50 Songs From the Golden Era of Rap -- A Playlist (With Updates)

A few weeks ago, we went over what the Golden Era of Rap was and what albums comprised it. It was such a smashing success that I've spent the last two days every day since then compiling a playlist from those selections.*

* And by the way, I got all these songs for free using this little trick you may or may not know and which I'm sure there are a million other ways to do but I used this one so that's why I chose to describe it:

Find the song you want on YouTube. Copy the URL and paste it into Dirpy. That will convert the YouTube clip to a downloadable mp3, which you should then, well, download. Save it to a folder on your desktop, then open up iTunes. Pull down the File menu and select "Add file to library." Then select all your mp3s and voila! Free shit. You're welcome.

Also, with Dirpy, you can edit out the beginning or end of any video, so if you wanted Naughty by Nature's "Ghetto Bastard" but don't want that kinda-silly hospital scene/skit thing at the beginning, you can just chop it off. Very helpful.

This trick (if you want to call it that) is especially great for live recordings, which YouTube is packed with. Like this version of Arcade Fire's "Headlights Look Like Diamonds," which is way better than the album version, IMO. You can also use it to make ringtones, like I just did with Will Ferrell-as-Robert Goulet. "Dinkle donkle dinkle donkle someone's calling you Goulet" indeed.

So, here are 50* tracks from 1991-1994 that you should add to your iTunes pronto.

* I picked 50 because as a human being I have a rather pointless habit of attributing greater importance to numbers that are multiples of 10, perhaps due to the number of digits on my hands and feet, though that's just one stupid theory to explain why some people still think some guy with 99 RBIs is somehow clearly inferior at hitting to the guy with 100. And that doesn't even address the fact that RBIs are stupid and -- much like the aforementioned boner people get for multiples of 10 -- vastly overrated as a way to evaluate a hitter since (aside from home runs) a hitter only has an opportunity to get an RBI if some other guy did the work of getting on base in front of him. On top of that, it's easier to drive a guy in from third rather than first -- another thing the hitter has no control over. Basically, RBIs are a completely circumstantial statistic and tell you absolutely nothing about a hitter's ability that you couldn't get using a million other, better ways.

Also, shouldn't they really be called RsBI? Paging William Safire.

I called this "The Golden Era of Rap Playlist" because I'm creative. The list is in no particular order other than alphabetical by artist. Enjoy!

1. "Tennessee," Arrested Development
2. "C'mon Wit da Git Down," Artifacts (Incidentally, typing "C'mon Wit da Git Down" made me feel really, really white.)
3. "Wrong Side of da Tracks," Artifacts (Again, white.)
4. "I Gotcha Open," Black Moon (Yup, still white over here.)
5. "The Choice Is Yours," Black Sheep
6. "Flavor of the Month," Black Sheep
7. "Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down," Brand Nubian
8. "Flava in Ya Ear (Remix)," Craig Mack, feat. Notorious BIG, LL Cool J, Rampage and Bustarhymes
9. "Hand on the Pump," Cypress Hill
10. "How I Could Just Kill a Man," Cypress Hill
11. "Insane in the Brain," Cypress Hill
12. "If Only," Das EFX
13. "They Want EFX," Das EFX
14. "Bitties in the BK Lounge," De La Soul
15. "My Brother's a Basehead," De La Soul
16. "Mistadobalina," Del the Funky Homosapien
17. "Rebirth of Slick," Digable Planets
18. "Where I'm From," Digable Planets
19. "Nuthin' But a G Thang," Dr. Dre, feat. Snoop Dogg
20. "Dre Day," Dr. Dre, feat. Snoop Dogg
21. "Deep Cover," Dr. Dre, feat. Snoop Dogg
22. "Mass Appeal," Gang Starr
23. "Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta," Geto Boys
24. "Mind Playing Tricks on Me," Geto Boys
25. "360 (What Goes Around)," Grand Puba
26. "Loungin," Guru
27. "Check Yo' Self," Ice Cube
28. "It Was a Good Day," Ice Cube
29. "Halftime," Nas
30. "It Ain't Hard to Tell," Nas
31. "Represent," Nas
32. "Everything's Gonna Be Alright (Ghetto Bastard)," Naughty by Nature
33. "Hip Hop Junkies," Nice and Smooth
34. "Sometimes I Rhyme Slow," Nice and Smooth
35. "Big Poppa," Notorious BIG
36. "Juicy," Notorious BIG
37. "The What," Notorious BIG, feat. Method Man
38. "Slam," Onyx
39. "They Reminisce Over You," Pete Rock and CL Smooth
40. "Passin Me By," The Pharcyde
41. "Time 4 Sum Aksion," Redman (More like "Whiteman" for me, amirite?)
42. "Ain't No Fun," Snoop Dogg
43. "Gin and Juice," Snoop Dogg
44. "Award Tour," A Tribe Called Quest
45. "Check the Rhime," A Tribe Called Quest
46. "Scenario," A Tribe Called Quest
47. "Regulate," Warren G, feat. Nate Dogg
48. "M.E.T.H.O.D. Man," Wu-Tang Clan
49. "Protect Ya Neck," Wu-Tang Clan
50. "I Get Around," 2Pac

Damn, that is a solid list of 50 songs. Maybe the best ever put together. Probably. Better than any other playlist on this blog, anyway.

UPDATE:

Here are a few suggested by readers:

"DWYCK," Gang Starr, feat. Nice & Smooth (from Yankel)
"Life's a Bitch," Nas (Yankel)
"I Used to Love H.E.R.," Common (Yankel)
"Don't Sweat the Technique," Eric B & Rakim (Yankel)
"Juice (Know the Ledge)," Eric B & Rakim (Yankel)
"Crooklyn," Crooklyn Dodgers (I just remembered that one)