Your Top 5

Hip Hop/Rap Artists/Songs

Your Top 5 was born out of my love of music and reading and the book and film High Fidelity. Each week, I ask a new guest to give me their top 5 tracks, albums or artists relative to a topic.

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MF DOOM—Source: Wikimedia Commons

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This week’s Your Top 5 takes me and my special guest out of both of our musical comfort zones. This week I have Mallie Hart of the always excellent, Mallie’s Eclectic Playlist . I typically ingest a lot of popular rap and hip hop¹, but that is rarer than my usual earworms. Like a lot of pop music—the songs and artists have fleeting popularity and short-lived careers. However, there are those with plenty of staying power, mainstream or not. I also went with 5 tracks, because 5 artists could get complicated—by all means anyone can do artists in the comments. Let’s get into the picks!

Mallie’s Top 5

Before I dive into my list, it’s important to know that this is not a genre I know a lot about. I don’t listen to much rap or hip hop or seek out new artists like I do other genres. All that being said, I don’t ignore its popularity or value as a style. So, this is a collection of five songs, rather than five artists. I haven’t done the deep dive through a discography to gain enough insight to name artists.

In fact, there’s a real possibility that my selections don’t fit perfectly into what many would consider true rap/hip hop recordings. All this to ask for a little leeway. Christopher asked, and I said yes.

And, away we go.

1: “You Be Illin’” by Run-D.M.C.

This song will always hold a soft spot in my heart. My mom suffered a major health setback in 1988, and was never really herself again, though she didn’t pass until 1994. She was too young, in her mid-50s, and I was too young to lose her, in my early 20s. So I hold on to as many memories as I can, like when we saw Robin Hood: Men In Tights in the movie theater we almost got kicked out because she was laughing so hard and throwing popcorn at my sister and me. 

My mother was a horrible dancer. Just awful. And she would use her serious lack of moves to make us laugh, especially in front of our friends. It was equal parts hilarious and mortifying. If I shut my eyes I can see her dancing around the kitchen table, lip-syncing to this song, using a wooden spoon as her microphone. It’s one of my favorite memories and always brings a smile to my face.

2: “She Watch Channel Zero” by Public Enemy

There’s a story behind this selection, too. I completed my college education at Mercer University, and Atlanta rap/rock artist Follow For Now played one of our quad concerts. This song stuck in my mind and I later learned it was a cover of a Public Enemy song. I loved the mixture of hard rock riffs mixed with the call to stop being blind to the curated messaging shared by the local news. I loved the song even more once I managed to get my hands on a cassette of the original. 

This launched my love for Public Enemy, the only rap group I know enough of their discography to be a real fan. I loved that their lyrics focused so intently on real issues, politics, media bias, and more. Issues that needed to be addressed in the past, present, and future. And there’s just something incredibly powerful and entertaining about the combination of Flavor Flav and Chuck D. 

3: “Hurra die Welt geht unter” by K.I.Z. featuring Henning May

Here’s where my list takes a turn. Generally speaking, the bulk of the rap/hip hop music I have saved to my Spotify Liked Songs List comes from German bands. During the pandemic, I stumbled across Henning May of AnnenMayKantereit and Fred Rabe of Giant Rooks, both German, covering “Tom’s Diner.” May’s deep and growling baritone hooked me immediately and I began my deep dive into anything and everything he recorded, with AMK, or in collaborations. 

That deep dive led me to the collaboration with K.I.Z., a German hip hop group out of Berlin, and the track I’m sharing in my third spot. The title translates to “Hooray, the Apocalypse is here,” and the video tells the story of the days after the world effectively ends. In the video, Henning May is broadcasting from a fallout shelter, looking for survivors, and the members of K.I.Z. hear his message from their vessel and find their way to the shelter.

4: “Der letzte Song (Alles wird gut)” by Kummer with Fred Rabe

Translating to “The Last Song (Everything Will Be Okay),” this is a reminder that even with everything bad going on around us, even when we’re surrounded by darkness, there’s still light around us if we’re willing to look for it. The message is timely, especially with the current political unrest and uncertainty. The upbeat dance style of the track is a great foil to the darkness of the lyrics. And I love the way the chorus showcases Rabe’s gorgeous voice. 

“Everything is going to be okay
The people are bad and the world is fucked
But everything is going to be okay
The system is defective and society is failing
But everything is going to be okay
Your life is in shambles and your house is on fire
But everything is going to be okay
Doesn't feel like it but everything is going to be okay”

Many of us have felt despair so deep that it seems insurmountable. Kummer has, too, but reminds us that there’s still something to hope for. It’s going to be okay.

5: “Er will Sex” by SXTN

Rounding out my list, SXTN says no to sex with men whose only interest is getting it wherever and whenever they can. Juju and Nura are letting these guys know they’re unavailable and aren’t likely to change their minds. While this isn’t something I face in my daily life, as I’m 53 and have been happily married for thirteen years, and was married before my divorce and meeting my current husband for more than ten years, things haven’t changed all that much since I was on the dating and hookup scene. This is a reminder to women that they get to call the shots and they get to decide if and when they choose to let a guy in.   

I think one of the draws to the songs being rapped and sung in German is that I understand the main premise of the song’s message, but I don’t get wrapped up in the minutiae. I can appreciate the beat, the flow, and the main theme. 

I hope I managed to stick to the theme even though I had to focus on songs rather than artist’s full discographies. Thanks to Christopher for asking me to take part. It was a fun exercise and really made me put on my musical thinking cap!

My Top 5

Rhymes Like Dimes—MF DOOM, DJ Cucumber Slice

The king of underground rap, MF DOOM. Here’s a dude that did anonymity right and really leaned into that alter ego. His rhymes are sick too and his wide array of collaborators and guests on his tracks all complement his style well. “Rhymes Like Dimes” was the first MF DOOM song I ever heard. I was at a friends house and he had Doomsday on vinyl and slapped it on the turntable. Once that synth sample of Quincy Jones’ “One Hundred Ways” hit my ears, I was hooked.

The songs is also well-known for the free-flowing wordplay at the end by DJ Cucumber Slice. Keep in mind that this song was recorded in a bedroom, so just imagine these two guys staring at each other while the music played thinking of random shit to stay. DOOM gave up early on, but DJ Cucumber Slice kept rolling.

My Adidas—Run DMC

I am a huge amateur Dylanologist and I used to listen to Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour pretty religiously. At one point during season one, Episode 42, “Shoes”, Dylan describes his first experience with this song:

"I remember buying this next record when it came out, down at St. Mark's Records in New York. Actually I bought the twelve inch single, and it blew my mind. It was a powerful, exciting piece of music. Now when people listen to it, they think it's quaint and old fashioned. They're already condescending to it and turning it into an 'oldie'. That's the problem – people don't always realize how powerful the innovators are. Take someone like Chuck Berry. When his records came out they were dangerous. There was nothing like them on the radio, they were like a stampede. Now all these bands just play it louder and faster and don't really add anything to it. And so Chuck Berry, the creator, sounds 'quaint' and 'old fashioned'. They're doing the same thing to Run-DMC. Rap records have gotten louder, more camouflaged, faster and dirtier, with a thousand samples. Those records are colorful but it doesn't mean that Run DMC should just be considered 'oldies'. They're important pieces of art, and art isn't looked at as something old or new, it's looked at as something that moves ya. And here's a record that moves me."

I couldn’t have said it better myself. “My Adidas” was released during an era of rap and hip hop when the topics were simpler. I mean, rappers definitely still rap about shoes, but not quite with the same level of innocence that Run DMC did.

Thug Luv—Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, 2Pac

What was I just saying about innocence? This song is a bit brasher and a bit more violent than the last couple tracks. That doesn’t make it any less important. It features a 2Pac verse that was probably one of his best with the excellent line, “I caught a plane out to Cleveland late last evening
To help my n***** clean up some n***** no longer breathin'".

I was torn between this song and 2Pac’s “Thugz Mansion” which is a bit more tame, but I remember “Thug Luv” being featured on my pregame playlist during soccer season—so I went with that one instead.

The Food—Common, Kanye West

I could fill an entire post with pre-2008 Kanye West tracks. Whatever he is up to now, performance art?, mental illness?, legit antisemitism?, does not change the fact that he made some of the best rap/hip hop during my middle and high school career. This song was featured on Chappelle’s Show in 2004 and also recorded for Common’s LP, Be.

Just bask in the glory of this live, grainy, video footage from 2004²:

Someone please bring this (somewhat) normal Kanye West back.

Reagan—Killer Mike

While I try to shy away from too much political commentary here, a lot of music is fairly political, and a lot of modern rap and hip hop is definitely political. That rings especially true for this last selection. Killer Mike raps over a creepy synth that adds to the seriousness of the lyrical content. He also begins the song with a sampled Reagan speech regarding the Iran-Contra affair and then leads off the second verse with Reagan’s non-apology and shirking of his complicity in that particular scandal. It’s a masterclass on what history curriculum and the media miss today when discussing that period of American history.

Although the social commentary, including the holding of rappers (including himself) responsible for the “bullshit we inciting, and the overall theme of how each person in power perpetuates oppression elucidate his overall point—he does dip his toes into some conspiracy theoryish content:

Ronald Reagan was a actor, not at all a factor
Just an employee of the country's real masters
Just like the Bushes, Clinton and Obama
Just another talking head telling lies on teleprompters
If you don't believe the theory, then argue with this logic
Why did Reagan and Obama both go after Gaddafi?
We invaded sovereign soil, going after oil
Taking countries is a hobby paid for by the oil lobby

In any event, he closes out the song by pointing out that each word in Ronald Wilson Reagan has 6 letters and so therefore, 666, etc.

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So there you have it, any rap or hip hop fans out there, let us know your top 5 in the comments!

1. Except Drake, that dude is corny as hell.

2. 20 years ago!