The MessageGrandmaster Flash
The Message
1982
The record that proved hip hop could report and not just party, and the edge everyone's been close to since.
★ 9.5
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.
Changes (2Pac)
1998
Recorded in 1992, shelved, then remixed after his death over Bruce Hornsby's piano; a posthumous Grammy nomination followed.
★ 7.1
Respiration
1998
Hi-Tek loops Don Randi's "The Fox" under a Style Wars monologue, and three MCs read the city at night.
★ 6.5
Definition
1998
Hi-Tek loops Boogie Down Productions while Mos Def and Kweli revive KRS-One's demand that the violence stop.
★ 6.4
Stakes is HighDe La Soul
Stakes is High
1996 · From Stakes Is High
Dilla looped Ahmad Jamal's "Swahililand" into a warning shot at where hip hop was heading in 1996.
★ 5.9
Where Is The Love?
2003
An uncredited Timberlake sang the hook to protect his solo album, and Britain kept it at number one six weeks.
★ 4.6