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