I got to come clean guys, I been slacking. Lots of stressful events have transpired in my life, and I felt like I haven’t had the time or the desire to update my blog in some time. It feels like I haven’t wrote an article proper since the beginning of the World Health Event That Shall Not Be Named. But I got to thinking, when life stresses you out, you have to to find time to center yourself, perhaps with the assistance of the great unifier, music. My favorite musical genre is hip-hop, so I decided that today, I’ll treat you to the most chill hip-hop songs I could think of. I promise I’ll get back to the video game articles I’m proficient at when I’m ready, but for now, just kick back, listen to these tunes and let your worries pass you by (incidentally, that’s the name of a song that almost made this list). And since I’m just showing off right now, feel free to click on the title of the track to be transported directly to the song!
10. Fly Away – Nelly (2005)
Allow me to open this list with a bit of an oddball, as most of the lyrics on this list focus on the chillness themselves and don’t get too heavy with the subject matter. But Fly Away is a little known Nelly song about the stressors of prison and how the author wants to serve his time and leave his criminal past behind him. Funnily enough, Nelly recorded it for the remake of The Longest Yard, which he played a role in and fits with that movie well. The music is light and rhythmic but Nelly’s rhymes are a little bit fast paced, unlike the chorus. It’s a great song, but the rest of the songs on this list are much more down tempo, hence its relatively low ranking here.
9. You Never Knew – Hieroglyphics (1998)
Hieroglyphics is one of the most underrated hip-hop groups of all time, and You Never Knew is arguably their signature song. It’s a peaceful beat with a distorted chipmunk sample carrying the chorus. Hieroglyphics are more known for their elegant lyrics and clever wordplay more than their ability to craft chill easy listening, but You Never Knew is a calm, laidback and non-aggressive love letter to the art of the genre. If I could pinpoint one verse that encapsulates this, it would be Pep Love’s nearly monotone verse that cleverly shout outs the titles his contemporaries debut albums. The entire song pairs nicely with drinking rum directly out of a coconut while laying on a beach towel.
8. Jazz (We’ve Got) – A Tribe Called Quest (1991)
The title features no lies. The beat features a heavily soulful sample alongside one of th most consistent drum snares I’ve ever heard. It’s the kind of song you can space and instinctively bob your head to. If you need just one line to sell you on the lyrics, hear this:
The tranquility will make you unball your fist
For we put hip-hop on a brand new twist
It’s been said that Tribe’s second album was sort of a peaceful analog to N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton and cuts like this one sell this pacifist redefinition of hip-hop.
7. They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.) – Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth (1992)
The sax that carries this iconic tune to arguably one of the most recognizable songs in classic hip-hop history. The title is a clever tribute to “Trouble” T. Roy of Heavy D & the Boyz, who passed shortly before this track was recorded. While C.L. isn’t among my favorite lyricists, he rides this beat so well that he covers his technical limitations. What makes so T.R.O.Y. so beautiful is that it’s not a mourning of a friend’s death, but a celebration of his life. But even if you ignore the poignancy of the lyrics, the beat alone can carry you to a state of peaceful equilibrium.
6. Sometimes I Rhyme Slow – Nice and Smooth (1991)
Simply sampling Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car would qualify this track to be one of the nicest and smoothest examples of easy listening in hip-hop. The melancholic lyrics lace the serenity of the beat with a caution against drug abuse. While Nice and Smooth do flaunt their desire to look good, feel good and drink good, they warn that “too much of anything makes you an addict”. Escapism is all well and good, but instead of relying on destructive vices, why not put on these tracks and escape to the worlds these poets bring you to?
5. 93’ Til Infinity – Souls of Mischief (1993, duh!)
Possibly the greatest chilled out summer time groove since…well, Summertime, 93’ revels in the simple pleasures. It’s a throwback to just being in high school, not worrying about your next meal, not worrying about how the rent is gonna get paid, not worrying about your social status in a world that don’t give a fuck about who you are or where you’ve come from. 93’ is about kickin’ it with your friends, talking to girls, eating pizza, maybe smokin’ a blunt if you’re into that. But don’t mistake their irreverence for ignorance; Souls of Mischief are basically half of the aforementioned Hieroglyphics supergroup. As Opio says:
Exchangin’ facts about impacts, ‘cause in facts
My freestyle talent overpowers, brothers can’t hack it
They lack wit, we got the mack shit
’93 to infinity — kill all that wack shit!
For me, what makes 93’ Til Infinity such a classic is the Souls’ refusal to change who they are to appease anyone. They insist to be intelligent without being uptight and easygoing without being unenlightened. And that’s a mentality I think we can all get behind.
4. It Was A Good Day – Ice Cube (1992)
Who would have thought one of the most calming, positive rap songs of all time would have come from the grandfather of gangsta rap? Good Day is arguably a fantasy, an impossibly favorable set of circumstances in a time and place of darkness and despair. And you know what? Who gives a fuck about realism? It is often said that one can create better opportunities for yourself in life by simply reinforcing positive imagery. That’s not to say delude yourself into ignoring pragmatic failings, but it couldn’t hurt to, when you wake up every morning, to look in the mirror and say “today is gonna be a good day.” I mean, if Ice Cube can go a whole day without even “hav[ing] to use my AK”, I think we all can try to call forth some positive karma in our daily lives!
3. Wake Up – Fetty Wap (2016)
I know you probably weren’t expecting a list full of classic hip-hop songs to have a song by the author of “Trap Queen” in the mix, but what can I say, Wake Up is a certified chill ass bop! I don’t know how many of my readers can empathize with me, but I can’t stand school, and I can totally get behind this, ahem, slacker anthem. It’s a floaty modern rap song carried by a simple, but elegant piano loop. Fetty gets an unfair reputation as being part of a wave of so-called “mumble rappers” but he has way with words here, lamenting the loss of his sight, and celebrating his ability to make it through his hardships to live the good life. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I can’t wait for the personal milestone a year from now to “throw my cap in the air like I know I made it!”
No, it’s not the whole album, but Ready or Not, this is one of the coolest rap bangers ever put to wax! The track opens with back to back Wyclef verses over an ever funky sample of Cymande’s Dove, which may be one of the greatest samples in hip-hop history. Admittedly, Wyclef and Pras rap some nonsense, but their flows perfectly compliment the beat, never magnifying their voices too far above the chill groove. But while you may expect that energy to persist throughout the song, Lauryn Hill jumps in with quite possibly the GOAT verse of female rappers:
Head rushers, I give to creative kids and fiends
Dreams of euphoria, aurora
To another galaxy, phallic see, be this microphone
But get lifted, lyrically, I’m gifted
Burn on it without the roach clip, it hinders, mind bender
Now, I don’t smoke a damn thing, but I imagine The Score’s first few verses to be the kind of experience where you light a spliff and vibe, but Laryn’s verse is akin to an acid trip that expands your mind. She’s not shy about showing off her superior skills in front of her cohorts and this verse makes me wish she put more effort into her rapping skills as opposed to her singing, because a few more verses like this would make her easily top 10, and mine is a picky list.
1. Damn It Feels Good to be a Gangsta – Geto Boys (1992)
I mean, you can just look at this song’s title for justification for it being number one. But ok, fine, I’ll try a bit harder to convince you. Even if this song was an instrumental, it’d rank pretty high here because that Jamaican-inspired guitar cultivates a feeling of tranquility, of a sly non-arrogant confidence. The lyrics are what really elevates this classic track from simply easy listening to a thought-provoking anthem. A lot of people probably don’t associate the word “gangsta” with much positivity. They’ve probably conjured a notion of ignorance, of violence, of criminality. But the Geto Boys subvert all prejudices by telling you what being a gansta is really about. Gangstas don’t run their mouth, they don’t start fights. A real gangsta knows who he is and he doesn’t have to pretend to be someone he’s not to earn some perceived credibility. A real gangsta gives to the less fortunate. A real gangsta doesn’t have to act out of character to attract women. To me, what the Geto Boys are trying to instill with this song is a counter to the prejudicial stereotypes of what makes someone “a real man” and they’re attempting to redefine self-confidence in positive but assertive paradigm. The final verse really plays with the concept of “gangsta” by satirically pointing out that if the definition of “gangsta” is a glorification of ignorance, violence and hate, then the biggest gangsta in the world is the President of the United States. It really is the perfect track: it makes you bop, it makes you feel and makes you think. It makes me mellow and quells my anger, damn does it feel good to be a gangsta!
One time on the radio I heard Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta and It Was a Good Day back to back. Needless to say, you couldn’t tell me shit that day. Thanks for reading everyone.
The Ghost of Game History 