Hey Ya doesn't belong anywhere that high. Same goes with:

With Or Without You
Stayin' Alive
Sweet Child O' Mine
I Want You Back
Beat It
Losing My Religion
Bittersweet Symphony

Why? Just because they - with the exception of I Want You Back - are after the 70s?

Hey Ya is probably the greatest Rap/Hip Hop song of all time.

I concur. The Message, Fight the Power, etc. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Hey Ya!

Also, Stayin' Alive is from the 70's.

21-30 suggestion:

21. Superstition
22. Tutti Frutti
23. Louie Louie
24. No Woman No Cry
25. Layla
26. Won't Get Fooled Again
27. Yesterday
28. Bo Diddley
29. All Along the Watchtower
30. Hotel California

If he had put "Hey Ya" in the 2nd group, that might be conceivable, though there were some he left out that are more deserving. Has there been a greater song in the last 12 years? But I wouldn't put it in the first group.

I'd say "Your Song" is among the least deserving of those listed, though I'd agree that
"With Or Without You", "I Want You Back", "Beat It", and "Bittersweet Symphony" also shouldn't be that high. I also have doubts about some of the others.

Brian, this same topic, said:



I would put "The Message" and "Walk This Way" in the top 100, but "Hey Ya" and "Lose Yourself" above.

My only complaint here is that there are few songs of the last 30 years being remembered. At least 30% of the top 100 can be formed by songs of this period.

Deany, about your bunch, seems very good, but I don't agree with "Bo Diddley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" being too high. The others may be part of the top 50.

It's not even top 100 on the site's greatest hip hop songs list:

http://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_rap-songs.html

Well, it's at least the most critically acclaimed rap song, according to acclaimedmusic.net, anyway.

And I do think it's about time that our 100 Greatest Rap Songs list includes it somewhere.

Maybe it's not considered to be hip hop?

It doesn't sound like hip hop to me.....too fast, and not funky at all. Sounds more like alternative.

The song received praise from contemporary music critics, and it won a Grammy Award for Best Urban/Alternative Performance at the 46th Grammy Awards.

Blender described it as a mix of soul music by Ike Turner and New Wave music by Devo

Allmusic described it as an "incandescent" mix of electro, funk, and soul music

Well, it's definitely one of OutKast's poppier ditties, so who knows.

I seriously doubt it could be considered as a hip hop/rap song, given that there's no actual rapping on the song and the backing track sounds way too poppy to be a rap beat.


Why does hip hop need to be at a certain speed? Or have funky elements?

I'm far from a hip hop/rap expert, but most of the songs I've heard that were real big sounded more funky, and usually had a lower tempo.

"Hey Ya!" and "Lose Yourself" are both excellent, excellent rap songs, but in no way are they greater than "The Message" or "Walk This Way". Or "Fight the Power" for that matter.

I think this might work best if we adapted Brian's idea from the lyricists thread and first determined which songs should be inside a potential Top 100 before ordering them. That way we could make sure that no songs are forgotten completely or end up too low because we didn't think of them initially.