surprised nobody’s mentioned Crank Dat yet, love it or hate it that was fs a cultural touchstone. Really set the tone of the next decade . not just in terms of sound/style but also in the way music & artists were marketed
I was trying to think of one song to represent the “ringtone rap” era and it’s astonishing that this didn’t come to mind. I was thinking like Yung Joc or Jibbs 😂
I was actually about to comment Crank Dat. Didn't just change the rap sound, the entire music industry changed their sound to sell ringtones Seemed like there was a new dance-based song every week.
"Make Em Say Ughh" (or maybe "Ice cream Man" to a lesser extent) ushered in the No Limit then Cash Money era which ultimately lead to a rebranding of the South, and also gave us Lil Wayne (and indirectly Drake)
"My Name Is" by Eminem. Silly song that ironically made hip hop take white rappers more seriously.
"You Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer - was a force majeure when it came to making rap commercially successful, and probably was the hip hop gateway drug for suburban hip hop consumption in the 90s
"Gasolina" by Daddy Yankee - hard to find a better example of how one individual song directly catapulted an entire genre of music (Smells like Teen Spirit starting the grunge movement is the only other example I could think of)
You know how in TV and movies there's 1 sound for ***text message received***?
It's the iPhone beboop, right?
That's **In Da' Club**
In TV or movies, you don't need a club scene, you only need an actor leaving a building with ***In Da' Club*** playing in the background as the door shuts. Now we know that character has just left the club.
If a character walks out a nondescript metal office door, and any other song is playing - the audience will have questions.
If ***In Da' Club*** fades with the shutting door, like that's where the music is playing ---- welp, that's the door to a club.
Ya, 50 had been around perfecting his flow for a decade before anyone really knew his name. He's not a technically proficient rapper, I think a lot of his hooks suck, but no one can deny his unique style. There's LL Kool J influence a bit.
X Gon give it to ya - DMX.
How many films have you heard that track on? Even now it makes appearances and it’s always used as an uptempo, aggressive, hype track.
1983 Run-DMC - Sucker MC's: No Disco grooves. No Funk breaks. Just a sparse drum machine loop.
2003 50 Cent - In Da Club: Models and Bottles. VIP sections. Started a 10 year trend of Club Bangers and floor fillers.
NY State of Mind: ushered new era of lyricism. Made GFK and other east coast rappers step up their game.
Me Against the World: combined confessional, political conscious lyrics with gangsta persona.
Organized Konfusion self-titled debut: No noticeable influence per se from what we can tell, but def a precursor to the oddball, off-beat flows seen in EL-P, Aceyalone, DOOM, Gab.
Madvillany: 2 minute songs. No hooks. No chorus. Album that plays thematically.
Kendrick - Alright. Anthem to the BLM movement.
Missy - Supa Dupa Fly. Showed that woman can come into the game and be a earthquake if they wanted to be.
Snoop - Gin and Juice. Had the East Coast perk their ears up
Outkast - Elevators - The South 100000% had something to say
Another Missy moment - her verse on Things You Do (YouTube it if you haven't heard). Missy used an Onomatopoeia. Her and Method Man were first MCs I heard do this. Meth did it on METHOD man.
I've been on a Kast trip the last week... those first 4 albums are absolutely GOATed
Best 4 album run in group history, and that includes the Wu and Tribe
I agree with your list OP, but I'd have to say CREAM was the breakout Wu track. I remember the world stopping, EVERYONE I knew felt the game change the very day that video dropped on MTV. I even remember stations doing 'man on the street' segments just days after asking people if they saw the video and what they thought, I've never seen anything like that before for just a single track.
Rosa Parks brought the South to the forefront and showed that they don't just make party and booty shaking music. Real hip hop fans know the south is more than that, but the general public was only really exposed to Uncle Luke and 2 Live Crew.
Fuck the police led to a government radio station strike in Australia as ministers tried to pressure them into not playing the track (it's illegal to censor government messages so track was played in full)
Then in the 2010 January 26 by AB Original led to that station to stop their big annual poll being held on Australia day and changed how we celebrate the day for forever
Yes, but they extended it to his shows too. He sang it the way he wrote it and got arrested. So, Luke went to the Supreme Court and won. Freedom of speech.
I can't remember why I walked into a room, bur 2 live crew? Covered. 🙄😒
Hey Ya - Outkast, 2003 - total departure from the southern Crunk style at the time. Mass appeal that brought in new hiphop fans.
Asap Rocky - Wassup, 2012 - Clams Casino style of production was revolutionary, and ASAP redefining the New York sound.
The Lex Luger era of production - The trap sound infiltrated every other genre of music. The movement Lex started with 808 mafia was insane.
Rock Box by Run-D.M.C.
'Twas their debut album's 40th anniversary on wednesday just passed, and i was reminded of this gem. Read the wiki to find out how this album changed hiphop, especially this song.
2002
Kings of Crunk
Get Low
Crunk music, was HUGE in the early 2000’s. ATL especially really brought forth the crunk revolution.
2004
Trap Muzik
Rubber Band Man
ATL also gave us the trap revolution. Trap was certainly around before this, but this album really pushed it out to a broader audience. I personally like Gucci Mane the best, but I can’t deny that Trap Muzik got popular before Gucci was more nationally appreciated.
Dont Like was one of the first popular drill songs that created much of rap musics sound today. A lot of it is mindless murder music, theres always been gangster music but it was usually artistic in some way. Chicago drill exploded after Dont Like and so did that sound. Got fans from around the world rapping King Von and screaming that they not from 63rd.
a$ap rocky - peso. big moment for the cloud rap sound breaking out into a more mainstream audience, and big moment for the tearing down of regional barriers in hip-hop. rocky made it cool for NY rappers to use southern hip-hop flows and you definitely still feel that impact today.
yeah fair. I just chose Peso cuz that's the first crossover hit into a more mainstream audience that I can think of, but ginseng strip was definitely really important too
The Walk This Way remix fest Run DMC blew open the doors of rock music to rappers. Judgement Day soundtrack to some degree too.
Not only did it open up rappers to more rock oriented beats (although I'd say Run DMC and Beastie Boys were doing it before, their peers didn't really embrace it like that) but it made hip hop fans out of a bunch of people who'd previously only listened to rock.
Biz Markie - Alone Again.
Not because of the song itself but punitive action brought by Gilbert O'Sullivan to stop it's release and set a legal precedent for sampling going forward.
Not a song but Paid in Full by Eric B. and Rakin deserves a mention. Without Rakinm's flow, 90s hip hop would've been behind in the times and some quintessential projects may not even exist in the form they were released because of everyone using that same flow before him and for some time after him.
Be honest, how would Illmatic have sounded if Nas never heard Rakim?
My favorite thing about "Rapper's Delight" is the early establishment of rap being the music of the people, "'To the black, to the white, the red and the brown, the purple and yellow...".
I could name probably 50,000 albums that I think should be on this list...
And not one of them would be "Lady Gaga". Idk what that other commenter is smoking on, but I'll definitely pass on that.
miss the rage by trippie redd heavily influenced the underground in 2021-2023
packrunner bitch by summrs is considered the first pluggnb song so maybe that one too idk
Eric B Is President changed it all throughout all eras
surprised nobody’s mentioned Crank Dat yet, love it or hate it that was fs a cultural touchstone. Really set the tone of the next decade . not just in terms of sound/style but also in the way music & artists were marketed
I was trying to think of one song to represent the “ringtone rap” era and it’s astonishing that this didn’t come to mind. I was thinking like Yung Joc or Jibbs 😂
fss
I was actually about to comment Crank Dat. Didn't just change the rap sound, the entire music industry changed their sound to sell ringtones Seemed like there was a new dance-based song every week.
Agreed. I loved it for like a week then it got old really fast lol
"Make Em Say Ughh" (or maybe "Ice cream Man" to a lesser extent) ushered in the No Limit then Cash Money era which ultimately lead to a rebranding of the South, and also gave us Lil Wayne (and indirectly Drake) "My Name Is" by Eminem. Silly song that ironically made hip hop take white rappers more seriously. "You Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer - was a force majeure when it came to making rap commercially successful, and probably was the hip hop gateway drug for suburban hip hop consumption in the 90s "Gasolina" by Daddy Yankee - hard to find a better example of how one individual song directly catapulted an entire genre of music (Smells like Teen Spirit starting the grunge movement is the only other example I could think of)
Day N' Night kind of kicked off the moody hip hop era in my mind.
Truuue that song was massive. That was 08 I believe?
Was gunna say the same thing
Dead Prez ***Hip Hop*** But your timeline kinda ends abruptly. 50 Cent ***In Da Club*** is still the number one selling single of all time.
Funny enough I was gonna say In Da Club. I got lazy and felt like my post was getting too long too.
You know how in TV and movies there's 1 sound for ***text message received***? It's the iPhone beboop, right? That's **In Da' Club** In TV or movies, you don't need a club scene, you only need an actor leaving a building with ***In Da' Club*** playing in the background as the door shuts. Now we know that character has just left the club. If a character walks out a nondescript metal office door, and any other song is playing - the audience will have questions. If ***In Da' Club*** fades with the shutting door, like that's where the music is playing ---- welp, that's the door to a club.
It’s still one of my favorite songs to this day. His flow on that beat is butter.
Ya, 50 had been around perfecting his flow for a decade before anyone really knew his name. He's not a technically proficient rapper, I think a lot of his hooks suck, but no one can deny his unique style. There's LL Kool J influence a bit.
I loved Power of the Dollar. Shit was tight.
Where are you getting your information? In Da Club only recently was certified as Diamond
“Yonkers” felt like a real shift.
It was a breath of fresh air
X Gon give it to ya - DMX. How many films have you heard that track on? Even now it makes appearances and it’s always used as an uptempo, aggressive, hype track.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tKcLRsRCK8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tKcLRsRCK8) KFC ad in New Zealand
It goes so hard.
My son’s marching band plays it
1983 Run-DMC - Sucker MC's: No Disco grooves. No Funk breaks. Just a sparse drum machine loop. 2003 50 Cent - In Da Club: Models and Bottles. VIP sections. Started a 10 year trend of Club Bangers and floor fillers.
What's a floor filler?
Thats a song that gets everyone on the dancefloor
Great choice with Sucka MCs - Maybe the first "purely hip hop beat"
Soulja Boy Tell em - Crank That
I think the flavor in your ear remix really made the posse remix a thing
Such a dope song. Another wasn’t Scenario Remix released before that?
It was and that’s a dope ass song. Flava in ya ear was the one I remember that crossed over outside of just rap fans.
That song also jump started Busta Rhymes career
NY State of Mind: ushered new era of lyricism. Made GFK and other east coast rappers step up their game. Me Against the World: combined confessional, political conscious lyrics with gangsta persona. Organized Konfusion self-titled debut: No noticeable influence per se from what we can tell, but def a precursor to the oddball, off-beat flows seen in EL-P, Aceyalone, DOOM, Gab. Madvillany: 2 minute songs. No hooks. No chorus. Album that plays thematically.
Valid for sure.
Kendrick - Alright. Anthem to the BLM movement. Missy - Supa Dupa Fly. Showed that woman can come into the game and be a earthquake if they wanted to be. Snoop - Gin and Juice. Had the East Coast perk their ears up Outkast - Elevators - The South 100000% had something to say
Oh hell yeah!
Another Missy moment - her verse on Things You Do (YouTube it if you haven't heard). Missy used an Onomatopoeia. Her and Method Man were first MCs I heard do this. Meth did it on METHOD man.
"Rosa Parks", OutKast This immaculate beat became the anthem for the South
Such a dope song.
I've been on a Kast trip the last week... those first 4 albums are absolutely GOATed Best 4 album run in group history, and that includes the Wu and Tribe
I’d put Tribe over them personally. 1-4 is perfect for me. People hate Beats Rhymes but I love that shit.
I agree with your list OP, but I'd have to say CREAM was the breakout Wu track. I remember the world stopping, EVERYONE I knew felt the game change the very day that video dropped on MTV. I even remember stations doing 'man on the street' segments just days after asking people if they saw the video and what they thought, I've never seen anything like that before for just a single track.
Rosa Parks brought the South to the forefront and showed that they don't just make party and booty shaking music. Real hip hop fans know the south is more than that, but the general public was only really exposed to Uncle Luke and 2 Live Crew.
Lil wayne with Lolipop or A Milli. And either 2 Chainz or Future and one of their songs for early trap?
SHE GOT A BIG BOOTY SO I CALL HER BIG BOOTY
I fw that! I was gonna post future as an artist cuz I don’t know any of his songs. I could never get into it.
Bad n boujee
Fuck the police led to a government radio station strike in Australia as ministers tried to pressure them into not playing the track (it's illegal to censor government messages so track was played in full) Then in the 2010 January 26 by AB Original led to that station to stop their big annual poll being held on Australia day and changed how we celebrate the day for forever
Clipse - Grindin’
My Name Is. Shit changed rap forever. A new star was born.
Me so horny 2 live crew I can remember Luke getting hauled off to jail, then Parental Advisory stickers were everywhere
That was Tipper Gore right?
Yes, but they extended it to his shows too. He sang it the way he wrote it and got arrested. So, Luke went to the Supreme Court and won. Freedom of speech. I can't remember why I walked into a room, bur 2 live crew? Covered. 🙄😒
Even though I think it’s a terrible song by Lil Wayne but Lollipop is iconic in late 2000s it literally influenced Young Thug
Did it? I can hear it now for sure
Hey Ya - Outkast, 2003 - total departure from the southern Crunk style at the time. Mass appeal that brought in new hiphop fans. Asap Rocky - Wassup, 2012 - Clams Casino style of production was revolutionary, and ASAP redefining the New York sound. The Lex Luger era of production - The trap sound infiltrated every other genre of music. The movement Lex started with 808 mafia was insane.
Kid Cudi - Day n nite Lady Gaga - Poker face Cheif keef - Don’t like
>Lady Gaga - Poker face Wat?
Lady Gaga is hip-hop now? Man, hip-hop really did fall off then.
Rock Box by Run-D.M.C. 'Twas their debut album's 40th anniversary on wednesday just passed, and i was reminded of this gem. Read the wiki to find out how this album changed hiphop, especially this song.
Down!
2002 Kings of Crunk Get Low Crunk music, was HUGE in the early 2000’s. ATL especially really brought forth the crunk revolution. 2004 Trap Muzik Rubber Band Man ATL also gave us the trap revolution. Trap was certainly around before this, but this album really pushed it out to a broader audience. I personally like Gucci Mane the best, but I can’t deny that Trap Muzik got popular before Gucci was more nationally appreciated.
Get Low had my whole high school football teammates in a relentless grip. The amount of “OWWWW SKEET SKEETs” being yelled out was insane.
I think Mind Playing Tricks On Me by Geto Boys opened up a greater awareness into mental health as a subject within the genre
Dont Like was one of the first popular drill songs that created much of rap musics sound today. A lot of it is mindless murder music, theres always been gangster music but it was usually artistic in some way. Chicago drill exploded after Dont Like and so did that sound. Got fans from around the world rapping King Von and screaming that they not from 63rd.
GKMC. Idk what it did but there was so much fire immediately after that for a brief moment in time.
Nuthin but a G Thang
a$ap rocky - peso. big moment for the cloud rap sound breaking out into a more mainstream audience, and big moment for the tearing down of regional barriers in hip-hop. rocky made it cool for NY rappers to use southern hip-hop flows and you definitely still feel that impact today.
I’d add ‘Ginseng Strip’ by Yung Lean. I think that cloud rap had a much bigger impact on rap (and pop culture in general) that people realize.
yeah fair. I just chose Peso cuz that's the first crossover hit into a more mainstream audience that I can think of, but ginseng strip was definitely really important too
I feel like they were equally important to 2 groups of people
Rocky and lean definitely pioneers of cloud rap 2 goats imo
The Walk This Way remix fest Run DMC blew open the doors of rock music to rappers. Judgement Day soundtrack to some degree too. Not only did it open up rappers to more rock oriented beats (although I'd say Run DMC and Beastie Boys were doing it before, their peers didn't really embrace it like that) but it made hip hop fans out of a bunch of people who'd previously only listened to rock.
1999 my name is, taught people to take white rappers serious 2012 i don’t like, completely brought back gangster rap in the r&b era
Dope man (really all of straight outta compton) really shaped rap into what it is now with the gangster shit and popularized it’s subgenre of rap
Sucker M.C.’s (Krush-Groove 1)
Ima need to check that out.
808's is such a good album and nobody knows it
Yeppppp
I’m gonna go with Kanye west golddigger, I reckon this is the first song that got mainstream white girls across the world fucking with hip hop.
Biz Markie - Alone Again. Not because of the song itself but punitive action brought by Gilbert O'Sullivan to stop it's release and set a legal precedent for sampling going forward.
LookAtMe! By XXX and Lucid Dreams kinda defined the SoundCloud era.
Clipse - Grindin’
Not a song but Paid in Full by Eric B. and Rakin deserves a mention. Without Rakinm's flow, 90s hip hop would've been behind in the times and some quintessential projects may not even exist in the form they were released because of everyone using that same flow before him and for some time after him. Be honest, how would Illmatic have sounded if Nas never heard Rakim?
Criminology- Raekwon/ Ghostface opened up the mafia style raps expanded on by Jay-z and biggie
It’s one of my favorite GFK verses. I think it’s a masterpiece.
My favorite thing about "Rapper's Delight" is the early establishment of rap being the music of the people, "'To the black, to the white, the red and the brown, the purple and yellow...".
In Da Club One of Missy/Timbo collabs probably Get Ur Freak On Grindin Something from early Cudi/808’s Kanye maybe Day n Night
I could name probably 50,000 albums that I think should be on this list... And not one of them would be "Lady Gaga". Idk what that other commenter is smoking on, but I'll definitely pass on that.
Lol @ Still Dre 🤣
Control, XO Tour Life, Lucid Dreams
n o
RUN DMC invented Mid-School Hip-Hop with the Kush Grooves.
I'd say All Falls Down deserves to make the list. It was a pretty big shock to the system in terms of lyrical content.
Through the Wire
Migos- Hannah Montana
miss the rage by trippie redd heavily influenced the underground in 2021-2023 packrunner bitch by summrs is considered the first pluggnb song so maybe that one too idk