The 25 Best Brooklyn Rap Songs

25. Foxy Brown "BK Anthem" (2001)

Label: Def Jam

It was her tribute to the Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z, but also to her borough. She'll tell you where she grew up, alright: "It's Brooklyn, where ni**az lives was tooken/Rich cats got knocked and they wallets was tooken/Forty-three and Hemlock, they fifth bit cock/We cried when they killed Lenox and popped them rocks."

Foxy's single off 2001's Broken Silence was important for its tribute, sure, but also marked the debut of Foxy's grittier, less-sexualized image. While the female emcee wasn't shy on the mic, nor afraid to vividly and explicitly spit rhymes, her vocals on "BK Anthem" were different; they were angry, emotional, unsympathetic, and ultimately, passionate. Anyone who heard them knew this is someone with a strong sense of hometown pride. —Lauren Nostro

24. Crooklyn Dodgers "Return of the Crooklyn Dodgers" (1995)

Label: MCA Records

The Crooklyn Dodgers returned, albeit with an entirely new lineup. This time, Jeru the Damaja, O.C. and Chubb Rock (in a scene-stealing spot) appeared over a DJ Premier beat, replacing the original song's lineup of Buckshot, Masta Ace and Special Ed over a Q-Tip beat. The latter appeared in Spike Lee's film Crooklyn; "Return of the Crooklyn Dodgers" appeared in Spike Lee's Clockers.

Over a bowed bass and chopped saxophone sample, Chubb Rock's boxy baritone sets the stage, storming out the gate with angry agit-prop: "You watch Channel zero with that bitch Barbara Walters/She'll have you believe blacks invented crack when President Lyndon had the formula way back in '63 with Kennedy/yes the double cross, remember that's when they blew is fuckin' head off!" Fiery, to say the least. O.C. and Jeru's verses hold their own, but by the time Chubb Rock had finished with his plans to retake Ebbets Field, it was clear whose song this really was. —David Drake

23. Lil Kim "Lighters Up" (2005)

Label: Atlantic, Queen Bee Entertainment

It took four albums but the Queen Bee nailed her Brooklyn tribute on The Naked Truth with "Lighters Up," all in tune with Damian Marley's "Welcome to Jamrock." Lil Kim used the Scott Storch-produced single to advise those unfamiliar with her hometown of Brooklyn—Bed-Stuy, to be exact.

More than an introduction, it's a warning to foreigners unsure of the dangers and perils of BK hoods. While it wasn't her most successful single, it became one of her most dedicated anthems to the place she lays her hat (and plenty of other things). She's quick to rep Brooklyn, but the tribute's made all the more effective by shouting out cities like Philly, Detroit, and Chicago at the same time, just so that every city, everywhere had people putting their lighters up. —Lauren Nostro

22. Jay-Z "Brooklyn We Go Hard" (2008)

Label: Roc-A-Fella, Def Jam

The soundtrack for the Biggie biopic, Notorious, proved to be the best place for Jay to flex his BK pride. With Santigold in tow, Jay went off about his borough. Granted, by this time he was a millionaire a hundred times over, but he still kept it gangsta. Most of the tough talk and black hoodie rap was reserved for "they"—the dudes still living that hard knock life. But Jay's greatest accomplishments easily eclipsed their ability to snatch chains, as he boasted about bringing the Nets to BK, the borough's first professional sports team in a very, very long time. —Insanul Ahmed

21. Beastie Boys "Hello Brooklyn" (1989)

Label: Capitol Records

It's not nearly as famous as the Beasties' earlier BK anthem, "No Sleep Til Brooklyn." Hell, it doesn't even have its own track listing on the original CD issue of Paul's Boutique (instead listed as part of the larger "B-Boy Bouillabaisse"), but "Hello Brooklyn" is a pithy gem in its own right. Recorded when the Boys were based on the West Coast, it's a fitting ode to their hometown and also a near perfect piece of Beastiesiana, featuring both a reference to a classic '40s movie and a poetic depiction of clumsy young love ("Her breast, I saw, I reached, I felt").

Of course Brooklyn's a different place now than when MCA, Ad Rock, and Mike D talked about "stickin' up old ladies with the handgun or the sawed-off" (sidebar: BK old ladies are so gully you have to rob them with a shotgun?), so much so that when the borough landed its first major pro sports team in 50 years, the organization borrowed the name of this song for its marketing campaign. —Jack Erwin

20. Group Home "East New York Theory" (1997)

Label: Tape Kingz

Group Home, and their little-homie crew the Brainsick Mob, were never accused of being the most articulate rappers to emerge from the county of Kings. However, when Brainsicker Jack the Ripper kicks off this bleaker-than-Saratoga-Avenue-on-a-Monday-in-February-at-6am track (anyone that's taken a cab up Atlantic Ave to JFK at the crack of dawn knows what we're talking about) conceding, "I'm in a world of shit that I can't even explain" you know exactly what the fuck he's talking about: frozen corners, blunt-tarred lips, pilled Southpole puffers, petty neighborhood beefs and hopelessness. A shitload of hopelessness.

That he ends the verse promising to kill himself pretty much sums up the rest of this post-Living Proof, white label classic. And on that note, we have a theory as to why, even in 2013, East New York remains the most staunchly un-gentrified neighborhood in the borough of Brook. —Noah Callahan-Bever

19. Jemini the Gifted One "Brooklyn Kids" (1995)

Label: Mercury

Some records are about Brooklyn, and some records sound like Brooklyn. Jemini The Gifted One's disaffected and dark B-Side—and counterpoint—to his debut single "Funk Soul Sensation" was both. Over Minnesota's groaning organs and trotting drums, Jemini reflects with unusual candor and detail on his rugged childhood and adolescence growing up in Brook-Nam during the '80s and early '90s. In one of the song's most honest moments he even admits to bursting into tears as a 15-year-old caught up in the stress of drugs, crime, and violence.

Of note to BK's new cheer squad (Go Nets! Swiiiiiish!), he describes neighborhoods that now sport coffee shops called Connecticut Muffin and suave #menswear boutiques called Brooklyn Circus—Fort Greene and Gowanus, respectively—which were better known in '94 for brewing Decepticon gang violence and relieving denizens of their fresh gear. But that's how it was, and this how it is. You gotta keep it real when you're a Brooklyn kid. —Noah Callahan-Bever

18. Jeru the Damaja "Brooklyn Took It" (1994)

Label: PayDay

In 1994, Jeru's phenomenal debut album The Sun Rises in the East helped revive East Coast rap, along with the output of Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, and fellow Brooklynites Black Moon and the Notorious B.I.G. The Damaja, who hailed from East New York, displayed not just coastal but also borough pride throughout. Nowhere was it more apparent than "Brooklyn Took It," where he and boom-bap divinity DJ Premier (BK's adopted son from Texas) flipped a sample of KRS-One's famous 1987 "The Bridge Is Over" diss ("Manhattan keeps on makin' it/Brooklyn keeps on takin' it/The Bronx keeps creatin' it/And Queens keeps on fakin' it") into a badge of honor.

Mixing hardcore Brooklyn imagery of beatdowns, shootouts, and dice games into metaphors for his unique delivery of hard but intellectual lyrics and the thumping drum sound that had become a borough staple ("Drums numb your ears, rhymes swell up your lips"), Jeru placed a crown atop his head. Did it matter that it may have belonged to you and he snuffed you in the face (lyrically, or perhaps literally) and snatched it, along with your pride and your girlfriend? And if it did, what the fuck were you gonna do about it? Clearly you weren't stepping to an MC with "so many bodies on [his] microphone, the shit's haunted." While Brooklyn took it, everyone else just had to stand there and take it. —Justin Monroe

17. Special Ed "The Bush" (1989)

Label: Profile

Though to 80s babies Special Ed's most memorable Brooklyn moment will always be his inclusion in the Spike Lee-inspired supergroup Crooklyn Dodgers, and their self-titled single from the Crooklyn soundtrack, old-head rap fans will fondly recall Ed's chorus-less 1989 ode to Flatbush, "The Bush." Simple and sticky, like all of Special Ed's best tunes, "The Bush" paints an honest if soft-focus picture of the neighborhood (which once housed Ebbets Field) in a state of late-'80s decline. Backed by a sparse juxtaposition courtesy of super producer Howie Tee consisting of a chopped sample of Al Green's "Love And Happiness" and clicking-and-clacking reggae-style steel drum kicks and snares, Ed serenades his southeast-of-Prospect-Park hood with neutral observations of everyday people. Along the way he (sort of) half-invites listeners to come hang, and then half-warns them of the impending speedknots they'll catch for doing so, as well as shouting out both rastas and baseheads. And then, despite his remedial moniker, Ed even name-checks his own Erasmus Hall High School. A for effort, my friend! —Noah Callahan-Bever

16. Mos Def "Brooklyn" (1999)

Label: Rawkus/Priority

Thirteen tracks into Mos Def's spectacular solo debut Black On Both Sides was this track, a Brooklyn anthem that does something only some of the songs on this list do, and really, maybe, does it better than the rest of 'em. From people drinking on stoops to neighborhood crack dealers to getting his hair cut on Fulton and Jay to the subway and the mom and pop businesses that make Brooklyn so great, Mos Def's Brooklyn might not always be pretty, or simple, but it is full of all stripes of real people engaging in a very real, very kinectic, and very colorful life. As time goes on, this song develops a sad golden sheen to it, though: These days, it sounds less like the Brooklyn we know and love, and more like the one we're sadly sentimental for. —Foster Kamer

15. 3rd Bass "Brooklyn Queens" (1989)

Label: Def Jam

"Brooklyn Queens" makes any Best of the Borough list based on its ridiculously absurd video alone. The clip manages to be good-naturedly goofy (see Serch walk into a street sign!), racist (the Chinese delivery guy falls of his bike and spills—WAIT FOR IT!—rice), white-boy-rap-silly (Serch not only participates in a synchronized dance, he jumps over another man's shoulders), and an artifact of a bygone BK (Albee Square Mall is no more, but the fountain at Grand Army Plaza was refurbished eight years ago). The song itself isn't about Brooklyn all that much; it's about ladies who have their eyes on men's wallets, a tried and true (but mostly tried) rap song trope. But it's undeniably a jam, in the old school blunts-and-forties-on-a-summer's-day way, which makes it an outlier in the Brooklyn Anthem catalog. Yeah, BK is a crazy place, and it was even crazier before the locally sourced squirrel's milk stands started popping up, but it's a fun place, too. —Jack Erwin

14. M.O.P. "Brownsville" (1996)

Label: Relativity

In case you got it twisted, there ain't nothing sweet about Brownsville, something M.O.P. is happy to remind you about. It's not really all that different than most of their songs (and it shares a lot in common with their biggest hit "Ante Up") but that doesn't mean the song doesn't work: Watch for that hook, figuratively, and literally, because there's a thousand goons out here, and they all got guns. —Insanul Ahmed

13. The Notorious B.I.G. "Unbelievable" (1994)

Label: Bad Boy

There's only four bars in this song about Brooklyn, but they're the first four, and the beat that leads into them alone is enough to send any Kings-born kid into a tizzy. Big brought hip-hop back to Brooklyn after it had traveled around the world, and the pride its citizens showed in their favorite son meant that he didn't have to drop the names of a bunch of hometown landmarks (although he did, peep the shouts to local weed spots in the liner notes to Ready to Die) for people to know he was one of them. Four bars: "Live from Bedford-Stuyvesant/The livest one/Representin' BK to the fullest." Who in the county of Kings can deny that? —Jack Erwin

12. Divine Sounds "Do or Die Bed Stuy" (1984)

Label: Specific Records

Disco Richie, DJ Mike Music, and Shelton D might've seen their biggest hit in 1984's "What People Do For Money," but it was this anthem that reinforced the longevity of Bed-Stuy's de facto motto, "Do or Die." The fact is, none of them really describe what particularly they love about Brooklyn, and compared to the gangster rap that would show up a decade later, are downright welcoming to the 'hood by comparison. But the classic breakbeat—one of the greatest mid-80s rap instrumentals, bar none—replete with scratch solos and group-lines remains a classic track, and its legacy extended further than just borough pride. Paying tribute (or throwing shade at) some other tri-state rap legends, DJ Mike Music would rap: "Don't mean to brag, don't mean to boast, don't even mean to be conceited, but when Mike Music is on the job, baby doll, it gets completed," one-upping the original line (Beastie Boy Ad-Rock would later own the line further into Brooklyn ownership on 1998's Hello Nasty). —Foster Kamer

11. Biz Markie "Albee Square Mall" (1988)

Label: Warner Brothers

Wanna know how long someone's lived in Brooklyn? Ask them if they know where the Albee Square Mall is, or was, as immortalized in Biz Markie's 1988 song of the same name, in which he spends two entire verses extolling the greatness of the long-gone downtown Brooklyn mall without actually mentioning any of them (Wendy's, places to buy shoes, Gibb's Pups) until the third verse. Biz's rhymes recall a time before gentrification, when Downtown Brooklyn wasn't a rape-and-pillage situation for condo developers catering to Manhattanites in self-imposed exile so much as a place where you could buy some new kicks and, if you were lucky, not get jumped for them before you left. And of course, the Albee Square Mall was dead the moment developers tried to rebrand it as The Gallery at Fulton Street (um, no), which only lasted so long before they finally just threw their hands up and admitted they were scrapping it in favor of another massive yuppified development in 2007. Thankfully, it's still preserved by way of hip-hop; sure, by making cameos in a few videos (like 3rd Bass's "Brooklyn-Queens" and Funk Flex f/ Buckshot's "No Joke/Follow Me"), but mostly, by way of Biz, his song, and its ridiculous chorus as screeched out by T.J. Swan. —Foster Kamer

10. The Beastie Boys "No Sleep Til Brooklyn" (1987)

Label: Def Jam/Columbia Records

High-minded Riff Raff fans, take solace: In 25 years, perhaps your favorite joke rapper will be considered a classic as well. (The again, perhaps not.) That's the thing about the Beasties circa-Licensed to Ill, particularly, this ridiculously awesome and ridiculously awful anthem: It was all a joke that achieved legendary status. "No Sleep" wasn't really an ode to Brooklyn, it was an ode to rock 'n' roll life on the road, like Bob Seger's "Turn the Page" with none of the tact (and, thankfully, none of the schmaltz). MCA was the only member of the group who was actually from Brooklyn, but he wasn't available to wax too poetic about his home borough because he was, in the words of Ad-Rock, incapacitated in the back of the bus, "skeezin' with a whore." No, this wasn't the Adam Yauch of the Milarepa Fund, nor was it the Brooklyn of a Million Strollers. What is was, though, was a Brooklyn anthem that shouted (literally) "Brooklyn!" to the masses in a way that was as endemic to the BK as Ralph Kramden and Welcome Back Kotter. —Jack Erwin

9. Ol' Dirty Bastard "Brooklyn Zoo" (1995)

Label: Elektra

It was more than just another hot solo Wu-Tang cut, and more than just ODB's first proper single, or his second-highest charting single next to "Got Your Money." Over the course of a few intro lines, one verse, and a "chorus" that only appeared once—and at the very end of the song—ODB showed the world two very, very important things: (1) He was a force onto his own, and one to be reckoned with, and (2) Brooklyn brings it harder, weirder, crazier, and more intensely than anyone else could or would. Listen to the way simple lines get warped by Dirty into a senseless manifesto about how fucked up he and the borough will bring it ("You can suck my dick" becomes "Youcan suck myDICKKKKKK"). The way Dirty interrupts himself to body-check another brilliant line on the track ("IntroducingYO FUCK THAT NI**A'S NAME/My Hip Hop drops on your head like rain").

And then, the chant, that spiritual at the end: If you didn't know just how worrisome of a place Brooklyn could be, Dirty has some news, spoken, and then, eventually, screamed, in case you didn't get it the first few times: Shame on you, when you step to, the Ol' Dirty Bastard/BROOKLYYYYYN ZOO. —Foster Kamer

8. Gang Starr "The Planet" (1994)

Label: Chrysalis

These days it's the subject of more bloggery-per-bandwidth than any other subject in the known world, but back in the late '80s, moving from the hinterlands to Brooklyn (Bed-Stuy via East New York no less) wasn't the most popular migratory path for young people. Luckily for hip-hop, Keith Elam made that trek. There's lots of great "Moving to New York" stories in literature, but this is easily the best in the rap canon. With vivid, detailed imagery-laden bars, Guru puts the listener in the middle of his unique BK experience, but makes it seem entirely universal at the same time: The limited friends you start with, the weed spots and bookstore hangouts you develop, the first apartment, and that awesome New York feeling of going somewhere "just to look around." It's a portrait of the borough at its fullest: gritty, rough, but beautiful. —Jack Erwin

7. Audio Two "Top Billin" (1987)

Label: First Priority

Is there a more timeless anthem of Brooklyn superiority than "Top Billin'"? Okay, so it's not explicitly a Brooklyn anthem, but a sample of Stetsasonic's "Go Stetsa" has the borough of Milk Dee and Gizmo represented on every beat. The duo represented for Bed-Stuy, and "Top Billin" was their signature anthem. Originally released as a b-side to "Make it Funky," the song easily surpassed its flipside, becoming a career-defining single with platinum sales, and one of hip-hop's most frequently-sampled tracks. The drums were swiped from M.C. Shan's "The Bridge," but (unintentionally) altered, and history was never the same. You might say Brooklyn snatched it. —David Drake

6. Jay-Z "Where I'm From" (1997)

Label: Roc-A-Fella, Def Jam

A more rugged picture of Brooklyn has yet to be painted. "I'm from where the beef is inevitable / summertime's unforgettable." Jay-Z was at his most callous and cold on "Where I'm From," a hostile highlight from 1997's In My Lifetime, Vol. 1. It wasn't his vaunted wordplay that made this song so effective, although that was in abundance like booze on a Bed-Stuy stoop. Instead, it was Jigga's ruthlessness, each gritty revelation—"ni**as praying to God so long that they atheist"—stated with such matter-of-fact, calculated coldness.

And of course there was D. Dot's production: with the scraping sound and ghosts low in the background, like voices echoing off project buildings, "Where I'm From" seemed to adopt Brooklyn's urban geography into sonic form. Perhaps the most important details of the song are found in the philosophies he dispenses, the rules of the world around him, which cut so deep: "You couldn't talk about it if you didn't live it," or "We make a million off of beats, cause our stories is deep/and fuck tomorrow, as long as the night before was sweet." —David Drake

5. Smif-N-Wessun "Bucktown" (1994)

Label: Duck Down

Maybe you've heard this before, but Brooklyn is kind of dangerous sometimes. No, we're not even talking about present-day gentrified Brooklyn, but the late '80s/early '90s Brooklyn, back when Tek and Steele stomped the grounds and Boot Camp Clik were still the shit. Those mean streets are where Smif-N-Wessun take us on this lyrical adventure, one where they keep their hand on the gun because they live on the run. Home of the original gun clappers? It wasn't just a punchline. —Insanul Ahmed

4. Cut Master DC "Brooklyn's In the House" (1986)

Label: Zakia Records

You heard 2Pac shout it out on "Old School," you heard Biggie reference it on "Brooklyn's Finest." Cut Master DC's "Brooklyn's In the House" is the defining Brooklyn old school anthem. Cut Master DC was something of a Brooklyn partisan; another major track by the rapper/producer was "Brooklyn Rocks the Best," which is arguably even more pro-BK. Built around a Roland TR-909, the song was a party-starter that also seemed, at least in its opening lines, a little defensive about Brooklyn's reputation as the place that keeps on taking it: "Our favorite pastime is not robbin' you but/going to jams, painting the town/so when we're around, no need to frown." A better tourist brochure for the borough you couldn't find, so they decided to reward him in turn. —David Drake

3. Crooklyn Dodgers "Crooklyn" (1994)

Label: MCA Records

The only rap track recorded for the soundtrack to Crooklyn, Brooklyn director Spike Lee's semi-autobiographical coming-of-age film about an African-American family struggling to get by in 1973 Bed-Stuy, "Crooklyn Dodgers" stood out from classic '70s funk and soul by legends like Sly & the Family Stone ("Everyday People"), Curtis Mayfield ("Pusherman"), and The Jackson 5 ("ABC") with a hardcore theme and its impressive lineup of Brooklyn hip-hop stars: Buckshot (hot off of Black Moon's 1993 debut Enta da Stage), Masta Ace (who'd followed up his work on the classic 1988 Juice Crew posse cut "The Symphony" and solo hits "Music Man" and "Me & the Biz" with 1993's gangsta rap mocking gem SlaughtaHouse), and Special Ed (who'd dropped the ultimate Flatbush anthem, "The Bush," on his stellar 1989 debut Youngest in Charge).

Over crackling production from Q-Tip, who opened and closed the song with a radio broadcast sample of Brooklyn Dodgers icon Jackie Robinson at the plate, the trio spit about the changing, hardening face of their borough, referencing the simpler '70s ("I remember way back in the days/Playing hot peas and butter.") while focusing on the perils of BK in the '90s ("Panic, as another manic depressive/Adolescent stares at death/Now what's left/When there ain't no God/And a whole lot of pride?/It might be a homicide."). The picture painted is a grim one, a reminder of what had been lost (a pride-supplying baseball team, innocence), but ultimately the song is a cause for optimism, weaving together Black Brooklyn's finest, from Robinson and Lee to the MCs, in a show of what's still possible. As the Dodgers sample triumphantly declares thrice at the end, Brooklyn wins. —Justin Monroe

2. Gang Starr "The Place We Dwell" (1992)

Label: Chrysalis

Ironically, it was a transplant from Boston who created one of hip-hop's foremost salutes to Brooklyn. Gang Starr's "The Place Where We Dwell" was as much a borough map as it was a song, introducing hip-hop fans the world over to the city geography in two and a half quick minutes. Over a sample of Stetsasonic's "Go Stetsa"—the origin of the shouted "Brooklyn" chant synched in the background—and a Cannonball Adderly drum break, Guru acted as a guided tour to the parts of BK most tourists avoided: "Fort Greene, Bed-Stuy, Flatbush, Brownsville/Crown Heights and East New York will be down til..." He celebrates the borough's history, heritage ("Brooklyn is the home of cultural awareness"), women ("the take-no-bullshit hotties"), and graciously invites visitors not to fear: "Don't be afraid to venture over the bridge/although you may run into some wild-ass kids." OK, so much of Brooklyn might not have the intimidating reputation that it did in the early '90s. But "The Place Where We Dwell" offers a postcard from a time and place that captures the pride it engendered, even in former residents of Massachusetts. —David Drake

1. Jay-Z f/ Notorious B.I.G. "Brooklyn's Finest" (1996)

Label: Roc-A-Fella

Everything. It has everything. The Carlito's Way interpolation that's a seventh-inning stretch of hip-hop, church-bells to Brooklyn rap: (DUNDUNDUNDUNDUN. CHIK-CHIC.) "OKAY! I'M RELOADED! You motherfuckers, think you big time? Fuckin' with Jay-Z, you gon' die, BIG TIME. Here come the pain!" (BOOM! BOOM BOOM!)

And then, the now-legendary Clark Kent beat—constructed with part "Brooklyn Zoo", part Ohio Players' "Ecstasy", all shimmering New York City noir sheen—moves onto the track, and Jay-Z starts in, rhyming about his style, the ways cops and feds sweat him, and dice games, and Jay's first bars end, and Biggie picks up right where he left off, and ends his first bar with shooting your daughter in her calf muscle and sprinkling coke on the scene. That's not even a full minute in.

Don't get us wrong, hearing Jay and Big on the same track is nothing short of amazing, every time, like a Marvel Comics What If of rap superheroes come to life. But that chorus, dear god, that chorus. DJ Clark Kent shouting into the mic, the words anyone from the borough should have stamped on their residency forms: "Jay-Z and Biggie Smalls, ni**a shit your drawers/Where you from?/Brooklyn, going out for all/Marcy—that's right—you don't stop/Bed-Stuy/You won't stop, ni**a!" Anywhere else, the scatological humor would be downright weird, but under the mastery herein, it's one of the borough's great rallying cries, totaling up to a song that more than lives up to its grandiose name.

In other words, "Brooklyn's Finest" indeed. —Foster Kamer