With beautiful works of art like the Motorola Razr and tragedies like the Zune, the 2000s were both a dark, dark era and a wonderful, necessary decade that propelled us into the culture we enjoy today.
The 2000s gave us some of the most iconic clothing trends, songs, and albums to date, and still only managed to sapped some of us of our youth, happiness, and innocence. It was a pretty fair trade, especially with everyone clamoring for 2000s nostalgia content. The beginning of the millennium was a wonderful time to exist and consume content, so long as you were doing it right.
Sadly, as with all things, over time, the greatest parts of an era tend to be washed away, forgotten about until stumbled upon by accident. We all have the friend that loves to play throwbacks, centering their playlist around standard tracks like “Buy U A Drank,” “Gold Digger,” and “Hey Ya!” While these songs still remain bangers, they haven’t exactly left the public’s collective conscience in the way many others have: they still get somewhat regular radio rotation, they pop up on Spotify playlists, and you can even still hear them in the club.
So instead of highlighting those tracks, and to satisfy the authentic trip down memory lane you deserve, we’re diving into the nitty gritty, covering everyone from from one-hit wonders to still-popular artists, to paint a picture complete enough to make you think you’re bumping these tracks on an iPod Nano.
From Fort Minor to Sean Kingston, don’t let these songs die in vain. If you downloaded it from LimeWire and burnt it to a CD, there’s a good chance it’s here. Here are 15 hip-hop songs from the 2000s you probably forgot about.
Wiz Khalifa "Say Yeah"
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The Pittsburgh native had plenty of early hits: “This Plane” and “Ink My Whole Body” both still hold up when compared with his more modern tracks. But this 2006 track, recorded over a sample of Alice Deejay’s ‘90s bop “Better Off Alone,” brought Wiz into the mainstream conversation and set up a platform for him to continue thriving to this day.
Hurricane Chris "A Bay Bay"
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Though it recently re-appeared in the social conscience, thanks to an actual storm being named Hurricane Chris, this 2007 track remains a gem lost to time. With a beat that sounds fresh out of FL Studio 7, the song is so reminiscent of the mid-2000s it hurts. Hurricane Chris’ vocals are appropriately low-fi as he waxes poetic about the inner machinations of club night. 11 years later, though, and we still don’t know why he thought it was a good idea to take off his shoes inside of the club.
Shwayze "Buzzin'"
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“Buzzin’” is a laid-back jam that, while not exactly revolutionary, ran counter to most songs coming out of hip-hop in the mid-2000s. Cisco Adler, who also produced the track, floats over the instrumentation during the chorus, setting the stage for Malibu-native Shwayze, who rips off as many rhymes as he possibly can in 12 bars. The song was enough of a slapper that the duo inexplicably landed an MTV2 show named after it.
Sean Kingston "Take You There"
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As far as 2000s ad-libs go, Sean Kingston’s “SEAN KINGSTON! JR!” is in contention for the best. After the success of “Beautiful Girls” came “Take You There,” and through sing-songy melody, Kingston paints a more rugged and complete picture of Jamaica. The then-17-year-old sang sweet nothings about sipping pina coladas, and immediately followed it up with descriptions of vigilante capital punishment. Sean Kingston, master of juxtaposition.
Three 6 Mafia "Lolli Lolli (Pop That Body)"
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A far cry from Three 6 Mafia’s typical sound, this 2008 track saw the Academy Award-winners experimenting with a little bit of electronic pop. Featuring a sample of John Carpenter’s “Halloween Theme,” the song threw off people so hard that they assumed T-Pain was on the chorus, something still evidenced by the the track’s Genius annotations.
Akon f/ Young Jeezy and Lil Wayne "I’m So Paid"
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T-Pain reigns supreme as the voice of the 2000s, but Akon, the man who discovered him, isn’t too far behind. From collabs with Gwen Stefani to Michael Jackson to Eminem to David Guetta, Akon was everywhere.
While he made many appearances on other artists’ tracks, he also made time to put out bangers of his own. 2008’s “I’m So Paid,” featuring verses from Young Jeezy and Lil Wayne, is one that shines through, despite being one of his lower-charting songs. Wayne’s verse serves as a nice conclusion to the breezy track, but Jeezy steals the show, comparing the paint on his whip to a sugar-free Red Bull and the amount of gold around his neck to that of Michael Phelps.
Fort Minor "Where'd You Go?"
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Fort Minor, the hip-hop side project of Linkin Park’s vocalist, executively produced by Jay-Z, put together a track that wove a customary hip-hop tale through the medium of rock-influenced instrumentation. “Remember the Name,” through sheer concentrated power of will (get it?), was a mainstream hit; but once upon a time, the Mike Shinoda-founded group made our 11-year-old eyes expel water with “Where’d You Go?,” a haunting track centered around the theme of a traveling lover.
Chingy f/ Tyrese "Pullin’ Me Back"
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In the 2000s, hearing Jermaine Dupri’s “you know what this is!” ad-lib meant you were in for a treat.
Things were no different on Chingy’s Top 10 hit “Pullin’ Me Back,” assisted by Tyrese (who, despite the emotional nature of the song, still had a few years to go before sobbing into a camera). Produced by Dupri, the song details the emotional roller coaster of feeling a desire to leave a relationship, but being unable to make that final call, a feeling that somehow resonated heavily with middle schoolers in week-long relationships.
Baby Boy Da Prince "The Way I Live"
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The original laurel/yanny debate, listeners still aren’t clear on what big thing (wheels, bills, rims) Baby Boy was pushing (definitely wheels). But the disagreement was a nice side plot to a track that had all the necessary elements for a hit: a banging beat, slick lyrics, and a high-profile feature.
As written in Complex’s Best New Orleans Rap Songs, the song is quintessentially Nawlins, employing a few simple sounds to create lush instrumentation that plays perfectly into Baby Boy’s Louisiana cadence.
Ludacris f/ Mary J. Blige "Runaway Love"
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Nobody asked for Ludacris to make a tear-jerker, but humongous thanks to him for bringing one into the world, anyway. “Runaway Love” did its best to be the new generation’s “Brenda’s Got a Baby.” Lofty ambitions for sure, but it came pretty close to reaching the standards set by Pac.
Three verses detail the trauma experienced by three adolescent girls, depicting situations unimaginable to some but an everyday reality for others. After an entire song of stories that pull at your heart, the track ends with an uplifting moment: Luda empathizing with the girls’ pain, and offering a temporary release by imploring them to imagine running away from their problems together. The video closes with women of all ages gathered around Mary J. Blige, visualizing a better reality.
Bow Wow f/ Ciara "Like You"
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Before Bow Wow, aka Shad Moss, became famous for taking Ls, he was famous for putting out slappers, and this 2005 track featuring Ciara was a highlight. The song, which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard charts, perfectly displayed the chemistry between the two artists, who at the time were in a relationship.
At a time when Ja Rule and Ashanti were the golden standard for rapper/singer juxtaposition and meshing, Bow Wow and Ciara put together an absolute bop of their own, the center of which was Ciara’s infectious, dizzying chorus.
DJ Felli Fell f/ Diddy, Akon, Ludacris and Lil Jon "Get Buck In Here"
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It takes a special track for Diddy to come out of hiding and do more on a track than just say a few words, so “Get Buck in Here”’s two separate Puff verses were (and still are) a big deal. Produced and hosted by DJ Felli Fel, the 2007 track brought together some of the biggest names of the 2000s to put out a banger ready-made for rowdy club nights.
There are so many things to love about the song: Akon’s screeching chorus, Ludacris at the absolute top of his game, a music video featuring horribly 2000s-level CGI and no less than 20 cameos, and the final stretch of the song, in which Lil Jon busts through, cackling, and screams over a dirty beat flip powerful enough to induce “Knuck If You Buck”-level riots.
Plies f/ T-Pain "Shawty"
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Plies, with all of his beautiful candor in regards to sexually-motivated music, became the younger generation’s Too $hort, never failing to twist a single song into one centered around doing the dirty.
The first of them, “Shawty,” saw T-Pain harmonizing angelically about his feelings toward an unnamed, romantically-involved-with-somebody-else woman, followed by Plies delving into details about how he helped bring about the woman’s sexual liberation. 2007 was crazy.
Juelz Santana "There It Go (Whistle Song)"
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Apologies in advance for the fact that you’ll be whistling the refrain from this song for the rest of the day. But also, you’re welcome.
“There It Go” features a beat as hip-hop as one could possible find, consisting only of kicks, claps, cowbells, shakes, and of course, whistling. Built for the club or the car, it’s unfair how infectious the track is, and a blessing that it’s been used for good, not evil. Here’s to hoping Juelz’s legal troubles work out, and that we eventually get to hear the long-delayed collab between himself and Lil Wayne, I Can’t Feel My Face.
Speaking of Lil Wayne...
Lil Wayne "I'm Me"
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If we were to go off the influence that Wayne had in the 2000s, he very easily could’ve registered multiple songs on this list, rather than just one to go along with a guest feature nod. The Rapper Eater was everywhere throughout the decade, popping up on 42 guest features from 2008-09 alone.
Of all the tracks from that era, though, “I’m Me” is one that, due to being relegated to an EP rather than the legendary Tha Carter III, flew a bit under the radar (at least, as much as a Wayne track possibly could at that time). Interpolating various lines from his previous hits in the intro, Weezy rips the five-minute track like only 2007 Lil Wayne could. Played out over a flipped sample of Moby’s “God Moving Over the Face of the Waters,” the New Orleans rapper touches on Grammy snubs and his place in the game, and follows it up with assertions that at some point, he’s gonna shit on himself because he’s tired of doing it on the rest of the general population. God bless that man.
