I remember when I was about to start at the American Enterprise Institute, and was being taken to different offices to sit down with and get to know various directors and scholars. Chatting with one fellow, I mentioned that I was born in Inglewood, Calif. “Ah,” he said, a smile creeping across his face. “Always up to no good!” Color me impressed: a conservative think-tanker had just quoted 2Pac. Days later, he quoted The Game.
It just underscored that ideology and even background don’t figure into the tastes of true music fans, something you’d never know by the assumption that those at a Republican rally just want to hear country (Alice Cooper, by the way, is a conservative — I expect to hear Welcome to My Nightmare at the next CPAC). I also had the added benefit of musical education from working at Tower Records (R.I.P.) in college. Many might remember the vast classical music rooms there, appropriately staffed by geniuses in the genre. While working undercover to catch shoplifters (yes, a cool job), I got schooled in everything from ska to opera. But my musical appreciation — capped by an undying love for records over CDs — has always been wide-ranging, from Frank Sinatra to Bob Dylan. And I’ve always loved rap.
So here are my top 20:
1. California Love – 2Pac with Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman
Probably 2Pac’s most crossover hit, this soars with the best of the state – “Let me serenade the streets of L.A.” With, yes, odes to Oakland and Sactown, the Bay Area and back down, as well. Best to hear while out for a cruise in the Golden State, even if it’s a tad cliche.
That’s “rap” with a silent C.
Agreed. The entire genre is an utter affront to music.
It works better as a soundtrack. Watch “Lincoln Lawyer” f’rinstance.
Ha ha – well said! In fact, Bob Dylan said “rap is c**p” and on this one point I agree with him. I also agree that rap may be okay as a soundtrack and would add the theme song for “Justified” as an example. It is the only rap song I like at all (also a great series).
20 best rap songs is like rating the 20 best bowel movements.
I love your writing Bridget, but as to the music taste – they don’t call it C(RAP) for nuttin’.
2 Live Crew – Me So Horny
I love you long time.
hey! I had my best break up EVAH to that song’s soundtrack. wig-snatching, shorts buttoned with “flair” buttons, nightclubs with oversize bouncers in fake leather jackets!!!
Good Times!!!!
I have this sudden urge to play GTA San Andreas.
(Another one for your honorable mention tribute: The Gourds cover of Gin and Juice)
Tipper Gore? At least PJ readers are old enough to remember who Tipper was.
Very cool. Good selection, thanks!
Perhaps in regards to Rap music, Tipper was onto something.
Whoot! There it is!!!!
GREAT LIST!!!
AWESOME TRACKS!!!
Seriously? No Too Short (Gettin It, Just Another Day, Money in the Ghetto), no Tribe Called Quest (Award Tour, I Left My Wallet in El Segundo), De La Soul, Getto Boys…in the top 20? Open your ears, dude.
Greetings:
What no “Bust a Move” ???
Yep. And where’s my big butts?
Honeslty, the only rap thing I can stomach is Good Morning-Kanye West.
Where’s Go See the Doctor by Kool Moe Dee?
& nothing by Run-DMC?
There would be no mainstream rap if not Run-DMC, GrandMaster Flash, and the Sugar Hill Gang. They also had songs were fun – so many of the songs on this list are grim
A better version of Gin and Juice by the Gourds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4hGSR5njZE
It’s rap music and hip-hop culture that are the message and the problem, not the particular’s. Sugar-coating highlights of depravity and recipes for failure doesn’t change any spots.
Am I being the same idiot that said “Pah!” to rock and roll? Maybe.
But I think there may be a slight difference between teen rebellion and racialism, outright racism and cultural suicide placed on a shiny pedestal. And the idea that black people occupy some default position of cool you show by bumping fists with a fellow cool person in a sea of rednecks isn’t exactly piercing any veils.
I’ll match standing on the Moon with cool any day. Meanwhile you shuck there’s a true difference between an Ohio truck driver, a turbaned man on the Ganges and a rapper. That was okay when I was 11 – not now.
I’d have been more impressed if the guy had quoted Plotinus, so I’ll do it for you now:
“To any vision must be brought an eye adapted to what is to be seen.”
That means good stuff is where you find it, not where you want or expect it to be. I don’t think Plotinus had any cool tattoos cuz he also said:
“If the eye that ventures the vision be dimmed by vice, impure or weak, then it sees nothing, even though another points to what lies plain before it.”
I know, I know: I should loosen up and have fun. Funny is that I’ve never noticed any cool rap people up on top of erupting volcanoes or motorcycling around Bali. That is its own fun.
If your post was meant for PJM, Jr., I apologize cuz I’ve never been able to believe anyone over 12 listens to rap.
I didn’t think anyone over 12 used the slang “cuz” either but yet here you are.
Cos I a cos from Cos – keepin’ it Greek, yeeeeeeeeeeeah!
@gazzer – yes I think you’re right. I always thought it was a music substitute for venting urges of hate and intestinal gas, you know, the grunting sounds. Ummm, mmm, mmm..
My personal favorite is Tupac, Keep Your Head Up. It is brilliant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFeHZCzaxZ4&list=FLaAaa5E871njagA4Tqee6AA&index=64&feature=plpp_video
Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice
I say the darker the flesh then the deeper the roots
I give a holler to my sisters on welfare
Tupac cares, and don’t nobody else care
And uhh, I know they like to beat ya down a lot
When you come around the block brothas clown a lot
But please don’t cry, dry your eyes, never let up
Forgive but don’t forget, girl keep your head up
And when he tells you you ain’t nuttin don’t believe him
And if he can’t learn to love you you should leave him
Cause sista you don’t need him
And I ain’t tryin to gas ya up, I just call em how I see em
You know it makes me unhappy (what’s that)
When brothas make babies, and leave a young mother to be a pappy
And since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?
I think it’s time to kill for our women
Time to heal our women, be real to our women
And if we don’t we’ll have a race of babies
That will hate the ladies, that make the babies
And since a man can’t make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one
So will the real men get up
I know you’re fed up ladies, but keep your head up
[Chorus]
Keep ya head up, oooo child things are gonna get easier
ooooo child things are gonna get brighter [2x]
[Verse Two:]
Aiyyo, I remember Marvin Gaye, used to sing ta me
He had me feelin like black was tha thing to be
And suddenly tha ghetto didn’t seem so tough
And though we had it rough, we always had enough
I huffed and puffed about my curfew and broke the rules
Ran with the local crew, and had a smoke or two
And I realize momma really paid the price
She nearly gave her life, to raise me right
And all I had ta give her was my pipe dream
Of how I’d rock the mic, and make it to tha bright screen
( From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/t/tupac-shakur-lyrics/keep-ya-head-up-lyrics.html )
I’m tryin to make a dollar out of fifteen cents
It’s hard to be legit and still pay tha rent
And in the end it seems I’m headin for tha pen
I try and find my friends, but they’re blowin in the wind
Last night my buddy lost his whole family
It’s gonna take the man in me to conquer this insanity
It seems tha rain’ll never let up
I try to keep my head up, and still keep from gettin wet up
You know it’s funny when it rains it pours
They got money for wars, but can’t feed the poor
Say there ain’t no hope for the youth and the truth is
it ain’t no hope for tha future
And then they wonder why we crazy
I blame my mother, for turning my brother into a crack baby
We ain’t meant to survive, cause it’s a setup
And even though you’re fed up
Huh, ya got to keep your head up
[Chorus]
[Verse Three:]
And uhh
To all the ladies havin babies on they own
I know it’s kinda rough and you’re feelin all alone
Daddy’s long gone and he left you by ya lonesome
Thank the Lord for my kids, even if nobody else want em
Cause I think we can make it, in fact, I’m sure
And if you fall, stand tall and comeback for more
Cause ain’t nuttin worse than when your son
wants to kno why his daddy don’t love him no mo’
You can’t complain you was dealt this
hell of a hand without a man, feelin helpless
Because there’s too many things for you to deal with
Dying inside, but outside you’re looking fearless
While tears, is rollin down your cheeks
Ya steady hopin things don’t all down this week
Cause if it did, you couldn’t take it, and don’t blame me
I was given this world I didn’t make it
And now my son’s getten older and older and cold
From havin the world on his shoulders
While the rich kids is drivin Benz
I’m still tryin to hold on to my survivin friends
And it’s crazy, it seems it’ll never let up, but
please… you got to keep your head up
thanks for printing the lyrics out!
I imagine Hitler singing that in “Springtime for Hitler. “The whiter the skin, the more I’m in. The lighter the flesh, the deeper the understanding.”
Pah! Humbug.
I’m actually a bit fond of this song. In a semi-literate, really-bad-rhyming sort of way, the author is actually admonishing people to be responsible. It’s still a horrific genre without which the world would be better off.
You found 20?
Damn…
I have never really understood the talent needed to do rap. Is there any? Even I can speak in rhythym. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I mostly just hear anger and misogyny pouring out. Listening to rap makes me tense and I feel like I’ve had mud flung on me with all the profanity and obscenity.
Gangsta this, gangsta that, I don’t admire gangsters, they commit crime. I’ll never be cool then, and I’m glad for that.
Try down loading the lyrics to Common’s “I Have a Dream.” Then try to say the rap in time with his rhythm. It’s not as easy as it may seem. Sure you don’t have to sing, but a good MC has a way of delivering lines smoothly. Better yet, write a poem, rhyme through out, maintain a constant rhythm, and create a hook in the poem that makes me want to listen. Post the song on you tube and I will be glad to make sure all of my 20, 30, and 40 something hip hop and rap fans listen to it and let you know if you succeeded.
There is a lot of crap in rap. I think you could say the same thing for any genre of music. I often find myself wishing we could return to the roots of Hip Hop culture, peace, love, unity, and having fun. But with the success of rap music, the market dictates what get heard. There are some really interesting underground artists. Before you condemn the whole genre, try exploring it. You might be surprised. I am not a big country music fan, but I gave it a try and found I like more of it than I thought I would, and the funny thing is intend to like stuff that is reminds of the hip hop music I grew up listening to. I suggest you watch this KRS 1 lecture. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybufC_3KJwk. Warning, it does contain some views that can be seen as racialist in nature and KRS 1 is unapologetically liberal, but he does give a thorough history of hip hop and how the culture and music genre got started. If you still hate everything about hip hop after take a closer look, thanks for trying.
I hate rap. I’d much rather listen to scat. Though it’s wordless, it has more melody, rhythm, and voice than any rap crap.
In a sense, scat-singing (or the classical equivalent, wordless pieces for voice named ‘vocalises’) is the antithesis of rap.
How about none of the above of that crap.
Story seems like some sort of bait… hmmmmm.
Fun topic! Nice collection but methinks the author must be quite a bit younger than I… How could you leave out Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five? “The Message” or “White Lines (Don’t Do It)” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WfZAF5s8Ws …my favorites…and how about Cameo? Salt N Pepa?
Gotta love White Lines lyrics: “A black kid gets arrested, gonna do some time, he got out 3 years from now just to commit more crime….a bidness man is caught with 24 kilos, he’s out on bail and out of jail and that’s the way it goes….rrrrrrrah!” This was about the time John Delorean was arrested… so true dat.
Yeah, I have to question the bona-fides of the author if she doesn’t mention the Sugarhill Gang.
I recall hearing this at age 16 and it was incredible then…even better now! It’s message is a good one too…
“The Message” Grandmaster Flash
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjLHrhLVwzs&feature=fvst
“
I recall hearing this at age 16 and it was incredible then…even better now! It’s message is a good one too…
“The Message” Grandmaster Flash
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjLHrhLVwzs&feature=fvst
and where’s the love for Master P? and No Limit Records????
New Orleans + Cali = awesome!!!!!
and, yes, I don’t usually sound like such a fan-girl dork.
Good list, well defended, but can’t abide the exclusion of Wu-Tang Clan. Bring the Ruckus was transformative both for the genre and the culture.
Thanks for the list.
It brings back good memories.
I enjoyed your list and it is cool to see that I have something in common with some of the conservatives out there. My dad agrees with many of the poster in his view of rap and hip hop. He thinks most of it is crap too. Oh well, different strokes…
In the end, this genre is like any other. There is great stuff, good, stuff, bad stuff, and just awful stuff. I must come for
An earlier generation too. What about the beastie boys “no sleep till Brooklyn”? No “Rapper’s Delight”? Queen latifah’s “U-N-I-T-Y” was another great cut in that it gave black women a oice and chastized black men for their disrespectful treatment of women. And i have to say, will smith’s Summertime is on of my all time favorites.
My favorite rap “song” is John Cage’s “4:33″
No, seriously, leaving aside the self-destructive messages preached in many rap “songs”, I’d classify it as a form of spoken word performance, not music per se.
This *is*, BTW, how the genre began — DJs and/or MCs rhythmically bantering while cueing up the next record, or doing the same while (poor-man’s) looping a dance beat on the turntable.
Rap? Ugh. I’d rather have ice picks drilled through my ears than listen to that spoken word spew-garbage with samples stolen from real artists.
Rap represents musical art reduced to the lowest common denominator where literally ANYONE can do it and talent is nonexistent or irrelevant, just like Jackson Pollack’s “paintings.”
If you like it, that’s fine…just don’t call it music.
Good List!
Ice Cube, Today was a Good Day #21
http://youtu.be/QWfbGGZE07M
Where is Wu Tang Clan?
Good Lord, this is stupid.
Johnny’s in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I’m on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trench coat
Badge out, laid off
Says he’s got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off
Look out kid
It’s somethin’ you did
God knows when
But you’re doin’ it again
You better duck down the alley way
Lookin’ for a new friend
The man in the coon-skip cap
In the big pen
Wants eleven dollar bills
You only got ten.
Maggie comes fleet foot
Face full of black soot
Talkin’ that the heat put
Plants in the bed but
The phone’s tapped anyway
Maggie says that many say
They must bust in early May
Orders from the DA
Look out kid
Don’t matter what you did
Walk on your tip toes
Don’t try, ‘No Doz’
Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose
Keep a clean nose
Watch the plain clothes
You don’t need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows.
Get sick, get well
Hang around an ink well
Ring bell, hard to tell
If anything is goin’ to sell
Try hard, get barred
Get back, write Braille
Get jailed, jump bail Join the army, if you failed
Look out kid
You’re gonna get hit
But users, cheaters
Six-time losers
Hang around the theaters
Girl by the whirlpool
Lookin’ for a new fool
Don’t follow leaders
Watch the parkin’ meters.
Ah get born, keep warm
Short pants, romance, learn to dance
Get dressed, get blessed
Try to be a success
Please her, please him, buy gifts
Don’t steal, don’t lift
Twenty years of schoolin’
And they put you on the day shift
Look out kid
They keep it all hid
Better jump down a manhole
Light yourself a candle
Don’t wear sandals
Try to avoid the scandals
Don’t wanna be a bum
You better chew gum
The pump don’t work
‘Cause the vandals took the handles.
I have to question the author’s bona-fides when the Sugarhill Gang gets no mention.
Bridget,
How can you not include anything by Run DMC, including obviously, the breakthrough/breakover cover of Walk This Way (far better than the original, and I LIKE Aerosmith)?
And while Will Smith is a political lefty lunatic, his theme music for “Men In Black” is not only amazingly witty and sharp, I think it is possibly the best (at least well known) movie theme of the last 25-30 years.
Also, on a website with so many of us Jews, how did you leave out the Beastie Boys? I have a particular favorite for “No Sleep Till Brooklyn.”
Rap ain’t no form of music no how
All them lyrics belong on a garbage scow
Some mite call it a revolution
I call it just plain ol’ noise pollution
(And that folks is my final answer!)
” ‘Hip-Hop’ represents the most dehumanizing images of black people since the dawn of minstrelsy in the 19th century.” – STANLEY CROUCH
“ ‘Rap’ is the most overtly and consistently misogynistic music ever produced in human history.” – JOHN McWHORTER
Both of these gentlemen are black, and they’re 100% correct. But all they do is address rap “lyrics” — rap “music” itself is non-existent, and therefor immune from coherent criticism.
As for me, there hasn’t been any good black music since Otis Redding, Solomon Burke, and Wilson Pickett.
Good list, but I’d have to add Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems, Wanna Be a Baller, Tupac’s Changes.
No Run DMC, Beastie Boys, Kid Rock, Colt Ford???? C’mon.
Kid Rock’s Wasting time is my favorite!
alrighty then, Shakespeare rap: Daryl “chill” mitchell (?)- the teacher in 10 Things I Hate About You- rapping Shakespeare. Couldn’t find a video clip.
Stanley Lombardo doing Homer- it should sound like rap- you can rap his written work- I haven’t seen a clip- but I can read it rap-style.
Hick rap: Toby Keith in Red Solo Cup
Beauty-School Drop Out rap- that would be Mizz Debbie Harry, and her thing from Mars.
And look up master P. I have no idea why Bobby Jindal isn’t shooting commercials with him- he’s straight-up bootstrapping entrepeneurship.
Oh- the mix of ??? I’ll find it later- and the news reports at the Oklahoma City bombing- it’s aural Guernica. I hear the regular song,and wonder where the rest of it is. Morgan, on the radio in the morning in New Orleans, played it. Any help, anyone?
The most entertaining by far:
“Hitler Rap” by Mel Brooks
Is rap just opera with a heavy back-beat and equally silly costumes?
Rap sucks. So does hip-hop. Most pop music nowadays sucks, and has done so since Madonna.
Rap sounds like an audible rendition of a migraine headache leavened with a hemorrhoid attack during an opium nightmare. I’d rather have my intestines rolled out on a spindle than to spend five minutes listening to that garbage.
As a fellow addict gratefully in recovery for 17 years, I nominate for inclusion Eminem’s “Not Afraid” (featuring Rihanna) from his 2010 _Recovery_ album, the lyrics of which read, in part:
It was my decision to get clean, I did it for me
Admittedly, I probably did it subliminally
for you, so I could come back a brand new me you helped see me through
And don’t even realize what you did, believe me you
I been through the wringer, but they could do little to the middle finger
I think I got a tear in my eye, I feel like the king of
my world, haters can make like bees with no stingers
and drop dead, no more beef flingers
No more drama from now on, I promise
to focus solely on handling my responsibilities as a father
So I solemnly swear to always treat this roof like my daughter’s
and raise it, you couldn’t lift a single shingle on it!
Cause the way I feel, I’m strong enough to go to the club
or the corner pub, and lift the whole liquor counter up
Cause I’m raising the bar
I’d shoot for the moon but I’m too busy gazin at stars
I feel amazing and I’m not afraid.
No Eric B. and Rakim? For shame.
Then, of course, there’s always this classic…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q42tEnt9GWg
Rap is not music. It has a beat, but no melody. Noise without a melody is just noise, not music.