“The Rap Year Book” is meant to start arguments. Written by Shea Serrano (a staff writer at the sports and culture website Grantland) with illustrations by Arturo Torres, it boasts what seems at first like an undemanding premise: pick the best rap song from every year from 1979 through 2014, and elaborate on the choices. Sounds simple, right? But then you start digging into the details. Take 1994, for example: “Juicy” by Notorious B.I.G and “New York State of Mind” by Nas both came out within a few months of each other. How do you choose between the two? Is one really better than the other? Go back a few years, and you’ll find “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy as the best song of 1989. A smart choice, but couldn’t every song Public Enemy released have been the best song of that specific year? You could have filled an entire book with all the best rap songs that came out from 1988 through 1994, vibrant and sonically diverse years for the genre as it was exploding into the mainstream.And that’s the point of this book. It’s not trying to be definitive, or to make too strong of a case for each pick. It wants you to disagree, and Serrano wisely acknowledges that his choices will start debates, mentioning other songs he knows others would have picked and including alternate picks at the end of each chapter by other writers (a bevy of young music critics), offering an alternate version of what the “The Rap Year Book” could be in other hands. What makes “The Rap Year Book” special and not just a listicle is that it’s is bursting with information and is often hilarious, going on wild tangents. The 1985 chapter on Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick’s “La Di Da Di,” the prototypical storytelling rap consists mostly of a story about a date Serrano went on as a junior in high school and how he got tricked into thinking he found a $100 dollar bill; the 2004 chapter on “Still Tippin’” by Mike Jones (an inspired choice) features a lively glossary of Houston slang. Deeply informed but willing to get personal and weird, “The Rap Year Book” deserves to be on the shelf next to “Ego Trip’s Book of Rap Lists,” its clear ancestor and possibly the smartest book about hip-hop ever published.In the spirit of the book, and because I was constantly scribbling notes on scraps of paper while reading “The Rap Year Book,” I’ve provided my own alternate list with a playlist below. (Click on each link to find respective song.)1979: Funky 4 + 1, “Rappin' and Rockin' the House”1980: Tanya Winley, “Vicious Rap”1981: Funky 4 + 1, “That's the Joint”1982: Afrika Bambaataa & the Soul Sonic Force, “Looking for the Perfect Beat”1983: K-Rob vs. Rammelzee, “Beat Bop”1984: T La Rock & Jazzy Jay, “It's Yours”1985: Schoolly D, “P.S.K.”1986: Boogie Down Productions, “South Bronx”1987: EPMD, “It's My Thing”1988: EPMD, “You Gots to Chill”/ De La Soul, “Jenifa (Taught Me)”1989: Slick Rick, “Children's Story”1990: Ice Cube, “AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted”1991: A Tribe Called Quest, “Check the Rhime”1992: Pete Rock & CL Smooth, “T.R.O.Y.”/Dr. Dre, “Deep Cover”1993: Wu-Tang Clan, “Protect Ya Neck”1994: Nas, “It Ain't Hard to Tell”/Method Man, “Bring the Pain”1995: Mobb Deep, “Shook Ones Pt. II”1996: Fugees, “Fu-Gee-La”1997: The Beatnuts, “Off the Books”1998: Cool Breeze, “Watch for the Hook”/Juvenile, “Ha”1999: Pharoahe Monch, “Simon Says”/Hot Boys, “We on Fire”2000: Three 6 Mafia, “Sippin' on Some Syrup”/Dead Prez, “Hip Hop”2001: M.O.P, “Ante Up”2002: Royce Da 5’9, “Boom”2003: Missy Elliott, “Pass That Dutch”2004: Jay-Z, “99 Problems”2005: Lil’ Kim, “The Jump Off”2006: Lil’ Wayne ft. Birdman, “Stuntin’ Like My Daddy”2007: U.G.K, “International Players Anthem”2008: Lil’ Wayne, “A Milli”2009: Big Boi ft. Gucci Mane, “Shine Blockas”2010: Waka Flaka Flame, “Hard in the Paint”2011: Jay-Z & Kanye West, “Otis”2012: Future, “Same Damn Time”2013: Migos, “Versace”2014: Vince Staples, “Blue Suede”
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