8 Best Hip-Hop Tracks of All Time from User Picks

Hey , so I consider myself someone with a hugely eclectic taste in music and love finding new and different stuff. However, I've currently found that I'm lacking in the Hip Hop and Rap genre on my Spotify and would love to make a new playlist to whet my appetite. What do you guys suggest?

Cheers all :)

Edit: holy hell guys, you've given me a lot to go and listen to! Thank you all so much! Back when I was younger I listened to a lot of early Eminem, Dr Dre, Cypress Hill etc. So it's awesome to see them all suggested for me to reminisce over.

Gonna be one hell of a playlist! Cheers guys, keep the suggestions coming!

Edit 2: This took off! Damn! Currently on nights, but working on putting all these amazing suggestions onto a playlist, which I'll share as soon as I can. Thanks for every suggestion, I'm gonna be busy for a long time!

If I asked 10 people what the greatest movies of all time were I'd probably get 10 different answers. But with a large enough sample you start to get some highly-regarded repeat answers. That's how you get things like Citizen Kane, The Godfather, and Seven Samurai as "typical" answers for greatest movies. So I attempted to do a sort of meta-analysis for greatest hip hop albums based on as many sources as I could find. Here are the results of combining 47 different hip hop rankings/lists/articles

1. Nas – Illmatic (1994)
2. Wu-Tang Clan – Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993)
3. The Notorious B.I.G. – Ready to Die (1994)
4. Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988)
5. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly (2015)
6. A Tribe Called Quest – The Low End Theory (1991)
7. Dr. Dre – The Chronic (1992)
8. Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)
9. Eric B. & Rakim – Paid in Full (1987)
10. Madvillain – Madvillainy (2004)
11. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
12. N.W.A – Straight Outta Compton (1989)
13. Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)
14. Kendrick Lamar – good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012)
15. Snoop Dogg – Doggystyle (1993)
16. OutKast – Aquemini (1998)
17. Jay-Z – The Blueprint (2001)
18. De La Soul – 3 Feet High and Rising (1989)
19. Kanye West – The College Dropout (2004)
20. 2Pac – All Eyez on Me (1996)
21. Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… (1995)
22. A Tribe Called Quest – Midnight Marauders (1993)
23. Jay-Z – Reasonable Doubt (1996)
24. OutKast – Stankonia (2000)
25. Beastie Boys – Paul's Boutique (1989)
26. Run-D.M.C. – Raising Hell (1986)
27. Mobb Deep – The Infamous (1995)
28. Fugees – The Score (1996)
29. Boogie Down Productions – Criminal Minded (1987)
30. GZA – Liquid Swords (1995)
31. Dr. Dre – 2001 (1999)
32. Beastie Boys – Licensed to Ill (1986)
33. Kendrick Lamar – Damn. (2017)
34. The Notorious B.I.G. – Life After Death (1997)
35. Mos Def – Black On Both Sides (1999)
36. Ice Cube – AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (1990)
37. 50 Cent – Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003)
38. Public Enemy – Fear of a Black Planet (1990)
39. Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III (2008)
40. OutKast – ATLiens (1996)
41. Missy Elliott – Supa Dupa Fly (1997)
42. Drake – Take Care (2011)
43. Pete Rock & CL Smooth – Mecca and the Soul Brother (1992)
44. Ice Cube – Death Certificate (1991)
45. LL Cool J – Radio (1985)
46. Kanye West – Late Registration (2005)
47. Run-D.M.C. – Run-D.M.C. (1984)
48. Kanye West – Graduation (2007)
49. Slick Rick – The Great Adventures of Slick Rick (1988)
50. Missy Elliott – Miss E… So Addictive (2001)

If you wanna see the working list with every album that was even mentioned once, that can be found here. I know there's not a lot of overlap between rap and these genres, but if you're looking for more aggregate lists like this, I've done them for emo, punk, grunge, pop punk, stoner metal, fifth wave emo, and metalcore albums, as well as hip hop and metal songs. Enjoy!

For me it’s New York State of mind, perfect beat, story telling, technical as hell for the time 1996

I’ve been going through this list of top 100 rap albums of all time, wanting to be better educated on the genre. However, it’s clear there’s a 80s / 90s bias to the list as the most recent albums are TPAB, Good Kid Maad City, and RTJ 1.

Wanting to make sure I hit on recent work as well, what albums should I be checking out from the past 10-15 years? Research has shown maybe some Kanye, Tyler the Creator, Chance, just want to know y’all’s thoughts.

If you could only hear one rap song ever again, what would it be?

Flashing Lights- Kanye West

It completely flipped the switch on what hip hop could sound like at the time, just the way it incorporated Baroque pop, Electro synths and R&B melodies was inventive, it was just so richly produced.

You really had to have been there when it first dropped, nothing sounded like it. Back in 2007 rap was over washed with cheap midi board Crunk/Snap Ringtone beats.

Flashing Lights sounded like a million bucks in comparison. It sounded like you just walked into the most expensive suite in Las Vegas with a 50 year bottle of champagne in a ice bucket with a welcome card and $100K in chips courtesy on the house., just opulence.

My first pick: Devil in a New Dress by Kanye West ft Rick Ross. The Smokey Robinson sample flip is heavenly, combining all the live intruments and guitar solo by Mike Dean makes this a lock for me.

My second pick: Above the Clouds by Gang Starr. The intro of this song sounds like we are battling aliens. That arcade sounding loop sounds like a spaceship.

Would love to see what you got!

Runnin by Pharcyde. It's a J Dilla beat. And it's a masterpiece.

Make your own list of the top 10 Hip-Hop songs of all-time that you think other people should hear.

It's not for anybody to 'critique' someone else's lists, but you can give props as you reminisce.

Try to sum up what you judge your music with in 10 or fewer words.

Example: Social awareness, record sales, beat, rhyme patterns

N.Y. State of Mind is hard to top.

Obvious pick by Shook Ones Part II by Mobb Deep

Mind playing tricks on me - geto boys

It Was A Good Day by Ice Cube!

above the clouds by gangstarr

A Tribe Called Quest - We The People

Lose Yourself by Eminem. Grew up listening to it, you can’t convince me otherwise.

In no order, here are my favorite rap songs of all time. 1 Song per artist to make things more interesting and unique.

1. Survival of the Fittest (Mobb Deep)
2. LVL (Asap Rocky)
3. Saint Pablo (Kanye)
4. Luv (sic) (Nujabes)
5. CREAM (Wutang)
6. Machine Gun Funk (B.I.G.)
7. The World is Yours (Nas)
8. Resurrection (Common)
9. 93' Till Infinity (Souls of Mischief)
10. I Get Up (J. Cole)
11. Compton (Kendrick Lamar)
12. Johnny P's Caddy (Benny the Butcher)
13. Throw Away (Future)
14. How Do U Want It (2Pac)
15. Dreams and Nightmares (Meek Mill)
16. love. (Kid Cudi) (Yes ik this is barely a "rap" song, but screw it)
17. Either on or off the drugs (JPegMafia)
18. Doomsday (MF DOOM)
19. The Highs and the Lows (Chance the Rapper)
20. Put It On (Big L)
21. Lower Case (Big Boi & Killer Mike)
22. This Life (Denzel Curry)
23. Died 1000 Times (Rome Streetz)
24. So Fresh, So Clean (Outkast. Yes ik Big Boi is part of that, but I'm counting this too)
25. Nobody (John Michel & Anthony James)

Thoughts? (THIS IS ALL MY OPINION I DONT WANT TO JUST BE LABELED AS "BASIC")

Also, even tho I have Saint Pablo for Kanye, I'd like it to be known that Street Lights is the best song of all time.

The Message - Grandmaster Flash

Can I Kick It? - ATCQ

Juicy - Biggie

Changes - 2Pac

It Was A Good Day - Ice Cube

Put It On - Big L

Mathematics - Mos Def

Feel Me Flow - Naughty By Nature

It's Been A Long Time - Rakim

Life's A Bitch - Nas, AZ

Mostly that bring me back to certain moments or people.

Kanye West- Family Business

Jadakiss- Without You

Nas- NY State of Mind

Game- Doctors Advocate

Lloyd Banks- Banks Workout

Mobb Deep- Trife Life

J Cole- Land of The Snakes

Wale- The Girls on Drugs

Ghostface- All That I Got Is You

Slaughterhouse- Goodbye

1. It Ain’t Hard to Tell - Nas
2. Memory Lane - Nas
3. Juicy - Biggie
4. Through the Wire - Kanye West
5. Accordion - MF DOOM
6. Mortal Man - Kendrick Lamar
7. Fear - Kendrick Lamar
8. It’s Your World - Common
9. Mathematics- Mos Def
10. I Gave You Power - Nas

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

One of the best albums, rap or otherwise of all time

With it, came one of the most amazing full album length video of all time. If you have not seen this it’s worth a watch.

Bring back the old Kanye