Greatest Rap Songs of All Time

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Greatest Rap Songs of All Time

The history of rap music, all things considered, doesn't go back too far. The genre came out of New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and it was about a decade before it got its footing.

Which makes its rise and indelible impact all the more amazing. In just over four decades, rap has had a major influence on popular culture and American society — often as the touchstone for trends and speaking truth to power.

As rap music continues to evolve, we look forward to the future and appreciate the past. These are the greatest rap songs of all time.

30. 'Grindin' by The Clipse

The Clipse released one of the greatest rap songs of all time

Year released: 2002

Album: "Lord Willin'"

Song length: 4:24

Billboard singles charts: No. 8 (U.S. Rap), No. 10 (U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop), No. 30 (U.S. Hot 100)

Bottom line: The Virginia rap duo The Clipse left little to the imagination as far as what their ceiling was after they released their first single in 2002. "Grindin'" became a Top 40 summer anthem and introduced new talent to the scene.

Shepherded along on the production end by The Neptunes, the story behind the hit song also is a classic. It was a beat that Pharell Williams originally intended for Jay-Z before gifting it to Clipse.

Everybody can name Pusha T, but can you name the other member of The Clipse? That's No Malice.

Listen to "Grindin'."

29. 'You Don't Hear Me Doe' by Scarface

Year released: 1993

Album: "The World is Yours"

Song length: 3:57

Billboard singles charts: N/A

Bottom line: Legendary rapper Scarface charted 14 singles in his career. This wasn't one of them, which makes us appreciate its longevity even more.

Looking back on Scarface's career, we can now say with some level of certainty that "The World is Yours" is his greatest album — and one that sold 2.1 million copies in the U.S. in its first year of release.

"You Don't Hear Me Doe" is great because of how sparse it is. Scarface jumps in and jumps out, no sweat, and the hook for the song is literally "yeah, check it" over and over.

Listen to "You Don't Hear Me Doe."

28. 'Award Tour' by A Tribe Called Quest

Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Jarobi White, Malik Isaac Taylor

Year released: 1993

Album: "Midnight Marauders"

Song length: 3:46

Billboard singles charts: No. 47 (U.S. Hot 100), No. 7 (U.S. Rap), No. 27 (U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop), No. 1 (U.S. Dance Music)

Bottom line: "Award Tour" is still the highest-charting song for A Tribe Called Quest, who are essentially rap's version of The Grateful Dead. They toured and performed together from 1985 through the death of original member Phife Dawg in 2016.

This is an "inside baseball" type of song for the true hip-hop heads out there, and it's been name-checked on dozens of songs and in TV shows, movies and video games over the last three decades.

This is a worldwide song. It was as big a hit overseas as it was in America.

Listen to "Award Tour."

27. 'The Bridge Is Over' by KRS-One

Year released: 1987

Album: "Criminal Minded"

Song length: 3:26

Billboard singles charts: N/A

Bottom line: "The Bridge Is Over" is one of the greatest diss songs of all time — a shot across the bow from KRS One against MC Shan, Marley Marl, The Juice Crew and any rapper from Queens or the Queensbridge projects.

KRS One reminds us what absolute boldness from an MC looks like. And the fact that this is one of the most sampled rap songs of all time backs that up.

Listen to "The Bridge Is Over."

26. 'Noorotic' by Redman

Year released: 1994

Album: "Dare Iz a Darkside"

Song length: 3:32

Billboard singles charts: N/A

Bottom line: Redman's 1994 album "Dare Iz a Darkside" has only grown in esteem over the years — despite his refusal to play any of its songs in concert for some good reasons.

Created at the most personally trying time in his life, Redman was surprised by the album's success as it was him at his most cynical and lyrically violent.

The album went to No. 1 on the Billboard U.S. R&B Chart and charted two singles with "Rockafella" and "Can't Wait," but for our money, "Noorotic" is the best song off that album.

Listen to "Noorotic."

25. 'Criminal' by Eminem

Year released: 2000

Album: "The Marshall Mathers LP"

Song length: 5:18

Billboard singles charts: N/A

Bottom line: Eminem has more massive, chart-busting songs than you can shake a stick at — "Criminal" isn't one of them.

The last track on his best album, "Criminal" was born when Eminem heard producer Jeff Bass playing a piano riff next to his studio and turned it into lyrical gold.

"Criminal" is also one of Eminem's more controversial songs because of the lyrics and definitely pushes the borders of what freedom of expression offers artists. It's raw and powerful, and there's nothing else like it in his discography.

Listen to "Criminal."

24. 'Whats Poppin' by Jack Harlow

Year released: 2020

Album: "Thats What They All Say"

Song length: 2:19

Billboard singles charts: No. 8 (U.S. Hot 100), No. 7 (U.S.R&B/Hip-Hop)

Bottom line: You see this song on here and say "recency bias," and we hear you loud and clear. We just don't care.

Jack Harlow was the breakout rap star of 2020 with his album "Thats What They All Say," and nothing propelled that forward more than the single "Whats Poppin'," which is just so instantly replayable and wonderful you can't get past it.

There's nothing about this song we don't love — and it's one of the shortest songs on the list at just a shade over two minutes long.

Listen to "Whats Poppin'."

23. 'Ambitionz Az a Ridah' by 2Pac

Year released: 1996

Album: "All Eyez on Me"

Song length: 4:39

Billboard singles charts: No. 5 (U.S. Hot 100)

Bottom line: We would need a time machine to get across the utter delirium the release of 2Pac's "All Eyez on Me" triggered when it came out at the beginning of 1996 — the first double-CD rap album released globally and 2Pac's first album after being released from prison and joining Death Row Records.

While there were songs on the album that charted higher, nothing proved to have the legs of "Ambitionz As a Ridah," which feels more like a hot ball of fire coming out of the speakers than an actual song.

Listen to "Ambitionz Az a Ridah."

22. 'Supersonic' by J.J. Fad

Year released: 1988

Album: "Supersonic"

Song length: 3:53

Billboard singles charts: No. 30 (U.S. Hot 100), No. 10 (U.S. Dance Chart)

Bottom line: In the history of music, few songs have been so blatantly ripped off as classic rap hit "Supersonic" by J.J. Fad — essentially stolen outright by Fergie for her hit song "Fergalicious" until someone from Ruthless Records threatened to sue and royalties kicked in.

There's nothing not to love about "Supersonic" even today, and it does what so many great songs seem to do in that it's almost like multiple songs wrapped into one.

J.J. Fad's success was what laid the foundation for N.W.A. at Ruthless Records as detailed in the documentary "The Defiant Ones" about Dr. Dre and producer Jimmy Iovine.

Listen to "Supersonic."

21. 'Nuthin' but a "G" Thang' by Dr. Dre Featuring Snoop Doggy Dogg

Year released: 1992

Album: The Chronic

Billboard singles charts: No. 2 (U.S. Hot 100), No. 1 (U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop)

Bottom line: While this is a list of the greatest rap songs of all time, please keep in mind it's not a list of the most popular or most well-known rap songs of all time – both of those lists would need to keep "Nuthing but a 'G' Thang" in contention for the No. 1 spot.

For a lot of rap fans, this was the song where they were first introduced to Snoop Dogg. For true hip-hop heads, his introduction was actually the theme song from the 1992 film Laurence Fishburne crime film "Deep Cover" — also called "Deep Cover" — where we first met him.

Listen to "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang."

20. '0 to 100/The Catch Up' by Drake

Year released: 2014

Album: None (released as single)

Song length: 6:08

Billboard singles charts: No. 35 (U.S. Hot 100), No. 8 (U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop)

Bottom line: This is actually two songs that play as one and runs just a shade over six minutes.

It's also the best thing Drake ever made, and even more remarkable for the fact it was released as a single and never attached to any of his albums.

Drake has always been at his best when it seems like he's just telling stories about his life and the lives of those around him. This is the magnum opus of Drake storytelling, laying out the whole path to fame.

Listen to "0 to 100/The Catch Up."

19. 'The Story of O.J.' by Jay-Z

Year released: 2017

Album: "4:44"

Song length: 3:52

Billboard singles charts: No. 23 (U.S. Hot 100), No. 10 (U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop)

Bottom line: Never in the history of rap has an artist put out an album past the age of 40 that met with such critical acclaim and success as Jay-Z's "4:44." It is a testament to the greatest rapper of all time's mastery of the craft.

The song was nominated for three Grammy Awards for Best Rap Song, Best Music Video and Record of the Year and wasn't without controversy for a line that was called out by the Anti-Defamation League.

It's hard not to listen to this song as an elegy for the Black experience in America, playing with the idea that wealth, status and fame are the only ways to lift yourself up.

Listen to "The Story of O.J."

18. 'Sicko Mode' by Travis Scott

Year released: 2018

Album: "Astroworld"

Song length: 5:12

Billboard singles charts: No. 1 (U.S. Hot 100), No. 1 (U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop)

Bottom line: If you haven't listened to this song so much that its different levels and beat changes aren't seared into your brain, you're either A) over 35 years old or B) never liked rap anyways. And the former can be forgiven.

"Sicko Mode" propelled Travis Scott's "Astroworld" album to triple-platinum status in the U.S. and also might be Drake's best guest appearance on another artist's song.

Even if that's debatable, what's not is that it surely features Scott at his best.

Listen to "Sicko Mode."

17. 'White Lines (Don't Don't Do it)' by Melle Mel

Year released: 1983

Album: None (released as single)

Song length: 7:38

Billboard singles charts: No. 47 (U.S. R&B/HIp-Hop)

Bottom line: This rap epic tells the story of cocaine, addiction and the drug game in the Bronx, told in the early years of rap music in America.

Sugar Hill Records fooled the general public by marketing the record as being performed by Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel even though Grandmaster Flash didn't have anything to do with it. Only Melle Mel performs on the track, and he also wrote the lyrics with Sylvia Robinson.

Speaking of lyrics, "pure as the driven snow" might be one of the more recognizable ones of all time.

Listen to "White Lines."

16. 'Nappy Heads (Remix)' by Fugees

Year released: 1994

Album: Blunted on Reality

Song length: 5:23

Billboard singles charts: No. 49 (U.S. Hot 100), No. 52 U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop (No. 52), No. 1 (U.S. Dance Music)

Bottom line: A lot of people may have thought The Fugees debuted with their multiplatinum "The Score" in 1996, which featured the mega-hit "Killing Me Softly."

Not the case. The rap trio of Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill and Pras put out "Blunted on Reality" two years earlier, and the biggest song off that album proved to be a remix of "Nappy Heads," which also was their first song on the Billboard singles charts.

Lots of songs get major facelifts and new lives on the remix, but few become the definitive version of the song like this did.

Listen to "Nappy Heads (Remix)."

15. 'Liquid Swords' by Gza

Year released: 1995

Album: "Liquid Swords"

Song length: 4:31

Billboard singles charts: No. 48 (U.S. Hot 100), No. 33 (U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop), No. 2 (U.S. Dance)

Bottom line: The Wu-Tang Clan's collective solo albums — outside of the ones the group put out — sold millions of copies and made each of the members huge stars on their own.

None, however, made a better album than the Gza with "Liquid Swords" in 1995, which continues to gather acclaim over two decades after its release.

There are few better intros to an album than the beginning of "Liquid Swords" — the song as well — with the haunting voiceover from "Shogun Assassin" playing, then falling into Gza's verse. It's a song, sure, but it feels more like skydiving.

Listen to "Liquid Swords."

14. 'Pass the Mic (Remastered)' by The Beastie Boys

Year released: 1992

Album: "Check Your Head"

Song length: 4:16

Billboard singles charts: No. 38 (U.S. Dance), No. 47 (U.K. Singles)

Bottom line: The Beastie Boys had a three-year break between the release of the album "Paul's Boutique" in 1989 and "Check Your Head" in 1992 — an enormous amount of time for any era in that stage of a career.

What came out of that break was an amazing run of released singles— "Shadrach" in 1989 followed by "Pass the Mic" and "So What'cha Want" in 1992, along with a new, face-melting style of rap from The Beastie Boys.

We know there are more popular songs from this group. There just aren't any better.

Listen to "Pass the Mic."

13. 'Welcome to the Terrordome' by Public Enemy

Year released: 1990

Album: "Fear of a Black Planet"

Song length: 5:25

Billboard singles charts: No. 3 (U.S. Rap), No. 15 (U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop), No. 49 (U.S. Dance)

Bottom line: Because of the often fractured relationship between Public Enemy frontman Chuck D and hype man Flavor Flav, we may lose sight today of exactly how great the group was in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

"Fear of a Black Planet" was one of the first albums to come with a "warning" label and featured a lot of great songs and one truly transcendent song with "Welcome to the Terrordome."

It's not only Public Enemy's best song. It's the best song ever produced by The Bomb Squad and the best Chuck D ever sounded on a track.

Listen to "Welcome to the Terrordome."

12. 'Alwayz Into Somethin' by N.W.A.

Year released: 1991

Album: Efil4zaggin

Song life: 4:24

Billboard singles charts: No. 37 (U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop)

Bottom line: Few groups in the history of music have changed the landscape of popular culture like N.W.A., which turned gangster rap into a mainstream, billion-dollar industry with their talent.

It's easy to see the commercial hits for N.W.A., but the best song they ever made was "Alwayz Into Somethin'," and that speaks a lot to its construction and sound being different from what we'd experienced before.

It's in this song that you can see the future, and where Dr. Dre's production style turns from the hardcore to the smoothed-out, G-Funk era we were about to experience.

Listen to "Alwayz Into Somethin'."

11. 'Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta' by Geto Boys

Year released: 1992

Album: "Uncut Dope: Geto Boys' Best"

Song length: 5:10

Billboard singles charts: No. 31 (U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop)

Bottom line: This is one of two classics for The Geto Boys alongside "My Mind Is Playing Tricks on Me." But it's the less accessible of the two.

"Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta" never actually got released on a studio album but on a "Best Of" collection that came out in 1992.

Where did we all grow to love it so much? For that, we can thank its use in the 1999 comedy classic "Office Space" directed by Mike Judge.

Listen to "Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta."

10. 'Ghetto Bird' by Ice Cube

Year released: 1993

Album: "Lethal Injection"

Song length: 3:50

Billboard single charts: N/A

Bottom line: Ice Cube always did a great job on his solo albums of mixing in a few songs for mass consumption. On this one, "Bop Gun" and "You Know How We Do It" became hits.

But it wasn't hard to tell who the real star of the track list on "Lethal Injection" was from the start — "Ghetto Bird" tells the story of LAPD helicopters circling Ice Cube's neighborhood every night.

The lyrics are as potent today as they were when the song came out in 1993 as a message to the cops: "Why oh why must you swoop through the hood/like everybody in the hood is up to no good."

Listen to "Ghetto Bird."

9. 'The Message' by Nas

Year released: 1996

Album: "It Was Written"

Song length: 3:54

Billboard singles charts: N/A

Bottom line: Sophomore albums don't come much more scrutinized than Nas' "It Was Written" in 1996 — the follow-up to "Illmatic" in 1994.

We know now the scrutiny that came with "It Was Written" was grossly unfair, to put it mildly. Such was the love for "Illmatic" that everything Nas did the next decade was labeled as "selling out" … although not everyone thought that.

"It Was Written" is an amazing album. No cap. And "The Message" is the best of about a half-dozen infinitely re-listenable songs on the album.

Listen to "The Message."

8. 'HUMBLE.' by Kendrick Lamar

Year released: 2017

Album: "Damn"

Song length: 2:57

Billboard singles charts: No. 1 (U.S. Hot 100), No. 1 (U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop)

Bottom line: You don't have to listen to "Humble" more than once to realize it's the kind of song that burns itself into your mind for good. The buzz it creates in the first few bars is almost unrivaled in the history of rap music.

"HUMBLE." is also unique in that it drew a measure of its fame and success from an accompanying music video — the video for the song won a staggering six MTV Video Music Awards, including Video of the Year.

It also won three Grammy Awards for Best Rap Song, Best Rap Performance and Best Music Video.

Listen to "HUMBLE."

7. 'Bodak Yellow' by Cardi B

Year released: 2017

Album: "Invasion of Privacy"

Song length: 3:43

Billboard singles charts: No. 1 (U.S. Hot 100), No. 1 (U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop), No. 1 (U.S. Rap)

Bottom line: Sometimes popular is right. In this case, "Bodak Yellow" is the only certified diamond single in history from a female rapper, which means it had 10 million plus in sales.

It was also the first rap single by a female to top the Billboard U.S. Hot 100 for multiple weeks since Lauryn Hill's "Doo Wop (That Thing)" in 1998.

All the accolades aside, the song boils down to the catchy, trance-like verse at the beginning ("these expensive/these is red bottoms/these is bloody shoes") and takes off from there.

Listen to "Bodak Yellow."

6. 'Warning' by The Notorious B.I.G.

Year released: 1994

Album: "Ready to Die"

Song length: 3:40

Billboard singles charts: No. 14 (U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop)

Bottom line: The fact that "Warning" got out to such a huge audience speaks to the genius of Sean Combs in the early years of orchestrating the career of The Notorious B.I.G. He actually released the single "Big Poppa" as "Big Poppa/Warning" with a smidgeon of the latter.

For those of us listening to late-night radio at the time and just being introduced to Biggie, the combination of the two songs pushed us toward actually going out and buying the album.

It was a toss-up between "Warning" and "Ready to Die" as Biggie's best song … and honestly do you ever listen to one without listening to the other?

Listen to "Warning."

5. 'Bring the Pain' by Method Man

Year released: 1994

Album: "Tical"

Song length: 3:09

Billboard singles charts: No. 11 (U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop), No. 1 (U.S. Dance)

Bottom line: The signature hit off of Method Man's solo debut album feels like stepping on a treadmill at high speed when you press "play" on it.

His voice is so unique and perfect to the track that it's value in the music and entertainment industry seemed to proliferate over time — Chris Rock named his 1996 comedy special "Bring the Pain" after the song and thanked Method Man and rock and industrial rock bands like My Chemical Romance have gone out of their way to cover the song over the years.

Listen to "Bring the Pain."

4. 'Elevators (Me & You)' by Outkast

Year released: 1996

Album: "ATLiens"

Song length: 4:25

Billboard singles charts: No. 12 (U.S. Hot 100), No. 5 (U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop), No. 1 (U.S. Rap)

Bottom line: We didn't know how important Outkast would become one day when they released "Elevators" in 1996, but with hindsight being what it is, this is definitely the indicator that a great career was on tap.

"Me and you/your mama and your cousin too" is one of the great lines in rap history

The song was also used for one of the great needle drops in TV history, on the first season finale of "Atlanta" starring Donald Glover.

Twenty-five years from its release, this song feels like owning a classic car. You just need to take it out for a spin every once in a while to realize how lucky you are.

Listen to "Elevators."

3. 'Bad and Boujee' by Migos

Year released: 2016

Album: "Culture"

Song length: 5:43

Billboard single charts: No. 1 (U.S. Hot 100), No. 1 (U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop), No. 1 (U.S. Rap)

Bottom line: It took a lot for songs released in the last 10 years to crack the upper echelon of this list, but there is no doubt that "Bad and Boujee" deserves to be here.

This was a No. 1 hit that went across the board — something almost unheard of for a rap song one generation before.

Just to be clear, when Migos talks about "Boujee," that's a take on "bourgeoisie" — and you can make an argument that one word replaced the other in the American vocabulary just because of the song.

Part of what makes a song a classic is how it ages. How will we look at "Bad and Boujee" five and 10 years from now?

Listen to "Bad and Boujee."

2. 'C.R.E.A.M.' by Wu-Tang Clan

Year released: 1994

Album: "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)"

Song length: 4:12

Billboard singles charts: No. 60 (U.S. Hot 100), No. 8 (U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop), No. 8 (U.S. Rap)

Bottom line: There aren't many more recognizable hooks in the history of rap music than Method Man on C.R.E.A.M.: "Cash rules everything around me, C.R.E.A.M./Get the money; dollar, dollar bill, y'all."

And with that, we see the ball kicked off on an epic trip through the world of the Wu-Tang Clan — an epic song that's a testament to power, greed, friendship, resilience. It has everything.

Originally titled "Lifestyles of the Mega-Rich," the verses from Inspectah Deck and Raekwon were actually recorded in 1991, which was a full three years before the album's release. Still the highest-charting song for Wu-Tang Clan.

Listen to "C.R.E.A.M."

1. 'Tha Shiznit' by Snoop Doggy Dogg

Year released: 1993

Album: "Doggystyle"

Song length: 4:04

Billboard singles charts: N/A

Bottom line: The greatest rap song of all time wasn't even released as a single when Snoop Doggy Dogg's debut album came out in 1993, which did nothing to dampen its popularity among the tracks initially or as the years wore on.

Was "Doggystyle" the most celebrated first album of all time? Maybe.

Did it deliver on that promise more than any first album of all time? Definitely.

Nothing hits harder than "The Shiznit" and the verbal gymnastics Snoop pulls off sound as good today as when the album came out 28 years ago.

Listen to "Tha Shiznit."

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