I’m feeling lazy tonight. So I was thinking: how about a total subjective rank of the ten hip hop beats that I consider the best of all time.

Of course best doesn’t mean the most famous, or the ones that requires the most technical skills. It’s simply beats that I know for sure I’ll still love them at the age of 70. And don’t get me wrong. It’s not about the track, it’s about the musical research. Be sure your ears will only focus on this.

10. Starting with a DJ who should be known all over the world because he’s a genius. Nujabes, japanese producer who died in 2010, left to the world a Hip-Hop gold mine behind him. “Luv sic” is my favorite one. You’ll understand easily why.

9. Keeping up the rank with “Keep ya head up“, produced by DJ Daryl from the 415 for Tupac Shakur. The beat samples “Be Alright” from the funky duet Zapp & Roger. The instrumental is mesmerizing, and speak for itself. The theme of this track: women.

8. Number 8 will make move your body on the dancefloor for sure. “Bop Gun” from Ice Cube’s fifth album samples funk legend George Clinton famous hit, “One nation under a groove”. Get down just for the funk of it !

7. Way more dark on the seventh spot, with “The Otherside” from The Roots’ latest album, Undun. Sample doesn’t exist on this one. Only pure instrumental.

6. Staying with piano loop, “Me or the papes” released in 1996 by Jeru the Damaja clinch the sixth spot. He dug in Ahmah Jamal’s song “I Love music”, seven minutes long, a few couple of notes he needed to talk about venal women.

5. Throbbing instrumental, with a nice boom-bap behind and you get what I like to call a masterpiece. “GodLovesUgly” from Atmosphere, is the typical kind of song which you could listen to a lifetime. By the way, the band is from Minneapolis, proof that Hip-Hop exists outside New York and L.A.

4. Big classic track on number four, but I couldn’t not have one of DJ Premier’s best production. This the “Code of the streets“, get it ?

3. “Affirmative action” is an expression created in the early 60’s in U.S to describe the policy to have minority quotas in university, companies etc… This is also the title of one the best Hip-Hop track ever because the guitar envelops your whole mind. Who’s on the microphone ? Nasty Nas from Queens Bridge featuring his crew, The Firm. Chills time.

2. Could we have a rank of the top 10 Hip Hop beats of all time without mention the beloved J-Dilla ? Considered as his best creation, “Runnin‘” is produced for the jazzy West Coast band The Pharcyde. A song made to last. For ever.

1. A little bit of chauvinism will not heart your sensitivity I hope. “Demain c’est loin‘”, from the most famous french Hip Hop formation IAM, was released in 1997. The instrumental mix violins, snares, and a couple of synth notes. That’s it. But that’s the more efficient notes ever. The song last for 9 minutes. It could lasts a whole month. The group is describing the ghetto reality in the south of France. You won’t have to check the lyrics, the melody expresses itself.