15 “ADDICTION”
Ryan Leslie feat. Cassie and Fabolous
PRODUCED BY Ryan Leslie
From Ryan Leslie (Next Selection/Universal Motown)
Woman=drug is hardly a novel concept, but Leslie scored when he took his rumored muse Cassie and made her limited coo an asset on this song’s hypnotizing hook.
F-A-B-O on cleanup duty never hurts, either.
14 “ROC BOYS (AND THE WINNER IS...)”
Jay-Z
PRODUCED BY Diddy, Sean C, and LV
From American Gangster (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam, 2007)
This is a hip hop comeback done right: unshakable cockiness, endless quotables, and majestic horns. A triumphant anthem from Brooklyn’s superman.
Kanye West
PRODUCED BY Kanye West
From 808s & Heartbreak (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam)
With an 808-drum pattern thumping like a rhythmic heartbeat and Auto-Tuned vocals to enhance the piercing sensation an ugly breakup has apparently given him, this is a broken man’s theme. Prince, he is not. But open, honest, hurt? Yes, yes, yes.
T.I. feat. Kanye West, Jay-Z, and Lil Wayne
PRODUCED BY Kanye West
From Paper Trail (Grand Hustle/Atlantic)
Kanye’s sampling of M.I.A.’s 2007 hit “Paper Planes” made this cup overfloweth with swag. Very rarely does a dream team like this deliver the jam we hope for. Count this bunch as the exception.
Gnarls Barkley
PRODUCED BY Danger Mouse
From The Odd Couple (Atlantic)
Cee-Lo’s raspy, naked vocals are perfect for this tear-jerker. A melancholy groove about loss, selfishness, and love.
10 “CREATOR”
Santogold
PRODUCED BY Freq Nasty and Switch
From Santogold (Downtown)
DJs—hipster to hip hop—stopped digging when they hit Santi White’s gold. Her digitized shrieks and intergalactic tribal chants collide with dubbed-out sirens and brash, busted laptop beats.
09 “LOW”
Flo Rida feat. T-Pain
PRODUCED BY DJ Montay
From Mail on Sunday (Atlantic)
There was something loving about the exacting picture of the girl with the “Apple Bottom jeans ’n’ boots with the fur.” Something seductively knowing about the “baggy sweatpants / And the Reeboks with the strap.” There is also the relentless, gleeful, booty-oscillating beat. Precision+love = big, boisterous pop.
Jazmine Sullivan
PRODUCED BY Missy Elliott and Cainon Lamb
From Fearless (J)
On this brilliant debut single, the brassy newcomer is barefoot, on her knees, beggin’ over a reggae-doused soul-satisfier. Someone help this woman!
Ne-Yo
PRODUCED BY Stargate and Ne-Yo
From Year of the Gentleman (Def Jam)
Strobe light—not candlelight. The pillow-talking balladeer finally kicks off the hard-bottoms and slips on his disco kicks for this throbbing house jam.
Snoop Dogg
PRODUCED BY Shawty Redd
FromEgo Trippin (Geffen)
In more tongue-in-cheek hands, the lanky West Coast G’s ’80s-synth workout might have seemed a gimmick. But a sincere Snoop prevails with a surprising vocoder-driven jam that is as infectious as it is effortlessly ice-cold.
T-Pain feat. Lil Wayne
PRODUCED BY T-Pain
From Thr33 Ringz (Konvict)
At some point, T-Pain will release a single that is not the catchiest song of the year. This soft-touch charmer is not that single. Pain and Wayne (T-Wayne, if you must) are like peanut butter and marshmallows: sticky, sweet, and just a little bad for you.
Estelle feat. Kanye West
PRODUCED BY will.i.am
From Shine (HomeSchool/Atlantic)
West London girl Estelle has been a UK star for years, but it took cross-continental flirtations, peerless disco production, and a Kanye verse to truly break through. Effervescent and effortless.
Young Jeezy feat. Kanye West
PRODUCED BY Drumma Boy
From The Recession (CTE/ Def Jam)
So tough. So tense. So triumphant. Jeezy and Yeezy do the external and internal, respectively. Jay Jenkins rides out for his homies and waxes ecstatic. Kanye croons
like Barbara Streisand and tears his own heart out just to see if it’s still beating. A thrilling duet.
Lil Wayne
PRODUCED BY Bangladesh
From Tha Carter III (Cash Money/Universal)
Wayne sputters away with maniacal, tongue-twisting precision. No matter how many MCs attempted to ride Bangladesh’s bucking beat in ’08, Weezy tamed it first and best.
Lil Wayne feat. Static/Major
PRODUCED BY Jim Jonsin and Deezle
FromTha Carter III (Cash Money/Universal)
In a year that he owned, this was the masterstroke. Wayne’s cool come-on sprawled across Jonsin’s throbbing bass and scaling synth hits pulled the pop masses into the rapper’s zonked-out, deep-space orbit. Truly the right stuff.
The First Hot 16: 80-64
The Second Hot 16: 63-48
The Third Hot 16: 47-32
The Fouth Hot 16: 31-16
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