2000: #10 - "Shape Of My Heart"

Is it possible for something to sound so state of the art, yet extremely safe and almost instantly dated? Yes, Max Martin knocked another one out of the park with "Shape Of My Heart", the 'Boys workmanlike power ballad follow-up to "I Want It That Way?", because it does still get the job done melodically, sonically, and even emotionally. I won't begrudge the fact that the song is perfectly crafted and tugs the right strings. But how come, even days after it came out, it sounded like something that had been around for decades, and the 2-year-old "I Want It That Way" was the trendy, new torch-bearer of teen pop balladry? Was that a testament to "Shape Of My Heart"'s timelessness, or a foreshadowing that the juggernaut was running out of gas? We all know what happened to Martin and BSB around the time Black and Blue and this song, its first single, came out, but they still seemed to be firing on all cylinders here. You be the judge.

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2000: 19-11

19. "The Next Episode" - Dr. Dre
18. "Simple Kind of Life" - No Doubt
17. "It Wasn't Me" - Shaggy
16. "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" - D'Angelo
15. "Oops!... I Did It Again" - Britney Spears
14. "Shake Ya Ass" - Mystikal
13. "Never Let You Go" - Third Eye Blind
12. "It's Gonna Be Me" - *NSYNC
11. "You Sang To Me" - Marc Anthony

Has a band this terrible ever produced a song this good? Has 25 seconds (check 3:25 or so) of such a great song ever been so heinously bad that it almost ruins the song? Would said song be in our top 10 (or 5??) if not for said heinous "spoken word" section?



Edit: Quick shout out to those hugely dumb drums in "Simple Kind of Life".

Edit II: Also, Y2K is the first year on our blog where the producer of the year is not Timbaland, Kanye West, or The Neptunes. You go, unnamed person!

Edit III: Anyone who names the dude wins a prize.

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2001: 19-1

19. "Fiesta" - R Kelly
18. "Break Ya Neck" - Busta Rhymes
17. "One Minute Man" - Missy Elliott
16. "Ante Up (Remix)" - M.O.P.
15. "7 Days" - Craid David
14. "Ghost Showers" - Ghostface Killah
13. "I'm A Slave 4 U" - Britney Spears
12. "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" - Jay-Z
11. "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" - Eve
10. "Hard to Explain" - The Strokes
9. "Is That Your Chick?" - Memphis Bleek
8. "Bouncin' Back (Bumpin' Me Against the Wall)" - Mystikal
7. "Rollout" - Ludacris
6. "Rock the Boat" - Aaliyah
5. "Get Ur Freak On" - Missy Elliott
4. "What's Your Fantasy?" - Ludacris
3. "Lick Shots" - Missy Elliott
2. "Ms. Jackson" - Outkast
1. "We Need A Resolution" - Aaliyah

Artist of the Year: Missy Elliott
Producer of the Year: Timbaland

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2001: #1 - "We Need A Resolution"

Few artists could pull off a song with the vague, unresolved tension of the unsettling, anti-hit "We Need A Resolution" without sounding, themselves, unsure or unsettled, but Aaliyah, armed as always with that confident swagger and unshakable ice-queen delivery, gets it done.

We spoke earlier about the triumvirate of this decade's female pop masterpieces ("Poker Face", "Say It Right", and this), and how each pinned down its place among the most mysterious, sexy, and most of all, melodic hits of our time; "We Need A Resolution" is far more about mystery and unanswered, open-ended angst than Nelly Furtado's gem, and clearly it's more sexy and less obvious than anything Lady Gaga could ever dream of. Thus, what it lacks in bombast and visceral appeal, it makes up for in terms of our more long-lasting, universal fascinations with doubt and confusion.

That a song titled "We Need A Resolution" could close with the following string of questions, amidst backward synths that unpredictably fade in and out of the mix, leave them unanswered, yet still feel totally complete, says a lot about Aaliyah and Timbaland's accomplishment.

Am I supposed to change?
Are you supposed to change?
Who should be hurt,
Who should be ashamed?(yeah-yee)

Am I supposed to change?
Are you supposed to change?
Who should be heard?
Will we remain?

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2001: 19-2

We'll finally get to the top track of 2001 tomorrow, but here's a quick recap and an opportunity to take a crack at the difficult task of guessing #1. The prize: every song we've talked about so far!

19. "Fiesta" - R Kelly
18. "Break Ya Neck" - Busta Rhymes
17. "One Minute Man" - Missy Elliott
16. "Ante Up (Remix)" - M.O.P.
15. "7 Days" - Craid David
14. "Ghost Showers" - Ghostface Killah
13. "I'm A Slave 4 U" - Britney Spears
12. "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" - Jay-Z
11. "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" - Eve
10. "Hard to Explain" - The Strokes
9. "Is That Your Chick?" - Memphis Bleek
8. "Bouncin' Back (Bumpin' Me Against the Wall)" - Mystikal
7. "Rollout" - Ludacris
6. "Rock the Boat" - Aaliyah
5. "Get Ur Freak On" - Missy Elliott
4. "What's Your Fantasy?" - Ludacris
3. "Lick Shots" - Missy Elliott
2. "Ms. Jackson" - Outkast

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2001: #2- "Ms. Jackson"

Ten times out of nine, a songsmith who chooses the heartfelt route will falter not necessarily by way of lyrical sentiment but in the arena of not-being-shitty. Who really wants to listen to a guy pouring his heart out apologizing for being misunderstood unless the beats and the rhymes are dope? With "Ms. Jackson", like a swirling pop-rap/funk combination of say, Prince and 2Pac, Outkast gets the tone totally right.

The layers of synths create drama but not melodrama, and the layers of imagery within the words evoke more than vague, simplistic angst - for the most part, we're listening in on the sincere, thoughtful, witty and painful musings of two grown men who just want to make good with their babies' mamas' mamas, using some of the more unique imagery in hip hop's history of course.

Favorite lines? We like the idea of apologizing "a trillion times", as if the quantity would help the futile situation; "I love your mom and everything, but..."; rhyming divided with invited with despite it; "puppy love" vs. "full grown" love; the house with the tire swing; the knee pads line; and of course the whole thing about the picnic.

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2001: #3 - "Lick Shots"

Maybe it pales in comparison, as far as creative genius goes, to some of the bigger and more well-known Missy/Timbaland singles of the past two decades, but very few rap songs were as tight and hard (seriously) as "Lick Shots". It starts off with a well-put half-boast, half-taunt, that the "haters... made us more creative", and goes off on a spiky, staccato old school funk-rock, post-punk vibe that to us recalled Gang of Four as much as it did Prince. If "Get Ur Freak On" made us say, "Hmmm...", this one had us saying, "Yeah!"

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2001: #4 - "What's Your Fantasy?"

Before he became a rap music stereotype, Ludacris could be counted on not only for silly, misogynistic party rap songs like "What's Your Fantasy?", but also for exquisitely stupid sex rhymes like "How about up in the library / On top of books". Seriously, I think this made it to #4 solely because of that line.

Well, to be completely fair, the beat is also pretty top notch. The percussion - skittering hi-hats and busy snares, a perfect complement to Luda's all-over-the-place hyperspeed vocalizing, especially effective as a lead-in to that one ruthless bass and kick drum blast which punctuates every measure - is note perfect, and the synths - a neverending and slightly overdone labryinth of dissonant yet catchy hooks of all flavors and textures - only add to the cartoonish fun.

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2001: #5 - "Get Ur Freak On"

As inescapable as it was in late 2001, and as inescapable it was in late 2009 on Songs of the Decade lists, "Get Ur Freak On", with only 700,000 YouTube views to date, seems to have been slightly forgotten over the years. Perhaps modern music fans have all forgotten, after she became a Top 40 princess for the first half of the 00's, then experienced a half-decade of obscurity, how bad-ass Missy could be on the mic as a legitimate rapper.

Or maybe music fans grew tired of the once innovative but now mildly grating hook, especially after the bhangra style had been used and abused so heavily in the early part of the decade. That's hard to believe though, because even in hindsight, even after all the imitators, it still sounds far, far from passe.

Looking back, it's hard to believe it was a hit at all, being that its main percussion is the tabla, and the only Western instrumentation are keys that sound like cartoon laser guns - not exactly the type of stuff that'll typically get car stereos thumping. It was all very unique stuff to be sure, even for Timbaland, but it's Missy who really keeps us coming back, even after nearly 9 years, after the crazy oddness of the beat had wormed its way into our brains forever, for better or worse.

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2001: #6 - "Rock the Boat"

The quintessential 00's slow jam, "Rock the Boat" enjoyed a somewhat inflated profile at the time of its release, due to Aaliyah's untimely death on a return trip from filming the song's video, and has since been relegated to the occasional spin on lite-soul radio.

Admittedly, after preparing to write about the 80's, where there were several standout electro-funk jams of this ilk every year, "Rock the Boat"'s status has been somewhat diminished in our minds as well.

But there was something about the incessant urgency of the vocal hook, literally repeated for four straight minutes, and the truly creamy, dream-like sound of the heavily phased guitars that made it feel more monumentally sexy than it deserved to be.

File under maximum make out music.

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2001: #7 - "Rollout"

Is this really the first Ludacris sighting on DOTY? Did he, after 2001, suddenly abandon everything that made him worth paying attention to as a pop-rap singles artist? Not exactly. Luda's wit - which on the beefy, quintessentially Timbaland "Rollout" veered precariously between clever, unfunny, and self-parody - became so tediously stereotypical and outright dumb over the years that we weren't sure that it wasn't all a parody, until he started doing those hilariously bad PSA-type, serious songs in addition. Sadly, we're not likely to hear another like this from him again - the beat is accessible and dancey but not totally cheesed out, and it's strong enough to outweigh any of the lyrical silliness.

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2001: #8 - "Bouncin' Back (Bumpin' Me Against The Wall)"

Mystikal's vocal style can be a little grating (a cross between Busta Rhymes and Tom Waits?), which kept "Bouncin' Back" out of the DOTY Top 5 but he's got loads of personality; when his rhymes fail him, you can be sure that some sort of grunt or growl will be there to pick him up. He also benefited early on from some ingenious production by The Neptunes. As far as we can tell, they managed to recreate a perfect sweaty 60's soul/rock vibe without the use of any James Brown samples (or any samples at all), so they get this really eccentric-sounding version of golden era hip hop, which of course relied heavily on James Brown-esque samples.

The squealing trumpets that fade in and out sound like something Public Enemy or DJ Premier would have used. The snycopated horn melody in the chorus sounds like something from Eric B. & Rakim. And we're not the types of dudes who think live drums are better than drum machines, far from it in fact, but the one real benefit of live instrumentation here is the cool, snare mini-fill that precedes each chorus, right when Mystikal barks, "You keep". It really sets up your anticipation for the chorus and helps stands out from the rest of the song.

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2001: #9 - "Is That Your Chick?"

Back when every rap hit sounded pretty much exactly like this, it was kind of easy to lose Memphis Bleek's masterwork "Is That Your Chick?" in the shuffle. Sadly, to our ears, this is one that should still be in rotation, as it's probably the most overstuffed, fast-paced version of a Timbaland/Missy collaboration you could ever imagine.

Maybe Timbaland was trying to outdo all the imitators and put this sound to rest. His beat stutters all over the place, with off-beat drums, cash registers, funky clav stabs, and a wide variety of bells, whistles and other synth squiggles.

Memphis Bleek brings his A-game, coming fast and furious with multi-layered rhymes like: "Damn Bleek, can't speak / Uh-huh, okay, what's up, SHUT UP / And close the door / Act like you been in the drop top / On the open road before / Fix your weave, then fix me / Ever gave head doing 160? / Ever seen a pair of kicks this crispy / How you love how the white wife beater fit me?"

Then it's Twista, who's not all that gifted lyrically but fine in small doses, who comes in and does his speedy thing.

Finally, on top of all that, Jay-Z and Missy show up to provide star power, with both icons doing their best to emulate Twista's style. Whew.

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2001: #10 - "Hard to Explain"

We've already ranted about the hyperbole thrown at The Strokes' debut album Is This It?, so we won't begrudge them that here (much). "Hard to Explain" wasn't the coolest song on the album (that honor goes to the verrrrry retro-sounding "The Modern Age"), nor was it the catchiest (the Petty-esque "Someday" takes that title), but overall we think it was the most unique. Not that it was innovative in any way; it simply blended all the forerunners to The Strokes' brief run as band du jour into the best compact distillation of what they were all about - jittery Feelies/Talking Heads-style New York faux-punk/new-wave, lock-step radio-friendly pop-punk drumming straight out of cash-grab-era Ramones albums, simple yet effective Television-cum-indie-rock guitar leads, and vocals and lyrics that emulate typical post-punk, college rock self-flagellation and loathing at one moment, and post-modern self-awareness the next.

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2001: 19-11

19. "Fiesta" - R Kelly
18. "Break Ya Neck" - Busta Rhymes
17. "One Minute Man" - Missy Elliott
16. "Ante Up (Remix)" - M.O.P.
15. "7 Days" - Craid David
14. "Ghost Showers" - Ghostface Killah
13. "I'm A Slave 4 U" - Britney Spears
12. "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" - Jay-Z
11. "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" - Eve

In a very strong year, it'd be hard not to mention everything great we heard - the laid-back, pre-party-funk of "Fiesta"; "Break Your Neck" and "Ante Up", two old school New York headbangers, both featuring Busta Rhymes; Missy's catchy and conventional (for her) "One Minute Man"; Craig David's cute Brit-dance-popper "7 Days" featuring the cheeky line "...We chilled on Sunday" (they'd made love Wednesday through Saturday, needed a break); the first of many appearances on DOTY thus far by any Wu-Tang Clan member (Ghostface's "Ghost Showers"); and the last by Kanye (he produced Jay's "Izzo").

We'll leave you to ponder 2001 with the important R&B/hip hop makeovers of two very disparate artists - Britney Spears and Gwen Stefani. Britney used The Neptunes' slinky late-80's Prince-lite beat to establish herself as a sexy, adult solo artist. Too bad a forthcoming single negated all that.



On the other hand, Gwen managed to ride Eve's coattails into some unexpected hip hop and R&B cred, becoming more of a Madonna-esque shape-shifter over the next half-dozen years than Britney ever was.



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2002: 20-1

Almost finished with the 00's!

18. "The Whole World" - Outkast
17. "Underneath It All" - No Doubt
16. "Dilemma" - Nelly
15. "Oh Boy" - Cam'ron
14. "No One Knows" - Queens of the Stone Age
13. "When the Last Time" - Clipse
12. "Girlfriend" - *NSYNC
11. "Hella Good" - No Doubt
10. "Nothin'" - Noreaga
9. "Provider" - N.E.R.D.
8. "Like I Love You" - Justin Timberlake
7. "Hate To Say I Told You So" - The Hives
6. "8 Mile" - Eminem
5. "Oops (Oh My)" - Tweet
4. "More Than A Woman" - Aaliyah
3. "Grindin'" - Clipse
2. "Work It" - Missy Elliott
1. "Lose Yourself" - Eminem

Artist of the Year: Eminem
Producer of the Year: The Neptunes

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2002: #1 - "Lose Yourself"

Two other things Eminem did right in 2002 - very right, almost to the point of making them his own art form - were the use of unique meters in his rhymes, often syncopated with the beat; and in "Lose Yourself" what was perhaps the apex of "bending" the phonetic pronunciation of words in order to match many syllables in a rhyme scheme. It starts out: "His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy / There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti / He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready" and never lets up.

Rakim and Big Daddy Kane started it all with polysyllabic rhymes on tracks like "Follow the Leader" and "Ain't No Half Steppin", and Nas and AZ took it to the next level on "Life's A Bitch", but here, Em takes those influences and carries rhyming not only to its next logical step but almost to the breaking point of what hip hop and language are capable of.

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2002: 20-2

Guess #1 and win the mix disc. If you were paying attention, you will win (we literally gave it away).

18. "The Whole World" - Outkast
17. "Underneath It All" - No Doubt
16. "Dilemma" - Nelly
15. "Oh Boy" - Cam'ron
14. "No One Knows" - Queens of the Stone Age
13. "When the Last Time" - Clipse
12. "Girlfriend" - *NSYNC
11. "Hella Good" - No Doubt
10. "Nothin'" - Noreaga
9. "Provider" - N.E.R.D.
8. "Like I Love You" - Justin Timberlake
7. "Hate To Say I Told You So" - The Hives
6. "8 Mile" - Eminem
5. "Oops (Oh My)" - Tweet
4. "More Than A Woman" - Aaliyah
3. "Grindin'" - Clipse
2. "Work It" - Missy Elliott

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2002: #2 - "Work It"

While we're on the subject of songs that heavily borrow from classic hip hop without being a tired retread... "Work It" was the song that prompted many (well, three or four) people to ask me, "Hey, what's that sample?" Usually they were referring to the "Peter Piper" loop (itself a sample of "Take Me To the Mardi Gras" by semi-obscure jazz-fusion artist Bob James), but there's also a nearly unrecognizable Blondie hook in there, too.

"Work It" also has the official distinction of being Billboard's longest running #2 song that never reached #1. Oddly, it's kept out of the DOTY top slot by the same song that stifled it on the charts. Unofficially, it's one of the top five oddest sounding #2 song in chart history, and the strangest of all Missy's hits, which is certainly saying something. It's basically a bunch of very subtle percussion elements, siren wails, deep keyboard rumbles, onomatopeia, lyrical non sequiturs - the most noteworthy of which often punctuated by stops and starts in the rhythm track - and backwards vocal hooks, all thrown together, and then wrapped up in the end by the aforementioned Run D.M.C. sample, but, thanks to Timbaland and Missy, it works.

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2002: #3 - "Grindin"

It's fitting that the highest ranking Neptunes song on DOTY thus far is a track that sounds the least like typical Neptunes. There are no funk guitars, the drum sound is more robotic than live, and the synths are minimal - they still represent the biggest musical hook, but they're strangely percussive and faded way in the mix. If you weren't aware of the lyrical trends in hip hop (or Clipse's cocaine metaphors), you might think this had come out in 1988 or so. All that's missing is some scratching. Even Pharrell's falsetto is limited to a moment that is far more Kool Keith or Biz Markie than his usual Curtis Mayfield via boy band.

What makes it more than another retro rehash is the super punchy and oddly brutal drum sound that comes in on the offbeat late in each measure - amidst the typical crisp snares and handclaps you have this triple gunshot blast that comes out of nowhere. Put that in the mix with the cold, spaced-out synth hook and an eerily whispered refrain and you have a minimalist song that makes you feel like you're right there with the Clipse crew, without really glorifying their supposed profession with too much flash and bling.

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2002: #4 - "More Than A Woman"

Aaliyah, with the help of Timbaland, has been lauded in the pop music community and beyond for her willingness to experiment. Never gimmicky or fussy, sometimes, if you blink, you'll miss what all the fuss is about, like on the ultra-smooth soul throwback "More Than A Woman". The beat stops and starts, building to climaxes and comedowns every measure. The musical hook is an appropriated melody straight out of India, but it doesn't feel intrusive like a lot of more recent Bhangra-influenced songs are. There are layers and layers of different synths, from heavy, "dark" sounds to electro-funk bells and blurts - they almost bury the vocal non-hook, which is an afterthought sung by a chorus of backup Aaliyahs, as if it goes without saying that Aaliyah is what she says she is.

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2002: #5 - "Oops (Oh My)"

Why Timbaland decided to use one of his All-Time Top Five Beats on someone who calls herself Tweet we'll never know, but frankly, Tiny Tim could have sung this song and it would have been a huge hit. For the record, Tweet gets the job done here for the most part - her voice is just not as sexy Aaliyah's, or even as confident as Missy Elliott's (who co-wrote). Over acid-trip pitch-shifted vocal synths, a very subtle yet very effective rhythm section, keyboard blips, and slithery post-punk funk guitar riffery - all of which are perfectly panned in the mix, and brought in and out at well-timed moments, creating tension as the jittery beats and bleeps continue until the fade out - she's singing something about taking off her clothes and it kind of makes us want to do the same, but not because of anything she's saying. It's the beat that does us in.

P.S. - We thought this would be an appropriate post to start sharing our Twitter feed. Tweet away.

2002: #6 - "8 Mile"

We never liked Eminem much.

It has nothing to do with his shock-jock antics; we could probably deal with all the homophobia and mysogyny - awful stuff of course, but nothing the world of pop music hadn't accepted before - if the songs had been any good.

Don't get us wrong - his rapping is always technically stellar and when he works with Dr. Dre the beats tend to be above-average, but he's got the vibe all wrong. The cartoon-rap goof stuff is neither fun nor funny, sort of an idiot's version of Weird Al parodying The Geto Boys, and the serious stuff just sucks. Seriously, the funniest Eminem song to date is "Stan", only because it's laughably bad.

Anyway, to make a long story short, he kind of got it all together on this 8 Mile soundtrack, where he blunted most of the dumb violent stuff, but still left enough grit to keep things slightly dangerous, and most of all, kept the beats crisp and the hooks catchy. What good are serious rap songs if no one wants to listen to them?

2002: #7 - "Hate to Say I Told You So"

On "Hate To Say I Told You So", The Hives were unwittingly compared to The Who and The Kinks by out of touch rock journalists, desperate to fling some organic-sounding, familiar comparisons around (and attach some critical importance to a modern band not named Radiohead).

To us, however, the riff in "Hate To Say I Told You So" sounded more like a semi-calculated, stripped-down faux-garage reboot of Nirvana's "Stay Away", and being compared to a canonical 90's alternative band is no better or worse than being compared to a canonical 60's hippie bands, it's just the truth.

On their records at the time, The Hives seemed more like a glossy, Swede version of midwestern 90's punk-revival band - New Bomb Turks, Gaunt, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments. They later adapted some more new-wavey and pop-punk elements, quite welcome to our ears, but disliked intensely by fair-weather fans and critics alike.

We don't know which comparisons the faux-punk Hives would dig less - they seem to fashion themselves as kind of a mod-influenced Stooges, though the only similarities there are that the frontman screams a bit and wears a suit - but we think they'd agree with us that the tune rocks pretty hard despite all its glossy baggage and the critical handwringing that that leads to.

2002: The Neptunes (#13 through 8)

The Neptunes signature sound became as recognizable in the early 2000's as Jam & Lewis's new jack swing did in the late 80's, and at times, like another predecessor (and influence-turned-contemporary) Timbaland, they even managed to branch out and deviate from their fundamental core with fun retro-flavored updates of sonic innovations from earlier eras. Their retro revisionism gave way to some of their own innovations with percussion sounds and Middle Eastern-influenced melody, all of which not only helped carve out a permanent place for them on the Top 40, but also in the hearts and minds of post-hipster fanboys (ahem).

Their sound incorporated various new jack elements - punchy drums, soul piano - and early on was closer to the more organic sound of Teddy Riley (whom Pharrell once worked with) than to the aforementioned Jam/Lewis. They also appeared to be influenced the atmospheric keyboard and oddball percussion techniques used by Timbaland and other modern hip hop producers, as well as the hard, minimalist sci-fi gangsta funk of Dr. Dre, resulting a crisp, danceable hip-pop sound that retained a legit rap edge.

The Neptunes also threw in their own touches like acoustic guitars, live drums, distorted vocals, and of course Pharrell's ubiquitous falsetto. Ultimately - sadly - it was that ubiquity that did them in. Need a slightly harder edged sound for a huge mega-artist looking to expand its fanbase? A crossover pop hit for a hip hop star eager to maintain some artistic and/or street cred? Want some underground eccentricity added to your standard issue rap sound? Neptunes, Neptunes, Neptunes, ad nauseum.

Timbaland has always been able to take a step back, reorganize, and successfully shapeshift into delivering a new trend, all the while laughing at imitators who were embarrassing themselves with old hat techniques that had been perfected years ago, and then discarded. The Neptunes, like other R&B pioneers Jam/Lewis, Riley and Babyface, despite their innovations, were not able to do so, eventually becoming their own parody and soon disappearing from public consciousness. As such, they've barely sniffed the charts since the mid-00's.

Riding a wave of eye-opening successes for artists as diverse on the musical spectrum (and popularity scale) as Mystikal and Britney Spears, 2002 marked the peak of the production duo's powers, culminating in over a dozen charting songs and most importantly seven appearances on the DOTY list. The fact that they literally own all slots from #13 through 8 is a testament to their dominance in the early part of the decade.

For the curious/uninitiated/nostalgic, a look back...

#13 - "When The Last Time"


#12 - "Girlfriend"


#11 - "Hella Good"


#10 - "Nothin"


#9 - "Provider"


#8 - "Like I Love You"

Updates coming soon!

We're on vacation right now, but we'll be updating with a special post tomorrow, followed by our regularly scheduled list for 2002 from Thursday through Monday. Yippeeeeee!

2002: 18-14

18. "The Whole World" - Outkast
17. "Underneath It All" - No Doubt
16. "Dilemma" - Nelly
15. "Oh Boy" - Cam'ron
14. "No One Knows" - Queens of the Stone Age



We wish more happened in Cam'ron's "Oh Boy", and while it does feature some early examples of that post-modern Kanye-style sampling - basically single-handedly catapulting it to #15 - not much does happen besides that. Cam'ron and Juelz Santana have some okay moments (last verse is tight), and the song's pretty cool overall, but we couldn't help but feel that it might have been cooler had it been slightly less monotonous and cloying.

2002

Two quick ITEMS! we wanted to point out:

1. This is the first of many lists that are less than 20 songs - not because there weren't 20 or more noteworthy songs to talk about, but because, thanks to some rather lengthy "epics" toward the front end of the list, only 18 songs would fit on one mix CD! (Bonus points for people who can name the long songs.)

2. We're breaking it up into three sections this time: Numbers 18 through 14, a very special commemorative 13 through 8, and then numbers 7 through 1.

2003: 20-1

Yo!

20. "Like Glue" - Sean Paul
19. "03 Bonnie & Clyde" - Jay-Z
18. "Step In the Name of Love" - R Kelly
17. "Milk Shake" - Kelis
16. "Baby Boy" - Beyonce
15. "Cadillac on 22's" - David Banner
14. "Crazy in Love" - Beyonce
13. "12:51" - The Strokes
12. "Hey Ya!" - Outkast
11. "Through the Wire" - Kanye West
10. "Cry Me A River" - Justin Timberlake
9. "The Seed" - Cody ChestnuTT
8. "Wanksta" - 50 Cent
7. "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" - The Darkness
6. "The Way You Move" - Outkast
5. "Rock Your Body" - Justin Timberlake
4. "Growing On Me" - The Darkness
3. "Deliverance" - Bubba Sparxxx
2. "In Da Club" - 50 Cent
1. "Ignition (Remix)" - R Kelly

Artist of the Year: 50 Cent
Producer of the Year: Timbaland

2003: #1 - "Ignition (Remix)"

Running through a list of things that might happen at a club with R Kelly probably would run well over the three minutes, but here, he distills the essence of an awesome night into the most perfect pop nugget of the decade - at 3:07, it almost guarantees that you have to hit replay to hear it all again. It's like someone's incessant Facebook updating that's actually worth reading.

And his soulful storytelling (or live-blogging?) is so smooth, likeable and real that you almost don't even realize that anything else is going on in the song. But there definitely are a few choice moments, like the snare hits on "F*** somebody", and also the song hits its stunning peak on the chorus. Because the whole song is one long hook, it's almost as if those drums in there exist to let us know, "Yeah, this is the chorus" in case we were still too caught up in the verses or bridges.

We were in our early 20's when the remix to "Ignition" came out, and though a good night out for us was probably nothing compared to the time R Kelly was having, at least we had this to aspire to, even when things seemed grim. Thanks, Kells.

2003: 20-2

What will #1 be? Perhaps not as obvious as some of the others, but if you think hard you will get it. Winner gets a prize package of 5 discs of their choice (anything from 1990 through 2009).

20. "Like Glue" - Sean Paul
19. "03 Bonnie & Clyde" - Jay-Z
18. "Step In the Name of Love" - R Kelly
17. "Milk Shake" - Kelis
16. "Baby Boy" - Beyonce
15. "Cadillac on 22's" - David Banner
14. "Crazy in Love" - Beyonce
13. "12:51" - The Strokes
12. "Hey Ya!" - Outkast
11. "Through the Wire" - Kanye West
10. "Cry Me A River" - Justin Timberlake
9. "The Seed" - Cody ChestnuTT
8. "Wanksta" - 50 Cent
7. "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" - The Darkness
6. "The Way You Move" - Outkast
5. "Rock Your Body" - Justin Timberlake
4. "Growing On Me" - The Darkness
3. "Deliverance" - Bubba Sparxxx
2. "In Da Club" - 50 Cent

2003: #2 - "In Da Club"

Although some people don't necessarily think of 50 Cent - or even Dr. Dre, who produced - as a sonic pioneer, the fact is that, in 2003, very few rap hits sounded like this - a perfect amalgamation of hard party beats, minimalist minor key tough-guy synths, quoteworthy hip-hop sloganeering, and accessibly simple yet mesmerizing, tongue-twisting vocals. And they were so cool and slick (and catchy) about it, we almost didn't notice how unique it all was.

But now that nearly every moderately respectable street-level rap track has those huge hand claps, sparse keyboards and relentless percussive synths, and every rapper is giving his own updated imitation of Fifty's slurred verbal acrobatics and catch-phrasing, it's easy to look back and see the major influence that this track had on pop music. And, giving it a second (millionth) listen in 2010, it's easy to remember why we loved it so much.

2003: #3 - "Deliverance"

Bubba Sparxxx's "Deliverance" - or more specifically, his 2003 album of the same name - was made for all those so-called music fans who boast, "I listen to everything... except rap and country". It's worth picking up, if you were ever interested in hearing Timbaland-style Southern rap fused with subtle honky-tonk and bluegrass elements. And not in a shitty Kid Rock kind of way either.

In any case, we loved the title track of the album despite it being neither pure rap nor true country; Bubba spits some mean verses about being a white trash redneck in a bling bling world (A highlight: "Nothing could atone for the pain you've endured/ The blood you shed is still stained in your valor/ You took your wealth and knowledge and gave it to the poor/ Only to discover that your savior's manure"), but Timbaland's sing-songy choruses get equal time here, turning the whole thing into some very accessible pop-rap.

And while there are some acoustic guitars, corny square dance clapping, and lyrics about fishing and moonshine, there's nothing overtly country about the track either. It's just a very unique sounding Southern hip-hop song, one of the best of the decade, or ever.

2003: #4 - "Growing On Me"

For our money, The Darkness had an amazing year in 2003 - two songs on the DOTY Top 20, neither of which were the best song on Permission to Land (that honor goes to the AC/DC stomp of "Givin' Up", one of the few literal, unambiguous love songs on the album - it's about a love affair with heroin, described in explicit detail).

Second single "Growing On Me" was the tougher cousin to the silly, glammy "I Believe In a Thing Called Love" - if the latter was theatrical, melodic hair metal (think Scorpions-meets-Queen), the former was pure meat-and-potatoes Van Halen, complete with super-distorted arpeggiated and shouted backup vocals.

Lead singer Justin Hawkins has (hilariously) denied that the song is about sexually transmitted diseases, but despite deliberately vague (and also hilarious) lyrics, it so obviously is. I guess that's part of the joke.

2003: #5 - "Rock Your Body"

If "Cry Me A River" was J.T.'s attempt at a big, splashy, serious mini-epic to announce his arrival as a solo artist, then "Rock Your Body" was him saying, "And I can do this, too."

It's just a really fun dance-pop nugget, a Neptunes-influenced update of the discoey stuff Michael Jackson used to do in the late 70's, sorta fluffy in an ex-boy band kind of way, but with just enough soulful edge to make it work.

2003: #6 - "The Way You Move"

(Not the official video - sadly, Outkast and their people join the awful cast of characters who disable embedding of their videos)

"The Way You Move" was another out-of-leftfield move in the idiosyncratic career of Outkast. Not content with being masters of Southern-fried G-Funk, they moved on to Southern-fried, outer-space P-Funk in the late 90's, before assaulting the pop charts in the 2000's with a flurry of ferociously original but fun pop-rap hits. Big Boi's "The Way You Move" was an outlier, even in this bunch - a slow-burning Miami-bass sex-funk song, 808s building up into a groove accented by sassy horns, soulful vocals, and Big Boi's ever-evolving conversational delivery. At the end of the first verse, we're not sure if he's giving it up to a bassy speaker system or to womanly anatomy ("Trunk rattlin’, like two midgets in the back seat wrestlin’"), but either way it's a great image.

2003: #7 - "I Believe In A Thing Called Love"

Now that hipster irony has died, it's safe to listen to The Darkness without feeling like a puerile jackass. Seriously, how awful was it six years ago when folks would hype Permission to Land by calling it the perfect soundtrack to ridin' around in a Camaro, as if that were a good thing (or was it an ironically bad/cool thing?)?

In any case, coming from legitimate, non-ironic fans of "cheese-metal" (we can call it that because we actually like it, and embrace its cheesiness), "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" wasn't good because it mocked hard rock cliches, but given that it did - including the ridiculous operatic falsetto vocals, stupidly sleazy lyrics, cheesy double entendres, harmonized axe-work, Neil Diamond references (?), and dum-dum riffing of all our favorite metal bands - did it well, and had one of the best verse melodies of any hard rock song ever, it ended up being a huge success not only as a metal send-up, but as an actual metal song.

2003: #8 - "Wanksta"

50 Cent's early tuff guy image totally belied the fact that he had some of the hookiest pop-rap songs of all time. The simple melodic hook in "Wanksta" is no exception, and we'd rank it up there with "Nuthin' But A G Thing" and "Big Poppa" as one of the more recognizable and memorable keyboard lines in rap.

Of course, Fiddy is no longer gangsta - though he is pushing some product these days - but musically that was never really the point. The siren-wail of "Wanksta" was always more Warren G than N.W.A., and like the G-Funk all-stars of the early 90's, 50 Cent continued to bridge the gap from the streets to the pop charts.

2003: #9 - "The Seed"

(Not the official video.)

In what may end up being the biggest hit of the strange career of a lo-fi hip-hop singer-songwriter (!) who released one 100-minute album in 2002 and then basically vanished from the planet, Cody ChestnuTT croons the unforgettable and entirely unsexy refrain, "Push my seed in her bush for life", with such child-like gusto that hearing this song (and the rest of his self-proclaimed masterpiece The Headphone Masterpiece) almost makes you understand - why, of course this guy has disappeared forever, because he is insane, and is currently singing "The Seed" on a busted-up acoustic guitar in some Atlanta alleyway.

Thankfully, he isn't, and may have a follow-up album coming this year, but it wouldn't be hard to believe if he were.

2003: #10 - "Cry Me A River"

With "Cry Me A River", Justin Timberlake established himself as the post-modern King of Pop, a more self-aware version of Thriller-era Jacko, where the protagonist of the song (and video) is not an a victimized innocent (see "Billie Jean"), but a conflicted anti-hero who clearly has his own faults and is not afraid to put them out there for the entire pop world to see.

Sonically, the closest to M.J. that J.T. and Timbaland get is through the use of some pretty upper-register vocals, and production arrangements that sound like an army of ghostly Justin falsettos (attacking the ghost of Britney?).

The rest of it is almost standard-issue Timbaland - creepy clavs, odd syncopated percussion sounds, slightly dissonant non-Western melodies - in other words, exactly what we've come to expect from Mr. Mosely, but still pretty good.

2003: 20-11

20. "Like Glue" - Sean Paul
19. "03 Bonnie & Clyde" - Jay-Z
18. "Step In the Name of Love" - R Kelly
17. "Milk Shake" - Kelis
16. "Baby Boy" - Beyonce
15. "Cadillac on 22's" - David Banner
14. "Crazy in Love" - Beyonce
13. "12:51" - The Strokes
12. "Hey Ya!" - Outkast
11. "Through the Wire" - Kanye West

In fairly strong year - stiff competition between dozens of very good songs, though near the top, not too many truly great ones - two songs stand out as undeservedly forgotten. Sandwiched in between monster hits from Beyonce and Outkast, among others, The Strokes' "12:51" and David Banner's "Cadillac on 22's" probably haven't been played on our local radio stations since late 2003, but we surely give them a spin (ok, a click) from time to time.



The Strokes' song was sort of written off as a Cars rip, and while it does feature some pretty Ocasek-esque keyboards, it actually sounds less like their 70's faux-punk brethren than almost anything they'd done to this point. By replacing any modest flirtations with arena rock bombast with a very subtle twee-pop melody, The Strokes actually avoided sounding too cheesy (a la Guided by Voices), and had one of their most memorable hits.



Believe it or not, I actually don't like Banner's other, bigger hit, "Play", because the too-vulgar (!) lyrics outweigh the awesome beat, so I will gladly pay tribute to the late-period Jackson 5 sampling "Cadillac on 22's", which is almost the polar opposite of "Play" - an introspective, organic-sounding Southern rap yarn about the trials and tribs of a pusher ("Maybe hell ain't a place meant for us to burn/ Maybe Earth is just a place for us to learn/ Bout yo love, yo will and grace/ Sometimes I wish I wasn't born in the first place"), with enough soul and substance for a Marvin Gaye song. Too bad it doesn't exactly make you want to dance.

2004: 20-1

Here it is! Tomorrow we start 2003!

20. "Get Low" - Lil Jon
19. "Change Clothes" - Jay-Z
18. "Tipsy" - J-Kwon
17. "Jesus Walks" - Kanye West
16. "Yeah!" - Usher
15. "Lose My Breath" - Destiny's Child
14. "All Falls Down" - Kanye West
13. "Burn" - Usher
12. "All These Things That I've Done" - The Killers
11. "Toxic" - Britney Spears
10. "What You Waiting For?" - Gwen Stefani
9. "On Fire" - Lloyd Banks
8. "Goodies" - Ciara
7. "Maps" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
6. "99 Problems" - Jay-Z
5. "Float On" - Modest Mouse
4. "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" - Jay-Z
3. "Drop It Like It's Hot" - Snoop Dogg
2. "Roses" - Outkast
1. "Slow Jamz" - Twista

Artist of the Year: Jay-Z
Producer(s) of the Year: Kanye West, Lil Jon (tie)

2004: #1 - "Slow Jamz"

"Slow Jamz" takes the the most vital and exciting 12 seconds of a serious and rather lengthy Luther Vandross hit and turns it into a perfect pop song, as well as the funnest slow jam ever.

Twista's breathless delivery can be a little annoying, but here, it's breathtaking and fun, especially when you consider the song's title and inherent pace.

And Kanye's trick of allowing the sample to be part of the song, rather than just extraneous window dressing, was at its freshest and most vibrant here. It's just so fun to hear him and Twista use helium-voiced Luther's refrain to dictate what they say and how they say it.

Oh shit and how about those bongos that stutter in and out, right after the hi-hat does the same. Damn, the whole song is like the most exhilarating conversation we've ever had.

This should have been an obvious #1 pick for any of our vast readership, but sadly, no one guessed. Perhaps there is an issue with the commenting page - we will take it up with Blogger.

2004: 20-2

Please venture a guess for our #1 song of 2004. We think it will be quite easy.

20. "Get Low" - Lil Jon
19. "Change Clothes" - Jay-Z
18. "Tipsy" - J-Kwon
17. "Jesus Walks" - Kanye West
16. "Yeah!" - Usher
15. "Lose My Breath" - Destiny's Child
14. "All Falls Down" - Kanye West
13. "Burn" - Usher
12. "All These Things That I've Done" - The Killers
11. "Toxic" - Britney Spears
10. "What You Waiting For?" - Gwen Stefani
9. "On Fire" - Lloyd Banks
8. "Goodies" - Ciara
7. "Maps" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
6. "99 Problems" - Jay-Z
5. "Float On" - Modest Mouse
4. "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" - Jay-Z
3. "Drop It Like It's Hot" - Snoop Dogg
2. "Roses" - Outkast

2004: #2 - "Roses"

Please ignore the corny faux-blues piano intro - "Roses" is the slightly cooler, more melodic, less gimmicky older brother of "Hey Ya!". There's nothing very unique going on structurally or sonically - though the multi-track, pitch-shifted vocals (downward, for a sci-fi P-Funk feel rather than the usual Chipmunks) are awesome - but the melodies are incredibly strong throughout the entire song, and lyrically, both Andre and Big Boi continue to push the boundaries of what we're used to hearing in pop and hip hop songs. It's tough to pick just one standout image - there are golden calculators, poo-smelling roses, and a plea for some "support, bra", among many others - so we won't. "Hey Ya!" was the song everyone talked about, "The Way You Move" was the song that we all could agree on, but "Roses" was the song that kept us coming back, and still holds up more than a half-dozen years later.

2004: #3 - "Drop It Like It's Hot"

Few songs have been this strikingly distinctive and effective sonically while at the same time so utterly moronic and novelty-hit goofy in their presentation. With ping-ponging pseudo-percussion - which sounded a lot like tongues clucking - The Neptunes seemed to be nearing their peak, effortlessly improving on the formula of earlier hits "Grindin'" and "Milkshake", while still providing totally new thrills. Then, as the goofy whistle and chants of "Snoooooo-ooop!" threaten to derail the song off the tracks from dope to dopey, the silliness gives way to a wash of sci-fi funk keys and phased out drums, followed by some charmingly dumb yet satisfying verses from gangsta rapper turned reality TV star Snoop Dogg. His violent threats were hard to take seriously, and we didn't - Snoop's best contribution to the track wasn't inane lines like, "Your family's crying/ Now you on the news/ They can't find you/ And now they miss you", but the way he pronounced the end of every line in the chorus - "park it like it's haaaaawwwt, park it like it's haaaaawwwt" - like a demented child.

2004: #4 - "Dirt Off Your Shoulder"

With his hand on his knots, Jay-Z delivers an epic fuck-off to all the customer cronies who are on his jock for... what, retiring? Dating Beyonce? Not actually about to really retire but just using that as a marketing ploy? We're not sure what the issue was or what got Jay's baggy jeans all in a bunch here, but when we hear this song, think of Mr. Carter and Timbaland in Photon outfits, dancing around in some kind of surreal Tron video game landscape, taunting detractors with their titular gesture, and it'll all make sense, or at least make you smile.

2004: #5 - "Float On"

Disguised as a cheery, uplifting anthem - with pristinely produced guitars dancing around huge drums and retaining only the slightest bit of indie rock prickliness - "Float On" was actually pretty depressing, too. The protagonist goes through a bunch of mundane irritations throughout the verses, all of which are easy enough to brush off and spin positively, but the refrain was ambiguous, filled with nihilistic dread and cynicism. After all, it's difficult to trust a lisping indie rock quaver offering a semi-confident reassurance that everything's gonna be alright.

P.S. - Your pop culture life is not complete until you've heard the Kidz Bop crew sing "A fake Jamaican took every last dime with that scam - YEAH!"

2004: #6 - "99 Problems"

From the bluntly simple to the simply blunt, "99 Problems" - produced by famed, white and bearded hip hop pioneer/mogul Rick Rubin - raged about ten-thousand times harder and heavier than any nu-metal or rap-rock band on the radio in 2004, or ever for that matter, which could actually be considered faint praise, when you think about how limp the "music" of that genre was (Last link not a mistake - it sucks).

Rubin, sadly, has been responsible for some late-period rap-metal productions - but he used to just make loud ass hip hop music, going back over twenty years to LL Cool J's Radio, Run DMC's Raising Hell, The Beastie Boys License to Ill and Public Enemy's Yo! Bum Rush the Show, which to this day remain the loudest, hardest rap albums of all time.

Which means that "99 Problems" is hard as hell. It stomps all over the place, kicks all kinds of ass, and literally sounds like heavy metal - the genre, as well as just like, big pieces of metal smashing into each other. Seriously. Plus it's got an unstoppable Jay-Z rapping over it, at the peak of his game, borrowing an awesome, forgotten refrain from another pioneer of heavy rap, as well some of his own memorable material, such as the beginning of this verse, where he describes being pulled over:

The year's '94 and my trunk is raw

In my rear view mirror is the mother fuckin' law

I got two choices y'all pull over the car or (hmmm)

Bounce on the double put the pedal to the floor

Now I ain't tryin' to see no highway chase with Jay.

Plus I got a few dollars I can fight the case

So I...pull over to the side of the road

I heard "Son do you know why I'm stoppin' you for?"

Cause I'm young and I'm black and my hats real low?

Do I look like a mind reader sir, I don't know

Am I under arrest or should I guess some mo'?

"Well you was doin fifty-five in a fifty-fo' "

After three similar verses where the beat continues to come down hard and Jay-Z continues to complain, it can get a little monotonous, which keeps it out of the top 5 in a really strong year, but I fully expect to be listening to this in another 25 years, just like "Rock the Bells" and "You Gonna Get Yours".

2004: #7 - "Maps"

"Maps", for all its shimmery, simple beauty, could still hit you like a punch to the gut, if you let it. Yeah, it's got all the guitars and sound effects, nothing new for a Sonic Youth fan or anything, but pretty rad to hear on Top 40 radio. But what "Maps" really was perfectly and bluntly spill out the dumbfounded emotions of someone who had just lost. The quiet calm of the intro carries into the confused ramblings of the verse and into the epic refrain, "Wait... they don't love you like I love you!", complete with gorgeous Eno-esque guitar noises that hammer home the dreamy, nightmarish surreality of not knowing what to do or what to think.

Side Note: We recall being told by a friend at the time that there was this song on the radio that was just drums, vocals and a guitar playing one string. Our dear friend wanted us to be shocked and dismayed at the horror of such dumb simplicity, because apparently bands like Velvet Revolver, who were ruling rock radio at the time, were the quintessence of real, intelligent rock. I guess. Now, our lists are sure to feature some surprisingly technical metal songs that have received heavy airplay over the years, so I have nothing against all that, but the idea that simplicity had no place in real rock music was baffling to me.

2004: #8 - "Goodies"

The phenomenally confident and sexually charged debut of DOTY's beloved Ciara, "Goodies" is the Sexiest Song About Not Having Sex of All-Time. Driven by that often-imitated but never duplicated Lil' Jon keyboard sound, "Goodies" can be a little one note, to be honest. But with Ciara proving herself perfectly able as the hip hop world's first female crunk star, taunting us with her wispy, breathy vocals (but then telling us, too bad, 'cause she keeps her goodies "in the jar") and knowing exactly when to take a back seat to the crunked up beat, it's not a bad note to be stuck on.

2004: #9 - "On Fire"

Lloyd Banks has quietly proven himself to be one of hip hop's most unique and versatile voices, equally adept at showing people up lyrically on a freestyle remix as he is at providing personality and star quality to a furious burst of radio pop like "On Fire". Produced by Eminem out of the G-Unit camp, go listen to it now and tell us it doesn't stand tall with anything 50 Cent (who has an uncredited guest appearance on the chorus here) has done in the last 5 years.

2004: #10 - "What You Waiting For?"

Despite ripping two songs - oddly, Weezer's "Hash Pipe" and, more oddly, Lita Ford's "Kiss Me Deadly" - that will not be appearing on any DOTY lists, Gwen Stefani's "What You Waiting For", a crazed call-to-arms for super-hot female parents-turned-solo-artists, turns up at #10 for 2004.

A loud, brash, stupid mess signaling the arrival of a loud, brash, stupid mess, this was another Gwen Stefani song that you ha(te)d to love, just because it had the balls to be so awe(ful)some, and it sort of paved the way for some deliciously dumb, over-the-top female rocker pop of the late 00's.

2004: 20-11

20. "Get Low" - Lil Jon
19. "Change Clothes" - Jay-Z
18. "Tipsy" - J-Kwon
17. "Jesus Walks" - Kanye West
16. "Yeah!" - Usher
15. "Lose My Breath" - Destiny's Child
14. "All Falls Down" - Kanye West
13. "Burn" - Usher
12. "All These Things That I've Done" - The Killers
11. "Toxic" - Britney Spears

If not for a huge breakout year from another very successful producer-rapper, 2004 would have been the year of Lil' Jon. He's sort of faded from chart prominence these days, but in '04 he had a string of hits, and three of his productions - Usher's relentless club banger "Yeah!", his own disgustingly catchy "Get Low", and another smash in the top 10 - made our list.

2005-2009: Recap

We've compiled a list of the artists who've made the most appearances so far, from 2005-2009, with top 5 appearances in parentheses:

1. Kanye West, 7 (3)
2. Beyonce, 5 (2)
3. Nelly Furtado, 4 (2)
4. T.I., 5 (1)
5. Ciara, 3 (2)
6. Big Boi, 2 (2)
7. Justin Timberlake, 3 (1)
8. Timbaland, 3 (1)
9. Lil Wayne, 3 (1)
10. 50 Cent, 3 (1)

And our top 5 producers:

1. Kanye West, 11
2. Timbaland, 11
3. Swizz Beats, 4
4. J.R. Rotem, 3 (tie)
    Stargate, 3 (tie)

2005: 20-1

DOTY has now completed half a decade of hits, from 2005-2009. We'll do a little recap of the top artists and producers of that era a little later on, and then continue with 2004 after that.

Here is our 2005 list:

20. "Pon De Replay" - Rihanna
19. "Run It" - Chris Brown
18. "Little Sister" - Queens of the Stone Age
17. "I'm A Hustla" - Cassidy
16. "Luxurious" - Gwen Stefani
15. "Outta Control" - 50 Cent
14. "Caught Up" - Usher
13. "Don't Cha" - The Pussycat Dolls
12. "Touch It" - Busta Rhymes
11. "We Belong Together" - Mariah Carey
10. "Hollaback Girl" - Gwen Stefani
9. "Sugar We're Going Down" - Fall Out Boy
8. "Gold Digger" - Kanye West
7. "Hate It Or Love It" - The Game
6. "Disco Inferno" - 50 Cent
5. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix)" - Kanye West
4. "Ocean Breathes Salty" - Modest Mouse
3. "Oh" - Ciara
2. "Lose Control" - Missy Elliott
1. "Stay Fly" - Three Six Mafia

2005: #1 - "Stay High"

From the ebullient soul-funk of the Willie Hutch sample that opens the track, to the chattering sixteenth note hi-hats that carry the track, to the wave of bongos that fade in and out between each quarter note, to the robo-tripping chopped-up vocal hook in the chorus, to the ego-tripping mic-passing in the verse, to the retro-tripping clavinet funkily punctuating each measure, every moment of "Stay High" is to be savored.

It is a certainty that this song will be in the top 5 of our DOTY Top 40 of the Decade.

2005: 20-2

We're through with 19 songs. #1 goes up tomorrow! Guess away!!!!!!

20. "Pon De Replay" - Rihanna
19. "Run It" - Chris Brown
18. "Little Sister" - Queens of the Stone Age
17. "I'm A Hustla" - Cassidy
16. "Luxurious" - Gwen Stefani
15. "Outta Control" - 50 Cent
14. "Caught Up" - Usher
13. "Don't Cha" - The Pussycat Dolls
12. "Touch It" - Busta Rhymes
11. "We Belong Together" - Mariah Carey
10. "Hollaback Girl" - Gwen Stefani
9. "Sugar We're Going Down" - Fall Out Boy
8. "Gold Digger" - Kanye West
7. "Hate It Or Love It" - The Game
6. "Disco Inferno" - 50 Cent
5. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix)" - Kanye West
4. "Ocean Breathes Salty" - Modest Mouse
3. "Oh" - Ciara
2. "Lose Control" - Missy Elliott

2005: #2 - "Lose Control"

Dominated by a memorable, eerily familiar sounding and somewhat nerve-wracking sample, and anchored by a starmaking guest appearance from the great Ciara, "Lose Control" was, sadly, the last in nearly a decade-long run from hip-hop/R&B hitmaker and electro-pop pioneer Missy Elliott. If not for an extraordinarily surprising #1, this would have been yet another Missy song that far surpassed anything else being done sonically, melodically and rhythmically in pop music.

2005: #3 - "Oh"

We wanted so bad for Ciara to be the next Aaliyah, but after two middling albums in 2007 and 2009, it appears we'll have to make do with the faded hope and promise left by our love for her early nu-jack soft-crunk hits - "Promise" and this one, simply titled, "Oh".

2005: #4 - "Ocean Breathes Salty"

Not sure why a mid-tempo, annoyingly pseudo-intellectual alt-rock song from an aging major label "indie" rock band makes our list at #4? We were skeptical at first, too, but when we re-listened to this track after a few years, we couldn't help but be charmed by its hokey philosophical bent and its half-hearted seriousness. It was kind of like an over-earnest "Once In A Lifetime", but not as good.

Then again, it's not like we really care - does Lady Gaga have anything truly important to say? So what "Ocean Breathes Salty" boiled down to, for us, was a pretty catchy tune with an interesting rhythm and arrangement that just happened to be on modern rock stations and not the Top 40.

2005: #5 - "Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix)"

Kanye has a flair for the dramatic, and the production on the "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" remix is no exception, but lyrically he shies away from preachiness and bombast to deliver some of the most intriguingly odd philosophical lines we can think of, in hip-hop or any other genre.

He doesn't fret much about the actual conflict in Africa that makes the titular diamonds controversial, but rather the moral dilemma that he faces as a rapper trying to stay true to his profession and people by accessorizing fabulously, as if to make up for what he and other African-Americans had been denied access to, while actual Africans are dying in diamond mines because of it.

His conclusion? He needs to wear bling, because it's in his soul to do so.

Oh yeah, and Jay-Z has a verse, too.

2005: #6 - "Disco Inferno"

We mainly just like that pitch-shifted trilly thing in the main hook a whole lot.

2005: #7 - "Hate It Or Love It"

On "Hate It or Love It", The Game declares himself "rap's MVP", but he might not even be the most valuable asset in the song. He handles himself admirably, but guest rapper 50 Cent steals the show within 40 seconds, perfectly executing a charismatic verse and booming refrain, and production team Cool & Dre rips one of the smoothest, stuttering soul beats this side of DJ Premier or Erick Sermon circa 1992. After Lloyd Banks shows up to deliver a really sick verse (first lines: "How many of them boys is with you? / When you had that little TV you had to hit on to get a picture"), it becomes clear that, like RZA used to do with The Wu-Tang, all parties involved came with their A-game and forced out the best in each other, the way the best teams often do.

2005: #8 - "Gold Digger"

As we've stated before, despite his lack of skill in rhyming and lyricism, Kanye West has this uncanny ability to interact with his productions, and the minimalist "Gold Digger" is no exception. Most people like this one for the Jamie-Foxx-as-Ray-Charles vocal loop, and that's cute enough, but our favorite part is when that old school synth starts gurgling out of the left channel and Kanye's verse continues in the foreground, one element of sound so sharply focused and precisely delivered, the other very clumsily evading form and technique, but both dancing perfectly with one another.

2005: #9 - "Sugar, We're Going Down"

Much has been made of the indecipherable lyrics of Fall Out Boy's "Sugar, We're Going Down". And even those who can correctly transcribe them face the difficult task of actually understanding what they mean. In some cases, that can be a great thing, the sign of ambiguous surrealism, evocative imagery and overall strong songwriting.

Not here. In fact, we find this song to be a thousand times more enjoyable when we sing along to what we thought the lyrics might have been, rather than what they actually retardedly were.

P.S. - we know that misheard lyrics video isn't very funny, but, seriously, the lyrics the guy inserted are better than the ones actually written by idiot Pete Wentz.

2005: #10 - "Hollaback Girl"

Where songs like "Mickey" or Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" employ actual cheerleading sounds and melodies, while at the same time masquerading as legitimate songs with legitimate lyrics, and end up sounding half-catchy and half-juvenile in the process, "Hollaback Girl" just sounds 100% schizophrenic and delusional, the sound of a 40-year old woman screeching out non-sequiturs and pretending she is in high school, all while the hardest beats and handclaps you'll ever hear on Top 40 radio merge with beautiful, minimal and perfectly-placed synth melodies and harmonies. We don't have a clue what it intends to achieve, and therein lies its greatness.

Dubbed by some as the most annoying song of all-time, "Hollaback Girl", with its puzzling contrast of perfectly inane lyrics and insanely perfect melody and sonics, has antagonized our ironic bullshit detector for over 5 years. We could never decide if it was good, so-bad-it's-good, ironically bad, or flat out bad. Now, much older and somewhat wiser, we're able to conclude that not only is Gwen Stefani totally serious here, but that the song is utterly unclassifiable. It's not quite the best song of 2005, it can't possibly be the worst, but there is certainly no in-between ground.

2005: 20-11

20. "Pon De Replay" - Rihanna
19. "Run It" - Chris Brown
18. "Little Sister" - Queens of the Stone Age
17. "I'm A Hustla" - Cassidy
16. "Luxurious" - Gwen Stefani
15. "Outta Control" - 50 Cent
14. "Caught Up" - Usher
13. "Don't Cha" - The Pussycat Dolls
12. "Touch It" - Busta Rhymes
11. "We Belong Together" - Mariah Carey



I can't think of many hip hop artists who have been less lauded for taking as many chances as Busta Rhymes has. While never truly great or even cutting edge, Mr. Busta has almost always tried to be at least a little different. His 2005 hit "Touch It" was one more example. Sandwiched between Mariah Carey and The Pussycat Dolls on my chart, it is also obviously not a bonafide classic or anything like that, but Busta can say he sampled Daft Punk before Kanye did, and something about the way his trademark rapid-fire rhymes stack up against the slowest hip hop beat in history is very intriguing.

Oh and look, Chris Brown and Rihanna, together again!

2006: 20-1

20. "I Know You See It" - Yung Joc
19. "So What" - Field Mob
18. "Why You Wanna" - T.I.
17. "Check On It" - Beyonce
16. "Spit Your Game" - Notorious B.I.G.
15. "That's That" - R Kelly
14. "Crash" - Gwen Stefani
13. "When You Were Young" - The Killers
12. "Me & U" - Cassie
11. "Temperature" - Sean Paul
10. "Gold Lion" - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
9. "You Only Live Once" - The Strokes
8. "Maneater" - Nelly Furtado
7. "So Sick" - Ne-Yo
6. "Crazy" - Gnarls Barkley
5. "SexyBack" - Justin Timberlake
4. "Promise" - Ciara
3. "Irreplaceable" - Beyonce
2. "My Love" - Justin Timberlake
1. "Promiscuous" - Nelly Furtado

Artist of the Year: Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake (tie)
Producer of the Year: Timbaland

2006: #1 - "Promiscuous"

When you can mine vintage Prince and Madonna as successfully as Timbaland and Nelly Furtado do here, throwing in some thoroughly modern bass beef and a perfectly pointless and weird guitar coda that you'll be humming forever, a cringe-worthy line like "Can you be M.V.P. like Steve Nash?" can be easily forgiven, and even explained away (they're both from Vancouver, duh!)

So despite some near awful lyrics, on par with Gwen Stefani at her best/worst (depending on how you look at it), "Promiscuous", with its stellar production and chill-inducing choruses, was the song of 2006, a return to chart dominance from the generation's greatest producer, and a confident proclamation of newfound sexiness from a budding superstar coming out of her shell.

2006: 20-2

Another list, another recap...

20. "I Know You See It" - Yung Joc
19. "So What" - Field Mob
18. "Why You Wanna" - T.I.
17. "Check On It" - Beyonce
16. "Spit Your Game" - Notorious B.I.G.
15. "That's That" - R Kelly
14. "Crash" - Gwen Stefani
13. "When You Were Young" - The Killers
12. "Me & U" - Cassie
11. "Temperature" - Sean Paul
10. "Gold Lion" - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
9. "You Only Live Once" - The Strokes
8. "Maneater" - Nelly Furtado
7. "So Sick" - Ne-Yo
6. "Crazy" - Gnarls Barkley
5. "SexyBack" - Justin Timberlake
4. "Promise" - Ciara
3. "Irreplaceable" - Beyonce
2. "My Love" - Justin Timberlake

Guess #1 and receive a big prize. It's not that difficult this time if you have been paying attention.

2006: #2 - "My Love"

You wouldn't think that a song with what sounds like a sped-up version of the crying baby from "Are You That Somebody?" as basically the main percussive backbeat would be sexy, shimmering and beautiful, but throw some stuttering, pitch-shifted Timbaland snyths and some multi-tracked J.T. falsetto all over it, and you've got all of that and more. It's one of the most futuristic yet romantic ballads of the era, and one of our favorite love songs ever.

Much has been made of the cornball lyrics - and we admit, it took us a while to fully accept Justin's lame come-ons - but when the track sounds this good, who cares?

2006: #3 - "Irreplaceable"

Deemed by some as "too pop" or "too much like contemporary R&B" (as opposed to the irritating, retro faux-soul of 1st single "Ring the Alarm"?), "Irreplaceable" always had more in common with new jack swing and "legit" R&B/soul than some of Beyonce's other recent efforts because it actually swings rather than bludgeons, and it hooks you with actual bright, melodies rather than pummels you with attitude and yelling. In some ways, it reminded me of a later Supremes song, and Diana Ross never needed anything more than a few guitar chords and some solid melodies to create soulful gold.

2006: #4 - "Promise"

Something about the synthesized guitar/keyboard hook preceding and during the chorus of this song reminded us so much of Prince. And we love Prince. So we loved this song. The beat is beastly, Ciara does another fantastic Aaliyah impersonation, and everything sounds so clear and perfectly spaced apart that you would think this is a Timbaland production (it's actually Polow Da Don, who produced Fergie's first decent single, "Glamorous"). Classic.

P.S. - Again, for some reason Ciara's people have decided to disabled embedding, so I apologize for the ridiculous mess of a video. It was the best I could find!