2000s
Showing 428 songs from the 2000s
Lose Yourself
Written between takes on a film set, delivered like a man with exactly one shot at everything.
Seven Nation Army
A guitar pitched down to fake a bass, and the seven-note riff every stadium on earth now sings.
Crazy in Love
Rich Harrison looped a Chi-Lites horn fanfare; Jay-Z turned up at three in the morning and improvised his verse.
Stan
The 45 King looped Dido under four letters, and Eminem's fan character ended up in the Oxford dictionary.
Ms. Jackson
Andre 3000 apologizing to Erykah Badu's mother, who liked it enough to buy a Ms. Jackson license plate.
Bad Romance
Written on a tour bus in Norway and premiered at Alexander McQueen's last show, all nonsense syllables and appetite.
Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)
Beyonce found Bob Fosse's Mexican Breakfast on YouTube; three Grammys and a decade of wedding receptions followed.
Hurt
Rubin handed Cash a Nine Inch Nails song, and Reznor watched the video and said it was no longer his.
Get Ur Freak On
Timbaland set a tumbi melody over tabla and left Elliott acres of empty space to fill.
One More Time
Romanthony's vocal pushed through auto-tune over a slowed Eddie Johns disco sample, filtered until the chorus explodes.
Toxic
Minogue passed on it; Bloodshy and Avant hung a Bollywood string sample over surf guitar for Spears's only Grammy.
B.O.B.
Bombs Over Baghdad at 155 beats per minute, drum and bass colliding with a gospel choir and a guitar solo.
99 Problems
Rick Rubin's first rap production in years, a Billy Squier drum break, and a second verse about a traffic stop.
Work It
Timbaland's beat under a hook Elliott had reversed, a Run-DMC sample, and ten weeks parked at number two.
In Da Club
Dre's beat was offered to D12 and Rakim before 50 Cent wrote to it and held number one nine weeks.
Jesus Walks
A marching ARC Choir sample, Rhymefest's co-write, and a label convinced nobody would play a rap record about God.
Back to Black
Ronson cut it at Daptone with the Dap-Kings, sixties girl-group machinery rebuilt around a voice in ruins.
Rehab
Cut live to tape at Daptone in Brooklyn with the Dap-Kings, and it took Record and Song of the Year.
Paper Planes
Gunshots and a cash register over a Clash loop, with Brixton kids singing a hook about immigrant stereotypes.