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.
London Calling
1979 · From London Calling
Strummer borrowing the BBC's wartime call sign to announce the end of the world, and sounding thrilled about it.
★ 9.2
Anarchy in the UK
1976 · From Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Lydon picked anarchist because it rhymed with antichrist; EMI dropped the band six weeks later and punk was loose.
★ 8.2
Rockin' in the Free World
1989 · From Freedom
Sampedro joked about the free world after a Soviet tour collapsed, and Young debuted the song in Seattle unrehearsed.
★ 7.5
Ghost Town
1981
Cut in Leamington Spa on eight tracks, the flute squeezed onto full brass, number one while Britain burned.
★ 7.3
Desolation Row
1965 · From Highway 61 Revisited
Eleven minutes, one acoustic guitar, and Charlie McCoy improvising fills after Bob Johnston found him passing through New York.
★ 7.3
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