Hip Hop/Awesome Music

• Kool & The Gang. Nigh everything they've done is enough to make you jump up from your seat, but in off case that "Heaven At Once", "Jungle Boogie", "Hollywood Swingin'"," or "Celebration" weren't awesome enough for you, there's the utterly stunning "Light Of Worlds", with it's children's choir, steady sax, with rapid funk beats pushing you the whole way, all the while giving a message of unity to the world, from the America America forgot. Brilliant.
• Outkast's "Hey Ya" is a fun upbeat dance tune. Folk band Obadiah Parker takes that and turns it into a plaintive lament that is so awesome its ridiculous.
  • To be fair, the original always had the same emotional impact in the lyrics, it just played the lyrical dissonance card pretty hard. It's even lampshaded in the song when Andre states that "You all don't wanna hear me, you just wanna dance"
  • Speaking of OutKast, "B.O.B." might just be the most epic hip-hop song ever written.
    • Heck, most of Stankonia, especially "Ms. Jackson" though.
  • What happens when UGK and OutKast meet up over a classic soul sample? Pure magic.
• They're very obscure, but Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip have a talent of mixing meaningful lyrics with awesome lyrics. Listen to the haunting "Magician's Assistant" or the Radiohead sampling "Letter From God To Man".
• Earth Wind & Fire! Even though they're quite old now, their music is still awesome!
  • Good music never, ever gets old. Especially music like theirs. In particular, they were masters at taking sounds, riffs, melodies of all sorts, and making them work and flow together all at once. A perfect mix of soul, funk, pop, jazz and rock, and, most importantly, their words hit you strong. And they weren't half bad in concert either.
  • BA DE YA DE YA DE YA!
  • Not as well known as their other songs, but "Yearnin' Learnin'" is just as much a masterpiece, both for it's soulful message and the boogie beat that sticks with you.
• Ms. Aretha. Franklin. The Queen of Soul. "Respect" and "Chain of Fools" is only the beginning.
• James Brown's "Get Up and Drive Your Funky Soul" (from the Motherlode album) is the ultimate piece of Funk.
  • HEY! I feel good!
    • And, on that note, "Soul Power '74". Man, where sound clips mix with funk, and, man, that SAX.
• Eminem
  • "I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady, all you other Slim Shadys are just imitating..."
  • Eminem + Marylin Manson = Freakin' AWESOME, and the lyrics even more so.
  • And for that matter, it's crazy Eminem's two very critically acclaimed albums aren't on this list; The Slim Shady LP and The Marshall Mathers LP. To a lesser extent you could note the Eminem Show.
  • Even those who don't like rap can call "Love the Way You Lie" to be one of the best songs of 2010.
  • The song "Lose Yourself" from Eminem's movie 8 Mile. IT EVEN BEAT U2.
  • "Won't Back Down" from Recovery is just incredible.
  • "Till I Collapse" anyone?
• Stevie. Wonder. "Superstition". That is all.
  • That is NOT all. Helloooo, "Higher Ground"? And on the softer side, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" and "Isn't She Lovely." Although that last night be more Heartwarming, since he wrote it about his daughter (and wrote recordings of her voice into it! Can you say "awwwwww"?)
• Hip Hop Artist Jay-Z definitely has a lot of songs like this.
  • First of all, "D.O.A (Death of Auto-Tune)"
  • Also, "Run This Town", featuring Rihanna and Kanye West.
    • The remix from E.S. Posthumus is just as good, if not better than the original.
  • If you havin' girl problem, I feel bad for you, son.
  • "Empire. State. Of. Mind." Big Applesauce done oh so right.
  • His debut album Reasonable Doubt could very well be his best, but "Brooklyn's Finest" stands out. Why? Simple: It features Jay-Z's friend, The Notorious B.I.G.. They just tear up the mic together.
• Nas's Illmatic is pretty much an entire album of some of the greatest hip-hop songs ever made, but "The World Is Yours" and "It Ain't Hard To Tell" take it Serial Escalation.
  • Can't forget the trumpet solo at the end of "Life's a Bitch."
  • Straight Out The Fuckin' Dungeons of Rap...
  • Stillmatic is just as good
• This page cannot exist without Funkadelic's "Maggot Brain".
• "Push It To The Limit". Just listening to it makes you feel unstoppable.
• Girl Talk takes overplayed hip-hop and fuses it with classic pop/rock. And it sounds awesome. Paranoid Android and Jay-Z?
• Fort Minor (aka, Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park)
• The entirety of rap supergroup Deltron 3030's self-titled concept album. Del tha Funkee Homosapien has never been better.
• Internet rapper DZK - known for his sites on YTMND as well as his incredibly vulgar yet witty rap style - gets a CMOA after making "VA Tech Aftermath (Still Ballin')". Written in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, it was a response to Cho Seung Hui's anti-capitalism and anti-wealth manifesto. The response? A whole list of ways he'd spend massive amounts of money to spite Cho's senseless violence.
• "Fifty In Five", the last track on Hilltop Hood's latest album, is the last fifty years of world history summed up in one five-and-a-half minute track. After listening to that piece of work, I respect MC Suffa a LOT more.
  • You get a brown mark for mentioning Hilltop Hoods and NOT mentioning "The Nosebleed Section".
• Kid Cudi's debut album, Man on the Moon: The End of Day, has many Crowning Music of Awesome.
• Ain't nuthin' but a G-thang, BAY-BEE!
• Wu-Tang Clan's "Triumph". Title says it all. Also, the opening verse is Crowning Moment of Awesome for Inspectah Deck.
  • "The Mystery Of Chessboxin". NO ONE COULD GET ILLA!
• The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Unbelievable" is pure lyrical asswhoopin.
• "And I will remember your name and face, on the day you are judged by the funhouse cast / And I will rejoice in your fall from grace with a cane to the sky like 'None shall pass.'"
  • "All I ever wanted was to pick apart the day / And put the pieces back together my way (My way)..."
• Flobots - "White Flag Warrior". Tears and chills every time, especially for those with family in the military.
• 2Pac was very reliable for awesome hip-hop music. Try "Trapped", the incredibly eerie "Hail Mary" and "White Man'z World", "My Ambitionz Az A Ridah", "If I Die 2Nite", "Keep Ya Head Up", and , for starters. And that's just the tip of the iceburg.
• The Sugarhill Gang.
• Lupe Fiasco in general, but "Kick, Push" deserves a special mention.
  • Food and Liquor is excellent all around, but "Hurt Me Soul" and "American Terrorist" overshadow every other track that's not "Kick, Push".
  • Don't forget the apocalyptic Streets On Fire from 'The Cool'
• Talib Kweli's "Get By".
• No love for Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise"?
• WAR! What is it good for? Absolutely NOTHIN'!
• The song "Forever" by Drake, featuring Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and the reason the song is on this page, Eminem. There's a reason half the comments say that the song REALLY begins at 4:51.
• Diddy-Dirty Money."Coming Home".

I'm coming home, coming home
Tell the world that I'm coming home
Let the rain wash away
All the pain of yesterday
I know my kingdom awaits
And they've forgiven my mistakes
I'm coming home, coming home
Tell the world that I'm coming home

• Spin called Cage's Depart from Me "the most seamless, compelling union of hip-hop and modern rock since the two genres first collided".
• Nomak's "Wind Beat" is a simply untouchable instrumental.
• What do you get when you take an okay 1992 R&B song by SWV, and remix it with Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" (from Thriller) as the backing track? One of the finest New Jack Swing songs EVER, and one of the top selling R&B singles of 1993.
• You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge..... And from there "Straight Outta Compton" by NWA only gets better, despite its controversial reputation.
• Honestly, honestly, honestly surprised that nobody's mentioned The Message by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five. It's stated to be one of the greatest hip hops by critics and the ending made Mama by Genesis what it is today.
• What is all this? No love for The Temptations? Respondsable for countless hits such as "Get Ready", "I Can't Get Next To You", "Cloud Nine", and God knows how many more. For shame TVTropes.
• What do you get when you mix The X-Ecutioners and Linkin Park? Pure awesomeness. It's Going down indeed!
• Childish Gambino a.k.a Donald Glover, just has songs that'll just get you hyped faster than nobodies business. Top three being "Freaks and Geeks", "Not Going Back", and "Bonfire".
• Under-appreciated group The Knux has been churning out kickass track after track but seem to have caught the attention of everyone with their most recent single "Run" (NSFW for the opening).
• "Fast and Giant Take That" by internet speed rapper Mac Lethal.
• Tech N9ne has many of these due to his dynamic flows and intelligent and varied rhyme schemes like "Like I Died" and its official remix ft. Krizz Kaliko and Mr. Smith.
  • "Too Much" (ft. Kutt Kalhoun) would also be a great example because of its incredible flow and cinematic production.
  • Welcome To The Midwest ft. Krizz Kaliko sampling Dean Martin's 'Sway'
  • Stars ; a wonderful start to Tech's twisted mythical album, Welcome to Strangeland.
    • Unfair ft.Ces Cru and Krizz Kaliko from the same album.
    • Who Do I Catch
    • Negro spiritual-esque Slave ft. Krizz Kaliko & Kutt Kalhoun
  • Tech's verse on What'chu Tellin' Me by Tha Rellez
  • From his All 6's And 7's album: Worldwide Choppers ft. Yelawolf, Busta Rhymes, Twista, Ceza, D-Loc, U$0, and Twisted Insane
    • Am I A Psycho ft. Hopsin & B.O.B
  • King Of Darkness album:Show Me A God
    • K.O.D (King Of Darkness)
    • Blackened The Sun for it's over the top 'grimdarkness'
  • The second track from his album, Everready: The Religion ; No Can Do ft. Krizz Kaliko
    • Tech's verse on Welcome To My World which begins at 2:30
    • Riotmaker
    • Come Gangsta is his response to the many critics at the time who said that he wasn't 'gangsta enough' and was catering to white people.
    • This Is Me
• When Warren G and Nate Dogg are on the same track you can expect a pure rap classic which is what you get with "Regulate".
• A Tribe Called Quest's "Hot Sex". The instrumental alone is awesome.
• MC Hammer, though overplayed in his heyday (and today to some extent) has some pretty kickass songs on his underrated The Funky Headhunter, such as "Somethin For The O.G.s", "Oaktown", "It's All That", "Break Em Off Somethin Proper", "Pumps And A Bump", and "Don't Stop".