Extreme Sports

Whether you're absorbed in the X Games or your Xbox, here are the songs that feed the need for speed and the thirst for that burst of energy at the core of extreme sports action. You don't have to be Shaun White to feel like a half-pipe hero hurtling fearlessly into the air when the Beastie Boys bring the hip-hop heaviness on "Sabotage." If racing gets you revved up, you'll have BMX on the brain and in your veins when you start shouting along with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in their funkified quest for "Higher Ground." And we're willing to bet you could put a whole new slant on the unrelenting up-and-down attack of House of Pain's "Jump Around" just by bringing a bungee cord or two into the equation.

In Next Steps, pick up on some pounding beats to push you past all limits.

Whether you're unleashing your own inner Tony Hawk or watching some extreme-sports daredevil take it to the limit, these fast 'n' furious tunes will bring a whole new, heavy-impact meaning to "hits." You can feel the squeal of the tires and smell that drag-racing rubber burning when Ministry comes blazing around the bend with the industrial boogie of "Jesus Built My Hotrod." The big-beat techno stomp of the Prodigy's "Firestarter" will light your fuse whether you're getting pumped for a BMX blowout or mountain-biking mania. And the Led Zep-on-11 riffs of Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage" are guaranteed to rev your engine 'til you're ready to leap into a Subaru alongside rally-jump rock star Travis Pastrana.

From hard-hitting hip-hop to strutting, stadium-size rock, the extreme sounds continue in Deep Cuts.

The soundtrack to extreme sports action needs to be as in-your-face as the gravel that greets your cheeks after a bad mountain-boarding move. That's why we're serving up the hard-hitting holler of "How You Like Me Now" by soul-rock fire-breathers the Heavy, with a side order of rap monsters Onyx, who come on so strong with "Slam" that even the microphone must have been intimidated. But you can't deny there's something kinda sexy about facing down danger, Bam Margera-style, too, so if you want to feel that special brand of slam-bang satisfaction, try slipping into Billy Squier's supercharged stadium-rocker "The Stroke."

Ever notice those superstar snowboarders who head down the half-pipe with earbuds as securely attached to their heads as their boards are to their feet? What sort of sounds do you suppose they've got pumping out of their iPods to get themselves psyched up? Hint: smooth jazz and piano ballads probably aren't on the playlist. If you want to experience the same kind of adrenaline rush that gets extreme athletes pumped, you've come to the right place. From Iggy & The Stooges' proto-punk mission of menace "Search and Destroy" to SoCal rappers Cypress Hill's twisted teardown "Insane In the Brain," these are the tracks that bring the noise, the power, and the push that ski jumpers, sky divers, and skateboarders need. But even if you never get closer to the X Games than watching them on TV, now you can feel that spark in your system too.