Ten Most Game Changing Rap Songs

[Duke]

These are songs, not necessarily the highest chart-toppers, that got deep emotionally or expanded the range of what people expected from Hip-Hop.


1. T.R.O.Y. (They Reminisce Over You) by Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth

The best RIP dedication in the history of the game

2. Renee by the Lost Boyz

This group faced a lot of tragedy, one member dead and their DJ doing 37 years in jail. Before that, though, this Mr. Cheeks vehicle was probably the best song about love gone wrong in the history of hip hop

3. Dear Mama by Tupac

Almost every rapper has a song dedicated to mom dukes. This will be the one to stand the test of time

4. The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

There were rap songs before this. If one wants to get technical you could count the Watts Prophets as rappers, but this was the first real rap song with, well...a message. It was honest, and it was one of the first rap songs not concerned with bragging

5. One Love by Nas

I remember the first time I heard this. It's probably the best song about how depressing the hood can be; there's a melancholy African marimba sample, and the last verse, where Nas gives advice to the shorty, is one of the best

6. Miss Jackson by Outkast

This was one of those songs that caught people who thought they hated rap off-guard. Many crossover songs are regarded as sell-outs or compromises, but this one was a beautiful piece of Rap masquerading as R & B

7. The Nature of the Threat by Ras Kass

I don't agree with everything Ras says in this racially incindiary track, but he's so intelligent that it's hard to dismiss. He basically lays out thousands of years of evolution and racial strife in less than five minutes

8. C.R.E.A.M. by Wu-Tang Clan

Everybody chases the dollar, and anyone can make a generic track about the pursuit of wealth, but fifteen years later this cut still sounds more ruthless than anything else. It features Inspectah Deck's best verse, and a killer piano sample

9. Benita Applebaum by Tribe Called Quest

Like Common, LL, or MC Shan, these MCs went against the grain by showing that you didn't have to treat a woman like shit to get ahead in the game. It also quintessentially sums up the tribe's sound and production

10. Stan by Eminem

Excepting maybe "Brain Damage," this is probably Em's most coherent narrative. Even without the video, it's easy to visualize the story going off the lyrics alone

[complexity]

Nice list.

[Duke]

Not sure if you created this list or found it somewhere but, it's pretty dope. I'm sure a few songs could be replaced with other songs and what not. Dope list though. Was worth a read.

Nah, man. I did this by my lonely.

[Lawgix]

I'd say "I'm On A Boat" -- by The Lonely Island. Brought a harmonic peace to this earth.

lol cuz they on some boats mutha fucka....

[eMCee Havic]

yo what about

cop killer - Ice T
shit was the birth of gangsta rap as we know it.

oh and
the bridge is over - boogie down production
the birth of battle raps or diss tracks as we know it

[QwarterZ]

I thought it was Busy Bee and Kool Moe Dee that started the battle idea
*Kanye Shrug*