I don’t consider myself even a marksman when it comes to scrutinizing rap and hip hop (I consider rap a subset of hip hop). For one thing, I have some biases I won’t shed, such as that I don’t give a shit if a rapper thinks he is a bad ass. I’ve never been a fan of boasting, just the same as I don’t want to hear some carrot-shaped 20-something hipster get weepy over soul-destroying puppy love up there on the bandstand. Tthen there’s the stuff that’s just bass beats and vocals that act as instructions for proper whore behavior on the dance floor.
I didn’t hop aboard the hip-hop train until I heard A Tribe Called Quest’s “I Left My Wallet in El Segundo” in 1991. But there’s no mistaking that hip hop is the arena where some of the best cross-polination has occurred in the past 20 years, and it’s out of where the endangered genre species of jazz and soul fornicate and make babies from time to time.
These are my favorite songs (in no particular order, because that would make my brain explode) from the hip-hop continuum, going back to Newcleus’ 1984 rap/funk masterpiece, “Jam On It.” While I don’t feel the need to include a link, I must give a shout-out to the inspiration for everything on this list, Sugar Hill Gang’s 1979 industry-changer, “Rapper’s Delight.”
1. “Gunbeat Falls” by Shabazz Palaces, off 2009’s “Of Light” — also “Free Press and Curl”
2. “Workinonit” by J Dilla, off 2006’s “Donuts”
3. “Jam On It” by Newcleus, released as a single in 1984
4. “I Left My Wallet in El Segundo,” Tribe Called Quest, from 1990’s “People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm”
5. “What’s the Altitude” by Cut Chemist (featuring Hymnal), off 2006’s “The Audience’s Listening” — also “(My 1st) Big Break” and “The Garden”
6. “Earth People” by Dr. Octagon (Kool Keith), off 1996’s “Dr. Octagonecologyst” — also “Blue Flowers”
7. “So Fresh, So Clean” by Outkast, from 1999’s “Stankonia”
8. “You Got Me” by The Roots (featuring Erykah Badu), off 1999’s “Things Fall Apart”
9. “Skanky Panky” by Kid Koala, off 2003’s “Some of My Best Friends Are DJs”
10. “Building Steam With a Grain of Salt” by DJ Shadow, off 1996’s “Endtroducing”
HONORABLE MENTIONS: Death Grips, “Klink” (https://earmeat.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/death-grips-klink/); Knifehandchop, “Dirty New York”; Jay-Z, “On to the Next One”; Kanye West, “Mercy” (featuring Big Sean and Pusha T); The Avalanches, “Frontier Psychiatrist”; Chromeo, “Fancy Footwork”; Birdy Nam Nam, “Escape” (https://earmeat.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/birdy-nam-nam-escape/); Bonobo, “Sun Will Rise” (featuring Speech Debelle); THEEsatisfaction, “Enchantruss”; Mr. Scruff, “The Clock”; Flying Lotus, “Spicy Sammich” Skeewiff; “The Adventures of Cutman” (worth a listen here: http://soundcloud.com/skeewiff/skeewiff-the-adventures-of-cut)
EARGGH! 