Stream: Pitchfork's Top 200 Tracks of the 90's

pitchfork.com has just finished counting down their Top 200 Tracks of the 1990's.  Dance and Hip-Hop was well-represented at the top of the list.  Here's a few of the choice cuts and a little about why I think they deserved their lofty positions.  If you click on the song, it will take you to the track.

Dr. Dre [ft. Snoop Doggy Dogg] "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang"

NWA were some bad asses in the late 80's, early 90's.  So when Dr Dre left the group, many wondered what he would do next.  That he crafted the ulitmate G-Funk party jam was a little out of left field, but it was a brilliant move, and yet it was not even his most brilliant move. No, the coup de gras was finding a young Long Beach rapper named Snoop Doggy Dogg, whose laconic flow was a perfect foil for Dre's gruff bluster.  There's a  reason people have been anticipating Dre's long-awaited Detox album for so long, and it's due to classics like this.

 
The Notorious BIG - Juicy

When I first moved to the city I was 21 and while I was a fan of Hip Hop, I was hardly qualified as a Hip Hop Head.  That all changed when I found a flyer advertising a local Hip Hop radio show (shout out to 93.7 degree's in the shade), which I then produced to tape on cassette week in , week out.

One of the tracks that was always on rewind was Biggie's Juicy.  The reason why was very simple.  The dude sounded just like me, talking about playing Sega, sitting in his one room shack and letting his tape rock until that tape popped.  He shouted out the old school like Marley Marl, and then told of his rise to riches.  The beat was pretty sweet too, but it was the story-telling that sucked us all in.

Aaliyah - Are You That Somebody?

It sat snug on the Doctor Dolittle soundtrack and immediately sounded like it didn't fit.  Not just with the movie, but with everything that going on in R&B at that point in time.  There's some weird stuff going on in there - the baby cooing, Timbaland's frantic beatboxing - but Aaliyah rides it like the star she was.  Possibly the best interpreter of Timbo's crazy productions (apologies to Missy), Aaliyah's breathy flow addressed the subject matter succinctly without ever letting go of the beat.