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.