Don’t Believe the Hype

Now that “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy has claimed the top spot on VH1’s “100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs” countdown, the debates have begun. Of all the great songs brought up here, why should that one outrank all the others? To be sure, lots of them did well. “Paid in Full” by Eric B. and Rakim, which sounds like so many hip-hop jams in embryo, landed at number 23. “Juicy” by Christopher Wallace, better known to the world as the Notorious B.I.G., turned up at seven. At five was “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, which isn’t bad, although it probably deserved the number-one spot.

Of course, that’s true for a great deal of these songs, depending on who lists them. In this case, it was a blogger’s ball – the results came from a poll on VH1’s Web site. The average voter can be very creative and thoughtful (as Outkast’s place at 23 with “B.O.B.” demonstrates), but can they be trusted to judge which tracks are fresher than others? In another Internet poll that VH1 turned into a countdown, “100 Greatest Songs of the ‘80s,” the plum spot went to “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi. That means it’s better, supposedly, than “Hungry Like the Wolf,” “Billie Jean,” “When Doves Cry,” “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” “Like a Virgin” and so forth. That all of these cracked the top 10 is agreeable, but it’s small consolation.

You’d think VH1 learned a little something since then, but no. Here we are, mulling over a list where great songs are underrated or absent altogether, and great artists (even one-hit wonders) are shortchanged. If you’ve seen the list, you might’ve noticed how everybody gets just one mention on it. Take DMX, for example, who came in at 79 with “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem (Stop Drop)” and was never seen again. There was probably a grander scheme here: By not mentioning the same artist twice – except for duets and guest appearances – they get to work with more variety. (LL Cool J is the exception, chiming in at 60 with “I Need Love” and at 12 with “I Can’t Live Without My Radio.”)

Whether peoples’ votes were tinkered with (they very well may’ve been) isn’t the issue, though. Choosing one moment to represent a rapper can work when you talk about Kurtis Blow and House of Pain, who stand in the shadows of “The Breaks” and “Jump Around,” but what about “One Love” by Nas makes it better than “Ether” or “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)”? What made 2Pac’s up-tempo “I Get Around” more influential than a prayer like “Dear Mama,” or his posthumous epitaph on “Hail Mary”? Settling on “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)” by Jay-Z seems fair, although Jigga’s taken some gigantic steps since then. Astonishingly, he’s still at the top of his form.

The list was probably put together in haste, which doesn’t speak well for them. There was a time when these specials had more consideration and process, like their “100 Greatest Albums of Rock & Roll” list, where critics, singers and songwriters had their say. Five records by the Beatles came up on that list: What would voters have done if they had to settle on just one?

But let’s not get carried away. Some lists are worth fighting about, but most of them aren’t. With its free-for-all voting and inexplicable conditions, this one is pretty self-canceling. There are some choice moments, though, like all the old-school classics: “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang came in at number two, and as the genre goes through various triumphs through the years, its reputation as a standard seems pretty secure. Lots of these songs were groundbreaking, but that was the bedrock.