1. Swizz Beatz - “It’s Me Bitches”
If radio rap isn't gonna be lyrical, the least it can do is be completely musically and structurally apeshit.

2. R. Kelly f/ T.I. and T-Pain - “I’m A Flirt (Remix)”
R's first verse > T-Pain's verse > R's second verse > T.I.'s verse. But that's not a knock on Tip, the song is just all about the melodic twists and turns and he keeps it pretty monotone.



3. UGK f/ Outkast - “Int'l Players Anthem”
R.I.P. Pimp C.



4. Paramore - “Misery Business”
No better climactic pronunciation of an arbitrary word in rock music this year than "IN-VOL-VING!!!" Maybe now that pop music has a capable female punk-pop singer fronting an actual band, critics can stop grading shit like Ashlee Simpson on a generous curve.

5. Keyshia Cole f/ Missy Elliott and Lil Kim - “Let It Go”
Jacking a Biggie beat for an R&B track is a cheap trick that gives me Ashanti flashbacks, but somehow this totally transcended all that for my favorite jam of the summer.

6. Playaz Circle f/ Lil Wayne - "Duffle Bag Boy"
Wayne's only worthwhile moment as a hook singer, and Tity Boi's verse is probably better than Weezy would've come up with anyway.

7. Finger Eleven - "Paralyzer"
The overwhelming majority of rock hits that crossover to pop radio and go top 10 are power ballads, so it's doubly refreshing that a formerly nondescript nu-grunge band was able to make something so danceable and fun, and have their biggest hit with it.

8. Kelly Rowland f/ Eve - “Like This”
The best Polow track of the year is an instant lock for my top 10.

9. Maroon 5 - “Makes Me Wonder”
I've always kind of liked Maroon 5's whole schtick, and it goes down a lot better on the new album where they've actually got some low end to balance out the falsetto.

10. Fantasia - “When I See U”
I play air-piano pretty much every time I hear this song.



11. Crime Mob - “Circles”
Along the same lines as "Int'l Players Anthem," proof that Southern soul beats are the happy compromise that should satisfy every regional rap partisan.



12. Linkin Park - “Bleed It Out”
I'm pretty happy whenever they funnel their adolescent angst rap into something relatively fast and fun (see also: "Faint").

13. Kanye West f/ Dwele - "Flashing Lights"
I'm still quietly in shock from checking the liner notes and seeing that Kanye apparently created this without any sampled record or high-profile co-producer (or at least, I'm assuming Eric Hudson isn't high profile, anyone have any idea who he is?).

14. Cassidy f/ Swizz Beatz - “Drink N My 2 Step”
Not as good as "I'm A Hustla," but damn close.

15. 50 Cent - “I Get Money”
Also not as good as "I'm A Hustla," but it bites the hell out of the drums.

16. DJ Khaled f/ Akon, T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Birdman and Lil Wayne – "We Taking Over"
Next to "Flashing Lights," the single most impressive production of any hit this year, and the track that finally made me completely sure of what I'd always suspected: that Danja is a brilliant producer who doesn't need Timbaland fricky-frickying all over his tracks anymore. At first I thought the drums were a weak point, but the flat simplicity of them works perfectly with the layers of synths. And I still can't get over all the little layers that dart in and out of the song: those high sonar pings, the bells that, for the first and only time ever, make a Rick Ross verse sound awesome, and then disappear for the rest of the song. If Akon's hook wasn't so annoyingly high and out of his range and a couple less guests were cut or replaced, this'd be an easy contender for my #1.

17. Foo Fighters - “The Pretender”
It's like they realized that "All My Life" is structurally awesome and decided to finally put a real song to it.



18. Natasha Bedingfield - “I Wanna Have Your Babies”
As far as I can tell, the modern British pop charts don't have much that ours don't that I'd actually miss. But I developed a soft spot for Bedingfield when her first album crossed over the pond, and now I'm pretty disappointed that by far her best single yet hasn't been released at all here, in favor of a cheeseball duet with Sean Kingston. I honestly kind of find it hard to believe that this song wouldn't be a big hit here, or that it hasn't been in the countries it was released, it's kind of cringe-inducing and ridiculous but completely identifiable and hugely catchy at the same time. I'd kill to hear something this funny and smart every day for half the year instead of "Umbrella."

19. Fall Out Boy - “Thnks Fr Th Mmrs”
I'm not sure what I expected Babyface to do when he collaborated with FOB, but playing mandolin on an awesome bridge wouldn't have been my first guess.

20. Alicia Keys - "Like You'll Never See Me Again"
I wish Alicia Keys and Common would stop co-starring in videos together (this and his "I Want You"), it's such a cynical ploy to cash in on America's love affair with Smoking Aces, or Acesmania, as it's known at conventions held around the country for fans fo the film.



21. R. Kelly f/ Usher - “Same Girl”
R.'s always had a knack for the beautifully woven argument-song, and it's good to hear proof that he can still do them as perfect miniatures, and not as big sprawling stupid messes like every recent chapter of "Trapped In The Closet."

22. Diddy f/ Keyshia Cole - "Last Night"
Diddy's mealy-mouthed singing is even worse than his mealy-mouthed rapping, but eventually I got past it and learned to love the best retro R&B jam of the year.

23. Mary J. Blige - "Just Fine"
You know I love music. And every time I hear somethin' hot, it makes me wanna move. It makes me wanna have fun. But it's somethin' about this joint right here, this joint right here, it makes me wanna WOOOOO!



24. Kanye West f/ T-Pain - “Good Life”
Kanye notoriously toys with the mix on his songs constantly up to the last minute. And I wish he'd gotten one more shot at adjustin this one, because the intro that's on the video version but not the album/single really makes me like the whole thing a lot more.

25. Beyonce - “Get Me Bodied”
It amazes me how some people still try to spin B'Day as a failure when it only sold slightly less than Dangerously In Love and kept spinning off singles a year after its release. But this one was a hit, at least among club and mix-show DJs, pretty quickly after the album dropped, and only officially became a single months and months later, with most stations opting to play the whole 6-minute extended mix.

26. T.I. f/ Wyclef Jean - “You Know What It Is”
Should've been a great summer anthem, but I think whatever momentum Tip had at that point had been sapped by the lumbering laborious "Big Things Poppin'."

27. Hurricane Chris f/ Big Poppa of Ratchet City - "Hand Clap"
One of those one hit wonder follow ups that's an actual improvement on the big hit.

28. Bobby Valentino - "Anonymous"
Danja's synths on this are nuts, shame he had to let Timbo beatbox and mumble all over it.

29. Rihanna - "Don't Stop The Music"
Any use of the "mamakosa" chant works for me.

30. Matchbox Twenty - "How Far We've Come"
More brisk and viscerally enjoyable than any of the repackaged hits this song was released to help sell.



31. DJ Jazzy Jeff f/ Peedi Peedi - "Brand New Funk 2007"
Dog, I love He's The DJ, I'm The Rapper, and nothing makes me happier than hearing a great modern Philly rapper murder its best beat.

32. Young Jeezy f/ R. Kelly - “Go Getta”
The moment where I rolled over and accepted the Runners' ubiquity.

33. Gym Class Heroes f/ Patrick Stump - “Clothes Off”
I correctly predicted over a year ago that GCH would be 07's Gnarls Barkley/Black Eyed Peas, the weird quasi-rap bullshit that ends up getting more Billboard and MTV love than almost any regular hip hop. But I did not foresee that they'd make a song I'd actually like.



34. The Game f/ Kanye West - “Wouldn’t Get Far”
Two guys who always put their foot in their mouth, joining forces to talk even more shit than usual.

35. Chris Brown f/ T-Pain - "Kiss Kiss"
The single most interesting thing about the Grammy nominations this year was how T-Pain had 2 nominations in the Rap/Sung Collaboration category, in which he was the rappa on one song (this one) and the sanga on the other ("Good Life").

36. Swizz Beatz - “Money In The Bank”
Although I still begrudge Swizz a little for outsourcing more than half the beats on his solo album to other producers, this track proved that he has a great ear for producers who aren't too far out of his own off-kilter sound but still bring something new. That ungainly bass throb and the choppy way the drums move and that squealing scratch, I'm kind of in awe of how wrong this track is and how it's addictive and totally works anyway.

37. Avril Lavigne - "Hot"
The verses kinda suck, but it's still the best thing she's done since she ditched The Matrix.

38. John Legend - "Another Again"
This was my favorite song on the album last year, and while I never heard it outside the CD once, it had a video and it charted on R&B radio, so hey, I'm counting it.

39. Fergie f/ Ludacris - “Glamorous”
Not as good as the "Luxurious" single from whence it came, but still pretty great.

40. Ja Rule f/ Lil Wayne - “Uh Oh”
I hope Lil Wayne's taking notes on what kind of beats to use once he finally coughs up a real album.

41. The Fixxers - “Can U Werk Wit Dat?”
I share Quik's feelings about eggs with onions cheesy.

42. Papa Roach - “Forever”
Cavernous and brooding verses that I never knew they could pull off, and a big whiny anthemic chorus that I always knew they could pull off.

43. My Chemical Romance - “Teenagers”
I whined and whined about how this song was the best track on The Black Parade and should be a single, but by the time it finally was, I was kinda over it.

44. T-Pain - "Church"
I whined and whined about how this song was the best track on Epiphany and should be a single, but by the time it finally was, I was kinda over it.

45. DJ Unk - “2 Step”
Cloning your first hit for the follow-up is usually not a good move, but if you actual improve on the formula, sometimes it works.

46. Eve - “Tambourine”
Hey Swizz: less sampling Daft Punk, more sampling Chuck Brown.

47. Freeway f/ Jay-Z - "Roc-A-Fella Billionaires"
They so should've shot a video and forced this to become a hit.

48. Fall Out Boy - "I'm Like a Lawyer With the Way I'm Always Trying To Get You Off (Me & You)"
More obvious Babyface fingerprints on this one, which is a good thing.

49. Nickelback - "Rock Star"
I like to hear the "I'll have the quesadilla, ha haaa" part in my head in a Young Jeezy voice.

50. Fergie - "Clumsy"
I can barely think of any album in the past few years that's yielded 4 hits I like as much as the ones from Dutchess that aren't "Big Girls Don't Cry," and I have no idea what to think about it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at 5:45 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.