Eazily I approach, the 100 GREATEST RAP (OR HIP HOP OR WHATEVER YOU CALL IT) TRACKS OF THE GODS because I ain't no joke.

serioulsy... beats from Poor Lil Rich, What Up Gangsta, Poppin Them Thangs, How We Do, On Fire >>> In Da Club beat

yeah that's crazy deej

it's an iconic beat but i don't think it's the best

I didn't mean this beat in particular, I was disagreeing w al saying this was the beginning if the end. But that said yall are way underrating it here bcuz it was overplayed

i didn't say it was the beginning of the end of anything, just that it was a point when the Dre/Aftermath sound kinda got too shiny and expensive for my taste -- obviously the G-Unit sound was just developing and merging with that into something new at that point

Yah I mean I remember thinking this beat was easily the best on the record when it first leaked, before it was a single. I don't think that any more but I think we're def underrating it if u think poppin them things is better

50 is awful

― S'cool bro, I only cried a little (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 9 June 2011 00:40 (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

thanks for the insight, dude who never heard any boot camp click til this week

― lebroner (D-40), Thursday, 9 June 2011 00:46 (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol

"In da Club" is one of my favorite rap beats ever

eh it's best when the one is married to the other ennit

Of course, but content on its own goes a lot further than technique on its own. (And that's not even to say that Kanye doesn't have technique. He does. He's just, um, non-traditional.)

Also, the perfect marriage of technique and content would probably make for a pretty boring song. Artist's flaws and failures are often their most compelling aspects. There's something about Kanye's rap delivery that's totally punk rock, and I feel like he recognizes that and uses it to his advantage. Every song he's on, he raps in his voice--there's no mistaking it. You can't even say that about his production.

(Preparing to get berated in 3... 2... 1...)

Gimme The Loot is still p much the most shocking thing hiphop has done

Why?

I just assumed that they'd have been on the same page Coldcut-wise, back in the day. Maybe they were. Maybe he's changed.

Nah, R thought (or claimed to think) it was great at the time. The biggest mystery is why Eric was so butthurt about it when he didn’t actually produce the records.

Missy toured here less than a year ago (she was terrible)

The Flashing Lights version with R Kelly on it is fantastic, but I think Kells might have just done it himself, rather than it being an official remix..?

I've never really known what's the deal about the production Paid in Full... IIRC, in the album sleeve Marley Marl is credited as a remixer on two of the tracks (not "Paid in Full", though), and some other guy is credited as the producer of "Move the Crowd", and everything else is credited to Eric B. & Rakim. So are you saying that Marley Marl produced the whole album but didn't get the credit? Or that Rakim produced it and Eric B. only did the scratches?

"the production on Paid in Full".

If you read this interview with Eric B., it certainly sounds like he was heavily involved with the whole production process:

http://allhiphop.com/stories/reviews/archive/2008/02/29/19357057.aspx

Of course it's his subjective view, and there does seem to be a beef between him and Marl about the production credits, but I can't imagine everything he says there is a lie.

Anyway, I didn't know Patrick Adams (the disco producer) worked as an engineer on Paid in Full!

Marley and Rakim produced most of the Eric B & Rakim stuff, IIRC. Eric B may or may not have been a dude with a bunch of money from totally legitimate non-musical business activities, that he, for some completely up-front reason, wanted to appear to be earning from the music business. Ten years later he probably would have happily taken an "executive producer" credit for his actual role in introducing people to each other, booking studio time, etc. Even in that interview, he basically says, in as many words, "I did absolutely fuck all musically because I have no idea how, but I hired some guys and let them do what they wanted".

Large Pro produced G. Rap's Wanted: Dead Or Alive, which Eric is credited with, for a non-EB&R example of this.

Marley and Rakim produced most of the Eric B & Rakim stuff, IIRC. Eric B may or may not have been a dude with a bunch of money from totally legitimate non-musical business activities, that he, for some completely up-front reason, wanted to appear to be earning from the music business.

I've heard this story mentioned before, and I'm not saying it's not untrue, but what's the source for it?

Even in that interview, he basically says, in as many words, "I did absolutely fuck all musically because I have no idea how, but I hired some guys and let them do what they wanted".

In the interview he says he knew what samples should be used on the tunes, and told the engineers to put them there, since he didn't know how to use the recording equipment. This is actually a pretty common practice with DJs-come-producers (I don't think anyone's denying he was a DJ), and (if he's telling the truth) hardly the same as "letting them to do what they wanted". I agree, though, that if things went the way he said they did, Marl and the other folks working on the record should've at least gotten a co-producer credit.

what's the source for it

Lots of dudes saying lots of stuff totally and utterly on the record, all the time.

It was the engineer Patrick Adams. Pat would let me dream and he would push the envelope for me. With “Chinese Arithmetic” I was just in the studio scratching. Patrick was recording and put everything together. Pat was definitely my internet; he was my eyes and ears to the world. He knew how to take any dream I had and search it out and make it happen. I was like Patrick, I want to put ten different records on top of the record, I want a sound here, I want this to happen and that to happen, he would go out and smoke a cigarette and come back and say I got it. I would come back in an hour and everything I asked for would be on the record.

"Patrick, make a record with... some samples. Have, oh I dunno, 'a sound' on it. I'm leaving the studio now, and won't be around for any part of the sample selection, editing, programming, arrangement, mixing or recording of this putative record." C'mon.

Gimme The Loot is still p much the most shocking thing hiphop has done

Why?

He robs a pregnant lady at gun point and then has a shoot out with a cop?

Marley, Rakim, Eric, Juice Crew members, engineers, people from the record company etc. etc. etc. etc. have all said that Eric had nothing to do with producing the records.

Okay, but I'd still like to know who produced them, then? Marley? Patrick Adams? Is there any good article on the album that would chronicle the whole recording process?

today i voted for:

64. The Notorious B.I.G. – Hypnotize [6 votes, 180 points, 1997]
60. Juvenile - Ha [6 votes, 185 points, 1999]
54. Clipse - Grindin' [8 votes, 189 points, 2004]

if 'in da club' doesn't place i'll be pissed. never knew that abt quik - kewl fact!

smh @ '99 problems' too. hate that song cos when jay-z weirdly blew up here (like a few years ago) that seems to be considered his masterpiece.

i used to like kanye fine, but i can't remember 'flashing lights' and i associate 'gold digger' with shitty student nights. trying to work out which kanye song i would vote for (if i had to) - maybe slow jamz?

yah eric b was a sketchy character. no idea where i heard that though

Marley produced most of the first record, Adams most of the second, Paul C and Large Pro on the third, I can't remember on the last - maybe Rakim on his own?

hey guys the top 50 today should include graphics done by our one and only spottie, so i'm going to have the youtube clips as links.

let's try our best to make the thread more interesting for floppy k?

Hoy, just sent you an email through gmail from my popthelevels @ gmail account.

ok god damn they are dope!

Alright cool, just wanted to make sure you got em before I crashed.

smh @ '99 problems' too. hate that song cos when jay-z weirdly blew up here (like a few years ago) that seems to be considered his masterpiece.

I don't want to speak for everyone who likes it and/or may have voted for it, but there's a reason it crossed over to the mainstream (not that Jay isn't mainstream already, but you know what I mean). It's got an insanely catchy hook and vintage Rubin production. Oldnicks like me are reminded of the early Def Jam days and RUN DMC when we hear it, and that warms the cockles of our beating hearts. The youngs (and those who almost exclusively listen to rap) find it corny and lame. I wouldn't and don't fault them for it, it's just generational.

That song is a massive stomper.

99 problems is dope the thing i just don't understand is why it became the black album stable over PSA

Can we have more of the results?

wait for americans to wake up.

Yah I mean I remember thinking this beat was easily the best on the record when it first leaked, before it was a single. I don't think that any more but I think we're def underrating it if u think poppin them things is better

― lebroner (D-40), Wednesday, June 8, 2011 11:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

"in da club" was never not a single though! it was a hit from like day one

i'm awake, hoy, post at least one and i'll argue about it with myself for a couple hours

50. T.I. - What You Know [8 votes, 195 points, 2006]

http://i52.tinypic.com/117cmld.jpg

damn i shouldve voted for that

seems about right

btw i approve of the new format

49. Three 6 Mafia ft. U.G.K. and Project Pat - Sippin' on Some Syrup [6 votes, 196 points, 2000]

http://i55.tinypic.com/15p672c.jpg

Hell yeah, top ten for me

So Stay Fly is still to come then?

I genuinely have no idea what's going to top this poll. Exciting, given that the albums list felt like a bit of a foregone conclusion.

I can't get Mike's Spotify playlist to load, or it seems to be emptying, but I've put my own up here. Almost everything is there, except De La Soul, weirdly.

not nyquil motherfucker. codine syrup
tigersmores 5 days ago

"what you know" #50 on my ballot too

ahhhh big ups on the images!!

'sippin on some syrup' was my #3 -- pimp's verse is the best ever

still in search of more beats that sound like that (and 'feelin on yo booty')

yeah these images are sweet btw tbh

it's a classic

thought that would have got more than 6 votes actually

That's wrong al, the full lp leaked before "in da club" was released as a single

(tie w/ #47)GZA ft. Ghostface Killah, RZA and Killah Priest - 4th Chamber [6 votes, 201 points, 1995]

http://i54.tinypic.com/ao9rvm.jpg