The best Rap singles of The Noughties (’99-’09)
We’ve still got 30 days to go so it’s probably a tad presumptuous to come up with a best singles of ’09 list just yet, but unless there are any behemoth developments in the next 30-odd days we can guarantee you at least 12 of the singles here will feature in any list we might’ve made on the 31st december. All of these got the video treatment, bar De La’s Excursions remake that appeared on an 12″ EP of the best tunes from that J. Period tribute to Q. Tip/ATCQ mixtape, which is a nice way to end the decade. Popular Demand by The Clipse & Cam has grown on us and resides in ’09′s honourable mentions section alongside Respect My Mind by Lil B, The Ghetto by Beanie Sigel, and Glamorous Lifestyle by Jacka & Andre Nickatina.
2009
1. DJ Quik & Kurupt – 9 Times Outta 10
2. Raekwon ft. Method Man & Ghostface – New Wu
3. UGK – Da Game Been Good To Me
4. G. Mane ft. G-Side – No One Duz It Betta
5. Young Jeezy – Circulate
6. Royce Da 5’9″ – Shake This
7. G-Side ft. P.T – My Aura
8. Witchdoctor – Rich And Poor
9. Cam’Ron – I Used To Get It In Ohio
10. Tha Dogg Pound ft. Turf Talk – Y’All Know What I’m Doin’
11. Lil’ Boosie ft. Lil’ Phat – I’m A Dog
12. Young Chris & Freeway ft. Beanie Sigel – Last 2
13. De La Soul – Excursions ’09
14. Curren$y – Elevator Musik
15. Pill – Trap Goin’ Ham
2008
A few of these became official singles long after they dropped (The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, We Roll and Nuthin’ 2 A Boss), and it’s a damn good thing they did as we’d have struggled to make it to 15 in ’08. Can’t complain about the rest of the singles released this year, though, (especially that top 7) and every tune other thsn Royal Flush and We Roll were afforded a video. As much as we love the format of the 12″ single, at this point i’ll take a nice video on Youtube with a comment section full of unintentionally funny brainfarts over a piece of wax in a plain cardboard sleeve anyday.
1. Big Boi ft. Raekwon & Andre 3000 – Royal Flush
2. Blaq Poet – Don’t Give A Fucc
3. Prodigy – Dirty New Yorker
4. Trae ft. Slim Thug – Nuthin’ 2 A Boss
5. Lil’ Wayne – A Milli
6. AZ ft. Styles P – The Hardest Part 2
7. E-40 ft Ice-T – Earl
8. Consequence ft. KanYe West – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
9. Curren$y – The Reagan Era
10. The Roots ft. Dice Raw & Peedi Crakk – Get Busy
11. Young Jeezy – Crazy World
12. Pete Rock ft. Jim Jones & Max B – We Roll
13. Curtains – Night Of The Living Dope
14. Busta Rhymes – Don’t Touch Me (Throw Da Water On ‘Em)
15. T.I – What Up, What’s Happenin’
To see the rest of an exhaustive list of Noughty classics from ’99 – ’07 visit our boy The Martorialist.
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18 Responses to "The best Rap singles of The Noughties (’99-’09)"
Where’s 102 Names when you need him?
Can we get the Greenpeace best 10 singles of the noughties?
ghostface ‘run’
jaylib ‘the red’
jay dee ‘pause’
nas ‘made u look’
nas ‘get down
madvillian ‘all caps’
kardinal offishall ‘ol time killin’
sean price ’60 bar dash’
baby/clipse ‘what happened to that boy’ and any clipse
blaq poet ‘don’t give a fuck’
redman ‘gillahouse check’
outkast ‘ms jackson’ (just in there, 2000)
devin ‘what a job’
bumpy knuckles ‘industry shakedown’
phat kat ‘destiny’
gza ‘fame’
wu ‘carefull click click’
these were records that spent more time on the decks than on the shelf. missed q-tip ‘gettin up’ too and of course big boi ‘royal flush’, two of the best singles of the last few years.
3 things.
1. How come you like Don’t Give A Fucc now?
2. How do songs by The Clipse fit into your “Poor black kids are poisoning themselves with negative rap” philosophy?
3. I’m positiveWhat A Job never came out as any type of single (12″ or video).
I was waiting for that Brian, your like that guy off harry enfirld ‘I told you so’ or whatever, a sneaky spider waiting to entrap blog commenters in your web to you can laugh at their hypocricy because you are mr perfect and mr know it all about rap music.
1.if I ever said I didn’t like ‘don’t give a fucc’ then it grew on me big time.
2.here’s the devin, I have 3 copies:
http://www.discogs.com/Devin-The-Dude-Waitin-To-Inhale/release/964840
i’d call that a single.
3. yeah clipse lyrics are glamourising being drug dealers, womanisers etc, can’t deny it, you got me there brian, congratulations, you exposed me on the fat lace blog. hooray for you.
ps. if it’s including 1999 too, then q-tip ‘lets ride’ and when did erick sermon’s ‘music’ come out? Two biggies right there.
harry enfield ‘you don’t wanna do it like that’, you know the guy.
Actually, it appears that i don’t know shit about rap, because i completely missed that Devin Waitin’ To Exhale sampler EP.
Every time you listen to The Clipse, 6 black children from the slums of Africa die, mayn.
Well, it says ‘hot club wax’ it has 3 versions of what a job inc. the radio version and instrumental and it was the track that was getting the radio play and magazine/online reviews so it’s pretty much a single minus the video, and FL crew had De La’s ‘excursions’ which I think is off a sampler EP. Anyway it was a recent fave regardless and well worth picking up on plastic.
Every time I play a clipse record I feel satan himself entering my body and I have to offset my gangster rap crabon balance by playing some Common afterwards.
forgot this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmJbJs-9ST0
I agree completely about What A Job and, yes, it fits my criteria for selection. If i’d have known it’d come out on one of those R-A-L sampler EPs it would have been in the 2007 list at # 4.
Pissed i missed it at the time, but i’ve got a copy on the way now.
what i find weird is you never really mentioned these throughout 2009 when they came out and now you put them on your best of 2009 list?
I think they thought some of the tracks were so classic they wouldn’t tell anyone about them on the blog and would just wait until now to kinda say ‘didn’t you know about that one’ or maybe they only just discovered some of the tunes and they liked them so much they put them in there. I’d question whether some of them are the best offereings from 2009, but this is their personal choice, all we can do is agree or disagree.
The choices are all mine, but i’m sure Large ‘n’ Huge agree with some of ‘em and a few of the tracks from the past couple of years have been posted on here or on my blog.
forgot this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmJbJs-9ST0
whats your blog brian?
It’s linked up top :
http://themartorialist.blogspot.com/
Brian’s blog is indeed diddly-dope. None of the tracks selected are mine, as I haven’t been involved with this blog for about 6 months now, but I don’t even have a top singles list of any kind now, as that’s not how I (or most people) consume music these days. To be honest, as all my music is now consumed on the move on an ipod, I can only manage a brief ‘best mixtape’, ‘best LP’, or ‘best 1986 drum-machine rap track I picked up on ebay this month’ list. I think I’ve only heard 3 or 4 tracks from each of Brian’s 09 and 08 lists, which speaks volumes about me, more than Brian, I think
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