as Nas is concerned the whole “illmatic” would have taken spots.
“It aint hard to tell” “memory lane” “the world is yours” and “halftime.” are fucking genius.
That is all that I can remember right now.
“Shoot your daughter in the calf muscle, fuck a tuscle”-Biggie….(gets me every time heh…)
28/02/2009 at 1:53 pm Permalink
Would’ve chosen Come Clean over Ya Playin Yaself…also, no Pete Rock? Shut Em Down remix is too tight to ignore…props to the OC love
28/02/2009 at 11:09 pm Permalink
You forgot Grandmaster Flash “The Message”, possibly the best old school track of all time! The lyrics are insane
01/03/2009 at 4:41 pm Permalink
I got to give you props for fast life. But you should have added john blaze. Nas, Big Pun, Jadakiss, Raekwon, and Fat Joe on one track killing it. Good List though from a golden era.
08/04/2009 at 7:04 pm Permalink
What about Shook Ones Pt. II by Mobb Deep?
New York State of Mind by Nas?
Clear Blue Skies by the Juggaknots?
Lil Troy – Wanna be a Baller?
What about Gang Starr? Moment of Truth? Above the Clouds? DWYCK? The Militia?
That’s all for now, I could keep going. I seriously think this list needs to be altered, not that I don’t disagree with some of your choices. Common’s I used to love H.E.R.
08/04/2009 at 7:39 pm Permalink
Brad,Buenos Aires, Seeking Alpha, H and H, LCR, Doctor G, risk
Good choices all.
Feel free to write a “Guest Manifesto” on your Top Ten.
– MPM
12/04/2009 at 2:43 pm Permalink
Mos&Kweli’s : Black Star..one of the greatest true hip/hop albums of all-time