Air
A synth-pop instrumental duo's track gets hijacked by hip-hop guest verses, turning a woozy French electronic groove into a…
status and exclusivity clubland escapism playful bravado
Buzzcocks
A short, sneering punk song that uses fast cars as an emblem of empty status-seeking, environmental menace, and mechanized…
consumerism and status environmentalism/safety alienation from modern life
Mott the Hoople
An early Mott the Hoople track built on a swaggering put-down dressed up as rock bravado, with a narrator addressing a woman he…
misogyny/double standards rock star posturing public image vs private reality
Smokey Robinson
This is a late-career Smokey Robinson track built on a single conceit: a lover's body, or more precisely an intimate…
sexual exclusivity possessiveness as devotion intimacy as sanctuary
Missy Elliott
Missy Elliott's signature single is a maximalist celebration of sexual confidence and self-invention, built on a literal sonic…
sexual agency self-invention and reinvention female solidarity and hustle
Snoop Dogg
A club-floor party track built almost entirely around a single visual: a woman dancing and the narrator's escalating attempt to…
nightlife and spectacle male desire and pursuit wealth and status display
J. Cole
A club-and-bedroom track built on interpolated Vanessa Carlton hooks, where a rapper on the come-up frames casual sex and…
casual sex versus emotional attachment material success as leverage fame and status anxiety
LCD Soundsystem
An eight-minute slow-burn opener that begins as a bruised account of social exclusion at some gathering and gradually detonates…
social exclusion and cliques the failure of language catharsis through dance
A minimalist club track built on a single triple-word command that gets reinterpreted verse to verse, moving between seduction,…
status and wealth display sexual conquest street/gang loyalty
Gang Starr
Full Clip is a boastful, aggressive posse-cut-style anthem in which Guru delivers a barrage of battle-rap threats, positioning…
braggadocio and dominance authenticity vs. imitation violence as metaphor for skill
Kendrick Lamar
A relatively unguarded pop-leaning track for DAMN., LOVE. sets a domestic, romantic duet (with Zacari) against the album's…
conditional vs. unconditional love fame and material status as tests of loyalty domestic intimacy amid instability
Solange
F.U.B.U. is a direct address to Black listeners, reclaiming the phrase 'for us, by us' as a statement of cultural ownership. The…
Black solidarity cultural ownership racial profiling
The Notorious B.I.G.
A victory-lap posse cut that doubles as a meditation on the isolation success brings. Over a buoyant, sample-driven groove,…
success and isolation envy and betrayal paranoia/surveillance
A lighthearted stoner anthem built on a single extended pun: rolling so much weed becomes a kind of workout, a "kush up." Snoop…
marijuana culture excess and abundance leisure as status
The Staple Singers
The Staple Singers rework a traditional gospel train song into a stark meditation on death, judgment, and family loss.…
salvation and judgment death and mourning exclusivity of grace
A club-floor victory lap built almost entirely from boasts and hook repetition, this track is less about narrative than about…
braggadocio female sexual agency wealth and status
Ice Cube
A boast track built entirely around denial and inversion: the narrator insists he has no enemies while spending every verse…
self-mythologizing wealth as armor longevity and legacy
Dr. Dre
Dre uses a repeated rhetorical question to draw a line between himself and everyone else in the rap game—former collaborators,…
authenticity vs. posturing industry loyalty and betrayal violence as proof of seriousness
A West Coast victory-lap posse cut in which Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg reassert their partnership and their region's dominance,…
regional pride hedonism and ritual (weed, cars, drinking) reunion/partnership
HUMBLE. is a swaggering, almost gleeful takedown of fakery in the industry and in culture at large, delivered by a narrator who…
authenticity vs. artifice wealth and status misogynoir/beauty standards critique
A boastful street-level anthem built around the double meaning of 'work' as both hustle/grind and criminal labor, delivered with…
hustler ethic street surveillance and paranoia status and reputation
This posthumous 'duet' track stitches archival Biggie verses with a Diddy guest turn and a Jagged Edge hook into a…
sexual conquest materialism and status posthumous branding
Run-DMC
This is Run-DMC's self-introduction track, a boastful roll call in which each member states his name, role, and superiority in…
self-naming and identity boasting and status group unity vs individual flash
Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill delivers a two-part sermon on sex, self-respect, and modern relationship dysfunction, addressing women in the first…
sexual double standards nostalgia for a simpler past personal responsibility
Van Morrison
A closing benediction addressed to someone heading out into the world, mixing wary warnings about commerce and pretension with…
departure and blessing cynicism about commerce and status innocence versus experience
Nas
This is a mafioso-rap posse cut in which Nas, alongside his Firm collaborators, trades the political/street-prophet voice he's…
organized crime as fantasy/roleplay materialism and status display loyalty and betrayal within a crew
Vampire Weekend
A brisk, brand-strewn snapshot of prep-school desire, where a narrator sketches a young woman's privileged upbringing before the…
class and privilege cultural appropriation and borrowing adolescent desire
A laid-back, first-person account of a house party thrown while a parent is away, stretched across a single night of drinking,…
hedonism and leisure casual misogyny and detachment youthful rebellion
The Beach Boys
An early Beach Boys car song that treats a Chevrolet engine like a lover and a racehorse at once, built almost entirely on chant…
car culture masculine pride and status consumerism/saving toward a goal
Pavement
A wry, deadpan tour through the small humiliations of dating, class anxiety, and suburban aspiration, filtered through Malkmus's…
class and status anxiety suburban aspiration irony and detachment
Radiohead
A song of curdled affection addressed to someone chasing self-destruction and image over substance. The narrator watches a…
self-destruction and image emotional abandonment authenticity vs performance
Weezer
A self-described nobody fantasizes about the glamour of Beverly Hills while admitting, almost in the same breath, that the class…
class envy celebrity worship self-deprecation
Mercury Rev
A short, hypnotic song built almost entirely from repeated phrases about speed, doom, and a woman elevated to mythic status…
impermanence obsession/idealization speed and momentum as metaphor for a relationship
Michael Jackson
A protest chant built almost entirely from one repeated grievance, this song stacks fragmented images of police violence, media…
police brutality institutional neglect racial injustice
Uncle Tupelo
This is Uncle Tupelo's take on the Flying Burrito Brothers standard, a doom-laden vision of Los Angeles as a modern Babylon…
moral corruption of wealth apocalyptic judgment urban decay