Top 20 Best 90s Rap Songs For True Hip Hop Fans

We list some of the best 90s rap songs you can add to your playlist. Most of the rappers from the 90s shepherd hip-hop from the underground to worldwide prominence, all while pushing the music in socially and politically provocative directions. In the process, they influenced the look, sound, and ideology of the MC, all during hip-hop’s golden era.

Top 20 Best 90s Rap Songs

1. Dr. Dre – Still D.R.E.

“Still D.R.E.” is regarded as one of the best 90s rap songs of all time. It appeared in Dr. Dre’s 1991 sophomore studio album 2001. It’s music video helmed by Hype Williams and featured big names including Eminem as Slim Shady, Xzibit, Funkmaster Flex and Warren G. In 2020, Snoop confirmed that JAY-Z wrote the entirety of the track and further elaborated that Hov “wrote the whole f*cking song.” Though the song topped out at No. 93 on the Billboard Hot 100 at the time of its release, it has become one of Dre’s most beloved anthems in the years since. It was later featured in the 2001 Denzel Washington/Ethan Hawke drama Training Day — in which Dre and Snoop appeared in memorable cameos — and the Grand Theft Auto V video game.

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2. Ice Cube – It Was a Good Day

“It Was a Good Day” was released as the second single from Cube’s third solo album, The Predator, on February 23, 1993. The song was a built on a good-time Isley Brothers sample and pushed The Predator past 2 million copies sold, making it Ice Cube’s biggest seller ever. The song also marked the apex of one of the great five-year runs in hip-hop (and contemporary pop music) history. On the Billboard Hot 100, the song peaked at No. 15, making it Ice Cube’s highest-charting single on the chart to date.

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3. Tupac Shakur – California Love

“California Love” is a song by 2Pac featuring Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman. As Tupac’s first single as a Death Row artist and as a free man after his 1994 rape conviction, California Love dropped during the height of the the East Coast/West Coast rivalry and helped to propel Death Row to the top of the Hip Hop food chain, featuring the game’s hottest rapper and the most sought after producer. “California Love” is built off of samples of Joe Cocker’s “Woman to “Woman” (the percolating piano EPMD also used on 1989’s “Knick Knack Patty Wack”); Zapp’s “Dance Floor” (that “Shake, shake it, baby”); and Ronnie Hudson & The Street People’s “West Coast Poplock,” (the now-famous “California knows how to party” line, among others). The song was nominated for a posthumous Grammy Award as a Best Rap Solo Performance and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group in 1997.

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4. Sean Combs – I’ll Be Missing You

“I’ll Be Missing You” is dedicated in the memory of the Notorious B.I.G. and features his widow, Faith Evans and 112 and was partly filmed at an airport hangar in Sydney, Australia. Biggie was shot to death on March 9, 1997 at the age of 24. The incident happened in the early morning after an industry party in Los Angeles when B.I.G. was riding in the passenger seat of an SUV. A gunman opened fire from a vehicle that pulled alongside, firing four shots that hit the rapper. No arrest was made in the case. The song samples from The Police’s “Every Breath You Take”. At the 40th Annual Grammy Awards, the song won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. The single spent eleven weeks atop the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached number one in 15 other countries.

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5. Warren G – Regulate

Warren G is best known for his debut 1994 single, “Regulate“, which reached number 2 on the charts in the U.S. and charted worldwide. Being Dr. Dre’s stepbrother and a friend of Snoop’s since a young age placed Warren G as part of the circle of talent Dre and Suge Knight had assembled at Death Row Records. He was never signed to the label however, and only appears once on The Chronic (1992) (on the intro skit to “Deeez Nuuuts”) and once on Doggystyle (1993) (“Ain’t No Fun (If the Homies Can’t Have None)”). “Regulate” makes heavy use of a four-bar sample of the rhythm of Michael McDonald’s song “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near)”. It also samples “Sign of the Times” by Bob James and “Let Me Ride” by Dr. Dre. One mix of the song, called the Jamming Mix, includes full vocal samples from “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near)”. The song also starts with a read introduction referencing dialogue from the film Young Guns and the music video featured scenes from Above the Rim, including an appearance by Tupac Shakur. The song was instrumental in getting Nate, Warren, and many other successful west coast artists at the time recognition on a national level.

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6. House of Pain – Jump Around

“Jump Around” is one of the most enduring tracks of the ’90s, proving remarkably effective at getting a crowd on its feet. The song is popular among dancehall DJs and is widely regarded in the United Kingdom as a club classic. “Jump Around” features a distinctive horn fanfare intro, sampled from Bob & Earl’s 1963 track “Harlem Shuffle”. The song also samples “Popeye the Hitchhiker” by Chubby Checker, but it is best known for a high-pitched squealing sound that appears at the beginning of almost every bar—66 times in the course of the recording. The Irish American-themed trio of Everlast, Danny Boy, and DJ Lethal would score platinum on the single and was number 24 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s.

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7. Michael Marshall – Got 5 on It

The 1995 song, “I Got 5 on It” by rap duo Luniz was released more than two decades ago, but is still immensely popular. In the Bay Area, where the song and its artists are from, it still plays in heavy rotation on radio stations. Though the song was a bit before my time, it was a classic party song. The song is about the selling of marijuana, and became an unofficial theme for the Tethered from the 2019 psychological horror film Us written and directed by Jordan Peele. The single was certified Platinum by the RIAA on October 31, 1995 and sold one million copies domestically.

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8. Lauryn Hill – Doo Wop (That Thing)

Lauryn Hill‘s 1998 debut single “Doo Wop (That Thing)” off her debut album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, was the first No. 1 Hip-Hop single by a female rapper. The single was released on July 7, 1998, under Ruffhouse and Columbia records. “Doo Wop (That Thing)” was written, produced, and recorded by Lauryn Hill herself and went No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 charts and peaked at the No. 1 position on November 14, 1998.

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9. Nas – If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)

“If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)” is a song by Nas featuring fellow Lauryn Hill, released on June 4, 1996 as the first single from his second album, It Was Written (1996). Produced by Trackmasters, with some uncredited input by Rashad Smith, it is based on the 1985 hit of the same name by American rapper Kurtis Blow and samples the beat of “Friends” by Whodini. Lauryn Hill was 21 years old when she recorded it and sang the hook. Nas told Rolling Stone magazine about their collaboration: “When Lauryn Hill came to mind, it was just right on time. It’s funny, because when we released the record, people didn’t know it was Lauryn Hill, because I guess we just white-labeled it at first and didn’t want anybody to know.”

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10. Snoop Dogg – Gin and Juice

“Gin and Juice” is Snoop Dogg’s depiction of the more laid back side of the streets. It has arguably one of the catchiest hooks in all of hip-hop and is symbolic of what the G-funk is all about. It is considered a classic in the mainstream media and one of the best 90s rap songs of all time. It was nominated for “Best Rap Solo Performance” at the 1995 Grammy Awards In 2011, and listed #8 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs. On Pandora, Snoop talked about the origin of this song: “Gin and juice was the choice of drink for a young playa. 1991, 1992, you didn’t really have a lot of money, you go get that gin. When it came time to make the record, Doggystyle, that was my thing: Every day I would come to the studio with my bottle of gin and juice in it, and Dre would have a big-ass milk jug full of gin and juice. We were in the studio one day and someone was singing that Slave song, ‘Watching You.’ We flipped it into ‘Rollin’ down the street, smokin indo, sippin’ on gin and juice,’ and made it happen from there.

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11. Dr. Dre – Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F0CAEoF4XM

“Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang” was the lead single to Dr. Dre’s debut solo album, The Chronic, and highlighted the performance of Snoop Doggy Dogg following their first collaboration “Deep Cover,” which was released a few months earlier. The beat is built around a sample from Leon Haywood’s 1975 track “I Want’a Do Something Freaky To You.” Dr. Dre also directed the music video, which features cameos from Daz, Warren G and The D.O.C. “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang” reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 on March 20, 1993.

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12. Nas – N.Y. State of Mind

Nas displays complex lyricism with his “N.Y. State of Mind” over a track from Gang Starr’s DJ Premier. The chorus samples a Rakim line from the track “Mahogany”. The song consists of Nas rapping about the dangerous environment in New York City, and DJ Premier spoke to Complex Magazine in February 2011 about the creative process behind “N.Y. State of Mind”: “That was just amazing because it happened in this room. Actually, anything from ’92 and on, we did it here. It was just amazing watching him work because I was already a fan of him when he did ‘Back to the Grill’, ‘Halftime’, ‘It Ain’t Hard to Tell’, and ‘Live at the Barbeque’. Rolling Stone magazine placed the song on its list of “The 50 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time.”

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13. Jay-Z – Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)

“Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)” was part of Vol. 2… Hard Knock Life the third studio album by Jay-Z. The song became one of the best 90s rap songs of all time and was nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 41st Grammy Awards in 1999. Famously sampling “It’s a Hard Knock Life” from the Annie movie (1982), Jay raps about his rags-to-riches story (it’s slightly different than Annie’s). Jay-Z transposes this into a song about how he overcame life in the ghetto to achieve massive success. Jay told Vibe magazine that ” [One of my sister’s names is Andrea], but we call her Annie. That’s how the Annie sample came about. When I seen that on TV, I was like, ‘Annie?’ And then, I watched the movie. […] Any person that goes from ashy to classy or, you know, is from the orphanage or the projects—it’s pretty similar.”

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14. DMX – Ruff Ryder’s Anthem

“Ruff Ryders’ Anthem” is a song by DMX, released on May 5, 1998, as the third single from his debut studio album It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot (1998). In the US, upon the song’s initial release it had originally peaked at number 93 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, before reaching a new peak of number 16 following DMX’s death in April 2021. Per initial reports, X’s music experienced a surge of over 900% in streaming activity. Producer Swizz Beatz provided some background information on the track in an interview with Complex, “I made the ‘Ruff Ryders Anthem’ beat in Atlanta. It was me just bugging out, having my New York influence and having my Atlanta influence. That track was the perfect blend which was awkward and different at the time because nobody had ever heard anything like that—including my clique.”

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15. Fugees – Fu-Gee-La

“Fu-Gee-La” was part of The Score, which became one of the best-selling hip hop albums of all time. The song interpolates “Ooo La La La” performed by Teena Marie Samples “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want to Be Right” performed by Ramsey Lewis. The song peaked at number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the Fugees’ highest position on the chart, and peaked at #1 on the Billboard Dance chart.

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16. A Tribe Called Quest – Electric Relaxation

“Electric Relaxation“, the second single from the album Midnight Marauders finds A Tribe Called Quest mixing the back-and-forth from “Check the Rhime” with the smoothness and similar subject matter of “Bonita Applebum.” Tip delivers his “street poetry” alongside Phife’s punchlines over a sample from Ronnie Foster’s “Mystic Brew.” In a 2013 interview with XXL, Phife briefly detailed the making of the track, “I came home from some type of trip and I walked in the kitchen, and you know, [Q-Tip]’s in the basement and you could hear the music coming up, and all I heard was that. I didn’t even say hello to my grandmother or whoever was in the house, I was just like, “Hold on!” and went downstairs. “Yo, what the hell is that?!” He was like, “Yo, that shit is crazy, right?” And it just became what it is now […] On that record, he wrote my lines and I wrote his—actually, we wrote our own lines, and when we recorded, we traded. That’s why the whole back and forth, you know what I mean?”.

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17. Geto Boys – Mind Playing Tricks on Me

“Mind Playing Tricks on Me” is a song by Geto Boys, featured on their 1991 album We Can’t Be Stopped. The lyrics describe the mental anguish and exhaust of life as a gangster, including dealing with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, paranoia, suicidal ideation, and loneliness. It also samples “Hung Up on My Baby” by Isaac Hayes, from his 1974 film Tough Guys. The beat, originally made for a Scarface solo album, samples Isaac Hayes’ “Hung Up on my Baby”, which itself was featured in the blaxploitation film The Three Tough Guys. In an interview, Scarface explained how the line “My Mind is Playing Tricks on Me” was taken from something his grandma once said to him.

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18. LL Cool J – Mama Said Knock You Out

“Mama Said Knock You Out” was inspired by LL’s grandmother, who told him to “knock out” critics who were disappointed in his previous album. The song uses samples from James Brown’s “Funky Drummer,” the Chicago Gangsters’ “Gangster Boogie,” Sly & The Family Stone’s “Trip to Your Heart” and “Sing a Simple Song”, and his own track “Rock the Bells ”. It peaked at #17 in the US was certified gold within months of its release. It later won a Grammy and Rolling Stone ranked it #29 on its list of the 50 best rap songs in history.

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19. OutKast – Rosa Parks

“Rosa Parks” is a song by the hip hop duo Outkast. It was released as the second single from their album Aquemini (1998), and was that album’s most successful single. The song’s title comes from the civil rights movement activist Rosa Parks. On 1 December 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to obey bus driver James Blake’s order to give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger. This incident is said to be one of the catalysts of the Civil Right Movement in America in the 1950s and 1960s. The song was also Grammy Nominated for “Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group”. It also stirred controversy with a lawsuit from Rosa Parks as she believed that the song misappropriated her name and that was due to some of the song’s vulgar language.

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20. KRS-One – Sound of da Police

“Sound of da Police” is the second single from KRS-One’s first solo album, Return of the Boom Bap. The song begins with KRS-One whooping twice to evoke a police siren (the “sound of the police”); this recurs several times throughout the song. The lyrics refer to police, in places like the Bronx: they’re a protest against institutionalized racism, oppression and violence against the black community. In this respect, it resembles NWA’s “Fuck tha Police”, released 5 years earlier.

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