Lamont's Lists: The Top 50 Hip Hop Songs Of All Time (#s 10-1)

10. Hypnotize - The Notorious B.I.G. (1997) - When thinking through the best songs ever, there are a lot to consider from Biggie's impeccable catalog. There's Juicy of course, the obvious choice that launched his career into the stratosphere. Then there's Unbelievable, One More Chance and the laid-back club anthem Big Poppa. But after much deliberation, I decided to go with Hypnotize as my all-time favorite. For me, it's that opening guitar riff (a deft sample of Herb Alpert's Rise) that never fails to raise the energy level in the room - sending folks scurrying to the dance floor. That part is followed closely by Biggie's booming baritone, whereby he cuts through the groove with his trademark butta smooth braggadocio. Without breaking a sweat, he lets off a never-ending stream clever couplets - spilling out effortlessly in a velvety flow that's simply immaculate. By the time he pauses for the ladies to chant "Biggie Biggie Biggie can't you see..." we are all by then indeed totally and completely hypnotized.

9. I Used To Love H.E.R. - Common (1994) - In 1994, a young Chicago rapper named Common Sense set out to write a love letter to hip hop. In a master stroke, he did so in the form of an extended metaphor that only revealed itself at the end of the song - likening the music he grew up with to a former crush whom he had drifted apart from and no longer adored. In another smart move, he enlisted production support from his Chi-Town homie, No.ID. who blessed him with a buoyant composition built around a George Benson sample. The combination worked beautifully then and still sounds just as lovely today. If young people want to know why old school hip hop fans consider storytelling to be a lost art it's because songs like Common's I Used To Love H.E.R. no longer exist. 

8. I Know You Got Soul - Eric B. & Rakim (1987) - Bobby Byrd's 1971 standard I Know You Got Soul has been jacked sampled no less than 150 times and counting for various hip hop and R&B songs. But none of those attempts ever sounded as magnificent as the barely altered version that young Eric Louis Barrier served up in 1986 to his partner, the GOD EMCEE Rakim.  It was The R's singular gift for rhythm and poetry that propelled I Know You Got Soul to spectacular heights, all while elevating himself to rarefied air with intricate, irresistible rhymes that begged to be memorized and recited over-and-over again by legions of soon-to-be life-long fans.

7. It Was A Good Day - Ice Cube (1992) - I don't know anybody born between 1962 and 1982 who can hear Ice Cube's It Was A Good Day come on and not immediately burst into song..."Just waking up in the morning gotta thank God / I don't know but today seems kinda odd...". See what I mean, you kept going didn't you? Everybody knows the lyrics. Throwing your head back, smiling goofily and rapping along is practically an involuntary response. It's ironic that gangsta rap's greatest narrator, the man who penned Boyz In The Hood, F* The Police and No Vaseline, would save his best material for a carefree ode to life in South Central, taking stock of a gloriously uneventful day where not much at all happens.

6. Scenario - A Tribe Called Quest (1991) - A Tribe Called Quest's Low End Theory is, by any standard, one of the best rap albums ever recorded. On a nearly flawless record filled with exquisite, multi-layered jazz-inflected jams, Scenario (and it's equally dope B-Side remix) still holds up as my favorite song. The rowdy, energetic track featured go-for-broke competitiveness, a contagious, a crowd-pleasing hook and stunning verses from the likes of Phife, Q-Tip and Leaders Of The New School's Charlie Brown. But the showstopper came from Busta Rhymes in a break out performance that shook the pavement. His scene stealing exploits did in fact come off like a "powerful impact BOOM! from a cannon..." as he exploded into superstardom and forever ensured that Scenario would be remembered as the greatest posse cut of all time.

5. Top Billin' - Audio Two (1987) - Top Billin' in a nutshell, is hip hop distilled down to it's purest essence. Milk D pretty much yells his simple but catchy lyrics over what might be the single greatest beat ever made...a big phat, heart-pounding drum loop, aggressively reworked from an Impeach The President sample. Back in '87 it dropped like a bomb on unsuspecting ears (it was a B-Side single after all), booming out of speakers in neighbors all across the country. Audio Two would never come close to living up to their stunning debut, but they made an ever-lasting impact on the culture with their once-in-a-lifetime moonshot that was Top Billin'. What more can I say?

4. Rebel Without A Pause - Public Enemy (1987) - Rebel Without A Pause changed my life. This is not hyperbole. This is the God's honest truth. I was already a burgeoning fan of PE after 1987's Yo Bum Rush The Show, but when Rebel dropped as the lead single for their second album It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, everything changed. It really was like nothing I'd ever heard before. What is this wailing siren sound??? Is this a mistake or are they trying to antagonize as many faint-hearted listeners as possible? All of the production for Rebel is mind-blowing - the siren, the Jesse Jackson intro, the scratching from Terminator X, the Funky Drummer beat - all a combustible sound riot orchestrated by Hank Shocklee and the Bomb Squad. 

But it was Chuck D's lyrics that really moved me. His lines about "Panther Power" and being a "Supporter of Chesimard" sent me to the library to learn more about the radical aspects of the Civil Rights movement. And lines like "Smooth...not what I am...Rough, 'cause I'm a man" persuaded me to adopt a harder outward demeanor, trying to come off as someone who understood his history & culture and was not to be trifled with (I'm not saying I pulled it off, but I tried my best :). Watching Public Enemy perform Rebel live during the height of their reign (with Chuck and Flav commanding the stage and the F1Ws standing guard) is one of my greatest hip hop memories. Chuck D famously said, after hearing the final mix of the song for the first time, "I could die tomorrow". He knew he had made his magnum opus and that he was about to win over hearts and minds of listeners across the globe - one of whom just happened to be a newly-woke college kid clocking in from Charlottesville, VA.

3. They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y) - Pete Rock & CL Smooth (1992) - Talk about drifting on a memory. Like the subject matter of the song itself - nostalgia, love, friendship, family and tragic loss - They Reminisce Over You, 30+ years removed from its release date, now sounds like a fever dream. Bathed in dreamy horns, cascading drums and liquid vocals, it evokes warm memories of simpler times. Lazy days spent hanging out with friends, summertime cookouts and spending quiet moments with wise old elders before hitting the block again. CL Smooth's lyrics are exquisite - detailed, relatable, heart-felt and delivered with superb timing. But it's Pete Rock's ethereal, jazz-inflected production, some of the best we've ever heard, that sets T.R.O.Y. apart. It's a fitting tribute to a lost friend and one of the finest examples of hip hop's unparalleled ability to enrich the spirit of a generation.

2. Shook Ones Pt. II - Mobb Deep (1995) - "I got you stuck off the realness, we be the infamous. You heard of us...official Queens Bridge murderers". The first time I heard those Prodigy lyrics, from what (for my money) would go down as the greatest opening verse in rap history, I was not listening to the radio or a CD in the back of one of my friend's cars. Nope, I was cleaning up my bedroom on a Saturday morning when the video came on BET. It stopped me dead in my tracks and all I could do was sit down and stare at the screen. The low-fi visuals and high-concept rhymes were mesmerizing - at once cinematic, poetic, violent and more than a little bit scary. By the time Prodigy spit "I'm only 19 but my mind is old and when things get for real my warm heart turns cold" I was experiencing spine tingling chills...fully believing that he had lived every word he was saying. In addition to equally affecting vocals, Havoc, for his part, delivered a haunting, cold-blooded track that sounded like something out of a horror movie. His pitched-down samples and eerie effects have long been studied by up-and-coming producers...held up for decades now as a solemn work of undiluted genius. I've gone on to listen to Shook Ones thousands of times and it never gets old. Way back then, on that Saturday morning in 1995, I knew they were on to something special. I had a feeling that the song was as good as reality rap (or as Mobb later called it...Murder Music) would ever get.

1. Nuthin' But A G Thang - Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg (1992) - How do you choose the best rap song ever? I mean come on...that's an impossible task right?. A fool's dilemma. Well, call me crazy, but I feel like I could do a lot worse than selecting Nuthin But A G Thang as the single greatest of them all. What makes it so special? For starters, it's the sound of Snoop's voice...simultaneously melodic, menacing, smooth and rugged. It's his undeniable charisma. The fluidity to the way phrases roll off his tongue, with a half-sung, half-rapped dynamism that makes simple rhymes sound complex and contagious. "Now that's reala than real deal Holyfield...now you hookers and hoes know how I feel" - a simple line elevated into something transcendent by Snoop's one-of-one delivery style. It's hard to resist the urge to sing-rap along with him, as I have witnessed countless times over the years, with blissed out listeners vibing out at house parties, clubs and concerts - all just for a moment imagining themselves cruising the streets of South Central LA, controlling the block in a tricked out lowrider.

Snoop's chemistry with Dr. Dre is nothing if not sublime. The music bed Dre bestows us with for the track is miraculous. Built around a delicious sample of Leon Haywood's I Want'a Do Something Freaky To You (1974), I'd argue that it did more to make gangsta rap mainstream than any other track in hip hop history. Much is owed to Parliament Funkadelic, which Dre interpolates heavily for his G-Funk sound, but 30 years removed from its release date, the live bass, rolling synth and pristine 808 kick drums on "G Thang" still sound like something from the future rather than the past. I suspect that 30 years from now, at summertime cookouts all over the country, the beat will still conjure up a festive mood and Snoop's lyrics will compel partygoers to count "1-2-3 and to the foe"...as they nod their heads and sing along.

Click Here To See The Rest Of The Top 50

And Here's 50 More Honorable Mentions To Round Out A Top 100

A Milli (Lil Wayne) / Ante Up (M.O.P.) / Buddy (De La Soul) / California Love (2Pac) / Come Clean (Jeru The Damaja) / Court Is Now In Session (Chill Rob G) / F**K The Police (N.W.A.) / Fight The Power (Public Enemy) / Five Minutes Of Funk (Whodini) / Forever (Drake) / Get Low (Lil Jon & The Eastside Boyz & Ying Yang Twins) / Get Ur Freak On (Missy Elliott) / Grindin' (Clipse) / Hot In Here (Nelly) / How I Could Just Kill A Man (Cypress Hill) / How Many MC's (Black Moon) / I Just Wanna Love U (Jay-Z) / In Da Club (50 Cent) / Int'l Players Anthem (UGK) / It's Funky Enough (The D.O.C.) / It's Yours (T-L-A Rock & Jazzy Jay) / Juicy (The Notorious B.I.G.) / Lean Back (Terror Squad, Fat Joe & Remy) / Life Is...Too $hort (Too $hort) / Looking At The Front Door (Main Source) / Looking For The Perfect Beat (Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force) / Lucid Dreams (Juice Wrld) / Mask Off (Future) Mic Checka (Das EFX) / Money, Power & Respect (The Lox) / Protect Ya Neck (Wu Tang Clan) P.S.K. What Does It Mean? (Schoolly D) / Rebirth Of Slick (Digable Planets) / Rock Dis Funky Joint (Poor Righteous Teachers) / Rock The Bells (LL Cool J) / Ruff Ryders' Anthem (DMX) / Shoop (Salt-N-Pepa) / Simon Says (Pharoahe Monch) / Stan (Eminem) / Still Not A Player (Big Punisher) / Still Tippin' (Mike Jones) / Stronger (Kanye West) / Tennessee (Arrested Development) / The Crossroads (Bone Thugs-n-Harmony) / The Next Movement (The Roots) / Throw Some D's (Rich Boy) / Whoa (Black Rob) / Woo Ha! Got You All In Check (Busta Rhymes) / Wrath Of My Madness (Queen Latifah) / XO Tour Llif3 (Lil Uzi Vert)