51. Foxx f/ Lil Boosie and Webbie - "Wipe Me Down (Remix)"
Lil Boosie's had his 'a star is born' moment a few times already, but "B! O! O! S! I! E! B! A! D! A! Z! Z! That's me!" is definitely the one that finally took hold in the national public's mind.

52. Mika - “Grace Kelly”
Like most breakout U.K. artists these days, Mika's not much more than a pale imitation of a great artist from the past (in this case, Freddie Mercury). But since I live in America, I didn't get it crammed down my throat, and found myself enjoying this song whenever I did encounter the video on VH1 in the morning.



53. T.I. f/ Alfamega and Busta Rhymes - "Hurt"
The lack of DJ Toomp tracks was a popular explanation for the overall disappointment of T.I. Vs. T.I.P., but I'm not so sure he would've come up with anything hotter than Danja's 3 beats on the album.

54. Eddie Vedder f/ Corin Tucker - "Hard Sun"
Tucker's voice is the one reason I've always meant to listen to more Sleater-Kinney than I have, and it's nice to hear her warble in the background on the obscure cover that's the single from Vedder's suprisingly good soundtrack solo joint. I'd totally buy a duets album.

55. Rich Boy f/ Polow Da Don and Keri Hilson - “Good Things”
The fact that Polow had standout verses on the 2 biggest singles off Rich Boy's album would seem to indicate that they're not going to keep the producer/star division of labor up for long. And Polow's shirtless video turn and LL-esque "that would be a delight" loverman verse further indicates that he's much better suited to these kinds of smooth-ass tracks than Rich Boy. Bring on the solow album already!

56. Beanie Sigel f/ R. Kelly - "All Of The Above"
A big bombastic Runners beat and slick R. hook aren't really the ideal backdrop for Beans, but at least in this instance all those elements click together really well.

57. Red Hot Chili Peppers - “Hump De Bump”
Although not every RHCP single of the past 10 years has been a midtempo power ballad (just most of them), virtually none of them have captured an iota of the goofball punk that was the band's defining trait for its first decade. And I never thought I'd be so grateful to hear Keidis rap nonsense over infectious grooves again.

58. Common f/ Lily Allen - "Drivin' Me Wild"
Kanye's illest drums all year, possibly damn near ever, shame he had to put Lily Allen's head voice all over it. Plus for having Lauren London in the video, minus for having Jeremy Piven wagging his finger in the video.

59. Bow Wow f/ T Pain and Johnta Austin - “Outta My System”
Wherein T-Pain reveals that robots have feelings too, and Bow Wow pretends he does.

60. Birdman f/ Lil Wayne - "Pop Bottles"
Jadakiss looks to happy to be in a video again, lip syncing to the sample of his voice on the hook (and what really makes that sample work is that they left in that little offbeat bottle-popping sound effect from the original line). They should've let him do a verse too.

61. 50 Cent - “Amusement Park”
This song, more than any other from Curtis, was emblematic of the 50 backlash this year for its blatant recycling of the dick metaphors that were hackneyed the first time around. But the beat and the hook

62. Keyshia Cole f/ Amina - "Shoulda Let You Go"*
I initially wrote this off for being too similiar to other Darkchild beats for Mary J. and Shareefa. But watching the video over and over eventually got me into the song, and the harpsichord and the strings and that little hi-hat pattern really add up to a pretty hot track.

63. Fall Out Boy - “This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race”
At first, I thought this song portended that FOB would be going off the same deep end of pompous 'ambitious' singles as My Chemical Romance. But after later singles proved they still knew their way around a hook, I came back and realized that this song is pretty decent once you get past the piddling beat in the beginning and the overblown gospel choir ending. The idiotic "Fall Out Boy records with hip hop super-producer" plotline in the video is somehow even more offensive considering that they did collaborate with Timbaland and Kanye West shortly afterward. I wonder if they were worried about spitting someone's 40 oz. and getting thrown out of the hood when they recorded with them.

64. Nicole Sherzinger f/ T.I. - “Whatever You Like”
Many called foul on Polow's recycling of most of the elements of his beat for Kelis's "Blindfold Me," but I'm willing to forgive a retread if it's an improvement in pretty much every way. Shame this song tanked with the rest of the Nicole solo project, mix show DJs loved this track and it eventually grew on me, too.



65. Relient K - “Must Have Done Something Right”
Sentimental power-pop gloop that's aware of its own cliches and cheeseball pickup lines, and is somehow all the more charming for it.

66. Muse - “Starlight”
Not as much of a shocking rush of hilarious pomp-rock as "Knights Of Cydonia" was, but almost as full of hooks and structural elegance. I dunno if I could ever love these dudes but I sure do enjoy their shit.

67. Musiq - "Buddy"
R&B with retro rap breaks always feels like a cheap trick, but sometimes it works.

68. Paul Wall f/ Jermaine Dupri - “I’m Throwed”
Paul Wall always seems to make singles I really enjoy ("Girl" aside), despite the fact that he's a terrible rapper and has one of the most odious and vacuous personas in hip hop.

69. Justin Timberlake - “Until The End Of Time”
One of the most transparent Prince rips of an album full of transparent Prince rips (even the title is taken straight from the chorus of "Adore"!), but one that he actually executed well, unlike most of the rest of FutureBroken/SpaceBar.

70. Incubus - "Dig"
There's a DJ on DC101 who refers to certain songs as "panty-melters," and this song is one of the most popular panty-melters.



71. Fabolous f/ Swizz Beatz - “Return of The Hustle”
Better use of the beat than the original "Dig A Hole," and possibly the best Hype split screen video yet.

72. Jay-Z - "Roc Boys (And The Winner Is...)"*
I still kinda feel like there's something off about this track, like the horns should give the vocals more space or change up more for the hook, it just doesn't pop as a single. But it's still by far the best nu-Hitmen track on American Gangster, and the whole lyrical concept gets executed really well.

73. Gwen Stefani - "Early Winter"
It's a shame that she waited until a few singles into her second album to actually do something different from the day-glo Harajuku fetish Olive Oyl squeak-pop that everyone got sick of after her first album's 8th single, because this was pretty damn good and noone paid any attention to it.



74. Rich Boy - "Let's Get This Paper"
I have to admit that I find it kind of funny that Rich Boy's big serious, socially conscious song is called "Let's Get This Paper," but it actually makes sense in the context of the lyrics.

75. Chamillionaire f/ Slick Rick - "Hip Hop Police"*
The incredible Slick Rick verse just barely saves this from being nothing more than a desperate attempt to cash in on the success of "Ridin'."

76. Wyclef Jean f/ Akon, Lil Wayne and Niia - "Sweetest Girl (Dolla Bill)"
This song is almost like the serious storytelling Wayne that people who hate on weirdo punchline crazy Wayne have been asking for.

77. Puddle of Mudd - “Famous”
This has the same multiple levels of irony and misdirected truth as Nickelback's "Rock Star," plus the added layer of the fact that Mudd hasn't really been famous for at least 5 years now. Great "Money For Nothin'" bite on the chorus.

78. Smashing Pumpkins - "That's The Way My Love Is"
So the dubious 'reunion' didn't return the Pumpkins to past glories, but at their best they were at least on par with "Stand Inside Your Love."

79. Mike Jones - "Turnin' Headz"
Mike Jones justifiably endured possibly the sharpest drop from a platinum album to being completely ignored in hip hop history, but the last (and third!) attempt at a single for his follow-up album (which was eventually quietly released as a bonus EP to his terrible straight-to-DVD movie) had a pretty incredible beat. LOL @ the kid in the video who says "I like the old Mike Jones better." At least he knows it!

80. Flo Rida f/ T-Pain - "Low"
T-Pain's hitmaking mojo is at the same peak Lil Jon's was at a few years ago, where his voice on a track will put any obscure Atlanta (and now, Florida) rapper on the charts. But at the very least, Flo Rida's far more deserving of that boost than Plies.

81. Nelly Furtado - “All Good Things (Come To An End)”
Better and more cohesive than every other "pop/hip hop artist meets guy from Coldplay" collaboration, although I know I'm in a very small minority in thinking that this is the only tolerable single from Loose (Nelly was so much better when she was all earthy and granola).

82. Katharine McPhee - "Love Story"
This kind of song isn't quite a perfect fit for her voice, but the whole arrangement with the brushed drums and subtle tambourine really is a nice touch that makes this work better than it would with more modern production.

83. N.O.R.E. f/ Swizz Beatz and J-Ru$$ - "Set It Off"
I wonder if Swizz even remembers that he already did a song called "Set It Off" for Young Gunz a couple years ago. He shouldn't anyway, since this is better in every way.

84. Common f/ Dwele - “The People”
Kanye clearly never gets sick of that Mountain shout sample, and neither do I. Dwele really owes Kanye for making him his new surrogate John Legend, dude kinda came outta nowhere to be on 2 big songs this year after a few years of not making any waves.

85. Papa Roach - "Time Is Running Out"
After coming in through the rap metal door, Papa Roach have kinda redeemed themselves in recent years with some almost jangly hooks and midtempo anthems.

86. Audioslave - “Revelations”
They finally released a single I like just as they were breaking up, but I still celebrate their demise.

87. The Eagles - "How Long"
These guys deserve super extra brownie points for being pretty much the only classic rock band to put out their first new material in 20 or 30 years and have it sound completely like the old stuff, with no noticeable change in production values, vocal quality, songwriting, anything (it helps that this song was written for them in the 70s but never released at the time, but still, who else can you say that about?).

88. Foo Fighters - "Long Road To Ruin"
There's a shade of country, possibly a product of my imagination, in that melody that really hooks me, and it's somehow not as saccharine as similiar Foos singles like "Learn To Fly" and "Times Like These."



89. Amerie - “Gotta Work”
I'm a little biased since I know the guys who produced this track, One Up, but this really is a dope song and it's a shame it only seemed to get promoted in the U.K.

90. Daughtry f/ Slash - “What I Want”
Slash is a bit underused here, but it's still better than anything Velvet Revolver put out this year.

91. Trey Songz - "Wonder Woman"
It's kind of weird how this video is like a remake of "Smack My Bitch Up."

92. Tiffany Evans f/ Ciara - "Promise Ring"
Tiffany Evans was a pretty great performer when she jumped onstage to do this song at the Scream Tour, and I thought it was kind of funny that she was practically half Ciara's height.



93. Kanye West, Rakim, Nas and KRS One - “Classic”
Kanye wouldn't sound so stupid talking about "all these old rappers don't know where the exit is" on the Cassidy remix if he wasn't doing tracks with old rappers who can still completely slaughter him as an MC.

94. Saigon f/ Swizz Beatz - “C’mon Baby”
Was it worth all the MySpace tantrums about sample clearance? No. Is it still hot? Yes. (Is it funny that he talked about "the next ten years of this shit" on this song right before throwing another MySpace tantrum in which he announces his retirement? Yes.)

95. Queens of the Stone Age - "Sick Sick Sick"
Do they have other songs that are this spazzy and skronky? I like this so much better than their other singles.

96. Taylor Hicks - “Heaven Knows”
Pretty much the best case scenario for a Taylor Hicks record, which isn't saying much, but it's nice to hear him accomplish that even if the album was a commercial flop.

97. Dashboard Confessional - “Stolen”
He was probably always capable of a really nice radio ballad, but he waited until everyone stopped paying attention to put one out.

98. Three 6 Mafia f/ Chamillionaire - “Doe Boy Fresh”
It's good to hear Three 6 still on some horror movie soundtrack shit even when they're too caught up in their reality show and Oscar statuettes to drop an album.

99. Saliva - “Ladies & Gentlemen”
The whole carnival barker schtick on the verses is completely misguided and hilarious, but no more than when the Saliva dude was doing rap metal, and this actually works better.

100. Justin Timberlake - “What Goes Around...Comes Around”
Usually videos have either a positive effect on my opinion of a song or none at all, but I just barely was able to tolerate this song after the 9-minute video, which is even worse than the Fall Out Boy one with the vampires.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 09, 2007 at 11:52 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.