51. Beyonce f/ Slim Thug and Bun B - "Check On It"

Maybe she was just following Jay's lead, but Beyonce's decision to collaborate extensively with Swizz Beatz, without him softening his brittle aesthetic like he used to for R&Bish jams with Eve or Cassidy, might be the best idea anyone in R&B had this year.

52. Pitbull - "Ay Chico (Lengua Afuera)"

Pitbull and Mr. Collipark might be my favorite MC/producer combination of the moment (see also: Twista's "Hit The Floor" further up on this list, and Ying Yang's "Shake" on last year's list).

53. Lloyd f/ Lil Wayne - "You"

There are a lot of pubescent croaks on R&B radio that I have little to no patience for, but for some reason I love Lloyd's voice.

54. Snow Patrol - "Hands Open"

Like Oasis, Coldplay, James Blunt, and almost every other Brit act that's managed to cross over in the states in the past decade or so, Snow Patrol is only ever gonna get shine over here with glacial balladry, but with this song they proved surprisingly capable with a midtempo rock radio jam.

55. Vanessa Hudgens - "Come Back To Me"

Vanessa Hudgens was one of the stars of this year's biggest selling album, the High School Musical soundtrack, which as far as I can tell is completely horrible, but her solo album featured one of my favorite R&B singles of the year, which bears scarcely any trace of the teenpop training wheels you get on songs by, say, JoJo when she tries this kind of thing.

56. Click Five - "Catch Your Wave"

Parts of it sound almost identical to that Cartel song, but on a level playing field I'll always pick power pop over emo.

57. Nickelback - "Animal"

Nickelback have always seemed kind of torn between their top 40 singles and their "no really, we're metal" self-image, and with their most recent album, that tension has led to a full on two-tier marketing campaign, like an LL Cool J album: power ballads like "Photograph," "Save Me" and "Far Away" (the equivalent to LL's slow jam lip-lickers), and rock radio singles that they don't even bother shooting videos for like "Rock Star" and "Animal" (the equivalent to "I Shot Ya"-style posse cuts). They're not really that good in either mode, but now and then they win me over, wiht "Photograph" on one side and "Animal" on the other.

58. Frankie J f/ Mannie Fresh and Chamillionaire - "That Girl"

Mannie's compatibility with R&B wasn't as much of a surprise as Swizz's, but this was still pretty enjoyable.

59. John Legend - "Heaven"

I'm so glad Kanye brought back that weird distorted vocoder type sound that he toyed with a little on his first album and early mixtapes.

60. Young Dro f/ T.I. - "Shoulder Lean"

I kind of get the feeling that T.I. got the idea for a silly pop rap song about leaning instead of dancing, and then immediately realized that it would probably be huge while earning him no respect (see also: Fat Joe, Dem Franchize Boyz), so he just passed it on to a labelmate for a complete win/win: another big hit for his crew, but since it's not "his" song it doesn't effect his image.



61. Keane - "Is It Any Wonder?"

See also: the Snow Patrol entry, and add something about biting "Even Better Than The Real Thing."

62. JoJo - "Too Little Too Late"

OK, but I do like a JoJo song! Not as embarrassing to admit, though, as the fact that I saw both movies she was in this year, or that RV gave me impure thoughts.

63. Pink - "U + Ur Hand"

Bonus points for the video being the first time Pink has actually looked kind of hot (or at least, one or two of her several personas).

64. Jay-Z - "Show Me What You Got"

Enough of the crying foul over other people using the same sample, or the bombast overkill -- it's Just Blaze, what'd you expect? Dude pretty much singlehandedly tripled the abundance of crash cymbals in rap music. This is what we expect from him.

65. Rick Ross - "Blow"

I would complain that this would've been a way better single choice than "Push It," but I'm grateful for any decision Rick Ross made that resulted in him selling less records. This song could've been huge, though.

66. Papa Roach - "To Be Loved"

I'm no "Last Resort" apologist, but I kind of love this song. The hugeness of the chorus almost justifies the "TAKIN' IT BACK TO A HARDCORE LEVEL" intro.

67. Kanye West - "Touch The Sky"

Still only my 2nd favorite Roc-A-Fella jam with a "Move On Up" sample, but still pretty good.

68. Fergie f/ will.i.am - "Fergalicious"

I really think this song is pretty great and not stupid at all. Except for the part where they spell tasty as "tastey," that's pretty stupid.

69. Paris Hilton - "Nothing In This World"

The failure of Paris Hilton's album is proof positive that fame in mediums like reality shows and tabloids doesn't translate to hit records as magically as labels seem to think it does. And while I never really cared for that reggae single that some people gave grudging respect to, I have to say this is a pretty damn catchy song. Like Rick Ross, though, I can't say I was really rooting for it to be the hit it kinda deserved to be.

70. Johnta Austin - "Turn It Up"

Generally R&B songs that obsessively namecheck better artists than the singer on the track don't do much for me, but this whole thing is pretty velvety and perfect, even his brief rap, and I'm always happy to see No I.D. get that Jermaine money.

71. Tool - "Vicarious"

Ever since Tool got a huge following, they've thrown their weight around by forcing radio to play these 7-minute songs they put out as singles, and I tend to get bored and turn most of them off before the halfway point. This one isn't really much better than the others, but I like the way they make the drum rolls on the dome of the ride cymbal sound so intense that it's like a drill or something.



72. Switchfoot - "Oh! Gravity"

After initially disliking their first couple hits, Switchfoot have really started to grow on me. This song seems so much more playful than their other stuff (those off-kilter piano notes at the end of the first chorus!) that at first I didn't even realize it was them when I heard it on the radio.

73. Goo Goo Dolls - "Stay With You"

Better than any of the singles off the last Coldplay album.

74. Three 6 Mafia - "Poppin' My Collar"

There's a lot of bad things about the video (the playing the previous single at the beginning of the new single's video thing, the horribly awkward "remember back in the day" voice-over, the video cliche of little kid doppelgangers of the group), but the song is pretty good.

75. Prince - "Black Sweat"

The fact that this was the closest thing to a hit single Prince has had in maybe a decade or more and still was just barely a blip on the Hot 100 is such a sad statistic. Especially since that hi-hat sound is ridiculous.

76. LeToya - "She Don't"

So much better than "Torn," but that's not saying much.

77. Shareefa f/ Ludacris - "I Need A Boss"

Luda's a fool for not keeping this for his album.

78. Dre f/ Keyshia Cole - "Be Somebody"

Dre might be the worst producer-turned-rapper ever but this is pretty good.



79. 50 Cent f/ Olivia - "Best Friend"

If 50 is nothing more than a glorified R&B singer at this point, so be it, but he's a damn good R&B singer sometimes. I was shocked this song wasn't produced by Hi-Tek.

80. Pearl Jam - "World Wide Suicide"

This year, Pearl Jam released by far their worst album to date (I actually started to like Riot Act after hearing the new one), but the "return to form/best since Ten" talk was bolstered by the first uptempo lead single they've released from an album in nearly or over a decade (depending on whether you count "Given To Fly").

81. Ricky Martin - "It's Alright"

Why did Ricky have to wait until well after America had decided to ignore him to release a certifiably great pop single that works on more levels than something funny for people to reference or for William Hung to sing?

82. Blue October - "Into The Ocean"

"Hate Me" was so awful it gave me warped opinions on things like suicidal hate and made a porno feel like home, but this is pretty enjoyable. I miss the 90's when it was customary from every 20th alt-rock band to have a violinist. If these guys and Yellowcard keep it up, maybe we can bring the Dambuilders back!

83. KT Tunstall - "Black Horse And The Cherry Tree"

It's too appropriate that there's a VH1 logo in the corner of the clip I found on YouTube, but it's pretty catchy for VH1 bullshit.

84. Notorious B.I.G. f/ Twista, Bone Thugs N Harmony, 8Ball & MJG and Swizz Beatz - "Spit Yo Game" (Remix)

I can't even really listen to "Notorious Thugs" anymore.

85. Daz f/ Rick Ross - "On Some Real Shit"

It's a shame with all the nearly identical beats Jermaine Dupri has put on singles in the past couple years, one of the best of them went pretty much unnoticed.

86. Veronicas - "When It All Falls Apart"

No Kogan-o.

87. Young Buck - "I Know You Want Me"

It's hilarious watching herbs squirm about the idea of Young Buck, who's pretty good but still incredibly boring and constantly dropping embarrassing "50 bought it for me" shit in his rhymes, sullying himself with Jazze Pha, who's admittedly obnoxious but nonetheless one of the best pop rap producers out.

88. Janet Jackson f/ Khia - "So Excited"

OK, I'm starting to look like a JD stan here.

89. Donell Jones f/ Jermaine Dupri - "Better Start Talking"

No wait, now I'm starting to look like a JD stan.



90. Yung Joc f/ Nitti - "It's Goin' Down"

Not even the best Nitti beat (that would be "Dem Boyz"), but it's pretty impressive that he managed to fit his name into the song 4 times, in addition to the one time Joc says it. Even established producers don't usually get that many shout outs! Overexposure kinda sucked the fun out of this song over time, but it still cracks me up to think about when J.G.'s brother and I would greet each other with Joc-isms like "everybody love me, I'm so cool" and "it's me, surprise!"

91. Kanye West f/ Paul Wall, GLC, T.I. and Tony Williams - "Drive Slow" (Strings Remix)

This was really never one of my favorites on the album, but the added strings, the T.I. verse, and the perfect video all got me into it.

92. Morningwood - "Nth Degree"

Granted, this song was destined to be featured in a car commercial way before it actually was in one recently, but I was kinda surprised with how violently people reacted to this band's corporate fake indie credentials, like, people that weren't even that cynical about The Strokes. But any band that spells out their name in song and makes sure you notice that three letters are "M-O-R" has to know who they are. Still, I like them in theory more than in practice, and "Easy" might be the only real keeper from their album.

93. Christina Milian f/ Young Jeezy - "Say I"

Cool & Dre have only used the "Hate It Or Love It" drums, what, 2 or 3 times now? What a rare occurance of pop rap producers not using their best beat enough.

94. Rihanna - "S.O.S."

Haha, I didn't even mean to put this right after a Christina Milian song on purpose!

95. Field Mob f/ Ciara - "So What"

I was in shock when Ciara turned up in this video looking halfway cute for once. But then I've always privileged natural hair color over bad dye jobs.

96. Dilated Peoples - "Back Again"

Great video!

97. Tha Dogg Pound - "Cali Iz Active"

Why I hate The Game: he just isn't living up to the legacy of Cali rap being, y'know, fun.

98. Pitbull f/ Pretty Ricky - "Everybody Get Up"

I didn't think there would be any context in which I could enjoy Pretty Ricky, but Pitbull did it. The Baltimore club version of this song is pretty awesome, too.

99. T.I. - "Why You Wanna"

I wonder if it was meant as a cheesy joke that at the end of the video the magazine he's holding is KING.

100. Jesse McCartney - "Right Where You Want Me"

Way down at this end of the list, I'll include a song if I only like one tiny little sliver of it and dislike the rest. In this case, it's that little pre-chorus bit where he slips into a falsetto that sounds shockingly Michael McDonald-esque.

Labels: hip hop

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 28, 2006 at 4:46 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.