LET’S DEBATE: THE CHEATS MOVEMENT TOP 5 HIP-HOP SONGS OF ALL-TIME

I started a small debate following the release of the latest Cheats Movement Podcast on WRIR (“Angels” Brandon Lamont Hughes, Creative Crisis, Richmond Black Restaurant Experience). On the episode, I said that Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” may be the best hip-hop song of all-time. No lower than number 3, at best.

Well, that got me and friends talking, debating, even low-key fighting (like all great hip-hop debate do) and the end result is this: The Cheats Movement list of my 5 greatest hip-hop songs.

The only disclaimers I will give is that no list is perfect, it’s all personal preference and, more importantly, my list ends with songs around 2000. No disrespect to songs after 2000, maybe in 20 years Kendrick, Cole, Drake, and even someone like LiL Nas X will make a song on my list (probably not Nas X) but for now..it’s the 80s, 90s, early 2000s on my list.

So here we go – my top 5 hip-hop songs of all-time (fight me):

1. “Fight the Power” Pubilc Enemy, 1990: I had to do it. I can’t think of a better single hip-hop song. A song that meant more to a specific generation of hip-hop fans. “Fight the Power” was more than a song, it was a movement. It hit every element of hip-hop in one song: activism, lyrics, production, Public Enemy nailed it. And when you match the hard-hitting song with the visual of Spike Lee’s groundbreaking film Do The Right Thing, it added another element that transcended the casual listener into a cultural phenomenon.

2. “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.), Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth, 1992: What? Number 2? Yes! This song is perfect from the first horn of Tom Scott’s sample. It’s a sober song, written by the NY duo for their fallen Mount Vernon friend “Trouble” T-Roy, a dancer with Heavy D and the Boyz. This song presents a heartfelt element of hip-hop creativity that has carried on in the works of artists like Pac, BIG, HOV, T.I. showing a vulnerability that allows even the hardest rappers to display, what has become a truly meaningful element of hip-hop, the remembrance of lost love ones and comrades.

3. “Scenario” A Tribe Called Quest ft. Leaders of the New School, 1991: Simply put, the greatest posse cut in hip-hop history. This is classic B-boy shiiiii. It’s funny when you think about it, the Native Tongues (Tribe, De La, Jungle Brothers, Monie Love, Queen Latifah) were known for positive-minded, good-natured Afrocentric lyrics, and for pioneering the use of eclectic sampling and later jazz-influenced beats, but when it came to creating one of the best boom-bap songs in history, they would like, hold our beer. And let’s face it – Busta Rhymes verse could be the best guest verse in hip-hop history.

4. “It Was a Good Day” Ice Cube, 1992: Hip-hop fans gravitate to songs for different reasons but one element that has always drawn me in was storytelling and let’s face it, Cube’s Good Day was a master class in storytelling. Both the original Isley Brothers sample or the Staple Singer remix, the story comes through perfect. Cube is flat out amazing with the pen, so much so that a lot of people thought Cube’s Good Day was real. It’s a fictional song but it’s so good that it felt real.

5. “Rosa Parks” Outkast, 1998: Outkast is credited for putting the ‘Dirty South’ on the map. As they famously said at the 1995 Source Awards, at the height of the East Coast/West Coast beef, after winning Best New Artist, Andre 3 Stacks got on the mic and told the audience, “The south got something to say.” What they said would go down in the history books. “Rosa Parks” was the first single from Outkast’s third album Aquemini but it was the first album that gave the world a glimpse into what the future would be for the Atlanta duo. “Rosa Parks” ushered in a southern movement that controlled hip-hop for years to come, if not still in control today.

So there you have it, The Cheats Movement Top 5 hip-hop songs of all-time. This task is absolutely impossible. No list is correct. My list is missings songs from HOV, Nas, BIG, PAC, Ghostface, Snoop, Wu, Rakim, Run DMC, LL, and many more of hip-hop’s greatest MCs of all time, but this is my list.

Now it’s your turn to let me have it. Who’s is too high and too low?

Who do you have on your list? Let the debate continue.