
Mind Playing Tricks On Me
An Isaac Hayes loop from Tough Guys, three verses by Scarface, and a rap record about fear rather than swagger.

An Isaac Hayes loop from Tough Guys, three verses by Scarface, and a rap record about fear rather than swagger.

A Willie Hutch loop left alone at the top, and Andre 3000's verse reportedly returned with the drums stripped off.
Mannie Fresh's violin line over a bounce beat, Lil Wayne's chant at the close, and New Orleans bounce gone national.

OutKast were booed at the 1995 Source Awards and answered with a title splicing Atlanta and aliens over echo-heavy dub.

Crunk's breakthrough, produced entirely by Lil Jon, stalled at number two and drove the album past two million copies.

Pimp C built it on an Isley Brothers loop, Ronnie Spencer sings the hook, and Texas rap found its elegy.

Produced by the Runners in 2005, it drew bids from Bad Boy and Murder Inc. before Def Jam won.

Bangladesh built the beat around Harry Belafonte's Day-O, and Wayne released it six weeks after leaving jail.

3.2 million ringtones sold, a Grammy won, and Play-N-Skillz's beat under a hook about racial profiling.

Drums lifted from a 1973 Ripple record, a closing verse in a president's voice, and Office Space did the rest.

Timbaland built the beat at Manhattan Center Studios, and Ludacris turned deflecting nosy questions into pure comic swagger.
Mystikal barks the guest verse, Ludacris takes his first top ten, and 2003 antiwar marchers rewrote the chorus.

Cartoon-sized arms in a men's room, courtesy of Spike Jonze, and Tom Cruise dancing to it in Tropic Thunder.

DJ Montay's beat, T-Pain on the hook, and the first song to sell four million digital copies in America.
Jazze Pha's beat, Nate Dogg on the hook, and a Rush Hour 2 single that maps boasting by telephone prefix.

Eighty to number one in a single week, on a hook lifted from the Moldovan pop song behind Numa Numa.

Atlanta radio had it in March 2006; by September the country did, and Outkast joined the remix.

Trak Starz built the beat, Ludacris and Chaka Zulu signed him, and the Walnut Park kid stalled at number two.

Finger snaps where the snare should be, E-40 riding shotgun, and Lil Jon proving crunk could whisper.

A Shreveport club chant for DJ Hollywood Bay Bay, which Phunk Dawg's beat carried all the way to number seven.