I locked up on a ledge and went flying while skateboarding today, landing so hard on my hip that I screamed like a little girl. To numb the pain I took out my iPod and thumbed together a new playlist based around the song I was listening to when I fell (Power, by Ice T). Mostly old school stuff, some of my favourite hip hop tracks from 20 years ago. I’ve had it on repeat and cranked all night, working on the cookbook. My Top Ten, presented here in order of awesomeness…

Eric B. & Rakim | Paid In Full – Nobody does it better…

EPMD | Strictly Business – Erick and Parrish makin’ dollars…

Stetsasonic | Talkin’ All That Jazz – so earnest, so classic

A Tribe Called Quest | Check The Rhime – Because Five Footer Fife is the shit.

Public Enemy | Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos – Chuck D’s opening lyrics to this track, especially the “picture me giving a damn – I said never” line, meant a lot to 16 year old affluent white kids. Let me tell you…

Twin Hype | Do It To The Crowd – I’ve always dug this for what King Shameek does starting at 2:51 (following it up with a few seconds of early NY house).

Arabian Prince | It’s Time To Bone – one of my favourite beats. A short-serving member of NWA, Arabian Prince’s bio on Last FM ends almost poetically: “Arabian Prince continued a solo career again and he released his third album Where’s My Bythces in 1993, which was his last album.” Life’s a bythce.

De La Soul | Eye Know – when hip hop and better weed made a superbaby…

Cold Cut | The Payback Mix – the ultimate homage to the Godfather of Soul.

Ice T | I’m Your Pusher – “Yo Homeboy, you a fool. You don’t know what time it is, out here messin’ up your mind, you know what I’m sayin?” Yeah, Ice T totally saved me from crack.

What would you add?