As with my post about rap songs from 1986 to 2000, this is not a complete or systematic survey. Instead, it’s a selection of songs that I love from different styles and eras, that are musically and lyrically interesting, and that point to larger trends.
Missy Elliott – “Work It” (2002)
I recommend the hilariously filthy album version. It sounds so futuristic all these years later. The backwards part in the chorus is “put my thang down flip it and reverse it”, reversed. My students agree that not only has this track aged well, it still sounds like it comes from the future.
MF DOOM – “Is He Ill?” (2003)
MF DOOM is justly famous for his densely stacked internal rhymes and imagery with multiply layered meanings:
Bare facts, triple naked to bare backs
He only came to jack rare tracks for your earwaxIn the place to be like no iller spot
To spill a knot, it’s like a chilling thriller plot
DOOM’s grimy, lo-fi aesthetic is very different from the synth-powered glossiness of the current commercial mainstream, but it has been massively influential on underground scenes. Even if he had never rapped at all, he would be legendary as a producer. The orchestral sounds in this track are samples from ”Jewels of the Sea” by Les Baxter. The scratched-in yes-es at the beginning and end are both references to 1980s classics; the first one is from “La Di Da Di” by Slick Rick and Doug E Fresh, and the second is from “The Philosopher” as heard in “My Philosophy” by Boogie Down Productions. This is music for rap nerds.
Migos – “Versace” (2013)
From grimy and lo-fi to glossy and digital. Beneath its (intentional) silliness, this track is a remarkable work of sonic art. I am not from the right generation to have ever become a trap aficionado, but I do recognize how well the music suits its moment and its context. It sounds unbelievable on a club system, in a car, or on the street. If you are my age and you have trouble approaching this kind of track, I recommend Jesse McCarthy’s essay Notes on Trap: “Trap is the only music that sounds like what living in contemporary America feels like. It is the soundtrack of the dissocialized subject that neoliberalism made. It is the funeral music that the Reagan revolution deserves.”
Little Simz – “Venom” (2019)
Dazzling verbal virtuosity over a paranoid half-time beat. Hear the visionary UK music educator Nate Holder play this song on saxophone. The backwards vocals under the chorus are from verse three. The lyrics are a mass of anxious self-doubting contradiction:
Down I go, so follow me, follow me, follow me
Actually, don’t follow me, nobody bother me
After that, she rhymes “bother me” with “policies”, “demolish me”, “abolish me”, and “apologies.”
Doechii – “Denial is a River” / “Boiled Peanuts” (Live on The Late Show) (2024)
I love the 90s-style throwback flow, the multiple character voices and the breathing exercises that call back to 80s beatbox. But the main reason I include this performance is the visual aspect. The choreography! The hair! The facial expressions! It’s everything I love about hip-hop in its purest, most concentrated form.
As with the previous post, I am barely scratching the surface with this one. I wanted to include a Kendrick Lamar song, but I couldn’t decide which one to use, and I don’t know enough about all of his references and allusions to be able to speak about his lyrics. I could also have included a J Dilla production, or more trap, or something by Tyler the Creator. It’s a big art form!