Lose Yourself
2002 · From 8 Mile (soundtrack)
Written between takes on a film set, delivered like a man with exactly one shot at everything.
★ 9.1
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2002
Showing 43 songs from 2002
Hurt
2002 · From American IV: The Man Comes Around
Rubin handed Cash a Nine Inch Nails song, and Reznor watched the video and said it was no longer his.
★ 8.5
Work ItMissy Elliott
Work It
2002
Timbaland's beat under a hook Elliott had reversed, a Run-DMC sample, and ten weeks parked at number two.
★ 7.9
Jesus, Etc.
2002 · From Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Reprise rejected the album, Wilco streamed it free, and a sister Warner label put out these swooning strings instead.
★ 7.2
Clocks
2002 · From A Rush of Blood to the Head
A piano riff Martin nearly saved for the next album, rescued by their manager, then Record of the Year.
★ 7.2
Cry Me A River
2002 · From Justified
Storch's clavinet, Timbaland's beat, and a breakup Timberlake spent years declining to explain; the Grammy arrived anyway.
★ 7.1
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
2002 · From Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
O'Rourke mixed this one song as an audition, won the whole album, and Wilco made it the opening track.
★ 6.9
Do You Realize?
2002 · From Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Coyne wrote it during Drozd's recovery, a plain statement about mortality that Oklahoma voted its official state rock song.
★ 6.8
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
The Scientist
2002 · From A Rush of Blood to the Head
One out-of-tune Liverpool piano, an attempt at a Harrison song abandoned, and the chord run Martin kept instead.
★ 6.7
Heartbeats (The Knife)
2002
Pitchfork's fifteenth-best song of the 2000s, the Dreijer siblings' synth pulse, later stripped to one acoustic guitar by Jose Gonzalez.
★ 6.6
Hot in Herre
2002
The Neptunes flipped Chuck Brown's "Bustin' Loose," and Nelly rode it to number one and the first male solo rap Grammy.
★ 6.6
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1
2002 · From Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Coyne named his karate warrior after Boredoms drummer Yoshimi P-We, then cast the heroine's disease as pink robots.
★ 6.1
The Seed 2.0
2002 · From Phrenology
Cody ChesnuTT's four-track bedroom original rebuilt by a live band, his guitar hook intact, Questlove pushing the tempo up.
★ 6.1
Beautiful
2002
Perry wrote it for herself, then refused Aguilera a retake; the demo vocal is what reached number two.
★ 6.1
Dilemma
Nelly and Kelly Rowland
2002
Bowser's beat interpolates Patti LaBelle, Kelly Rowland sings the hook, and it spent ten weeks at number one.
★ 5.7
On My Block
2002 · From The Fix
Five mics from The Source for The Fix, a Mike Dean beat, and Scarface drawing his Houston block affectionately.
★ 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
Someday
2002 · From Is This It
Moretti woke to hear Casablancas inventing the melody in the bathroom, and it became the warmest song on Is This It.
★ 5.5
The Way We Get BySpoon
The Way We Get By
2002 · From Kill the Moonlight
Piano, bass and a single nagging guitar figure, with Daniel making aimlessness sound like the best available plan.
★ 5.4
Lost Cause
2002 · From Sea Change
One week of writing after a nine-year relationship ended, and Godrich kept the arrangement to acoustic guitar and brushes.
★ 5.4
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
California
2002
Jason Schwartzman still drummed for the band when they cut it; The O.C. later made it a UK top ten.
★ 5.0
A Thousand Miles
2002
Carlton built that piano figure in about an hour and titled it Interlude; her label insisted on something catchier.
★ 4.8
Landslide (Dixie Chicks)
2002 · From Home
Nicks wrote it in Aspen weighing whether to quit music; the Chicks add three-part harmony and take it top ten.
★ 4.7
Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect
2002 · From Castaways and Cutouts
Two chords written in a northeast Portland duplex, and Nate Query put the whole album on his credit card.
★ 4.7
She Will Be Loved
2002
Levine says he and Valentine wrote it in about an hour, drawing on a troubled couple he knew.
★ 4.6
Warning SignColdplay
Warning Sign
2002 · From A Rush of Blood to the Head
Buckland gave up on a guitar part and played maracas instead, and Martin's slow crawl back still aches.
★ 4.5
Amsterdam (Coldplay)
2002 · From A Rush of Blood to the Head
Martin wrote the verse in Amsterdam and the outro in Iceland; the closing track waits minutes before the guitars arrive.
★ 4.3
Somebody Like You (Keith Urban)
2002
Ganjo, EBow and a cardboard box in the credits; Billboard later named it the country song of the decade.
★ 4.1
Soak Up the Sun
2002
Crow and Jeff Trott wrote it on a plane out of rainy Portland; Liz Phair turned up to sing backup.
★ 3.9
Jenny From the Block
2002
A Boogie Down Productions interpolation under the bridge, and Lopez answering the tabloids without once breaking her stride.
★ 3.4
The Good Stuff
2002
Seven weeks atop the country chart in 2002, and a bartender's story Jim Collins and Craig Wiseman wrote.
★ 3.1
Picture
Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow
2002
Crow's label blocked the radio rights, so Allison Moorer re-cut the female vocal; it still became Kid Rock's biggest hit.
★ 3.0
What's Luv?
2002
Tina Turner's chorus rebuilt at Crackhouse Studios, and Ashanti became the first woman to hold the Hot 100's top two.
★ 3.0
All You Wanted
2002
A debut-album cut that Branch wrote alone, produced by John Shanks, and her first trip into the top ten.
★ 2.9
When I'm Gone
2002
Brad Arnold and the band shot the video aboard the USS George Washington, then held Mainstream Rock seventeen weeks.
★ 2.6