Hip Hop Top 50 Vol. 1. Playlist

A sampling of tracks from the first 18 Hip Hop Top 50 entries. All apologies to Company Flow, since "Funcrusher Plus" is not currently available on the supposedly encyclopedic Spotify. A shoutout on the first Black Star track will have to do for the time being.

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40. Del the Funky Homosapien - I Wish My Brother George Was Here

Teren Delvon Jones defies categorization.

He's not a gangster rapper, despite his zip code and family ties. He's too contrary and antagonistic to fit in with the Native Tongues Posse. His affection for George Clinton makes for ass-shaking grooves, but don't dare ask him to dance. He'll point fingers at mainstream, derivative rappers ("crumbsnatchers"), but will never revert to violence or jealousy. If only one thing is certain on I Wish My Brother George Was Here, it's that Del the Funky Homosapien is completely content being himself.

Despite barely being out of high school, Del's storytelling flows organically, stressing his passion for authenticity and capacity for internal rhyme and playful alliteration. Words roll off of his tongue in an eloquent, nonchalant Californian sway, with punch lines delivered through delicate shifts in vocal tone.

Much like his cousin and production partner, Ice Cube, Del is a laconic orator, explicating complex ideas in an economical fashion. He's even capable of allowing counterpoints to his more controversial opinions, particularly on "Dark Skin Girls," where he chides light-skinned women for their superficiality, despite Cube's call for impartiality.

That isn't the only moment Ice Cube makes his opinion heard. With the help of DJ Pooh, he immerses every track in subwoofer-destroying bass, synthed-out organ and flirtatious female choruses, birthing a sound that wasn't chic in 1991, but would become the establishment by 1993. The result is a pacifist's G-funk album, free of the hedonistically violent dialogue that would eventually swallow up the sub-genre.

"Sunny Meadows" is the antithesis of G-funk to come, providing Del with a base of smoked-out saxophone and gently-strummed guitar to wax poetic about while scrawling in his notebook at the park and languishing for a more pastoral life. His thoughtful discourse seems better suited for the genre than most of those who followed, but we can't expect them to have such a singular vision. His is a stridently particular viewpoint that can't be strapped down to a genre, crowd or status quo.

45. Ultramagnetic MCs - Critical Beatdown

As described in Paul Edwards' How to Rap, rapping, in its simplest terms, is a blend of content, flow and delivery. Basically, a musician would construct a rhyming poem detailing their emotions, which would then be conveyed through their vocal cadences.

Ultramagnetic MCs, led by chief lyricist, Kool Keith and part-time rapper/full-time producer, Ced-Gee, intentionally disrupted their content, flow and delivery, much like free jazz disrupted chord changes and tempo. What came from this break with conformity was both danceable and droll, a fully unique creation born from the deconstructed elements of hip-hop.

Kool Keith's odd delivery is like an off-kilter game of word association. As he barrels through verses at breakneck speed, he defames opposing MCs like a vivisectionist, chopping heads and dissecting bodies. He fashions himself a mad scientist, and he might be right, since his syncopated delivery and schlocky lyrical content may have given life to the gory absurdity of horrorcore and the abstract spaciness that would shape rappers like Del the Funky Homosapien and El-P.

Keith's partner-in-crime, Ced-Gee, produces the record with a similarly skewed vision. As chaotic as the Bomb Squad, Gee layers each track with tinnitus-inducing vocal squeals, hyper-kinetic samples and skittish record scratching. His take on funk has more in common with the "chopped and screwed" mixtape movement than Sly Stone, since an organ blip or random synth beat can explode out of nowhere and repeat endlessly, giving the LP an almost nervous energy.

It's this verve and sense of adventure that have made Critical Beatdown so timeless. Kool Keith and Ced-Gee purposely tried to subvert hip-hop cliché and reconstruct its language and sound. What they actualized was made of hip-hop's puzzle pieces, but alien in its construct and presentation.