the best hip-hop love song ever

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so, while driving back to pittsburgh after last week’s matchmaker event, my (the wire-loving) friend and i listened to different satellite radio rap stations the entire way, and were both utterly flabbergasted at how bad today’s mainstream hip-hop is. seriously, i’m usually not a “everything was better back in the day” type of guy, but after a couple verses from something called “waka flocka flame” almost gave me epilepsy, there’s really nothing else i can say.

as we neared pittsburgh, drake’s “best i ever had” came on, and the following conversation ensued:

friend: “who is this guy?” (the only “new” rapper my man knows about is kanye. seriously, talking hip-hop with him makes me feel like i’m back in 1997. all i’d need is a pair of fatigues and a red jansport and i’d be right back in homeroom)

champ: “new cat named drake. why?”

friend: “i can actually understand what he’s saying. if i was a 13 year old girl, i’d love this song”

champ: “that’s easily the gayest thing you’ve said all day. you need to quit playing them away games”

friend: “the game’s out there, manye. you either play or get played”

anyway, remembering this conversation and the subject matter of “best i’ve ever had” got me thinking: what’s the best hip-hop love song ever made? to be honest with you, i’m not exactly sure…but, i do have nine nominees.

***note: on my list, “love” doesn’t just encapsulate romantic love. the songs i’ve listed run the gamut from romantic and platonic to even inanimate object. also, just in case another batch of people completely unable to not take themselves seriously happen to “discover” vsb today, i want to remind everyone to remove the sphincter poles and realize that these nominees are just reflections of my own personal whims and remembrances***

“sweet love” (method man, featuring street love and cappadonna)

one of the reasons why i’ve love the wu so much is that they’re completely and utterly unafraid to take artistic chances. from ghost spitting that his “rhymes are like ziti” to the rza’s perpetual (and occasionally annoying) experimentation, you literally have no idea what the hell you’ll hear when listening to a wu album. this fact is evident the first verse of “sweet love“, when street life rhymes about having sex with his girlfriend while he’s driving his car. not head. sex. while. driving.

later in the song, cappadonna spits his infamous “love is love, love. love is love, love” line (which i later immortalized with a left arm tat) and method man delivers a verse than i actually cut and pasted and sent as a poem to a woman i was involved with, lying that i wrote it myself because i knew she’d never listen to the song.

***btw, by “was involved with” i mean “totally had an unrequited crush for“. the “poem” didn’t help. a couple weeks later, i got even more desperate and cut and pasted an inspectah deck verse. this worked. and by “this worked” i mean, “i finally got some from her four years later“***

“you got me” (the roots, featuring erykah badu and eve)

from the storyline and the chorus to eve’s verse and the fatalistic feel of the end of the song, everything about this track is perfect. btw, speaking of perfect, if i had to rank “impressive and envy-worthy beards”, black thought’s would definitely be 1st, jerome bettis’, would be 2nd and paul pierce’s would be 295th.

“passin’ me by” (the pharcyde)

along with radiohead’s “creep” and “friends zone” by 88 keys and shitake monkey, this song perfectly represents the gamut of emotions men go through when faced with unrequited love. plus, it’s one of the 10 or so songs that any self-respecting hip-hop head knows all of the words to. and, if you need a surefire way to make hipster chicks swoon, tweet a line from fatlips verse at least once a day.

“me and my girlfriend” (tupac)

i’m including it because, well, i don’t know if i ever loved anything as much as tupac claimed to love his gun. well, maybe cookies and cream milkshakes, but that’s about it

“full moon” (killarmy)

probably the first real surprise entry on the list, i nominated “full moon” because of the depth of the brotherly bond for a murdered friend that killa sin expresses in the song’s second verse. i still get chills today when i hear him say “we went back far, like acorn fights around the swings”.

“undying love” (nas)

arguably the best story from hip-hop’s best storyteller, “undying love” deals with a rather, ummm, extreme reaction to finding out that your loved one was unfaithful. is also one of the only “story” songs where each of the characters involved is dead by the end. basically, it’s a great song to have on your boning mixtape.

“how’s it going down” (dmx)

for no other reason than the fact that i say “since you gave me the p*ssy, your ass has gotten fatter” in dmx’s voice (in my head) to my girlfriend at least once a week.

“love is blind” (eve featuring faith evans)

i had a “why it made the cut” summary written out, but i deleted it when i realized that it was completely panderific. the only reason this song is here is because i realized i hadn’t named any female rappers and wanted to be subversive by not going with  salt and pepa’s perfunctory “gotta man”.

“renee” (the lost boyz)

i won’t say that the video still brings tears to my eyes when renee gets shot, but i will say that i haven’t watched it in over 10 years just because of that possibility. maybe this makes me a punk, but seriously, renee didn’t have to die. why the hell did renee have to die????

anyway people of vsb, i’m sure i’m missing a few (hundred). what else would you nominate for the best hip-hop love song ever?

—the champ

533 thoughts on “the best hip-hop love song ever”

  1. “I Used To Love H.E.R.” – Common

    ““love is blind” (eve)”

    The music video of this song used to piss me off because of that scene (I think at the beginning) where everyone was gathered around the room, hanging out, then abusive dude starts to straight mollywhop his chick. There were dudes there and one proceeds to sit there and shake his head. Yeah, I’m sure shaking your head will prevent bruising…

    Thanks for allowing me to get that out.

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    • And we’re the three best friends that anyone could have…..We’re the three best friends that anyone could have….We’re the three best friends that anyone could have…..And we’ll never ever ever ever ever leave each other

      lmao

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        • i love comedy like a fat kid loves cake. the 40 year old virgin might actually be on my top five all-time movies list, and i just watched anchorman wednesday night for the 38283rd time. but, the hangover just. isn’t. funny.

          seriously, i think people were laughing more at the anticipation/idea of funny than the actual funny. plus, a ton of people went to see this at the theater, and watching something with a bunch of people laughing in anticipation skews your perception of how funny something really is.

          again, i hated this f*cking movie.

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          • watching something with a bunch of people laughing in anticipation skews your perception of how funny something really is.

            Sounds like planet Deep to me. 40 year old virigin was funny. I loved the hangover so much I bought it on DVD. Seen it by myself about 4 times and still think it’s funny but I love comedies so I’m biased.

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          • I agree. And I will not make myself watch it again to make sure it sucks. Too much pedophilia/child endangerment/othersuchnonsense type of “jokes” to me. In my Living Color Men on Film voice, Hated it!

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          • “seriously, i think people were laughing more at the anticipation/idea of funny than the actual funny.”

            Nah, I purposely went into it like “Um, I bet it ain’t ALLA dat” (especially after you said it was a let down) and I cracked the hell up at various points. So, as usual, Champster, you are wrong.

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          • see, i’d bet that the people who first saw it at the theater are more likely to think it was funny than the people who first saw it on dvd. i hated that f*cking movie

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          • LOL im with cheeks. i had no expectations for this movie whatsoever. just looking at the cast alone was like “how funny could it be?”. i thought the movie was good and i really enjoyed it. its not HILARIOUS like anchorman or 4yov, but it definitely had me rollin at times. some jokes were just too force but thats ok. i thought the way the story unfolded was genius. and you never really SEE what all happens except for in snippets of a mike ty home security video and digital pictures. so all the running around trying to figure out what happened was very entertaining to me.

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          • “see, i’d bet that the people who first saw it at the theater are more likely to think it was funny than the people who first saw it on dvd. i hated that f*cking movie”

            Wrong again. I saw it on DVD and not even when the DVD was first released and thought it was hilarious. lol

            “thought the way the story unfolded was genius. and you never really SEE what all happens except for in snippets of a mike ty home security video and digital pictures. so all the running around trying to figure out what happened was very entertaining to me.”

            YES, this is my favorite thing about the movie. Not even the funny jokes. It’s how it managed to be super entertaining without you even seeing the events of the night until the credits rolled (and a few pics here and there throughout the movie). And even then, it wasn’t live-action. I thought that concept was great. And not easy to pull off.

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          • Sorry Champ, I gotta disagree. Anchorman is one of my all-time favorite comedies & I’d never put that or a bunch of other movies over The Hangover, but that was a funny movie. Went to see it in theaters and couldn’t stop laughing (granted, you take out Zach Galifianakis and the movie is instantly mediocre). I can understand not thinking the movie was hilarious, but not thinking it was funny at all? No comprende.

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    • Stu: “She is wearing my grandmother’s Holocaust ring.”
      Alan: “I didn’t know they gave out rings at the Holocaust.”

      hahahahahahahaha

      Reply ↓

    • YESSSS!! Brown skin lady is THE most beautiful ode and expression of love to we brown skin ladies :-) definitely needs to be on the list. Also c/s to Common “I used to love HER” upthread.

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  4. Okay back on subject…Pharcyde passin me by was a good one. My favorites weren’t always the popular ones. What about Tribe’s bonita applebaum? The lyrics were simple but as a teen I loved that song. I can’t think right now. It’s late for me. I’ll try to post something witty tomorrow.

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  5. Lauryn Hill-Ex-Factor.

    I loved this song before I even understood what it was about.

    And then years later, I *really* loved this song.

    And the video is gorgeous…like a precursor to Avatar :-)

    Reply ↓

      • *shrugs*

        Depends on whether we’re talking about hip-hop the genre or hip-hop culture. And even then, I never really considered the genre of hip-hop to be confined to just rap, more of a mash-up of various musical styles…especially now (but that’s another discussion i suppose).

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    • I totally agree with the Ex-Factor. That song still takes me back to my high school sweet heart.

      Yesterday one of my work study students said that Lauryn Hill was old school! Old school? Mind you, the kid is only 18, but I still was trying to figure out if there was I way that I could fire him due to reverse age discrimination!

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      • trin-trin, this past January I played The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill every day in my car like it was 1998. That CD is timeless.

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  6. Hmmm. Some favorites are
    “Hey Lover” by LL Cool J ft Boyz II Men

    Does “Prototype” count? I know 3 Stacks is singing, but he is a rapper…

    “Faithful” by Common

    But for best, I would have to second “You Got Me” by the Roots ft Eve and Eryka.

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  7. Um, I may be dating myself here, but on my list would be:

    “Bonita Applebaum” – ATCQ (and the video was great…although I remember there being a lot of girls in it who probably were just in it because they got “light-skinned points”; [I learned that term from reading VSB ;-) ])

    “I Need Love” – LL Cool J (this is just a classic…LL baring his soul and well developed pectorals)

    “One Love” – Whodini (even though it’s not a love song per se, it does speak to some truths about love…basically, they talk about how they cheated and messed up their good things…as a [black] woman, I appreciate that kind of vulnerability)

    “A Teenage Love” – Slick Rick (again, not a mushy love song, but describes the realities of teen relationships…well, at least in the late 80s)

    “Silent Treatment” – The Roots

    “SpottieOttieDopaliscious” – Outkast (I mean, even at my age, I would still be flattered if a dude said I reminded him of a brown stallion horse with skates on. Oh, and they talk about “real life” relationship stuff…like not being able to get a job at UPS due to “cloudy piss.” That’s real talk, folk.)

    Reply ↓

    • its stupid retarded how empowering com’s love lyrics are in “the light”…

      theres so much in a name and so much more in you

      if heaven had a height you would be that tall

      my hearts dictionary defines you its love and happiness

      as my reflection in light ima lead you

      Reply ↓

      • “ts stupid retarded how empowering com’s love lyrics are in “the light”…”

        Truth. It’s just so real.

        “I know your heart is weathered by what studs did to you
        I ain’t gon’ assault em cause I probably did it too
        Because of you, feelings I handle with care
        Some (ninjas) recognize the light but they can’t handle the glare”

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        • ““I know your heart is weathered by what studs did to you
          I ain’t gon’ assault em cause I probably did it too
          Because of you, feelings I handle with care
          Some (ninjas) recognize the light but they can’t handle the glare””

          I am swooning with glee right now…

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    • Common – “The Light”

      That is one of my favorites! For personal reasons, and because the song is just dope…

      “You don’t need a whole day to recognize sunshine”… Yes!

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  9. I love The Roots “You Got Me” but I prefer the live version with Jill Scott singing the chorus.

    I’m also a big fan of Method Man and Mary’s “You’re All I Need To Get By”.

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      • “International Players Anthem”-that first verse w/ Andre is just so damn pleasant. I love it. “I hate to see y’all frown, but I’d rather see her smiling.” I love the sampling of “I Choose You” and I love the way he explains his part and then the beat just comes in. AHHH, i love it. And that wedding looks like it was a blast.

        Love that “Undying Love” & “You Got Me” are on the list. Great classic songs that tell a story everyone can identify with. I think the overwhelming theme of these songs is the stories they tell. That’s what’s missing from these silly rappers right now. I don’t even know if Wacka Flocka knows what a story is. They just see how many words they can get to rhyme with “pamper” for just over three minutes.

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        • @B. Collins

          How could I forget “International Player’s Anthem”? This most definitely should be on everyone’s list

          Reply ↓

          • @Peyso,

            Gotta respectfully disagree. According to the post the song is perfect for varying forms of love and perfect for the various thoughts folks might privately have at a wedding. The romantic thoughts of a groom saying goodbye to his singlehood and choosing his bride, his boys wondering if he is doing the right thing and standing by him, the dude who hawking for other chicks at the wedding doing the choosing, and the one wounded who don’t trust women and is thinking about their money and a pre-nup. It fits.

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    • @msesquire77…I love The Roots “You Got Me” but I prefer the live version with Jill Scott singing the chorus.

      yes she did! btw i just saw her in concert with maxwell and that chick floors me everytime…simply amazing

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      • @thatchic

        I saw Jill a couple years ago and she blew me away. Her voice is so damn strong and pure. She makes me want to fall in love then take vocal lessons so I can write a song about it!!

        I love all of her songs but the live version of “The Way” with Mike Phillips on sax melts me EVERY time I hear it.

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        • Jill can come to someone’s backyard and set up and charge $350 per ticket and I’d find a way to be there. She is THAT.GOOD!

          Easy Conversation is the BEST.SONG.EVER! I know we’re supposed to be talking about Hip-hop, but she kills all genres! Straight up. Loves her :-)

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      • btw i just saw her in concert with maxwell and that chick floors me everytime…simply amazing

        isn’t she the best/baddest! Her voice is melodious not a single false note! I really enjoyed the concert.

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    • i can’t believe it took this much scrolling before someone mentioned this song!!!!! when i opened the post, that was my first (and only) thought.

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    • @MsEsquire77
      I love The Roots “You Got Me” but I prefer the live version with Jill

      Yes I was going to say the same thing…the version with Jill was way better

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    • I love The Roots “You Got Me” but I prefer the live version with Jill Scott singing the chorus.

      what to you think of the dave chapelle block party version?

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      • what to you think of the dave chapelle block party version?

        The performance was crazy!!! Jill gave me goose bumps. I hate I will not be seeing her when she comes to DC this week:(

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      • I’d never heard it so I had to look it up. Just heard it on YouTube and I love it! Can’t believe i didn’t know about it. Thanks :)

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      • Couldn’t get with the disco-siren ‘whooo’s that Erykah starts yelling on the outro vamp. I think there was a little weirdness added to the fact that JillyfromPhilly wrote it, but Erykah(had3babiesdifrintdudes)Badu got all the shine.

        And btw, even in the liner notes, Eve gets NO CREDIT for that track. Kinda triflin, Tariq.

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    • Maybe I overlooked it but I know this can not be the first time somebody mentioned “All I need to get by”- that song is the ish!!!! I think it is one of the top “Hip-Hop love songs”

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  10. You mentioned most of the ones I was going to say Champie. You got me, passing me by, and me and my gf.

    -Common and Mary J- Come close
    -Erykah Badu and Common- Love of my life
    I see someone wrote Ex-Factor, so on that note I shall ass
    -D’Angelo and Lauryn Hill- Nothing Even Matters

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