Matthew Mundy

Headphones

I can’t enjoy music for the sake of it. I can’t just chill, throw on a nice album, and go about my day – my enjoyment is always at the mercy of my unyielding critical diktat. I have to sit on the edge of my seat and rigorously dissect the music, mentally sliding it into whatever lists I can think of at the moment, of which there are always at least two – best of the year, and best of all time. The best of the year lists are, thankfully, usually pretty organized. Last year serves as a case in point – when I first heard “International Players Anthem,” I lost my proverbial shit. It was gorgeous. I couldn’t dress it up in enough superlatives and, as soon as it was done, I knew that it was my song to beat for the year. None did.

Of course, that isn’t the case for my best of all-time list, which is far more mercurial – it’s tough to pin down your favorite songs, or albums, or artists, ever. Mostly it winds up being a haphazard list, an assortment of my favorite music shoehorned into an overflowing mental filing cabinet, to be reorganized another day.

Thus, this attempt here – to lay out, unordered, my favorite hip-hop songs ever – represents an impossible to overstate amount of digital blood, sweat and tears. I’m talking about pure, unadulterated misery, ladies and gentlemen. It was originally supposed to be my top five. However, I couldn’t make the final cut, so you’re seeing a lot of cowardice here as well. In sum, you’re getting a lot of digital blood, sweat and tears…plus a mix of misery, cowardice, and six of the best songs hip-hop has ever offered…in my opinion. Enjoy.

Dead Prez – Hip-Hop

My heart still skips a beat every time that bass drops, swirling and battering into itself like a hurricane, eviscerating everything in its path. One of the most incendiary singles in hip-hop history (for my money, it ranks up there with ‘Fuck Tha Police’), its searing critique of materialism, gangster-cliché and soullessness in hip-hop connects without being overtly didactic or patronizing. I clearly remember the first time I heard this song and it still packs a wallop.

2pac – My Block

Picking a favorite ‘Pac song is like being forced to pick your favorite child, if all of your children were the best shit ever. Do you go with the gritted-teeth, hoarse-voiced, angry as hell ‘Pac? Or do you go with the introspective, smartest dude to ever pick up a mic ‘Pac? Or do you go with the ‘Pac that fucked groupies, partied until the bar shut down and lived every single minute like it was going to be his last? It’s an impossible decision, so I went with the one ‘Pac song that I couldn’t do without; the one that most encapsulates him to me. And it’s this one – the quietly solemn beat lays out the perfect backdrop for one of the most melancholy songs in his catalogue. Even when he’s laughing or talking about girls, it’s cloaked in mourning. It’s brilliant, indignant, angry, mournful, and desolate all at once – it feels like it’s shuffling off to an early grave, both happy and regretful. It’s at once indomitable and heartbreakingly vulnerable. Perhaps, a lot like ‘Pac himself.

Notorious B.I.G. – Ten Crack Commandments

Damn. The polar opposite of the other two songs thus far, this one is just a cold-blooded, white-knuckled, sinister-as-fuck how-to guide for crack sales. The beat is an absolute monster, with Premo’s trademark valleys and peaks dragging you kicking and screaming into the dark corners of Biggie’s mind, where he paints a haunting portrait of a vicious, amoral game that inevitably leaves the weak – and sometimes the strong – in shambles. Biggie is at the top of his game here, delivering a virtuoso performance full of the intricate rhyme-schemes and neck-snapping flow he is remembered for. The authority he radiates belies his age – 24. Damn.

Jay-Z – Can I Live

It is also nearly impossible to pick a favorite Jay-Z song – similar to ‘Pac, do you go with the invulnerable Jay, the player Jay, the mogul Jay? I think you’ve got to go with the trailblazing Jay. The guy who sat down at rap’s head table with a chip on his shoulder, a gun on his waist and a glint of regret in his eyes. He never glorified the hustler’s lifestyle, he ruthlessly examined it – boasted of the pros and lamented the cons, held it up to the light so everybody could get a good look at its dark, seamy underbelly. This song best captures that side of Jay, as the heavy-hearted horns lend the entire proceeding a palpable sense of desperation and repentance. He strips the drug game of its veneer of celebration, and it’s chilling: ‘So I keep one eye open like CBS/You seem me stressed, right?’

J-Live – Epilogue

This is probably the song the least people have listened to, and at first glance it may seem like I just wanted to throw it in to be original, or to establish some type of backpacker credentials. Nope. Listen to this song – the beat is beautiful, a cascade of strings that weaves an introspective backdrop while J-Live waxes philosophical about hip-hop and his place in it. Lyrically, musically, this song is gorgeous. When I hear him rail against the industry – an industry that will inevitably churn him out like it does most of its great talents – I can’t help but conjure an image of a man futilely tilting at windmills and that makes it all the more heartrending.

Mobb Deep – Shook Ones Pt. II

If this isn’t the most sinister, blood-chilling rap song ever recorded, I don’t know what is. The steady, thumping beat, the rhythmic, haunting pianos, those otherworldly sounds that float throughout – all of them would be for naught if it weren’t for Prodigy and Havoc, who just dominate the beat, spitting some of the coldest, most menacing lines hip-hop has ever heard. This song is the Marlo Stanfield of rap – uncompromising, Machiavellian, unpredictable, terrifying. It makes your blood run cold.

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