Fuck Compton
1991
Ced-Gee of Ultramagnetic MCs built the track; a Bronx rapper aimed it at Compton and lit the coastal rivalry.
★ 2.9
The Songs canon
Sourced and sung.
Every song chosen by hand, with the recording to play it.
Browse all 2,393 songs or filter by genre, subject, artist, and year.
Browse all 2,393 songs or filter by genre, subject, artist, and year.
Brooklyn BattlesMasta Ace
Brooklyn Battles
1990
Marley Marl looped an Eddie Kendricks record; Ace, co-producing his own debut, made Brooklyn sound like a place to watch.
★ 3.0
The Gangsta, The Kill and the Dope Dealer
1996
Ice Cube, Mack 10 and WC trading verses, from a debut album that reached number two and went platinum.
★ 3.2
Bow DownWestside Connection
Bow Down
1996
Bud'da's beat, Ice Cube, Mack 10 and WC in formation, a West Coast declaration that topped the rap chart.
★ 4.1
San Francisco Knights
1998
Never a single, it became the duo's live staple: two Los Angeles crate-diggers immortalizing a 1996 visit to the Bay.
★ 4.2
Breathe (Fabolous)
2004
Just Blaze cut it from Supertramp's Crime of the Century, and Fabolous raps it like a man being chased.
★ 4.4
Can't Nobody Hold Me Down
Sean Combs and Mase
1997
Grandmaster Flash's "The Message" under a "Break My Stride" hook, six weeks at number one, and Mase arrives.
★ 4.5
Lodi Dodi
1993 · From Doggystyle
Dre put music under Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick's a cappella original, and Snoop made the story his.
★ 5.0
This DJ
1994 · From Regulate...G Funk Era
Snoop wrote the hook but label trouble kept him off the record; Warren G took it to number nine.
★ 5.2
Natural Born Killaz
1994 · From Murder Was the Case: The Soundtrack
Sam Sneed and J-Flexx started it as 'The Heist'; Dre and Cube's first record together since N.W.A.
★ 5.2
Hey Ma
Cam'ron and Juelz Santana
2002
DR Period built it on the Commodores' "Easy," and Cam'ron and Juelz Santana rode it to number three.
★ 5.2
Moment of TruthGang Starr
Moment of Truth
1998 · From Moment of Truth
Premier's beat under Guru facing a gun charge, cut at D&D Studios and delivered as a sermon on perseverance.
★ 5.3
Still Not a Player
1997 · From Capital Punishment
Knobody flipped a Brenda Russell record, Joe sang the hook, and Pun became the first solo Latin rapper certified platinum.
★ 5.4
A.D.H.D
2011 · From Section.80
Sounwave's woozy loop, Ab-Soul in the margins, and Lamar naming a generation's numbness on his debut album.
★ 5.5
Shut 'em Down
1991 · From Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black
Chuck D aimed it at corporations that profit off Black neighborhoods without reinvesting, and Pete Rock's remix outgrew the original.
★ 5.6
Keep Their Heads Ringin'
1995 · From Friday (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Dre and Sam Sneed rebuilt The Sequence's Funk You Up as G-funk, Nanci Fletcher singing the hook to number ten.
★ 5.6
Oh Boy
2002
Just Blaze built the beat for Memphis Bleek, chopped a Rose Royce vocal, and Cam'ron took it to number four.
★ 5.6
They Want EFXDas EFX
They Want EFX
1992
EPMD signed them off a talent show they lost, and the iggedy style swallowed hip hop for two years.
★ 5.8
Ego Trippin'Ultramagnetic MC's
Ego Trippin'
1986 · From Critical Beatdown
First record to lift the Synthetic Substitution break, which hip hop never stopped using, with Kool Keith rhyming deliberately off-beat.
★ 5.8
Murder Was the Case
1993 · From Doggystyle
A Faustian bargain told in the first person, later expanded into an eighteen-minute film Dre co-directed with Fab Five Freddy.
★ 5.8
Poetic Justice
Kendrick Lamar and Drake
2012 · From good kid, m.A.A.d city
Scoop DeVille built it from Janet Jackson's "Any Time, Any Place", heard on the studio radio, and Drake glides in.
★ 6.0
Check Yo Self
1993 · From The Predator
Predator-era Cube with Das EFX in tow; the remix rode the Message beat to number one R&B.
★ 6.0
I Got 5 On It
1995
A Club Nouveau hook, Michael Marshall on the chorus, and a Bay Area anthem Jordan Peele later made sinister.
★ 6.2
Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)Jay-Z
Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)
2001 · From The Blueprint
A Bobby Bland soul record from 1974, rebuilt by Kanye West, and Jay-Z sounding untouchable and unloved at the top.
★ 6.3
I Ain't Mad At Cha
1995
Released two days after Shakur's death, Daz Dillinger's loop of DeBarge's A Dream carrying a farewell to lost friends.
★ 6.4
Bring the Pain
1994
RZA's murk, Method Man's first single away from the Wu-Tang, and a title Chris Rock borrowed for his 1996 special.
★ 6.4
My Philosophy
1988 · From By All Means Necessary
KRS-One produced it himself over a Stanley Turrentine loop, from the first album made after Scott La Rock's murder.
★ 6.5
Memory Lane (Sittin' in da Park)
1994 · From Illmatic
Nas was twenty and already writing memoir here, over DJ Premier's loop of a Reuben Wilson organ.
★ 6.5
Mass Appeal
1994 · From Hard to Earn
A joke about radio playlists, built on Vic Juris's "Horizon Drive," and it became Gang Starr's most recognizable record.
★ 6.6
Let Me Ride
Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg
1992 · From The Chronic
A Mothership Connection sample, RBX writing Dre's verses, and the Grammy win that turned it into a hit.
★ 6.7
Boyz N' Tha Hood (Eazy-E)Eazy-E
Boyz N' Tha Hood (Eazy-E)
1987
Ice Cube wrote it for a New York group who walked out; Dre pushed Eazy-E to rap it himself.
★ 6.7
South BronxBoogie Down Productions
South Bronx
1986 · From Criminal Minded
James Brown horns looped, an answer to MC Shan's The Bridge, and hip hop's birthplace claimed for the Bronx.
★ 6.7
One Mic
2002 · From Stillmatic
Chucky Thompson looped Phil Collins, and Nas rises from a murmur to a roar and back, verse after verse.
★ 6.8
Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing ta Fuck Wit
1994 · From Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
RZA cut it at Firehouse Studio on almost no budget, Method Man co-produced, and the chorus became the Clan's motto.
★ 6.8
Ruff Ryders' Anthem
1997
DMX turned the beat down for sounding too rock; his uncles talked him into it, and Swizz Beatz arrived.
★ 6.9
Forgot About Dre
1999 · From 2001
Eminem wrote the verses as a reference for Snoop Dogg, by Dre's account, and Dre kept the guide vocal.
★ 6.9
Dirt Off Your Shoulder
2004 · From The Black Album
Timbaland's beat is all snap and space, and in 2008 a presidential candidate borrowed the shoulder-brush on a Raleigh stage.
★ 7.0
Changes (2Pac)
1998
Recorded in 1992, shelved, then remixed after his death over Bruce Hornsby's piano; a posthumous Grammy nomination followed.
★ 7.1
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher
1967
James Jamerson's bass, cut in Chicago with Funk Brothers moonlighting for cash, and Wilson sounding weightless above it.
★ 7.1
Dead Presidents IIJay-Z
Dead Presidents II
1996 · From Reasonable Doubt
Ski looped Lonnie Liston Smith under a Nas vocal, and Jay-Z made money sound like a weary confession.
★ 7.1