Dope.

that was great.

That's a great list... but made me realize how west coast I am!

Great list...it was spot on! I thought he left out Superthug by Nore but it's on there.

damm, bad boy ruled the 90's.

luchini?

wow great list man.

Yeah I was thinkin that too. Maybe Camp Lo was not thug enough for the Tunnel. I was thinkin to how Swizz Beats produced alot of those bangers. How could they miss Ruff Ryders Anthem though!

Is there a full list on one site, or do Ihave to click from one page to the other to see all the songs of their list?

Yeah I think you have to go through each page to see em all.

Dayumn!
Sad to hear.

Great read! What's dope is that a bunch of those tracks were actually B-Sides, and they blew up because the DJs played the tracks. Back then, the artists really relied on the DJ to break their music. Also, the DJs didn't take those tracks and remix or mashup the sh!t out of the music. Nowadays, it seems there are a lot of DJs that rely on mashups and remixes, and they are even doing them on their own. It's no wonder that the artists and record companies don't really see the DJ as a reliable medium to break new music anymore. Back in the day, the promoters would canvas the clubs and give promo vinyl to the DJ who was playing at the clubs. Now I can't remember the last time that happened....

It's kinda sad, but I guess that's the price we pay for having technology like Serato and Ableton....

Great list, but is there a text version anywhere?

The... ... ... slideshow... ... ... is... ... ... slow... ... ... to... ... ... load...

The whole business changed. Now it's possible to spread your music around the world, in seconds...the always look for new ideas in promotion, the might come back to to the handing out music in the djs hand, it can be a special serato pressing these days or a usb stick with the music on...just to make sure, djs get it and play it.
I not a big fan of mashups and I'm always like, if you can't make a song better, than don't touch it/remix it, I hate (with passion) funky mixes n stuff where they put a new beat under the whole song and destroyed the songs, everything sounded the same...
But it's not only the djs, it's the radio, the tv, ring tones, cell phones, heavy rotations, mp3 files, mp3 players, all that an influence on how music is these days, how it's get played, promoted, everything...but is everything worse these days? I don't know? I remember the day when I played DMX "Party up" for the first time in the club and killed the dancefloor with it. It's still the same, if the people don't know it, because it's too new for them, they leave the dancefloor and some weeks later the bugging you the hell out of you to play it, because it's such a big hit then.

Yeah completely different time were in now. Alot of those songs brought back mad memories because I was so deep into the east coast music. I had forgot about some of those and had to go out and find em yesterday.

I thought Cipha's behind the scene thoughts on alot of records the records were interesting. Jay-Z's Money,Cash Hoes they didn't even like at first because they thought that piano was annoying! Classic!

Being from the East Coast this is the Hip Hop I grew up on in high school. When I first started DJing all these tracks were hot. I remember around this time in the late 90's the "real hip hop" underground movement was popular on the west coast and alot of them were denouncing DMX, Bad Boy, and Noreaga as "real hip hop." People were just hating because these songs were mainstream. Looking back every one of these songs go harder than 99% of hip hop today.

It's crazy that most of these songs were bangers in EVERY club during their peak. Now if you play of these tracks in a club you'd instantly get the signal from the club manager to switch the song or you'll get shut down.

SO TRUE! I was thinkin that myself. All this music that they call "Hood" music today aint shit compared to this. It's crazy that they had to close down for months at a time because of all the ruckus.

I love 90ies Hip Hop, east coast stuff, west coast stuff, the "classic" RnB so much better than 99 percent of current music, the same with 90ies House music!
But I can't play most of the 90ies Hip Hop and RnB for the teenagers and twens these days, that's just how it is, they wanna hear their favourite current stuff and some, only some older hits...
Btw, I love - money, cash, hoes - since the first time I heard the record!

^^ is it all that difficult?

Oops. Reply fail...

The Tunnel
Watchwww.youtube.com

The TUNNEL was GUTTER!!

People, what can I say, I'm enjoying it to go through the list of the 75 tunnel bangers, love to read the stories from Cipha Sounds, listen to some songs that slipped under my radar.
Different place, different style, different taste...there are a lot of songs in the list that were just not suitable for the crowd here (Berlin, Germany), other songs are missing and some bangers are worldwide. But it's fun and time consuming...Thanks for the education, Cipha!

That list was bringing back memories...and made me wanna hear some old but not old oldschool ish...I have to record a mix wit this music, just for my ipod...just my 75 bangers...

#13 Incredible article. I enjoyed alot of these records 10-15 years ago so it feels like Im reliving the same era he's describing... I remember 98-99, Def Jam was dropping albums every week and they were all purchased...

It's funny how Funk used them as testers of the records. Then they would get the shoulder tap. Or he would even jus jack their records. Lol

Those are the stories:"..gettin the shoulder...don't play that record next week, or he'll take it and put it in his crate..." LMFAO
When Cipha said, Flex played this or that record like 45 minutes straight, that sounds easy, but I guess he was cuttin it back and forth...
Than he said Memphis Bleek - My mind right- was way bigger than Memphis Bleek is or What you think of that, for myself I prefered those two over - My mind right - but that's how it is with the hits in different spots...
I would love to see that dj booth...must look like a studio, from Ciphas description.
Thanks again, Cipha!

Hell yeah. If I'm not mistaken, even DJ Clue dropped his mixtape album on Def Jam around that time.

I remember getting a copy of Hate Me Now from the Franchise pool the same weekend Flex was dropping bombs on it on Hot97....which was rare. Usually, we had to wait a while for those bangers. I used to spin at a gutter, hood spot back then so all of these banged!

From the #2 quote "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See"

"That shit used to rock in the Tunnel for like two years straight. There was a longer lifespan to records back then—less records, and less places to hear them."

So true.

And the AV8 they made with that songs, was one of the best AV8s there are!

CIpha said it right. Most DJ's today wouldn't last 10 seconds in the tunnel.

Man I miss the music of those days. I loved golden era and like Cipha was more on the underground. I had crates of just rawkus (what happened to that label btw?). But at the same time i was in my mid/late teens when this stuff was out and it was just good gutter ass shit to nod to or just 'wild out'

Nice to read all the comments related to all the records. Definitely a different style and different ear for music at the Tunnel than over here on the west coast.

good stuff

i played at a thugged out hood spot during this time in brooklyn.......i remember i couldnt play ante up or wild out till the end of the nite because a fight was absolutely gona happen like clock work. wow i miss those days.

+1, I was the main DJ at Rutgers New Brunswick when all that was out, and we had to make deals with the cops NOT to play certain songs, or to play them at certain times.

Now THOSE were the days.

75. LL Cool J - "Doin' It"
74. Tha Alkaholiks - "Likwit /"Only When I'm Drunk"
73. Redman & Method Man - "How High"
72. Canibus - "2nd Round K.O."
71. Ruff Ryders feat. Sheek Louch and Big Pun - "Piña Colada"
70. Redman - "I'll Bee Dat"
69. Mobb Deep - "Give Up The Goods (Just Step)"
68. Redman feat. K-Solo - "It's Like That (My Big Brother)"
67. Sporty Thievz - "Cheapskate"
66. Tha Alkaholiks feat. ODB - "Hip Hop Drunkies"
65. Ja Rule - "Holla Holla"
64. Mary J. Blige feat. Mr. Cheeks - "I'm Goin' Down"
63. Ruff Ryders feat. Snoop Dogg, Yung Wun, Scarface, & Jadakiss - "WW III"
62. The Lox - "Breathe Easy"
61. Jermaine Dupri feat. Jay-Z - "Money Ain't a Thang"
60. Redman - "Pick It Up" (Remix)
59. Crooklyn Clan - "N.Y.S. Anthem"
58. Mary J. Blige feat. Smif-n-Wessun - "I Love You" (Remix)
57. Biggie feat. Puff Daddy & Mase - "Mo Money, Mo Problems"
56. Mobb Deep - "Survival of the Fittest"
55. Lost Boyz - "Jeeps, Lex Coups, Bimaz & Benz"
54. Black Rob feat. The Lox - "Can I Live"
53. The Firm - "Phone Tap"
52. Master P - "Bout It Bout It II"
51. Jay-Z feat. The Lox, Beanie Sigel & Sauce Money - "Reservoir Dogs"
50. Mobb Deep feat. Raekwon & Nas - "Eye for an Eye"
49. Total feat. The Notorious B.I.G. - "Can't You See"
48. Shyne - "Bad Boyz"
47. Lil Kim feat. Jay-Z - "Big Momma Thang"
46. DMX feat. Mase & The Lox - "Niggaz Done Started Something"
45. The Firm - "I'm Leaving"
44. Nas - "Hate Me Now"
43. Jay-Z feat. Foxy Brown - "Ain't No Nigga"
42. The Murderers - "We Don't Give a Fuck"
41. The Notorious B.I.G. - "10 Crack Commandments"
40. Jay-Z - "So Ghetto"
39. The Notorious B.I.G. - "Real Niggaz Do Real Things"
38. Case feat. Foxy Brown - "Touch Me, Tease Me"
37. Ruff Ryders feat. Jadakiss & Styles P - "Dope Money"
36. Ruff Ryders feat. Jadakiss - "Kiss of Death"
35. Craig Mack feat. The Notorious B.I.G., Rampage, LL Cool J & Busta Rhymes - "Flava in Ya Ear" (Remix)
34. The Notorious B.I.G. & 2Pac - "Where Brooklyn At" (Freestyle)
33. Puff Daddy feat. Black Rob - "I Love You Baby"
32. Capone-N-Noreaga feat. Foxy Brown - "Bang Bang"
31. M.O.P. feat. Busta Rhymes, Teflon & Remy Ma - "Ante Up" (Remix)
30. Puff Daddy feat. The Notorious B.I.G. & Busta Rhymes - "Victory"
29. Pharoahe Monch - "Simon Says"
28. Cam'ron feat. Mase - "Horse & Carriage"
27. Jay-Z - "Where I'm From"
26. Juvenile feat. Jay-Z - "Ha" (Remix)
25. Raekwon - "Incarcerated Scarfaces"
24. Mobb Deep - "Quiet Storm"
23. Smif-n-Wessun - "Sound Bwoy Buriell"
22. The Lox feat. Lil Kim & DMX - "Money, Power & Respect"
21. Smoothe Da Hustler feat. Trigger Tha Gambler - "Broken Language"
20. Cru - "Pronto"
19. Jay-Z feat. The Notorious B.I.G. - "Brooklyn's Finest"
18. Ruff Ryders feat. Drag-On & Juvenile - "Down Bottom"
17. Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz - Déjà Vu" (Uptown Baby)
16. Jay-Z feat. DMX - "Money, Cash, Hoes"
15. Mobb Deep - "Shook Ones Pt. II"
14. The Notorious B.I.G. - "Who Shot Ya"
13. N.O.R.E. feat. Nature, Big Pun, Jadakiss, Styles P & Cam'ron/N.O.R.E. - "Banned from TV"/"Superthug"
12. Akinyele - "Put It In Your Mouth"
11. Cam'ron feat. DMX/Cam'ron - "Pull It"/".357"
10. Memphis Bleek - "My Mind Right"
9. Ruff Ryders feat. Jay-Z - "Jigga My Nigga"
8. The Lox - "Wild Out"
7. Jay-Z feat. Beanie Sigel & Amil - "Do It Again"
6. The Notorious B.I.G. - "Hypnotize"
5. The Notorious B.I.G. - "One More Chance" (Stay With Me Remix)
4. Junior Mafia feat. The Notorious B.I.G. - "Get Money"/"Gettin' Money" (The Get Money Remix)
3. DMX - "Get At Me Dog"
2. Busta Rhymes - "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See"
1. Puff Daddy and the Family - "It's All About the Benjamins"

yeah he's probably right, but i doubt he would last at my top 40 spots...

i went to that party a few times and once to see, i think, dmx and it was crazy. good music but not many chicks and a lot of scary dudes.

also these two are together probably because they are basically the same song:
9. Ruff Ryders feat. Jay-Z - "Jigga My Nigga"
8. The Lox - "Wild Out"

Good work, Benny! I typed it down too, but my stupid ass wasn't as smart as you to post it here...I'm pretty sure the guys will appreciate your work!

I was just reading this article last night. The Tunnel is soooo HOOD. I was in Jr. High when The Tunnel was in it's heyday. This read made me think how big of an east coast hip hop fan I was. Not so much of the DMX/Ruff Ryders records but more into the Mobb Deep, Method Man, Lost Boys, Smif-N-Wessun, Wu-Tang spectrum. BTW I can't believe Wu-Tang (as a group) didn't make the list...prob cuz they weren't all from Brooklyn.

Here are some of the records from the list I can still play today (mostly during opening/mid sets)

Diddy - It's All About The Benjamins
Busta Ryhmes - Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See
Biggie - Hypnotize
Lord Tariq, Peter Gunz - Deja Vu Uptown Baby
Jay - Z - Aint No Nigga
LL Cool J - Doin It
Jermaine Dupri - Money Aint A Thang
Biggie - Mo Money Mo Problems
MOP - Ante Up

^^Yeah i forgot about the WU. At least "Triumph" or something. I think I seen some Rakewon in there though. Anybody know where you can find those classic AV8's on mp3. I some that i've ripped to mp3 but not all of em.

Maybe some artists got bigger over time with their legacy (and some smaller as well). This list is what they played at this place back in the day, not necessarily what were the best songs recorded back then. It's a snapshot, not an analysis or critique.

Oh, and thanks to Benny B for posting the text version.

I still play all that stuff too with the exception of Ante Up at my Saturday night spot. If I tried to play Ante Up the owner would make me cut it off in about .2 seconds. I can't play anthing that rowdy. I love that joint too.

I've seen ante up start fights.

Yeah. I understand why I can't play it. Can't really argue with his logic. It does make sense.

thats was great

so true: The Tunnel taught me how to read any crowd. I can go around the world, I don't care, it's not the fucking Tunnel. None of the DJs that existed now would last 10 seconds in the Tunnel!"

my white ass be killed on sight

yeeess.. da klasicks! very good post my friend!!! when hip-hop was HIP-HOP...

"Back in the days when I was young I'm not a kid anymore ...But some days I sit and wish I was a kid again..."

here is a vid of the inside of the tunnel and dj booth set up

Watchwww.youtube.com

the dj booth kinda blew, awesome sound though... ahhh memories

Yeah I noticed that turntable set up was retarded. Yeah Sunday was the only hip hop day right? The rest of the week was house and techno.

yeah sunday nights, a lot of clubs in nyc didn't even play hip hop and if they did it was in a small back room

main floors would be mostly vocal house then as it got later deep house..then real late was the techno and other styles

side rooms and back rooms would be hip hop/downtempo-chillout/hardcore/jungle- D&B

at the end of the club era in the late 90's/early 2000's you started hearing more and more hip hop as it became more mainstream/pop

+1

NASA (NYC)

I will be honest with you. You really cant go wrong with any of these records in your sets in 2010. I know I played a few this past weekend and the party kept going strong. These 75 songs pretty much shit on anything in the past 5 years.

Thats what im talkin about. I would argue with anybody that these songs are more "hood" then today's "hood" music.

Make that 10 years.... Alot of that music is timeless. I played "Put It In Your Mouth" on Saturday night... It went off according to plan... Good times, chuckles and laughs...

Personally I prefer this music way over current Hip Pop, but playing all that stuff in a club and it should works? It depends on where you are spinning...remember what Cipha said about one track from the list:"How can you dance to this one?" There are songs on the list that didn't work when they came out, in a lot of places around the globe, but they worked in the Tunnel. I take it as they provided it: Tunnel Bangers and I'm thankful that this brought some songs back into my mind.

such awesome music!!!

I still can't believe how hard east coast hip hop fell off. Sad.

We'll be back..

After the gig on Saturday I passed by the old Tunnel and the area looks like it's still hood. Cops were out there and everything. What spots are out there now? Saw some teens too so it could've been a teen night tho.

nope. that's not how it works.

back in the day... Platinum (when it was open) in DC same way.

I used to play alot of these songs at the club until about 2-3 years ago. Joints like Hypnotize, Doin It, and Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See used to be staples in my sets and had that "ohh shit!" old school factor. I stopped regulary playing them 2-3 years ago because they became songs where people would clear the dancefloor and get drinks. I still play them if there are older hip hop heads in the crowd but I dont keep them in my regular rotation anymore.

awesome write up by cipha. tunnel was one of my first clubs i ever got into and later djed at towards its demise.

You DJ so bad... j/k

With the music going the way is has been, it was only a matter of time before those Sunday night's closed down. What....would they have Drake, Wakka and them dudes performin in there??

Shoutout to all the folks on the nostalgic "Hip Hop was soooooooo much better then!!!" tip.
I like a bit of everything...most of these tracks were def dope, but nothing to make me feel like "they are ALL better than ALL the bullshit that comes out now."

Oh well...this Westside...I feel like making a Top 75 West Coast bangers just for our folks...and this is FAMU...I feel like making one for the 2002-2006 era.

All these tracks came out when I really started to get into hip hop and it pushed me into djing. I was in junior high when most of these tracks came out and the local dj would play all of these at our school dances. The principal didn't much appreciate it but it was our dance so they let it rock. I remember passing these same records back and forth to the dj. This list brought back a lot of memories for me.

Still play a good portion of that list when it's getting close to when they turn the house lights on. Gets the whole crowd going. Even the younger people know the words. Timeless tracks right here.

And how did they miss Ruff Ryders Anthem? And no one mentioned Fire It up by Busta or Warning by Biggie either. smh

Literally, Ruff Ryders & Notorious BIG would have been Top 20 had he done it.

Im not going to completely knock everything that dropped in the last 10 years or so, but think of this way: Compare that list of 75 tracks, which cover 1993-2001 and try to find 75 tracks that had that much power between 2001-2010. Honestly, The quality level in rap has dropped consistently.

One thing I took from this article is something Cipha wrote: Records had longevity back then... So true. Because alot of those tracks still go insane in the club.

Take MOP - Ante Up. I will probably be bumping it in 10 years. Teach me how to dougie will be a long gone memory.

Yeah back then they didn't have new singles commin out every week. And people's albums weren't gettin leaked. Wayne gotta new single out every 2 weeks. People don't even have time to let a song grow on em anymore.

EXACTLY! Pre 2000 it took a minute and some resources to produce an album, then the delevery method for the album was a store so it took time to get things going and time between albums to let the song grow. Now aadays EVERYONE has the tools to produce an album and people just DL the single from itunes so theres no focus on the product and theres no time to let it grow because so much shit is comming out

I didn't know you've been DJing that long (pre-2000)?

whered i say i did, you dont have to be a DJ to have musical knowledge, acutually in pre-2000 i wanted to be a rapper LOL....true story

can you upload some of your pre-2000 rap material. thanks

lol not a chance i dont like to look at my highschool and below work lol

+1

LOL @ guys wanting to hear recordings of a JR High kid on a PC mic

maybe MS MBEZZLE has them? I guess we could hit her up for them

you never know man. you might be the next drake and not even know it

lol, if you want my honest opinion, Im pretty good lyrically, ive had won some local freestyle contests in HS and college, but my voice is HORRIBLE, if anything i think i would do great as a ghost writer. Im really good at hearing someones flow\voice and thinking up lyrics that would sound good for them

Great list. I enjoyed listening to the intro's. It took me back. I need to throw some of them in my Old School Playlist.

Cipha's comments on every single track was great. From a D.J.'s/ Producer's perspective.

luv ol skool man

Let me guess, you were in the side and back rooms...

:-P

Funkmaster Flex live set from 1999. You can download pt.1 and 2. Played alot of the records from the list.
238beats.blogspot.com

Indeed!

nice thread, I actually have a crate title "tunnel Banger ", not everything from the list is there but i got some that I know should have being there (Dwyck, How about a hardcore?) Shout out to all the producers back then, I think they maybe a factor in the quality of the music between now and then. eg. you know Swiss Beat/ Premiere tracks when you hear them - now it is hit or miss with these Hustle-n-Flow Producers , just my $.02, never the less great read i was at the Tunnel either inside or out side trying to sell mixtapes/cds-lol

maaaaaan, This list brought it back...i was 15 in '98 at this era is def what got me into DJing! (plus some DMC vids i came across) I had everything on that list either on vinyl or cassette. When i saw #20 Cru - Pronto i was like wow! i forgot that song existed lol, but i had the cassette! haha. Loved the list and the lil stories to go with it...i miss all that shit.

+1 for the great link, -1 for making me feel old as f* now lol