Questlove’s Top 50 Hip-Hop Songs of All Time (via Rolling Stone)

Run-DMC’s “Rock Box”, “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang” by Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg, Biz Markie’s “Just A Friend,” and Ice Cube’s “Amerikkka’s Most Wanted” are four of the 50 classic hip-hop songs that Questlove of the legendary Roots crew has selected for his Top 50 Hip-Hop Songs of All Time for Rolling Stone. Quest’s list is definitely not to be confused with this list of Rolling Stone’s 50 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time selected by a group of 33 musicians and “experts” of which Quest was one. There’s some similarities between the lists and some differences. The number one song from each list addresses two variations on a socio-economic, cultural and political theme; Rolling Stone’s musicians and experts panel chose “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five;” Questlove’s number one song was “Rebel Without A Pause” by Public Enemy. For his own Top 50 list Questlove writes:

For this top 50 list, I decided to concentrate on 1979-1995, the former being the year I got my first taste of hip-hop, the latter being the year my major-label debut with the Roots made its mark. I wanted to concentrate on the period that I was not professionally involved in the art form. I wanted to celebrate the period that built and led to the influence that got me a record deal.

See Questlove’s list of the Top 50 Hip-Hop Songs of All Time here. You can listen to the songs here.