Hip-Hop Remixes

The best remixes do more than switch a beat or tweak tempos; they take a track somewhere unforeseen and completely remove it from the original. "Paid in Full (Seven Minutes of Music — The Coldcut Remix)" stretches a streetwise classic into a masterpiece of samples, "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" swipes the Diamonds Are Forever theme and drops in Jay-Z for a curtain-dropper as confrontational as its lyrics, "Check Yo Self ('The Message' Remix)" modernizes Grandmaster Flash's single for gangsta-rap soldiers, and "Quiet Storm" dims the street lights on Queen Bee Lil' Kim.

It's usually the little things — the ingenious samples, or ever-so-slight changes in instrumentation — that walk a remix into surefire-hit territory. Several versions of Busta Rhymes' "Touch It" single boast different guests, but they all share a key, electro-fied Daft Punk hook; Snoop Dogg's tropical treatment of 50 Cent's "P.I.M.P." slides alongside steel drums and shuffleboard beats; Pete Rock's Public Enemy "Mixx" dusts off old jazzbo horns; and "Words I Manifest" is DJ Premier at his finest, complete with a Looney Tunes-like loop.

All this talk of massive mainstream remixes misses many of the underground's axis-tilting achievements. Large Professor's scratch-heavy "Dope On Plastic" remix drops a heavy beat on Rob Swift's turntablist showcase, DJ Cam & DJ Premier's "Voodoo Child" duet is a dream meeting of Paris and Brooklyn, Dilated Peoples' "Ear Drums Pop" sounds the way a late-night drive feels, and Common's "Come Close" is scented with incense and sitars.

Much like the "It's the reeee-mix!" battle call of a late-night radio host or white-label-touting club DJ, our Hip-Hop Remixes playlist bangs and drops, scratches and stops, like an immaculate mixtape. In other words, it indirectly scours hip-hop's entire history from the rightfully glorified golden era (Eric B. & Rakim, Gang Starr, Public Enemy, Slick Rick) to the ultra-glossy, dance-floor-tailored modern tracks of Kanye West, 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes, Ying Yang Twins, Snoop Dogg, and more.