Archive for May 20, 2011

Many hip-hop enthusiasts consider the 1990s the genre’s best decade. With the music in full maturation, hip-hop expanded outside of New York, blew up in the west, and introduced us to new stars, styles and sounds. To celebrate the ’90s, on May 24 XXL Magazine will release a special one-off issue that ranks the Top 250 Greatest hip-hop songs from “Rap’s Best Decade Ever!”

At the top of the heap is Dr. Dre’s 1992 classic with Snoop Dogg, “Nothin’ But a ‘G’ Thang.” The Chronic lead single, sparked the West Coast’s ’90’s reign and helped mold Dre and Snoop into worldwide superstars.

The artist formerly known as Puff Daddy comes close, but doesn’t get the cigar at the number two spot with his 1997 posse cut all “It’s All About the Benjamins (Remix).”2Pac’s “California Love” (No.7) and Pete Rock and CL Smooth’s “They Reminisce Over You” (No.10) get ranked pretty high, while fan favorites like Ice Cube’s “No Vaseline” (No.58), The Lox’s “Money, Power & Respect” (No.117) and Luke’s “I Wanna Rock” (No.141) get props as well.

East Coast pioneers like Public Enemy, KRS-One, Run-DMC and Eric B. & Rakim are all present. West Coast luminaries like E-40, Too $hort and Ice-T get nods too. Crossover pop hits like MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” (No.115) get ranked right alongside hardcore rap classics like Scarface’s “I Never Seen a Man Die” (No.99).

In the end, the list is sure to be celebrated as well as debated.

Via: RapFix

Young Jeezy fans rejoice. After a series of delays, the Atlanta rapper has finally set a solid release date for his oft-delayed album Thug Motivation 103.

Jeezy’s fourth studio LP is scheduled to drop on July 26, Rap-Up.com has learned. TM103‘s release coincides with the sixth anniversary of his debut Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101.

In preparation for his summer takeover, Jeezy sent out his first tweet this week announcing the album’s completion. “#TM103 Is Done!!! The Summer Will Be Crazy!!!” he wrote.

The project’s first offering “Ballin’” featuring Lil Wayne was sent to digital retailers last week. Travis Barker revealed that he plays drums on the album’s intro produced by Drumma Boy. “It was like this epic, Braveheart-sounding intro,”

Via: Rap Up