A couple weeks ago, a reader emailed me and I said I would give up a playlist of what I consider to be the most essential tracks to help somebody who’s unfamiliar with hip-hop to understand what it’s about. When I said it, I knew it would be a challenge, but I ain’t know it was gonna be this hard. I think the hardest thing about it is differentiating between songs that are important to me and songs that are important to hip-hop. Having said that, however, here goes

It’s A Demo - Kool G. Rap
Poison - Kool G. Rap
Brand New Funk DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
Radio - LL Cool J
Planet Rock - Afrika Bambatta
Jam On It - Newcleus
My Melody - Eric B & Rakim
Lyrics of Fury - Eric B & Rakim
Microphone Fiend - Eric B & Rakim
Straight Outta Compton - NWA
The Grand Finale - The DOC, f. Ice Cube, MC Ren, and Eazy E
Rebel Without A Pause - Public Enemy

If you can think of anything I missed, feel free to post it up.