'00s Hip-Hop

Aside from the likes of the Terror Squad, Nelly, and the pimp cup-pounding Lil Jon, the past decade's hip-hop game has been a bottomless well of hardcore jams dominated by the evergreen G-funk family tree of Dr. Dre . . . and that includes a promising protégé-turned-crossover pop star (Eminem) and a former gangbanger with the bullet holes to prove it (50 Cent). On the home front, we've grooved to the scathing politico-rap of the Herd ("The King Is Dead"), the sharp social commentary of Hilltop Hoods' "The Hard Road," with its rollin' Leon Russell sample, and Bliss n Eso's folk-rock flexing meditation on life, "Eye of the Storm." Our Next Steps has more stars than a night-time sky in the outback.

If there's one thing we've always loved about hip-hop, it's how hungry everyone is to elevate something as simple as beats and rhymes into an art form. A few favourites from the rap race in recent years: the sly verses and soulful/slick productions of Kanye West, here joining forces with Hollywood switch-hitter Jamie Foxx for the Brother Ray channelling "Gold Digger"; a new-school stoner icon/smooth operator who's positioned himself somewhere between Cheech and Ice Cube (Snoop Dogg, with "Drop It Like It's Hot); and Lupe Fiasco ("Kick, Push"), who suggests an unforeseen middle ground between the streets and skate parks. Rap doesn't get much more ravenous than the MCs in our Deep Cuts.

For every familiar flow below — check out the streetwise poetry of Nas, the mainstream lyrical heroics of Will Smith — we've got a voice as fresh as fruit that just fell from the tree. In the case of Paul Wall, Yung Joc, and Ying Yang Twins that tree can be found in the U.S.A.'s Dirty South — the first of that trio styles himself as "the people's chump," and hooks up here with fellow Houston artist Lil Keke for "Break 'Em Off"; the second gets snappy on "It's Goin' Down," the first single released from his 2006 debut, New Joc City; and the final outfit spices its Atlanta crunk-rap formula with outrageous braggadocio on "Wait (The Whisper Song)."

Anyone who thought hip-hop was nothing but a novelty that wouldn't survive the '80s anymore than stonewashed jeans, legwarmers, and way too much spandex must be kicking themselves right about now. Because we're already well into a new millennium and the soul-, funk-, disco- and R&B-referencing genre isn't showing signs of slowing its pop culture-swallowing momentum anytime soon. If anything, it's come to dominate pop music rather than the other way around, from such still-standing stars as Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, and Snoop Dogg to such ain't-going-nowhere-either beats vs. rhyme maestros as Kanye West, Missy Elliott, and 50 Cent. Throw in the self-proclaimed (and appropriately named) "loud mouf of the South" (Ludacris), the dizzying tongue-lashings of Mystikal and the silken rhymes of veteran LL Cool J, and we've got ourselves one sick playlist.