VH1’s Top 100 of rap music celebrates the positives of the genre

I just noticed something that really caught my attention. VH1 has compiled a list of the top 100 rap music songs. Now that is something that I am sure will create huge debate.

The main question is the importance of groups at the start of rap, the empowerment movement in rap (which was sadly short lived), and the gangsta rap genre that has now become the redundant and endless form that dominates music videos and radio. I for one have no love of gangsta rap, nor the performers that populate the genre.

In it’s birth rap was a celebration of joy. The earliest songs, which I recall from my youth, were not that long ago, just about 29 years now. They were about enjoying friends and good times. The groove was infectious and lead to the growth of the fledgling music format.

But like all things rap grew up. In fact it did so with a speed and determination. By the mid 1980’s until 1992 rap had a meaning. Not all rap, but a good portion of it. There was a pride in the Black community and it was reflected in the music. The music was an oral declaration of unity and progress. This too was reflected in the music videos of the art form, if you were lucky enough to spot one on television.

The first 13 years that rap music existed it was called a fad by mainstream music. It was viewed as a joke. It was diminished and tossed aside by the entire music industry, even though music executives would not dare to stop making the highly lucrative music. But throughout this time rap music was also something that the White masses of the nation neither understood nor craved.

Then there was N.W.A. and the music industry executives found what they had been waiting for. A guttural base expression of African Americans as impoverished, uneducated, violent criminals waiting to be unleashed upon the nation.

I realize, now and then, that N.W.A. was expressing yet another face of what many African Americans experience everyday in America. I understand that they were crying out about the less than American Dream life that was being shoveled into their lives. And there is no doubt in my mind that the intention was never to glorify violence and drugs, or women as sexual gratification objects. But I am equally sure that the music industry sought only that aspect of the sub-genre.

So in looking at the top songs in this sect of music, what should take prominience. The songs that have made the most money, the artists that were promoted most by greedy executives, the songs that hoped to unify and empower African Americans, or those that just celebrated life?

It seems that VH1 considered all these things in making their list.

The number 1 songs was found to be Public Enemy’s Fight The Power.



This song was the pinnacle of the empowerment genre of rap. It was the rally cry for involvement in voting, being active in the community, and making Government accountable to the people. It was just after this song came out that music executive ran to find a distraction, and flooded the airwaves with anything but another rap song of this nature and message.

Second on the list was the Sugar Hill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight



This is the song and group that started the entire music genre. It was the first rap song to burst forth from the nightclubs and basements of the Bronx out to the mainstream of the national airwaves.

Third on the list was the crossover hit by Run DMC Walk This Way.

[The video is blocked from being embedded on a site. Aerosmith has great lawyers it seems.]

So in the first 3 songs we see that the expressions of fun, respect, pride, and ability are the foremost examples of what all rap music really is. And I can agree with these choices.

The top 20 is rounded out by a mix of predominately these themes, with a sprinkle of the more modern, repulsive, generic, pedantic, and demeaning gangsta rap songs that have infected the airwaves since 1992. In fact going through the list you will see that the entire list is filled with mostly artists that ceased being played on the air the day that gangsta rap was born. That’s a statement indeed.

Now I’m sure some will argue this. They will note that Tupac, or Eminem, or Snoop Dogg, and others had meaningful and powerful songs. Some of them are on the list too. But like the law of averages, or probability, even the worst entertainers will eventually get it right once or twice. I mean even William Hung got to make 2 albums and stardom.

The list will be shown on VH1. I’m sure many will have different opinions. But I say that Public Enemy was the greatest rap group ever – both for what they said and what they tried to do. But Heavy D, Sugar Hill Gang, Erik B. and Rahkim, Digital Underground and a few others still make my favorites list too.

Can the Wayans make it on VH1

**This post can also be seen at All American Blog, where I am a contributing author.**

Do we need another celebrity reality series? Is there any reason for another ‘reality’ program of any sort? Obviously network television executives think so. And one of the upcoming programs has potential. That is the potential to by abysmally bad, or astoundingly good. My bet is towards the bad, and mark my words, there is no middle ground.

Why are there so many ‘reality’ programs? They are cheap. They are dumb. They embarrass, in general, individuals and more commonly these days’ celebrities. The first 2 reasons are attractive to networks because it means they are easy to profit off of. No real sets, smaller crews, no writers (sort of), and no debates on renewing contracts. But all the profits of a successful show even if it’s only in the lower half of all programs on television.

The last reason is self-defining. The public loves to watch entertainers and celebrities fall. Add into the mix the fact that these shows tend to emphasize the bottom tier of notables, those with lesser or barely existent talents and the envy gives way to mean spirited laughter at their expense. That’s the honest answer why most watch these things. It’s not humor with, but at those on the program. It’s the most base and scraping the bottom of the barrel common denominator in television since it was invented.

This reminds me of what Senior Drill Instructor Sgt. Williams used to call television, ITV. Meaning idiot television. 20 years after the fact he is more correct than ever before.

But there are moments of real human interest. Like when Flava Flav would up in a relationship with Bridgette Nielsen, who would have guessed that? Or that Christopher Knight would wind up marrying model Adrianne Curry. But such real and warm moments are fleeting.

Then there are the programs made to emulate the reality of life, with a twist. Like the show Entourage. I’ve never seen it, so I have no clue on its appeal or quality. But I trust the multiple sources that state it’s wonderful. Even moreso because it seems that the Wayans’ family will be involved with a similar (possibly rip-off) version of the program. You know you are doing well in Hollywood when others copy what you are doing.

Now the word is that this will be on VH1. And thus we see how it could be great or horrendous and nothing in-between. VH1 LOVES celebrity ‘reality’ programs. They love to talk about anything involving un-scripted celebrity life. Entourage is right in that vain. And as one blogger mentioned (Whudat.com) if it’s about the lives of the various Wayans clan that could be interesting.

But on the other side are the issues. VH1 is owned by Viacom, the company responsible for the programming at Black Entertainment Television (BET) for years. VH1 is home of the various Flava Flav programs like Flava of Love. To say it succinctly, Viacom has shown a repeated, company wide, ideology of portraying African Americans in the worst light possible.

Add to that that the last several project headed by Shawn Wayans, Lil Man and White Chicks, have neither been the most successful or highest quality to come out of the family. While there is a relationship with Viacom (the old WB program headed by Shawn and Marlon is shown regularly on BET) that is not to say it’s a great one. And if this Entourage-esque program is just their written work, given the standards and expectations of Viacom, horror seems a big potential.

Now I have nothing against the probably most successful Black family in television and movies. I like the work that Keenan and Damon have done, generally. There’s even been one or 2 things that Shawn and Marlon have done that was of some interest. And I love the fact that they provide more work for more African Americans and minorities than roughly a dozen other programs or films, in front of the camera and behind it.

But I still have reservations. Will I see what the program is like when it’s announced? Surely. Will I be happy to know that they are employing so many that every other studio and Production Company seems to be oblivious to, definitely. Would I look at the minor characters and sideline people for up and coming stars? Without doubt, as the family has a knack for finding and developing talent everyone else ignores. [Where did Jim Carrey, Jennifer Lopez, Tommy Davidson, and Jamie Foxx all come from?]

So I will wait and see what VH1 goes with. I hope for a great show, which is quite possible. But I also will steady myself if Viacom is true to its unspoken corporate policy and the program is horrendous. At least we know what the odds are.