Breaking Down the 100 Greatest Songs from the Golden Age of Hip-Hop

Like many white suburban kids of the late eighties and early nineties, I love rap music. Whenever I did not have practice afterschool, Yo! MTV Raps acted as my babysitter for years. And like many people of my ilk, I find most rap music today unlistenable aside a select few. I look at some of the biggest names currently in the game like Rick Ross and Lil’ Wayne and shake my head at how they are painfully bad compared the greats from my childhood. Rap music seemed more important back then (Chuck D famously said that rap music was black people’s CNN and now it is their Home Shopping Network). It started out as party music based on dance samples. Then Def Jam came around and based most of its samples on rock licks and exploded from there with conscious rap from New York, gangsta rap out west. You had the Beastie Boys pushing the limits of sampling and then embraced the alternative movement of the early nineties. It was just a perfect storm of great rap music before getting bogged down by commercialization. So I thought I would make a list of my favorite songs from the Golden Age of Hip-Hip (click to see) to represent the best of the best era.

Please note I do consider the best hip-hop songs different from the best rap songs from the era which is why you did not see songs like U Can’t Touch This (which 3rd Bass would call Hip-Pop) on my list. And since I like to have eras bookended by significant events (much like the start of World War I did not just start in 1914 but really started with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria) so my list I consider the Golden Age of Hip Hop to start with Def Jam releasing their first records and ended with the death of 2Pac. And for those that want to listen to listen to the list instead of just reading it, I have created a Spotify playlist (please note because of Spotify’s availability, some songs may be missing; seriously, why has De La Soul not upgraded to the digital age yet?).


Song Breakdown by Year
1985 – 2
1986 – 5
1987 – 6
1988 – 12
1989 – 11
1990 – 5
1991 – 14
1992 – 11
1993 – 18
1994 – 8
1995 – 5
1996 – 4


Artists with Multiple Songs (including being featured on other tracks)
Beastie Boys – 7
A Tribe Called Quest – 6
Run-DMC - 5
Ice Cube (N.W.A.) – 5
Wu-Tang Clan (Method Man) - 5
Dr. Dre (N.W.A.) – 4
Eric B. & Rakim - 4
2Pac – 3
Biz Markie – 3
De La Soul – 3
EPMD – 3
Gang Starr (Guru) – 3
LL Cool J - 3
Leaders of the New School (Busta Rhymes) – 3
Nice & Smooth - 3
Snoop Doggy Dogg – 3
Public Enemy – 3
The Pharcyde - 3
3rd Bass – 2
Big Daddy Kane - 2
Das EFX – 2
Digital Underground – 2
Doug E Fresh – 2
Domino – 2
Geto Boys – 2
Heavy D & The Boyz – 2
House of Pain – 2
pete rock & c.l smooth – 2
The Notorious B.I.G. - 2