Oct 24, 2015 i think "grindin" is as big or bigger than "lose yourself" among people who would describe themselves as hip-hop fans. if you control for the fact that it's (technically) a debut single from a coke-rap duo from virginia and label purgatory vs the career climax of the biggest rapper ever, it's a landslide.
Oct 24, 2015 not the whole thing yet but i know shea/70% of the contributors. i was actually at the la reading if any of you caught it.
Oct 24, 2015 out of curiosity what do u think My Name Is's legacy is? Was surprised to see that be recognized. May need to add this book 2 mah old bday list heh
Oct 24, 2015 I mean if all you have to do is manipulate reality... and ignore that The Neptunes were a huge commercial force. I don't think Lose Yourself is "more important" but it's definitely a globally recognized song on a different tier popularity wise.
Oct 24, 2015 nah the agenda is to dismantle eminems achievements at (almost) all costs. sweet sweet revisionists
Oct 24, 2015 i'm not being a revisionist or trying to dismantle anyone's legacy. globally and outside of rap music, lose yourself was way bigger. people who might not be able to name another rapper know all the lyrics. it's massive. eminem was and is hugely popular and was able to make that song his crowning achievement the same year he released an exhaustively personal solo album. it's a tremendously impressive thing. as i've pointed out before, though, eminem has always kind of existed parallel to the rest of hip-hop. he was always too big and too specific to have imitators within the ranks of other respected rappers. so if the conversation is "what song was more important to hip-hop and helped shape the genre moving forward," it's grindin. it predicted the minimalism that would take over radio a decade later. it provided a blueprint for street rap to cross over beyond copy-and-pasted r&b hooks. it put virginia on the map commercially. perhaps most importantly, it launched the clipse themselves into the stratosphere, and they would be patient zero for that sea change in rap criticism and fandom where the turn-of-the-century backpack/college radio wave dried up.
Oct 24, 2015 Grindin was inescapable haha. I loved that song, still do tbh. I'm gonna have to pick this book up. There isn't a song I disagreed with on that list.
Oct 24, 2015 March Madness for 2015... Imma get a copy of this for myself. The choices throughout the 90s were spot-on, it gets interesting once it crosses over to the 2000s. I'd have put What You Know by T.I over Hustlin'.
Oct 24, 2015 obviously everyone is going to have nitpicking points here--for me, the specific ones are that big pimpin should slide to 1999, the year it was actually released, and 2000 should be given to bombs over baghdad; 2012 should be cartoons and cereal or love sosa or even n----s in paris. also, as mentioned, what you know is clearly, clearly the song of 2006. if i have a broader complaint, it's that the post-2000 picks skew so heavily toward songs by rappers who are respected album artists. there's no t-pain for the middle of the decade? but everyone should pick this up. something i don't think has been mentioned is that the biggest selling point is really the art.
Oct 24, 2015 Yeah, the infographics and art are fantastic. I'm up to Juicy and don't disagree with anything so far. Looking at the list, I definitely disagree with Same Love...I love Monster but I'm interested to read his reasoning as to why it's the most important song of 2010 because I'm not sure I really agree. Hustlin' felt like a one hit wonder at the time of its release. Weird to think Outkast isn't represented at all other than as a feature on Players Anthem. Branching off of what you said about it being biased toward album rappers, if not T-Pain then Crank That probably deserves representation. Definitely buy it. I think I would probably pick The Real Slim Shady as the more iconic eminem song, but that's not how the list works so it's kind of a moot point. My Name Is was huge though, I knew some of the lyrics to that when I was nine years old and didn't listen to rap at all. It introduced us to a Dr. Dre-backed white rapper which was probably an insane concept in 1999. The lyrics were shocking for the time. It demonstrated that this wasn't just Vanilla Ice 2.0.
Oct 24, 2015 I agree with alot of the early stuff. But really My Name Is in 99? I get that it's important cuz it introduced Eminem but it's an awful song. Also how the f--- is Grindin #1 in 02 over Lose Yourself? And don't even get me started on the Macklemore gay pride song or "N-words" In Paris.
Oct 24, 2015 I'd probably choose Eminem's feature on Forgot About Dre as his most important contribution in 99 but even then Still D.R.E is the more important song from that album and contender for that year in general.
