100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time

Kendrick Lamar

Mike Will Made It's stark production and Lamar's laser-precise bars — the most complete distillation of his greatness in a single track.

Notorious B.I.G.

The quintessential rags-to-riches rap narrative — Biggie's effortless flow over an Mtume sample turning autobiography into mythology.

Jay-Z

Alicia Keys's chorus and Jay-Z's New York City panorama — the greatest city anthem in hip-hop history.

Tupac Shakur

Dr. Dre's G-funk synths transformed from soul into the most joyful West Coast anthem of the decade.

Grandmaster Flash

The first hip-hop song to document urban poverty with the moral clarity and specificity of great literature.

N.W.A.

The most dangerous record of the 1980s — the song that permanently split hip-hop into before and after.

Public Enemy

Chuck D's furious rhetoric over the Bomb Squad's sonic barrage — hip-hop as revolutionary act.

Eminem

The most viscerally effective motivational rap song ever written — a man with one shot giving everything.

Nas

The Illmatic opener — Nas constructing a complete cinematic portrait of Queens in three minutes.

Outkast

Andre 3000 rapping at the speed of thought over a drum and bass fusillade — the most kinetic record hip-hop ever produced.

Rakim

Rakim rewriting the rules of flow with internal rhymes and multi-syllabic patterns no one had attempted at this scale.

Wu-Tang Clan

Cash Rules Everything Around Me — five words that captured a generation's economic reality.

Jay-Z

Annie sampled and transformed into the song that made Jay-Z a superstar beyond rap's existing audience.

A Tribe Called Quest

The Busta Rhymes verse that closes this track is one of rap's great moments — unannounced and unforgettable.

Lauryn Hill

The Miseducation opener announced Hill as the decade's most complete MC who could outsing her peers too.

Drake

The song that made Drake a meme and a cultural phenomenon simultaneously — the hook is inescapable.

Kendrick Lamar

Pharrell's jazz-funk production and Lamar's declaration of Black resilience — the anthem of a movement.

Snoop Dogg

The most relaxed delivery in rap history over Dr. Dre's most laid-back G-funk production.

Missy Elliott

Timbaland's tabla-driven production and Missy's aggressive cool — the most sonically innovative R&B single of its year.

Kanye West

Ray Charles sampled, Jamie Foxx deployed — Kanye's biggest commercial hit is also his most effortlessly entertaining.

Ice Cube

The most cinematic day-in-the-life narrative in West Coast rap — every detail exact, the whole somehow hopeful.

Coolio

Stevie Wonder sampled into the decade's most impactful rap single — gospel choir and street reality.

Fugees

Lauryn Hill's vocal over the Roberta Flack sample — the year's most elegant hip-hop record.

Busta Rhymes

Kate Bush sampled, Busta operating at full velocity — the late 1990s East Coast rap at its most exhilarating.

Jay-Z & Kanye West

Two of hip-hop's greatest egos operating without limits — the luxury rap statement.

Kendrick Lamar

Lamar's most commercially accessible moment on good kid is also his most lyrically complex.

Drake

Six months at No. 1 and a music video that gave away the entire budget — Drake's most generous pop gesture.

Chance the Rapper

Gospel rap as critique of the music industry — Chance rapping about independence with pure joy.

Cardi B

The song that made Cardi B the first female rapper to top the Billboard Hot 100 as a solo artist since 1998.

Lil Wayne

Bangladesh's minimal production and Wayne's stream-of-consciousness flow — hip-hop in its freest form.

Kanye West

Kanye rapping through wired-shut jaws after a car accident — hip-hop's most literally committed performance.

Jay-Z

The Jackson 5 sample and Jay-Z's coronation — Blueprint opener as genre-defining statement.

Big L

A comprehensive glossary of Harlem street slang rapped with Big L's surgical precision.

MF DOOM

Madlib's French café sample and DOOM's labyrinthine wordplay — underground hip-hop's greatest cult record.

Kendrick Lamar

Jay Rock's chorus and Lamar's Compton street panorama — the most cinematic moment on good kid.

Childish Gambino

The most shocking and most discussed music video of the decade — social commentary as visceral shock.

Lil Nas X

The genre-busting record-breaker — 19 weeks at No. 1 and a conversation about who gets to call themselves country.

Travis Scott

Three tracks in one — ASTROWORLD's showcase of sonic restlessness and commercial dominance.

Post Malone

The rock-rap fusion that topped charts for eight weeks and defined the mumble-rap crossover era.

Juice WRLD

Sting's "Shape of My Heart" sample and a breakup narrative that found an enormous audience.

Polo G

Chicago drill music entering the mainstream on its own terms — Polo G's unflinching street reportage.

Roddy Ricch

The stuttering opening hook became the sound of early 2020 — one of the most played songs of its year.

Morgan Wallen

Country-rap crossover that demonstrated hip-hop's complete cultural saturation.

Tyler, the Creator

Igor's centrepiece — Tyler producing something tender and strange and completely unlike anything else.

Anderson .Paak

Rap and soul fused by one of the most complete musical talents of his generation.

Vince Staples

Long Beach documented with the unflinching precision of a documentary film.

J. Cole

Cole's most enduring life lesson — a meditation on contentment over warm production.

Big K.R.I.T.

Southern hip-hop mythology — K.R.I.T. building a monument to his own legacy.

Rick Ross

The luxury rap lifestyle statement — Ross and Drake over Drake's most atmospheric production.

Meek Mill

Meek's triumphant post-Drake return — Philadelphia rap at its most jubilant.

Young Jeezy

The sound of trap music crystallising — Akon's hook and Jeezy's street sermon.

Gucci Mane

Trap music's founding father in peak form — the Atlanta street aesthetic codified.

T.I.

The most romantically generous trap record — T.I. at the peak of his commercial powers.

Future

The flute sample, the Atlanta mumble, the most hypnotic trap single of its year.

Migos

The triplet flow taken to its logical extreme — a cultural phrase generator disguised as a rap song.

Young Thug

The most playfully melodic rapper of his generation at his most adventurous.

Gunna

The drip era's defining single — effortlessly cool and completely undeniable.

Lil Baby

The Atlanta pipeline producing commercial dominance with underground credibility intact.

DaBaby

The most instantly recognisable voice in 2020 hip-hop — DaBaby's staccato delivery.

Pop Smoke

Brooklyn drill arriving in the mainstream — Pop Smoke's deep growl over the hardest beat of 2019.

Doja Cat

Disco-influenced rap-pop that became one of 2020's biggest crossover moments.

Cardi B & Megan Thee Stallion

The most discussed single of 2020 — provocative, feminist, undeniably effective.

Saweetie

Female rap friendship as pop banger — fun, empowered, and irresistible.

Nicki Minaj

The song that made Nicki Minaj a mainstream star — verse/hook ratio perfected.

Iggy Azalea

The Clueless sample and Charli XCX's hook made this 2014's unavoidable summer anthem.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

Independent hip-hop conquering the charts without a label — and making thrift shopping cool.

Kendrick Lamar

The diss track that ended the Drake beef and reminded the world what rap battles used to feel like.

Drake

Afrobeats influence in mainstream pop-rap — Drake's most globally beloved single.

Drake

A New Orleans bounce-influenced hit that generated the decade's most viral dance challenge.

Tekashi 6ix9ine

The most controversial rapper of the era delivering the year's most commercially inescapable single.

The Weeknd

Daft Punk production and Abel's dark persona — the smoothest transition from indie R&B to superstardom.

Frank Ocean

Nine minutes of Egyptian mythology and contemporary R&B — Ocean's most ambitious single statement.

Miguel

The neo-soul moment that proved R&B could be genuinely erotic and musically sophisticated simultaneously.

SZA

New Year's Day 2021 and a meditation on moving forward — SZA's most widely loved ballad.

H.E.R.

Daniel Caesar and H.E.R. creating the most intimate R&B duet of the decade.

Khalid

Teen R&B that connected across demographics with total emotional honesty.

Brent Faiyaz

The most underrated breakout single of the year — a loyalty meditation over slow-rolling R&B.

Summer Walker

Atlanta R&B as intimate confession — Walker's voice making vulnerability feel like strength.

Lucky Daye

New school R&B with classic production values — a voice that belonged to another era in the best way.

Silk Sonic

Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak channelling 1970s soul with total conviction and zero irony.

Giveon

A bass-baritone that arrived fully formed — Giveon's debut as one of 2021's defining voices.

Bryson Tiller

Trap soul defined — Tiller bridging hip-hop production and R&B emotion.

PnB Rock

Philadelphia's melodic rap-R&B hybrid at its most nakedly romantic.

Tory Lanez

Lanez's voice in its most vulnerable register — pop-R&B as pure melody.

PARTYNEXTDOOR

Champagne Papi's OVO sound in perfect form — late night R&B as its own genre.

Nav

XO's melodic rap aesthetic — minimalist production making maximum emotional impact.

Don Toliver

ASTROWORLD's sleeper hit — Toliver's falsetto eventually making him a solo star.

Roddy Ricch

Luxury rap-R&B from Compton — Roddy's most melodic and most revealing single.

Jack Harlow

Fergie's Glamorous sampled into 2022's most inescapable hit — Harlow's commercial peak.

Latto

Mariah's Fantasy interpolated into a female rap empowerment statement.

GloRilla

The breakout Memphis drill anthem of 2022 — raw, confident, and completely new.

Ice Spice

The Bronx drill moment that made Ice Spice a star from a bedroom freestyle.

Nicki Minaj

The queen asserting her position at the top of female rap — anthemic and self-aware.

Sexyy Red

St. Louis party rap at maximum unhinged energy — one of 2023's most purely fun records.

Doja Cat

Doja's most commercially confident statement — rap, pop, and sheer personality in perfect balance.

Metro Boomin

The SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE soundtrack producing hip-hop's best corporate tie-in.

Playboi Carti

Whole Lotta Red's standout moment — Carti's baby-voiced delivery at maximum delirium.

Kendrick Lamar

GNX's emotional centrepiece — Luther Vandross sampled as a declaration of love and triumph.

Tyler, the Creator

Tyler making the most vulnerable and most beautiful record of his career — a love song without precedent.

Frank Ocean

Blonde opens with pitch-shifted vocals and a meditation on trayvon martin — one of the decade's most powerful openings.

What is the greatest hip-hop song of all time?

Critics most commonly cite "HUMBLE." by Kendrick Lamar, "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash, or "Juicy" by The Notorious B.I.G. as the greatest hip-hop song ever made.

When did hip-hop begin?

Hip-hop is widely dated to August 11, 1973, when DJ Kool Herc hosted a back-to-school party in the South Bronx and pioneered the "merry-go-round" technique that became the foundation of hip-hop production.

What was the first hip-hop song?

"Rapper's Delight" by Sugarhill Gang (1979) is generally considered the first hip-hop song to reach a mainstream audience, though earlier recordings of DJ culture and MCing predate it.

Who is the greatest rapper of all time?

Kendrick Lamar, Jay-Z, Eminem, Nas, and Rakim are most frequently cited as the greatest rappers of all time. Kendrick's Pulitzer Prize and widespread critical consensus currently place him at the top.