Top 10 Rap Songs of the 90s

The 80s put rap music and hiphop on the map, but even though the underground movement was strong, few rap artists were getting airtime on conventional radio stations. The conservative bigwigs found the lyrical content too controversial or in some cases the subject matter was too violent. With the arrival of the 90s, however, rap and hiphop made a huge leap (though some would argue it took a step backwards) in popularity, with many artists choosing to forgo imbuing the songs with political messages, or stories of real violence and discrimination that many rappers had grown up with. A kinder and gentler style of rap was born, music made for dancing and fun, rather than as a soapbox to express views on what was wrong with society. Often labeled sell-outs by their hard-core brethren, many of these artists enjoyed huge success, and raked in huge dollars as the music exploded in popularity. Here are the top 10 rap songs of the 90s, the decade of dance rap.

10 - Warren G - Regulate

This 1994 hit reached #2 on the billboard charts, and like many rap songs throughout the history of the genre liberally sampled from other popular culture. In this case, the popular western movie, Young Guns provided the quotations, with Warren G borrowing the line, "Regulators, mount up!" from the movie.

9 - Salt 'n' Pepa - Shoop

This superstar female hiphop duo had many dance club hits in the 90s, but Shoop was probably the catchiest, although Let's Talk About Sex was probably their most controversial and well known. Shoop is still in occasional rotation in night clubs where I live.

8 - Ice Cube - Wicked

After breaking away from controversial gangsta rap group, NWA, Ice Cube proved that he could go it alone with his smash album The Predator. Wicked was a hard hitting, lyrical powerhouse, and in my opinion was the standout song of the album. Ice Cube continued on with a great solo career in both music and movies, and his work in both arenas has garnered surprising critical acclaim.

7 - Naughty by Nature - OPP