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[FlowerBomb]

Jans, Li, Faith, Natalie Imbrulgia...
I didn't know these all came out in the same year

[Gekkouga]

Not that awful song from Titanic perched at #14

yeah trash ass list

[Lazarus]

85. Monica, "The First Night" (No. 1, Hot 100)

As soon as producer Jermaine Dupri brilliantly built Monica?s ?The First Night? around Diana Ross? 1976 disco classic ?Love Hangover,? we all knew this was going to be a surefire success. R&B artists typically sung about abstinence through emotional ballads (see Janet Jackson?s "Let's Wait Awhile?). But Monica played it ultra-cool about not giving it up so easy atop a thumping bassline. Her sassiness and self-worth on ?The First Night? earned her a Hot 100 No. 1 smash and became an inspiration for future female singers to stand up to pesky men for years to come. -- B.G.

96. Nicole Wray feat. Missy Elliott & Mocha, "Make It Hot" (No. 5, Hot 100)

?Make It Hot? was a song from R&B newcomer Nicole?s debut album of the same name, but it became a hit largely because it sounded like a bonus cut off of Missy Elliott?s futuristic rap romp Supa Dupa Fly, and for good reason: Missy wrote it, Timbaland produced it, and their creeping beats and cool delivery are all over this tune. Hell, Missy even raps on the song, giving the smooth-voiced, 17-year-old Goldmind signee all the extra juice she'd need to get her alluring debut single to the top 5 of the Hot 100. -- CHRISTINE WERTHMAN

17. Pras feat. Mya & Ol' Dirty Bastard, "Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)" (No. 15, Hot 100)

On paper, the idea of Ol?Dirty Bastard guesting on a song that repurposes the Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers 1983 hit ?Islands in the Stream? sounds like a Chappelle's Show skit, but incongruities are one of the things that made ?Ghetto Supastar? the most deliriously irresistible song of the summer of '98. Featured on the Bulworth soundtrack -- which also implausibly depicted a then-68 year-old Warren Beatty rapping -- this hip-pop confection is a bacon-topped Krispy Kreme, alternating between Mya?s sweet lacquered vocals and the savory crunch of Pras Michel and ODB?s rhymes. The music is a dead-if-you-don?t-dance mix that sounds like Lalo Schifrin?s Mission: Impossible theme got busy with an unused bassline from Queen?s ?Another Bites the Dust? sessions. And from the start, the song drops little sonic gifts that still resonate today: the gruff voice (ODB?) repeating Mya?s lines in the opening hook, the way Dirty strings out ?in the hooooooood,? and that fuzzy guitar solo that closes the song. -- F.D.

[RAY7]

Cool little list or whatever

[Aalumeci.]

1. Aaliyah, "Are You That Somebody?" (No. 21, Hot 100)

You can?t even find the song.

?Are You That Somebody?? is currently lost outside the stream of capital, thanks to the chicanery and stubborn grief of Aaliyah?s uncle and manager, Barry Hankerson. The digital streaming platforms don?t carry it, and the YouTube uploads aren?t beaming money to any label. On some level this is correct, because ?Are You That Somebody?? should forever live in the beyond, as something to chase.

It?s of the past -- 20 years come June -- but still sounds like the future. Produced and written by Timbaland and Static Major and sung by Aaliyah, the song was recorded like a dream. At 4 a.m., Tim received a call from Hankerson, explaining that they needed a hit to put on the Dr. Doolittle soundtrack by 8 a.m. Talking animals and PG-13 Eddie Murphy? It hardly mattered -- the near-half-a-million bag beckoned and the great work began, with Timbaland hunched over a drum machine, Aaliyah in the booth, Static waving a blunt and smiling because he had the hook. They made the hit Hankerson asked for, and more.

Before you get to the baby, there?s the staccato bass line and drum sounds. You could stutter-step through the empty pockets left in the beat like you were dodging fat, lazy raindrops. The clucking and popping is a human mouth, only it?s tap dancing. ?Boy,? Aaliyah begins like she?s creating a perfectly round bubble of sound, drawing out the vowel and vibrating it. The lyrics describe love like a secret, and if this boy is let in on it, he can?t tell nobody. Fifty-three seconds in, the baby pops out, right on time and totally uncalled for, a genuine moment of awe for the Hot 100, where the song would eventually peak at No. 21. Prince himself used the same sample to close out ?Delirious? in 1982, but man, the chutzpah to let it coo repeatedly through this skeleton of a beat.

As Grammy-winning producer Bryan-Michael Cox told Vibe in 2008, ?It ain?t been a record like that since.? A year later, Drake interpolated Static?s hook for Young Money?s ?BedRock,? and one year after that, James Blake submerged and pitch-shifted Aaliyah?s voice for his breakout single ?CMYK.? Like Sasha Frere-Jones wrote in The New Yorker, the song is ?still effervescing? and inspiring new work, many years after the Grammys gave it a nod for best female R&B vocal performance. Ten out of ten people agree: This shit is not regular.

?Are You That Somebody?? persists in the cultural imagination despite being unavailable for sale on Amazon or iTunes, despite being unstreamable on Spotify or Tidal or Apple Music. Tens of millions of us know, by heart, a field recording of an infant made in 1969 -- an infant who will never be identified. Aaliyah passed away in August, of 2001. There is no way to tell her that nearly two decades later, ?Somebody? remains like the secret cave her and Timabaland?s crews populate in the song?s video: sacred territory hidden in plain sight, accessible only to the two of them. -- R.S.

who the FUCK wrote this rdbbbhhhh.

the CHILLS

[SouravMay]

Where is Bert?!

[Navyman]

This was all within one damn year!

[SouravMay]

Queen Mocha really slayed 1998, huh?

[Ulysses]

Great list. I love so many songs on there. Some I am gonna revisit.

[Lazarus]

Where is Bert?!

I just noticed he's missing 

[Young]

1. Aaliyah, "Are You That Somebody?" (No. 21, Hot 100)

You can?t even find the song.

?Are You That Somebody?? is currently lost outside the stream of capital, thanks to the chicanery and stubborn grief of Aaliyah?s uncle and manager, Barry Hankerson. The digital streaming platforms don?t carry it, and the YouTube uploads aren?t beaming money to any label. On some level this is correct, because ?Are You That Somebody?? should forever live in the beyond, as something to chase.

It?s of the past -- 20 years come June -- but still sounds like the future. Produced and written by Timbaland and Static Major and sung by Aaliyah, the song was recorded like a dream. At 4 a.m., Tim received a call from Hankerson, explaining that they needed a hit to put on the Dr. Doolittle soundtrack by 8 a.m. Talking animals and PG-13 Eddie Murphy? It hardly mattered -- the near-half-a-million bag beckoned and the great work began, with Timbaland hunched over a drum machine, Aaliyah in the booth, Static waving a blunt and smiling because he had the hook. They made the hit Hankerson asked for, and more.

Before you get to the baby, there?s the staccato bass line and drum sounds. You could stutter-step through the empty pockets left in the beat like you were dodging fat, lazy raindrops. The clucking and popping is a human mouth, only it?s tap dancing. ?Boy,? Aaliyah begins like she?s creating a perfectly round bubble of sound, drawing out the vowel and vibrating it. The lyrics describe love like a secret, and if this boy is let in on it, he can?t tell nobody. Fifty-three seconds in, the baby pops out, right on time and totally uncalled for, a genuine moment of awe for the Hot 100, where the song would eventually peak at No. 21. Prince himself used the same sample to close out ?Delirious? in 1982, but man, the chutzpah to let it coo repeatedly through this skeleton of a beat.

As Grammy-winning producer Bryan-Michael Cox told Vibe in 2008, ?It ain?t been a record like that since.? A year later, Drake interpolated Static?s hook for Young Money?s ?BedRock,? and one year after that, James Blake submerged and pitch-shifted Aaliyah?s voice for his breakout single ?CMYK.? Like Sasha Frere-Jones wrote in The New Yorker, the song is ?still effervescing? and inspiring new work, many years after the Grammys gave it a nod for best female R&B vocal performance. Ten out of ten people agree: This shit is not regular.

?Are You That Somebody?? persists in the cultural imagination despite being unavailable for sale on Amazon or iTunes, despite being unstreamable on Spotify or Tidal or Apple Music. Tens of millions of us know, by heart, a field recording of an infant made in 1969 -- an infant who will never be identified. Aaliyah passed away in August, of 2001. There is no way to tell her that nearly two decades later, ?Somebody? remains like the secret cave her and Timabaland?s crews populate in the song?s video: sacred territory hidden in plain sight, accessible only to the two of them. -- R.S.

who the FUCK wrote this rdbbbhhhh.

the CHILLS

Static waving a blunt and coming up with the hook has me screaming

But yeah the song is one of a kind. It really is iconic 

[4 fucking k]

This list is tired and late.

[Aalumeci.]

ommmmm #70

[GLOCK]

This list is tired and late.

ddddddddddddddddddddd

[GLOCK]

Make it hot by Nicole Wray >>