Niggas in Paris
Kanye West and Jay-Z
2011 · From Watch the Throne
Hit-Boy's beat, a Blades of Glory sample, and twelve straight encores of it one night in Paris.
★ 7.6
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2011
Showing 47 songs from 2011
Midnight City
2011
Gonzalez built that shrieking hook from his own distorted voice, then let James King's saxophone close the record.
★ 7.5
Someone Like You
2011 · From 21
Dan Wilson of Semisonic at the piano, Adele singing, nothing else added; five weeks at number one.
★ 7.5
We Found Love
2011
Calvin Harris wrote and produced it alone, and Rihanna rode ten weeks at number one, 2011's longest run.
★ 7.2
Holocene
2011 · From Bon Iver, Bon Iver
Horns and clarinets swell over guitar in a converted Wisconsin veterinary clinic; Grammy voters nominated it for record and song.
★ 6.7
Super Bass
2011
Kane Beatz's synth bounce, a bonus track buried on the Pink Friday deluxe, and Minaj's first solo top ten.
★ 6.5
Somebody That I Used to Know
2011
Recorded at his parents' house on the Mornington Peninsula around a Luiz Bonfá sample, eight weeks at number one.
★ 6.5
Helplessness Blues
2011 · From Helplessness Blues
Pecknold called it an anti-protest song, a plain opinion with no poetry, and gave it away free in January 2011.
★ 6.0
Titanium
David Guetta and Sia
2011
Sia cut the vocal as a guide for another singer; Guetta released it anyway, and she got a number one.
★ 6.0
Set Fire to the RainAdele
Set Fire to the Rain
2011 · From 21
Rosie Danvers wrapped the strings around Adele's biggest crescendo, and 21 took its third straight American number one.
★ 5.8
Pumped Up Kicks
2011
Five hours in a Los Angeles jingle studio, the demo kept as the master, its subject hidden in plain sight.
★ 5.8
Paradise
2011 · From Mylo Xyloto
Eno took a co-writing credit and played synthesizers; it became Coldplay's second UK number one and a stadium fixture.
★ 5.6
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
We Are Young
fun. and Janelle Monae
2011
Six weeks at number one, and it began with Ruess singing the chorus, tipsy, at the Bowery Hotel.
★ 5.2
Look at Me Now
2011
Diplo and Afrojack made the beat for a mixtape; Busta Rhymes' double-time verse pushed it to diamond.
★ 4.9
Lights
2011
Goulding wrote it about a childhood fear of the dark, and the Hot 100 kept it fifty-two weeks.
★ 4.7
Who Gon' Stop Me
Kanye West and Jay-Z
2011 · From Watch the Throne
Flux Pavilion's dubstep drop rebuilt into a rap victory lap, cut at the Mercer Hotel with Jay-Z trading verses.
★ 4.6
I Can't Make You Love Me (Bon Iver)
2011
Vernon strips Reid and Shamblin's Nashville ballad to falsetto, then slips into Raitt's "Nick of Time" at the end.
★ 4.5
The Way It Goes
2011 · From The Harrow & The Harvest
Eight years of songs Welch and Rawlings never liked enough to release, then this litany of friends gone.
★ 4.5
Steve McQueen
2011
Justin Meldal-Johnsen co-produced at Sunset Sound, and Gonzalez turns unembarrassed optimism into a wall of synthesizers.
★ 4.3
Motivation
2011
Cut at Miami's Circle House, Jonsin's sparse keys and Lil Wayne's verse gave Rowland seven weeks atop the R&B chart.
★ 4.2
Freaks and Geeks
2011
A free EP download from 2011, Goransson on the beat, and Glover rapping like he had something to prove.
★ 4.0
Can't Hold Us
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
2011
Ray Dalton's hook, Ryan Lewis's piano gallop, and a sleeper single that took nearly two years to reach number one.
★ 4.0
Safe and Sound
2011
Trumpet hook lifted from the Yiddish standard Dona Dona, and two and a half years later, number eight.
★ 3.8
Beth Rest
2011 · From Bon Iver, Bon Iver
A Korg M1 supplied most of the sounds, NPR called it the year's most divisive song, Vernon his favorite.
★ 3.6
Call It What You Want
2011
Paul Epworth produced it, and Foster points the synth hook at everyone too eager to conform.
★ 3.5
I'm on One
2011
Thirteen weeks atop the rap chart, on a beat T-Minus and Noah Shebib built wide enough for three guests.
★ 3.4
It Will Rain
2011
Half-finished on the Hooligans tour, the melody landed once Mars saw an early cut of Breaking Dawn.
★ 3.3
You Are a Tourist
2011 · From Codes and Keys
Death Cab's first number one on alternative radio, and its video was performed live in one unbroken take.
★ 3.0
E.T.
Katy Perry and Kanye West
2011
Dr. Luke and Max Martin built the dubstep stomp at Conway; West's verses took it to number one.
★ 2.9
Life Goes On
2011
Critics heard the Kinks' Lola in the strum, and a Dancing on Ice slot lifted it to number fourteen.
★ 2.8
Cheers (Drink to That)
2011
Built on a sample of Avril Lavigne's I'm with You, flipped by the Runners into a Friday-night toast.
★ 2.8
Too Close
2011
Diplo and Switch wrapped a breakup song in dubstep, and a Microsoft browser ad made it a worldwide hit.
★ 2.6
How to Love
2011 · From Tha Carter IV
Wayne named Tupac's "Keep Ya Head Up" as his model, then sang it over acoustic guitar into the top five.
★ 2.5
No Sleep
2011
Number six on the Hot 100 the week it arrived, Benny Blanco and Big Jerm keeping it airborne.
★ 2.5
Marvin Gaye & Chardonnay
2011
By Sean's account Kanye handed over the beat with Roscoe Dash's hook already attached, and the whole thing purrs.
★ 2.4
Roll Up
2011
Stargate handed Khalifa a pop-radio beat, and he answered with a promise of devotion; number thirteen in Britain and America.
★ 1.8
Turn Me On (David Guetta)
2011
Ester Dean's writing put Minaj on a hook rather than a verse, and matched Guetta's best American chart placing.
★ 1.6
Ass Back Home
2011
Number one in Australia, top ten in Britain, and Neon Hitch trading verses with McCoy over Benny Blanco's beat.
★ 1.2
Birthday CakeRihanna
Birthday Cake
2011
Seventy-eight seconds of Da Internz production, cut in a Copenhagen hotel room, that leaked and made the album by demand.
★ 1.2
She Ain't You
2011
Built on SWV's Right Here and Michael Jackson's Human Nature, Brown sighing over an ex from inside a new relationship.
★ 0.8