The 100 Greatest Songs from the Golden Age of Hip-Hop

1. Fight the Power - Public Enemy

2. Mama Said Knock You Out - LL Cool J

3. Mind Playing Tricks On Me - Geto Boys

4. Award Tour - A Tribe Called Quest

5. Passin' Me By - The Pharcyde

6. Nuthin' But A G Thang - Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Doggy Dogg

7. Mass Appeal - Gang Starr

8. Crossover - EPMD

9. The Choice Is Yours - Black Sheep

10. Sometimes I Rhyme Slow - Nice & Smooth

11. Regulate - Warren G & Nate Dogg

12. Children's Story - Slick Rick

13. Express Yourself - N.W.A.

14. If I Ruled the World (Imagine That) - Nas featuring Lauryn Hill

15. Paul Revere - Beastie Boys

16. They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.) - Pete Rock & CL Smooth

17. New Jack Hustler (Nino's Theme) - Ice-T

18. Insane In the Brain - Cypress Hill

19. Summertime - DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince

20. It Takes Two - Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock

21. Gangsta's Paradise - Coolio featuring L.V.

22. Gin and Juice - Snoop Dogg

23. La Di Da Di (Live) - Doug E Fresh & Slick Rick

24. Scenario - A Tribe Called Quest featuring Leaders of the New School

25. Down With the King - Run-D.M.C. featuring Pete Rock and CL Smooth

26. Paid In Full - Eric B. & Rakim

27. Drop - The Pharcyde

28. Jump Around - House of Pain

29. Slam - Bacdafucup - Onyx

30. Peter Piper - Run-D.M.C.

31. C.R.E.A.M. - Wu-Tang Clan

32. Big Poppa - The Notorious B.I.G.

33. They Want EFX - Das EFX

34. Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing ta F' Wit - Wu-Tang Clan

35. Around the Way Girl - LL Cool J

36. It Was a Good Day - Ice Cube

37. Straight Outta Compton - N.W.A.

38. King of Rock - Run-D.M.C.

39. Follow the Leader - Eric B. & Rakim

40. Bring the Noise - Public Enemy

41. Getto Jam - Domino

42. California Love - 2Pac and Dr. Dre

43. No Sleep Till Brooklyn - Beastie Boys

44. Now That We Found Love - Heavy D & the Boyz

45. Bonita Applebum - A Tribe Called Quest

46. Runnin' - The Pharcyde

47. I Know You Got Soul - Eric B. & Rakim

48. Hip Hop Hooray - Naughty By Nature

49. Hey Ladies - Beastie Boys

50. I'll Be There for You / You're All I Need to Get By - Method Man featuring Mary J. Blige

51. Pop Goes the Weasel - 3rd Bass

52. Shake Your Rump - Beastie Boys

53. Check Yo Self ('The Message' Remix) - Ice Cube featuring Das Efx

54. Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta - Geto Boys

55. Mistadobalina - Del tha Funkee Homosapien

56. Just a Friend - Biz Markie

57. Funky For You - Nice & Smooth

58. Loungin' - Guru Featuring Donald Byrd

59. Case of the P.T.A. - Leaders of the New School

60. So What'cha Want - Beastie Boys

61. I Used to Love H.E.R. - Common Sense

62. Bring the Pain - Method Man

63. Eric B. Is President - Eric B. & Rakim

64. Let Me Clear My Throat (Old School Reunion Remix '96) - DJ Kool, Biz Markie & Doug E. Fresh

65. It's Tricky - Run-D.M.C.

66. I Get Around - 2Pac featuring Digital Underground

67. I Left My Wallet In El Segundo - A Tribe Called Quest

68. Dwyck - Gang Starr Featuring Nice and Smooth

69. Fight for Your Right - Beastie Boys

70. The Symphony - Marley Marl Master Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap and Big Daddy Kane

71. The Gas Face - 3rd Bass

72. Wild Wild West - Kool Moe Dee

73. South Bronx - Boogie Down Productions

74. Electric Relaxation - A Tribe Called Quest

75. Me Myself & I - De La Soul

76. Because I Got It Like That - Jungle Brothers

77. Wild Thing - Tone-Loc

78. Method Man - Wu-Tang Clan

79. Potholes in My Lawn - De La Soul

80. Check the Rhime - A Tribe Called Quest

81. You Had Too Much To Drink - EPMD

82. Same Song - Digital Underground and 2Pac

83. Vapors - Biz Markie

84. Juicy - The Notorious B.I.G.

85. Going Back to Cali - LL Cool J

86. Ain't No Half-Steppin' - Big Daddy Kane

87. 911 Is a Joke - Public Enemy

88. I Wish - Skee-Lo

89. Fallin' - De La Soul and Teenage Fanclub

90. My Hooptie - Sir Mix-A-Lot

91. B Girls - Young & Restless

92. Sweet Potatoe Pie - Domino

93. Pass the Mic - Beastie Boys

94. Woo Hah!! Got You All In Check - Busta Rhymes & Rampage

95. How I Could Just Kill a Man - Cypress Hill

96. Shamrocks and Shenanigans - House of Pain

97. Nuttin' But Love - Heavy D & the Boyz

98. F**k Wit Dre Day (And Everybody's Celebratin') - Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Doggy Dogg

99. Wicked - Ice Cube

100. Give the People - EPMD

Honorable Mention: Christmas In Hollis – Run-D.M.C.


For more on this list, check out Breaking Down the 100 Greatest Songs from the Golden Age of Hip-Hop.

As We Start our Travels, Things They Will Unravel

It is weird to think about it nowadays, but my love of A Tribe Called Quest could be attributed to Married...With Children of all things. If there two things I loved in the early nineties it was hip-hop and Al Bundy. Then one day watching Yo! MTV Raps a new video came on called Bonita Applebaum which the young brain of mine assumed was a Kelly Bundy reference. Before you laugh at that notion, I apparently was not the only one because a few years later PM Dawn included in their song Set Adrift on Memory Bliss the lines “Christina Applegate, you gotta put me on”. After picking up Peoples' Instinctive Travels & the Paths of Rhythm, this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame, it was clear that A Tribe Called Quest would be no one hit wonder releasing some of the greatest songs of the Golden Age of Hip-Hop.

Riding the second wave of great hip-hop (known back then as the new school) along with Jungle Brothers and De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest quickly went to the forefront of the new movement. Where the previous generation built their songs around rock music, and burgeoning gangsta rap genre out west was building songs around funk samples, Tribe and the Native Tongues went more mellow with jazz samples and out of the box samples like Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side.

Tribe even had one of the first Latin inspired tracks in hip-hop with I Left My Wallet in El Segundo about, well, the title explains it all. But the Spanish guitar that opens up the track sets the stage in one of the more entertaining tales in the history of rap. It is a shame nobody ever thought to turn it into a movie (it could at least have been as entertaining as all the House Party movies). Another stand out track on the album is Can I Kick It? a perfect call and response track that Tribe perfected on their five albums.

But it was Bonita Applebaum which included one of the most recognizable riffs in any rap song ever (and later bit by The Fugees in their version of Killing Me Softly). When LL Cool J’s love songs all come off with a bit of cheese, Bonita Applebaum was pure coolness. Even twenty plus years later, it is not just one of the bet songs in hip-hop history; it is one of the best songs ever. And their debut showed that A Tribe Called Quest makes the ultimate head nodding music.

Don't Call it a Comeback vol. VI: A Tribe Called Quest

It seems like once a week I am listening to my iTunes library and I hear a song that makes me go, this artist really needs a comeback. So I thought I would start a new feature here on the 9th Green highlighting an artist that really needs to reenter the public consciousness. The only criterion is that the artist hasn’t had a legitimate hit in over a decade.

Due for a Comeback: A Tribe Called Quest

Biggest Hit: Award Tour



Last Hit: Find a Way (1998)

Where Are They Now: The group announced their breakup prior to the release of The Love Movement but continues to tour and perform together the past decade. Q-Tip released two critically acclaimed albums and is a successful producer, most recently on the Kanye West / Jay-Z Watch the Throne album. The most recent collaboration from the group was on the recently released documentary Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest.

Why the World Needs a Tribe Called Quest Comeback: Because rap crews are virtually extinct. Remember the good old days when the majority of rappers were in groups and the fun they had playing off each other? Now a day’s every rapper is solo and just has random people jump on ever track (there was a running gag in college of the resident hip-hop head who’s every song on every album he own had “featuring” next to every song). After seven years of reunion tours it is about time the boys get back in the studio and give us some new material. Just do not forget your backpacks when you get back into the studio.

I Only Want to Be in Your Record Collection

If it is possible to invent music that is actually forty years old, then Mark Ronson invented the Motown sound for a new generation by hooking up with Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen and the brass section from the Dap Kings. His sound launched a new genre of retro leaning British singers including ADELE, Duffy, and most recently The Like. Which makes listening to his latest album a bit jarring.

On Record Collection there is nary a horn on the album. Instead Ronson jumps ahead two decades to the eighties with a synthesizer heavy album and even recruits eighties refugees Boy George and Simon Le Bon to sing on the album. It takes a listen or two to Record Collection just to get adjusted to the new sound which doesn’t quite reinvent a genre much like his work with The Dap Kings did.

Unlike his previous album, Version, which relied heavily on reworking cover songs ranging from Ryan Adams to Britney Spears (featuring Ol' Dirty Bastard, no, seriously), Record Collection is made up entirely of new songs mostly written by Ronson collaborator Alex Greenwalk of Phantom Planet. But much like his previous album, the songs of Record Collection live and die by the guest vocalist.

The album starts off strong enough thanks to three guest raps from Q-Tip, Ghostface Killah, and Spank Rock. Q-Tip, dependable as ever, which makes you wonder how he doesn’t get more guest turns, gets the party started on the French electric Bang, Bang, Bang with hooks provide by New York duo MNDR. Ghostface Killah brings the energy Lose It (In the End), with Greenwald on the vocals, which sounds like an electronic version a song from a western movie. The trifecta ends with The Bike Song, a weird ode to two wheel transportation by Kyle Falconer which sounds like something that belongs on Yo Gabba Gabba! before Spank Rock rescued it with an old school rap.

After that, songs on Record Collection gets more precarious, D'Angelo crawls out of obscurity when he spent most of last decade to sound like Cee Lo Green on Glass Mountain Trust. Introducing the Business is a haunting tract buoyed by London Gay Men's Chorus and Newcomer Atlanta rapper Pill who is someone to look out for. But for most of the rest of the album you just wish Ronson would have stayed with the horns as his instrument of choice.

Song to Download – Lose It (In the End)

Record Collection gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Music Television vol. LXXXIV

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.


Not Afraid – Eminem



The Real Slim Shady was extremely catchy but with every passing album, the lead single from Eminem has been increasingly lame and predictable: skewering of pop tarts, Elvis costumes, peppy beat. So it is refreshing that he actually changed it up this time after admitting that Relapse was “eh.” Though he vocal style isn’t as annoying as the one he used for much of the last album, this song really isn’t much of an improvement from then.


Bang, Bang, Bang - Mark Ronson and the Business INTL featuring Q-Tip and MNDR



Sure the video is cheesy (which I guesswas the point) but sign me up for any Mark Ronson / Q-Tip collaboration.


Getaway – Michelle Branch featuring Timbaland



I can’t remember the last time I physically cringed when hearing a song from an artist I actually like (well unless you count to listening to the new Christina Aguilera album as a whole), Timbaland really needs to stop going outside his genre. Really, if you strip the song down to just the acoustics from Michelle Branch, it might be a great song, but Timbaland just has to go and make his Timbaland face and ruin everything. Hopefully there is an acoustic version of the song out there somewhere.


Lookin’ Fly – Redman



Redman playing tribute to Michael Jackson. Alrighty. The hook is taken from The Jacksons Heartbreak Hotel.

The 100 Best Songs of 2009

It is probably not a good sign for the music business that the biggest song of the year was released back in 1969. But for some reason, three artists all used Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye by Steam in their songs. Wale started out ’09 sampling it for Chillin’. Then Kristinia DeBarge used it as the chorus for her debut song, the aptly titled Goodbye. Then Jay-Z tried to kill off Auto-Tune with the help of the famous cadence. Despite the overuse of cheesy sports anthems, 2009 was actually a great year for good music (on the flip side, it wasn’t much of a good year for great music) as this was the largest pool of songs, 250 (shoot me an e-mail if you want the full list, I'll send you my speadsheet), which I had to cut down for my Top 100. And here they are and I hope to see everyone back in 2010 (check the bottom of the post for samples of the songs on the Amazon MP3 widget):

1. Use Somebody - Kings of Leon

2. Make Her Say - Kid Cudi, Kanye West, and Common

3. I and Love and You - The Avett Brothers

4. Run This Town - Jay-Z featuring Rihanna & Kanye West

5. You And Me - Dave Matthews Band

6. Sugarfoot - Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears

7. Grapevine Fires - Death Cab for Cutie

8. Funny The Way It Is - Dave Matthews Band

9. Cowboy Casanova - Carrie Underwood

10. Magick - Ryan Adams & the Cardinals

11. Nothing but a Miracle - Diane Birch

12. Pony (It's OK) - Erin McCarley

13. Too Many Rappers - Beastie Boys featuring Nas

14. Who Says - John Mayer

15. You Belong With Me - Taylor Swift

16. Staying in Love - Raphael Saadiq

17. Geraldine - Glasvegas

18. A Dustland Fairytale - The Killers

19. Mykonos - Fleet Foxes

20. Even If It Breaks Your Heart - Will Hoge

21. People C'mon - Delta Spirit

22. Notion - Kings of Leon

23. Chillin' - Wale featuring Lady Gaga

24. Melody - Kate Earl

25. I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight - U2

26. Fugitive - David Gray

27. Percussion Gun - White Rabbits

28. Chasing Pirates - Norah Jones

29. Under My Bed - Meiko

30. Red Light - David Nail

31. (If You're Wondering if I Want You To) I Want You To - Weezer

32. The Fixer - Pearl Jam

33. Fitz and the Dizzyspells - Andrew Bird

34. Wild at Heart - Gloriana

35. 100 Yard Dash - Raphael Saadiq

36. Heartless - The Fray

37. I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week - Mandy Moore

38. Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart - Alicia Keys

39. Just Breathe - Pearl Jam

40. Doesn't Mean Anything - Alicia Keys

41. Gravity - Sara Bareilles

42. Love, Save the Empty - Erin McCarley

43. I Love College - Asher Roth

44. Fire Escape - Diane Birch

45. People Got a Lotta Nerve - Neko Case

46. I Like You so Much Better When You're Naked - Ida Maria

47. Empire State of Mind - Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys

48. The One - Slaughterhouse

49. Furr - Blitzen Trapper

50. The Fear - Lily Allen

51. A Whole Lot Better - Brendan Benson

52. Everybody Knows - John Legend

53. Laughing With - Regina Spektor

54. Beyond Here Lies Nothin' - Bob Dylan

55. Just Ain't Gonna Work Out - Mayer Hawthorne

56. Little Bribes - Death Cab for Cutie

57. Sometime Around Midnight - The Airborne Toxic Event

58. New in Town - Little Boots

59. Goodnight, Travel Well - The Killers

60. Brick by Boring Brick - Paramore

61. Sky - Joshua Radin featuring Meiko

62. I Wanna Rock - Snoop Dogg

63. Hometown Glory - Adele

64. Shining Down - Lupe Fiasco featuring Matthews Santos

65. Bang Bang - K'naan featuring Adam Levine

66. 1901 - Phoenix

67. Chocolate Box - Prince featuring Q-Tip

68. If Rap Gets Jealous - K'naan featuring Kirk Hammett

69. Kinda Like a Big Deal - Clipse featuring Kanye West

70. White Horse - Taylor Swift

71. Radio Radio - Brooke White

72. The Man Who Can't Be Moved - The Script

73. Oscar Wilde - Company of Thieves

74. Swim - Jack's Mannequin

75. Nothing to Worry About - Peter Bjorn and John

76. Show Me What I'm Looking For - Carolina Liar

77. Who'd Have Known - Lily Allen

78. A-Yo - Method Man & Redman featuring Saukrates

79. Wavin' Flag - K'naan

80. Life Is Better - Q-Tip featuring Norah Jones

81. Barely in Love - Q-Tip

82. Fly One Time - Ben Harper and Relentless7

83. Why I Am - Dave Matthews Band

84. Daddy's Gone - Glasvegas

85. Crawl - Kings of Leon

86. Uprising - Muse

87. Don't Forget - Demi Lovato

88. Bulletproof - La Roux

89. On Vacation - Aimee Allen

90. Fireflies - Owl City

91. Just Say Yes - Snow Patrol

92. East Jesus Nowhere - Green Day

93. How I Got Over - The Roots

94. I'm Broke - Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears

95. Wonderful - Gary Go

96. D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune) - Jay-Z

97. That's Not My Name - The Ting Tings

98. Love Letter to Japan - The Bird and the Bee

99. Get On Your Boots - U2

100. Let's Take a Walk - Raphael Saadiq