Jeff Weiss

45. Joe Buhdha Presents Klashnekoff: Lionheart: Tussle With the Beast Exactly three British rappers have managed to "break" the American market in this decade, and by "break" I mean getting the American music press to hype them as the best thing since Earl Grey and raisin currants. Yeah, I like......

50. Redman-Red Gone Wild Other than M.O.P., Redman is the only East Coast rapper able to conceptually re-make the same album since 1992 and get away with it. The only difference is that where Billy Danze and Fizzy Womack are concerned with curb-checking you if you wander into Brownsville, Reggie......

10. Sea Wolf-Leaves in the River At times, Leaves In the River reads a little predictably quirky, but Alex Church's pop heart salvages this from being the effort of another accordian-toting, maritime metaphor-using copycat. The sound might not be the most original (I can't wait for Colin Meloy's "Shark N---s......

Animal Collective-Strawberry Jam Sounds Like Bad Acid Trip At arcade in New Jersey Let Panda roam solo. Arcade Fire-Neon Bible Right now in heaven Toole Composes Lengthy Indictment Against Neon Bible......

Even if you are a jewel thief, it is never wise to mess with a man whose name is Sgt. Larvell Jones. 5. Jay-Z ft. Nas-"Success" These two. Thing is, this song shouldn't be this high on my Best Of list. Say these guys hadn't spent a decade trying to......

The film that ended the Cold War. 9. Hi-Tek Ft. Talib Kweli & Dion-"Time" "People get caught up in a time and what that song represents to them at the time they hear it. Nothing I'm gonna do after that is going to match up to that time period, because......

Mental Note: Avoid guys with the nickname "Mad Dog." 14. Redman-"Blow Treez" Why did we have to wait until 2007 for Redman, the man who taught a generation of impressionable youths how to roll a blunt, to sample Bob Marley, the greatest blunt roller of them all? Flipping the halcyon......

This list has very little to do with Back to the Future II. However, I am writing it from the inside of a Delorean. 19. Pete Rock ft. Styles P & Sheek Louch-"914" Released by Nature Sounds in January as the single from Pete Rock' s still shelved New York's......

25. Chamillionaire ft. Slick Rick: "Hip Hop Police" Chamillionaire's a good rapper. His flow kind of reminds me of Krayzie Bone had he grown up chugging syrup through humid Houston summers. And unlike a lot of his Southern brethren, Chamillionaire has interesting ideas, even if he doesn't always know the......