100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs Ever!!!
The arguments go on forever. Is old school better than new school? What’s the hardest gangsta joint around? Which MC has the hippest flow? And, of course: what’s the drop-dead deep-ass dopest rap track ever made? Well, we can all chill on that last question for awhile. Our 100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs countdown has the answer. It’s part of a ramp-up to this year’s rather incredible Hip Hop Honors show.
All summer long fans have been voting on the list. VH1 combined their opinions with those of hip-hop culture vultures and next week, for five nights, the show runs down the ranking, offering interviews with artists and pundits, breaking out classic footage, and dropping some superstar science on all the tracks involved. It airs Monday, September 29 - Friday, October 3 at 10 pm ET.
Now, the big question, which one made the top of the list? Was Public Enemy (check the video above) number 10 or number 1? Make the jump and find out.
Watch a video playlist with LOTS of the 100 Greatest entries.
100 GREATEST HIP HOP SONGS
01 Public Enemy / Fight The Power
02 Sugarhill Gang / Rapper’s Delight
03 Dr. Dre / Nuthin But A ‘G’ Thang
04 Run-DMC ft/ Aerosmith/ Walk This Way
05 Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five / The Message
06 N.W.A. / Straight Outta Compton
07 Notorious B.I.G. / Juicy
08 Snoop Doggy Dogg / Gin and Juice
09 Salt-N-Pepa / Push It
10 Kurtis Blow / The Breaks
Check out our Video Vixens playlist, featuring some serious badunkadunks.
11 Jay-Z / Hard Knock Life
12 L.L. Cool J / I Can’t Live Without My Radio
13 Wu-Tang Clan / C.R.E.A.M.”
14 Tupac / I Get Around
15 Eminem / Stan
16 Missy Elliott / Get Ur Freak On
17 Sir Mix-A-Lot / Baby Got Back
18 50 Cent / In Da Club
19 Ice T / Colors
20 Kanye West ft/ Jamie Foxx / Gold Digger
Check our Hip Hop Threads playlist for the most stylish moves in the game.
21 Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force/ Planet Rock
22 Naughty By Nature / OPP
23 Outkast / B.O.B.
24 Eric B and Rakim / Paid in Full
25 Fugees / Killing Me Softly
26 MC Hammer / U Can’t Touch This
27 Beastie Boys / Hold it Now, Hit it
28 Ice Cube / It Was A Good Day
30 Digital Underground / The Humpty Dance
30 Tribe Called Quest / Check the Rhime
Check out our Hip Hop A-Z playlist for rap that covers the alphabet.
31 Kool Moe Dee / How Ya Like Me Now
32 Puff Daddy & The Family ft/ Notorious B.I.G., Lil’ Kim and The Lox/ It’s All About The Benjamins
33 Bone Thugs-N-Harmony / Tha Crossroads
34 Cypress Hill / Insane In The Brain
35 Queen Latifah ft. Monie Love / Ladies First
36 Nelly / Hot In Herre
37 Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock / It Takes Two
38 Coolio / Gangsta’s Paradise
39 Tone-Loc / Wild Thing
40 Run-DMC / It’s Like That
Check out our video playlist of tracks by this year Hip Hop Honors honorees
41 Funky 4 + 1 / That’s the Joint
42 Roxanne Shante / Roxanne’s Revenge
43 Game, The ft. 50 Cent / Hate It or Love It
44 Method Man ft/ Mary J. Blige / I’ll Be There For You /You’re All I Need to Get By
45 Geto Boys / Mind Playing Tricks On Me
46 De La Soul / Me, Myself, And I
47 Young MC / Bust A Move
48 Nas / One Love
49 Boogie Down Productions / My Philosophy
50 Lil’ Wayne / Tha Block Is Hot
Check out our Hip Hop By the Borough playlist of Brooklyn music.
51 Doug E. Fresh & the Get Fresh Crew / The Show
52 Foxy Brown ft. Jay-Z - I’ll Be
53 Lox ft. DMX and Lil’ Kim / Money, Power, Respect
54 MC Lyte / Cha Cha Cha
55 Terror Squad ft/ Fat Joe and Remy / Lean Back
56 Busta Rhymes / Woo-Ha! Got You All In Check
57 Big Daddy Kane / I Get the Job Done
58 Ludacris ft. Shawna/ What’s Your Fantasy
59 Ol’ Dirty Bastard / Shimmy Shimmy Ya
60 L.L. Cool J / I Need Love
Check out our Hip Hop Collabos playlist for clips of artists sharing the creativity.
61 Slick Rick / Children’s Story
62 Digable Planets / Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)
63 Kid ‘n Play / Rollin’ With Kid N Play
64 The Roots / What they Do
65 Spoonie Gee and The Treacherous Three / Love Rap
66 House Of Pain / Jump Around
67 Mase / Feel So Good
68 T.I. / What You Know
69 Common / I Used to Love H.E.R
70 3rd Bass / Pop Goes the Weasel
Check out a video playlist by all the “Lils” in the music, from Lil Wayne to Lil Kim.
71 Whodini / Freaks Come Out at Night
72 J.J. Fad / Supersonic
73 Black Sheep / The Choice Is Yours
73 EPMD / You Gots To Chill
75 Lil’ Kim ft. Lil’ Cease/ Crush on You
76 Big Punisher ft. Joe/ Still Not A Player
77 Cold Crush Brothers / Cold Crush Bros. at the Dixie
78 Arrested Development / Tennessee
79 DMX / Ruff Ryders’ Anthem (Stop Drop)
80 Three 6 Mafia ft. Paula Campbell/ Hard Out Here For A Pimp
Check out a video playlist by New School hip hop superheroes.
81 PM Dawn / Set Adrift On Memory Bliss
82 Chubb Rock / Treat ‘Em Right
83 2 Live Crew / Me So Horny
84 UTFO / Roxanne Roxanne
85 Black Star / Definition
86 Heavy D. and the Boyz / Now That We Found Love
87 Wyclef Jean ft. Refugee All Stars / We Tryin’ to Stay Alive
88 Jungle Brothers / What U Waitin’ 4
89 Cam’ron / Oh Boy
90 Pete Rock & CL Smooth / They Reminisce Over You(T.R.O.Y)
Check out Lil Wayne answering lots of questions about sex and romance.
91 Chamillionaire ft. Krayzie Bone / Ridin’
92 Yo-Yo / Can’t Play with my Yo-Yo
93 N.E.R.D. ft. Lee Harvey and Vida / Lapdance
94 Master P ft. Sikk, Fiend, Mia-x and Mystical / Make ‘Em Say Ugh
95 L’Trimm / Cars With The Boom
96 DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince / Parents Just Don’t Understand
97 Eve / Who’s that Girl
98 Warren G ft. Nate Dogg / Regulate
99 Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz ft/ Ying Yang Twins / Get Low
100 Biz Markie / Just A Friend
October 17th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
What happen to
Lords Of The Underground ” Chief Rocka”
Kurtis Blow ” AJ Scratch”
Black Rob “Whoa”
Run D.M.C “Sucka MC’S”
3rd Bass ” Gasface”
DMX ” Party UP”
And is that song by PM Dawn even a rap song?
October 18th, 2008 at 12:27 am
[...] To see the full list, check out VH1! [...]
October 29th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Can’t believe they didn’t have “dear Mama” by 2pac, “Song cry” by Jay-Z, murder was the case by Snoop, Never Seen A Man Die by scarface, 2nd round K.O. by canibus,or any UGK song. This list was done by mainstream
October 29th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I would really like if they released a Cd with all the song on them
October 31st, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Get Ur Freak On, before Geto Boys…?!?!?!? Where’s Akynele? What is going on with the Nas, Jay-Z, and Pac picks… seriously…. And exactly how did ‘Hate It or Love It’, ‘The Block is Hot’, and ‘Hot n Herre’ even make this list? Oh and the Kid n Play addition loves it… yea? I demand that the HipHop Council denotes all of your authority of HipHop related decisions in the future.
November 9th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Who expected vh1 to pick the top 100. Top 100 hip hop songs at that, I would belive the list if it was top 100 pop songs ever.. Rakim wasn’t even in the top 20 What a joke..
November 28th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Where is Nelly’s Country Grammar?
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:47 am
How do you make a 100 greatest hip hop song list and not include any Aesop Rock. I mean None Shall Pass, Daylight, Drawbridge, No Regrets, and The The Yes and the Yall are all songs that should have been at least nominated. He has some of the best lyrics in all of Hip Hop its like +*^#__`!)!@`%@+% in poetry.
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:19 pm
come on now
i wuz pissed
only 1 2pac song?
wat about dear mama
shed so many tears
keep ya head up
hit em up?<=dat b ridin =]
i aint mad at cha?
come on now
yall wuz slippin
ugh
it wuz iight doe
i guess
yall needa do anutha one
and make sure deres more than 1 2PAC SONG!!!!!
and yea more biggie 2
December 4th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Well i’ma be blunt…. Where is Ja Rule?! Why isn’t he on this list. I mean he did make some good music.
L’trimm who the hell is that ???
December 6th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
1st of all you guys need to stop complaining on what was not on the list and what was. if you really are in to hip hop like I am, you would of known all the songs that were on the list. it was called 100 greatest HIP HOP SONGS . not rap!!! so calm down. i for one will say that it was a good countdown. i knew all the sopngs, yeah there were better songs out there but if you really listen to hip hop like i do you would understand y. hip hop isnt just jayz lil wayne 2pac and biggie. their good as hell but c`mon.
it was a good countdown so i give VH1 there props . d3uc3$
December 24th, 2008 at 11:06 am
In response to Brianna,
“it’s called the 100 greatest hip hop songs, not rap.”
If you really knew your hip hop as you claim you do, you would know that theirs no difference in the music. Hip hop is a culture, rap is the music that represents the culture of hip hop. There are elements of hip hop Emceeing (rappig) DJing, Breakin (Dancin) and Graffiti art. If you do know your hip hip hop, then you should know this line…”Rap is something you do, hip hop is something you live.” That sums it up for your poor confused soul.
BTW…this countdown sucks.
December 27th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I THINK THAT LUPE FIASCO FT JILL SCOTT DAYDREAMING SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON THE LIST PERSONALLY, THAT SONG WAS JUST SO SOULFUL WITH THE MELODIC VOICE OF JILL SCOTT
February 1st, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Where is the Roots?
Better than Master P perhaps?
February 23rd, 2009 at 7:14 am
NO 2pac WTF where is hail mary dear mamma changes keep ya head up brenda’s got a baby
March 22nd, 2009 at 4:41 am
A cut that didn’t get too much air play, at least on the WC was LL’s ANSWER to (How ya like me now?)”JACK the RIPPER” wastop 100 material! Don’t you agree?
March 28th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
wtf? no Mobb Deep? AZ? Onyx?
May 12th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
what happened to nas - ny state of mind…..
May 13th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Most of the songs on this list had sick flow. I would have chosen a different song by Nas however. New York State of Mind to be exact.
June 12th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
T.I.’s “WHAT YOU KNOW” is a way better song thans some of the top songs on this list….where is california love??….also MASE has no place on this count down!!
June 12th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
I just watched that crap of a too 100 hiphop songs show. Please don’t do that again. Stick to what you know. Please!!!!
June 14th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
This countdown is dumb. Now I am a fan of Rap music, what in the hell is Hip Hop? You cannot and should not infuse the 2. This countdown is wack. There is a lot of people and groups that should not be on this countdown. I like VH-1, but after this I think I am DONE. Who in the hell counted down the music??? So So So So So hurt.
June 14th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
This countdown is dumb. Now I am a fan of Rap music, what in the hell is Hip Hop? You cannot and should not infuse the 2. This countdown is wack. There is a lot of people and groups that should not be on this countdown. I like VH-1, but after this I think I am DONE. Who in the hell counted down the music??? So So So So So hurt. I am really mad at this one.
July 26th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
This list was awsome! However 3 or 4 songs shouldn’t have been on the list.This list should have started off with Biz Markie’s hit The Vapors! That was da joint in 88.There could eassily be another top 100. VH-1, please continue with the next 100 hip hop songs. So many have been overlooked.
August 13th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
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September 2nd, 2009 at 1:08 am
[...] I know. Y’all would much prefer we talk about VH1’s list of the 100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs from last year (they chose Public Enemy’s Fight The Power over Grandmaster Flash’s The [...]
September 10th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
I think vh1 should do a speacial on underground hip hop dat *)`~(!*$&`%*~++( would be off tha hook
September 10th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
so accordin to this list lil jon and the east side boys and ludacris spit better than big L now
September 10th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Changes by Tupac got completely neglected
That should have been #1
September 11th, 2009 at 3:17 am
I love Hip Hop. Oh, I love Hip Hop. I’m just so glad that they didn’t pick Soulja Boy’s song as the Number One Greatest Hip Hop song of all because that has a huge huge different song compared to Hip Hop if you really listen to 90 Percent of these songs off the List and THEN LISTEN TO HIS SONG TO SEE IF IT’S HIP HOP TO YOU.
September 11th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
nas- if i ruled the world
wu-tang- triumph
andre nickatina- smoke dope and rap
del - any song
ghostface- back like that
r.a.- uncommon valor
these are just a couple of songs that I would of liked to see on the list.
September 11th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
i think number one was just an upset i watched the full episode after episode. and number one suckkkedd !
NO EFFENSE.
September 13th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Only one Eminem and Tupac song this list is ok, but come on you got give it to Pac, and Eminem is the best rapper in the world…….
October 4th, 2009 at 12:39 am
Ill Al Skratch Where My Homiez? (Come Around My Way)…Nice and Smooth…Onyx…dont know if they the best but my favorites…and dont Jump Around deserves top 20??? even Snoop cover the song!
October 4th, 2009 at 12:41 am
Ill Al Skratch Where My Homiez? (Come Around My Way)…Nice and Smooth…Onyx…dont know if they “the greatest” but they sure are my favorites…and dont Jump Around deserves top 20??? even Snoop cover the song!
October 4th, 2009 at 12:43 am
Ill Al Skratch Where My Homiez? (Come Around My Way)…Nice and Smooth…Onyx…dont know if they “the greatest” but they sure are my favorites…and dont Jump Around deserves top 20??? even Snoop cover the song!
Any one agrees??? Paz y amor from Lima-Peru-South America!!!
October 4th, 2009 at 12:45 am
Ill Al Skratch Where My Homiez? (Come Around My Way)…Nice and Smooth…Onyx…dont know if they “the greatest” but they sure are my favorites…and dont Jump Around deserves top 20??? even Snoop cover the song!
Anyone agrees???
Paz y amor from Lima-Peru-South America
October 4th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
WHAT??? no LODDY-DODDY???…the whole list is wrong now
October 11th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
It may have bee a year…but..
L DIDDY I’M CALLING YOU OUT NIGGAH!
“MUST HAVE BEEN MADE BY WHITE PEOPLE”?
What if it was? What you gonna do?
I’ll show you a thing or 2 about “White People” Niggah–Get it?
Watch your ()**@&%$*^`!!(&# kkkkkkkin mouth Boy!
October 11th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
It may have been a year…but..
L DIDDY I’M CALLING YOU OUT NIGGAH!
“MUST HAVE BEEN MADE BY WHITE PEOPLE”?
What if it was? What you gonna do?
I’ll show you a thing or 2 about “White People” Niggah–Get it?
Watch your @)@#@&~%(*#*~(!! kkkkkkkin mouth Boy!
October 13th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
yooo dis list is garbage! some of deez artist shouldve neva hit da countdown! Cam’ron? u serious..f outta here..Mase..crazy!
but 4real, Juvenile Shoulda been in the to 10! Back That Azz Up is a certified CLASSIC..i cant go 2 a party and that song not get played. 10 years strong n its STILL on of da hottest club songs to eva come out HANDS DOWN
October 16th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
where is many men on this?
that emotional rap song i ever heard.
October 19th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
what about main source front door orr n2deep back to da hotel dig under freaks of the industry
October 19th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
main source front door
digital underground freaks of the industry
n2deep back to da hotel
any song from the leaders of the new school