As a follow-up to my Top 100 Songs of the 1990s, I think it’s time to revisit the actual best decade of music.
The 2000s (aka Y2Ks, 00s, or the oughts) saw a dramatic change in popular music. Boy Bands flashed in the pan which led to R&B and Hip-Hop to top the charts. The early to mid 2000s saw one of my favorite musical themes, which still works well today. That being an R&B singer paired with a Hip-Hop artist creating collaborations like Ja Rule & J-Lo, Fat Joe & Ashanti, and Nelly & Jagged Edge.
I was in high school and college for all of the 2000s, so this era of music had a huge impact on my formative years. This is also when we first had the ability to download music through services like Napster. It was a simpler time, but also a time with a lot of really memorable music.
Much like the 1990s list, here are the rules I set for this list:
– Main singer can only appear once – Beyonce or Destiny’s Child, not both (this excludes features)
– No covers, original recordings only
– Must have been released as a single or on an album after December 31, 1999 and before January 1, 2010
– No compilations, best of, or greatest hits releases apply
To make these rankings, I started with a list of about 130 songs, then fed them through Pub Meeple’s ranking engine. Over about a week, I completed over 400 comparisons of two songs, head to head. This gave me the list I have below. I took the left over songs and culled the list based on what songs were not ranked high enough to make my list but couldn’t be left off a 2000s essential music list.
*Apple Music and Spotify playlists available at the bottom of this post.
Rank | Artist | Song | Year |
1 | Nelly | Ride Wit Me (feat. City Spud) | 2000 |
2 | Justin Timberlake | My Love (feat. T.I.) | 2005 |
3 | John Mayer | Gravity | 2007 |
4 | Usher | Burn | 2004 |
5 | Murphy Lee | Shake Ya Tailfeather (feat. Nelly & P. Diddy) | 2003 |
6 | 50 Cent | In Da Club | 2003 |
7 | Fat Joe | What's Luv? (feat. Ja Rule & Ashanti) | 2002 |
8 | Alicia Keys | No One | 2007 |
9 | Kid Cudi | Day 'n' Nite | 2008 |
10 | T-Pain | Buy U a Drank (feat. Yung Joc) | 2007 |
11 | Eminem | Lose Yourself | 2002 |
12 | The Roots | The Seed (2.0) (feat. Cody Chestnutt) | 2003 |
13 | Chris Brown | Run It (feat. Juelz Santana) | 2005 |
14 | Outkast | Hey Ya | 2000 |
15 | R. Kelly | Ignition (Remix) | 2002 |
16 | Beyonce | Check On It (feat. Bum B & Slim Thug) | 2005 |
17 | Jagged Edge | Where the Party At (feat. Nelly) | 2001 |
18 | Mariah Carey | We Belong Together | 2005 |
19 | Gnarls Barkley | Crazy | 2006 |
20 | Flo Rida | Low (feat. T-Pain) | 2007 |
21 | Chamillionaire | Ridin' (feat. Krayzie Bone) | 2006 |
22 | Ja Rule | Mesmerize (feat. Ashanti) | 2003 |
23 | Rihanna | Umbrella (feat. Jay-Z) | 2007 |
24 | Sean Paul | Temperature | 2005 |
25 | The Game | Hate It or Love It (feat. 50 Cent) | 2005 |
26 | Kanye West | Gold Digger (feat. Jamie Foxx) | 2005 |
27 | Twista | Slow Jamz (feat. Kanye West & Jamie Foxx) | 2003 |
28 | Amy Winehouse | Valerie | 2007 |
29 | Lil Jon | Get Low (feat. Ying Yang Twins) | 2003 |
30 | Jay-Z | Dirt Off Your Shoulder | 2004 |
31 | Juvenile | Slow Motion (feat. Soulja Slim) | 2004 |
32 | Akon | Smack That (feat. Eminem | 2006 |
33 | Black Eyed Peas | Where Is The Love | 2003 |
34 | Baby Bash | Suga Suga (feat. Frankie J) | 2003 |
35 | DMX | X Gon' Give It To Ya | 2003 |
36 | Ying Yang Twins | Badd (feat. Mike Jones) | 2005 |
37 | Maroon 5 | Makes Me Wonder | 2007 |
38 | Three 6 Mafia | Stay Fly | 2005 |
39 | OneRepublic | Apologzie (feat. Timbaland) | 2007 |
40 | Missy Elliott | Work It | 2002 |
41 | Ludacris | Area Codes (feat. Nate Dogg) | 2001 |
42 | Lil Wayne | Go D.J. | 2004 |
43 | Petey Pablo | Raise Up | 2001 |
44 | P!nk | So What | 2008 |
45 | Chingy | Right Thurr | 2003 |
46 | Joe | Stutter (feat. Mystikal) | 2001 |
47 | Lady Gaga | Poker Face | 2008 |
48 | Yung Joc | It's Goin' Down | 2006 |
49 | Big Tymers | Still Fly | 2002 |
50 | The Clipse | Grindin' | 2002 |
51 | Craig David | Fill Me In | 2000 |
52 | T.I. | Whatever You Like | 2008 |
53 | Snoop Dogg | Drop It Like It's Hot (feat. Pharrell Williams) | 2004 |
54 | Christina Aguilera | Dirrty (feat. Redman) | 2002 |
55 | Kings of Leon | Sex on Fire | 2008 |
56 | Timbaland | The Way I Are | 2007 |
57 | Janet Jackson | All For You | 2001 |
58 | Ne-Yo | So Sick | 2006 |
59 | Ashanti | Foolish | 2002 |
60 | Kelly Clarkson | Since U Been Gone | 2004 |
61 | Ciara | One Two Step (feat. Missy Elliot) | 2004 |
62 | Rick Ross | Hustlin' | 2006 |
63 | Britney Spears | Toxic | 2004 |
64 | Nelly Furtado | Promiscuous Girl (feat. Timbaland) | 2005 |
65 | Shaggy | Angel (feat. Rayvon) | 2000 |
66 | No Doubt | Underneath It All (feat. Lady Saw) | 2001 |
67 | Aaliyah | Try Again | 2000 |
68 | Linkin Park | In The End | 2001 |
69 | Red Hot Chili Peppers | Dani California | 2006 |
70 | Jennifer Lopez | I'm Real (feat. Ja Rule) | 2001 |
71 | Nas | Made You Look | 2002 |
72 | Fabolous | Can't Let You Go (feat. Lil' Mo) | 2003 |
73 | NORE | Nothin' | 2002 |
74 | Tech N9ne | Caribou Lou | 2006 |
75 | Mystikal | Danger (feat. Nivea) | 2000 |
76 | Bubba Sparxxx | Ms. New Booty | 2005 |
77 | Disturbed | Down with the Sickness | 2000 |
78 | Trick Daddy | Let's Go (feat. Lil Jon & Twista) | 2004 |
79 | J-Kwon | Tipsy | 2004 |
80 | Fall Out Boy | Sugar, We're Going Down | 2005 |
81 | Eve | Let Me Blow Ya Mind (feat. Gwen Stefani) | 2001 |
82 | Evanescense | Bring Me to Life | 2003 |
83 | Mario | Let Me Love You | 2004 |
84 | Busta Rhymes | Break Ya Neck | 2001 |
85 | Young Jeezy | Soul Survivor (feat. Akon) | 2005 |
86 | Green Day | American Idiot | 2004 |
87 | Jermain Dupri | Welcome to Atlanta (feat. Ludacris) | 2002 |
88 | Pretty Ricky | Grind with Me | 2005 |
89 | 3 Doors Down | Kryptonite | 2000 |
90 | Bow Wow | Shortie Like Mine (feat. Chris Brown) | 2006 |
91 | Gorillaz | Clint Eastwood | 2001 |
92 | Santana | The Game of Love (feat. Michelle Branch) | 2005 |
93 | Ray J | Sexy Can I (feat. Yung Berg) | 2007 |
94 | Jonas Brothers | Burnin' Up | 2008 |
95 | Matchbox 20 | If You're Gone | 2000 |
96 | Papa Roach | Scars | 2004 |
97 | Shakira | Hips Don't Lie | 2006 |
98 | Juelz Santana | There It Go | 2005 |
99 | Frankie J | Obsession (feat. Baby Bash) | 2000 |
100 | Lifehouse | Hanging by a Moment | 2000 |
Honorable mentions (alphabetized):
- Crazy Town – Butterfly (2000)
- Fuel – Hemorrhage (In My Hands) (2000)
- LL COOL J – Luv U Better (2002)
- Lyfe Jennings – Must Be Nice (2004)
- Mary J. Blige – Family Affair (2001)
- Puddle of Mudd – Blurry (2002)
- Rascal Flatts – What Hurts the Most (2006)
- Soulja Boy – Crank That (Soulja Boy) (2007)
- Weezer – Beverly Hills (2005)
- Zac Brown Band – Chicken Fried (2008)
Top 100 – 2000s playlist (Apple Music)
Top 100 – 2000s playlist (Spotify)
Artists who appear on both 1990s and 2000s top 100 lists:
Aaliyah, Beyonce, DMX, Eminem, Green Day, Janet Jackson, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Juvenile, Krayzie Bone, Mariah Carey, Matchbox 20, Nate Dogg, No Doubt, Outkast, P. Diddy, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snoop Dogg, and Usher
In Memoriam: Amy Winehouse, Soulja Slim, Earl “DMX” Simmons, Nate Dogg, Aaliyah, and Chester Bennington
Credits: Wikipedia, Apple Music, Pub Meeple