The 100 greatest Hip-Hop songs of the 2000's: 11-20

11: "Grindin'" - Clipse

Before this song was released, we knew The Neptunes could make great pop music. Their two biggest hits before this were Jay-Z's "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)" and Britney's "I'm A Slave 4 U", both bouncy hits that had that signature Neptunes sound. It was with "Grindin'", however, that they expanded on that sound, showing us their stark yet powerful approach to hardcore Hip-Hop production. It was a world apart from the industry R&B and pop they had been churning out, a raw electronic backed kind of Hip-Hop that married beautifully with hardcore street rap. This song is the reason The Neptunes went on to dominate rap radio in the 2000's, and why everyone from Snoop Dogg to Common was clamoring to work with them.

12: "Hip-Hop" - Dead Prez

As you may have gleaned from the previous posts, protest and social consciousness have little place in today's corporate homogenized Hip-Hop. It's hard to imagine anyone getting signed to a major label now who's "down for running up on them crackers in they city hall". This song managed to get some people's attention when it was released in 2000, mostly due to its forward-thinking bass-driven beat that would become mainstream eight years later with songs like "A Milli", but it may have drawn people's focus away from the lyrics and the overall message. What we're doing is bigger than Hip-Hop, yet so many contemporary MCs work so within the style that they can't rise above the genre and reflect on it. It's hard to be bigger than Hip-Hop when Hip-Hop is the biggest thing in the world.

13: "Get Ur Freak On" - Missy Elliott

If there's one thing Timbaland is very good at, its taking disparate musical elements and molding them into a cohesive beat. World music, like the Asian strings here or the Middle Eastern samples in "Big Pimpin'", are one of his specialties. They don't sound foreign, rather they sound perfectly contextualized, like you've been hearing them on the radio for years. Its a testament to Timbaland and Missy's artistic relationship that this weird song with Indian strings, African drums, random Chinese chattering, and hawked loogies made it the Billboard Top 10. We've all heard this song a hundred times to the point where it seems commonplace, yet it couldn't be further from ordinary.

14: "The Light" - Common

Things looked pretty different at the beginning of the 2000's then where we are now. Coming off the 90s, the identity of the decade was up for grabs, and for a brief moment that identity had more to do with a politically correct swanky new bohemian lifestyle than the paranoia and frustration of the post-911 era. Artists like Common appealed to the dotcom boomers who wanted their rap smooth and non-confrontational. When things were good we got beautiful Hip-Hop ballads about love. When things got bad, shit got real.

15: "Stay High" - Three 6 Mafia feat. Young Buck, 8 Ball & MJG

If there was an unlikely story of the decade in Hip-Hop, it has to be to comeback of Three 6 Mafia. These Memphis horror-core rappers rose to prominance in the 90s feuding with Bone Thugs N Harmony and rapping about body parts in trunks. Years in the game have only solidified the production heart of the click, DJ Paul and Juicy J. The beat on this song is ridiculous, so much more polished and refined than the brutish beats of their early albums. Three 6 managed to parlay the sucess of this song into featuring on and producing big name chart hits, and set them up to produce one of the songs in the top ten.

16: "The Way I Am" - Eminem

Eminem existed between decades, and in many ways was the transition point from the pop music scene of the 90s into the Hip-Hop dominated one we see today. If it weren't for the millions of new white rap fans created overnight by Eminem's popularity we would not see anywhere near the amount of rap in our everyday popular culture. Eminem primed a generation of white teenagers to become the rap consumers of the 2000s. Without his impact this list might not be half as long, and "The Way I Am" is pure unadulterated Hip-Hop from an MC at his zenith.

17: "Southern Hospitality" - Ludacris

Despite what this list says, this has to be my favorite Neptunes production. This is the song where we knew Ludacris was here to stay,and the song that cemented the Neptunes sound as the sound of the years to come. Years before Snoop Dogg and Justin Timberlake got the Pharrell makover, a little southern rapper with a big mouth was making gold with a perfect marriage of Star Trak funk and Ludacris crunk.

18: "Flashing Lights" - Kanye West

Kanye West is a famous man. The 2000s had to give up on some things, most notably our pop stars. With internet music sharing and more and more musical options, it's unlikely we'll ever get a larger-than-life star like Michael Jackson ever again. That said, Kanye comes pretty damn close, at least in his own mind. From calling Bush a racist to award-show antics (I'ma let you finish...), Kanye wants to be our King of Pop. And if Kanye is Michael Jackson, then "Flashing Lights" is grandiose pop poetry, genetically engineered for the dancefloor and near perfect in its craftsmanship.

19: "Get By" - Talib Kweli

Jay-Z once said "If skills sold, truth be told I'd probably be, lyrically, Talib Kweli", to which Talib replied: "If lyrics sold then truth be told I'd probably be just as rich and famous as Jay-Z." Why critically-acclaimed MCs have such trouble making the crossover to mainstream auidences is probably similar to why bands like Deerhunter and Animal Collective aren't wildly famous while considered to be the best. When these artists try to make the leap to the Billboard 100 they rarely stay there, but their pop aspirations are often excellent, like "Get By". Produced by Kanye West, here Talib really does play the Jay-Z role to awesome results.

20: "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" - Jay-Z

I've talked up the Neptunes a lot over the course of this list, but here the top twenty kicks off with three songs in row produced by none other than Kanye West. The element that Kanye added to early 21st century Hip-Hop is hard to define, but its centered around his masterful use of soul-based samples. "Izzo" was the first national platform for the young Mr. West, and after America heard this, we needed more.