The 50 Best Miami Rap Songs

From Uncle Luke to Trina and Rick Ross, Complex counts down the rap records that put us in a Miami state of mind.

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Hip-hop in Miami has never been about impressing the next man with your lyrics, or fighting the power. The weather and the girls are just too damn hot for that sort of thing. Sex, money, and the pursuit of happiness have always been the topics of choice for Dade County rappers—a legacy that dates all the way back to the X-rated comedy records that local soul songwriter Clarence Reid recorded as “Blowfly” in the ’70s and ’80s.

The city's car culture, strip clubs and drug-fueled ’80s nightlife provided the backdrop for the development of Miami Bass, the uptempo, 808-driven dance sound popularized by nightclub owner/record magnate/First Amendment poster boy Luther "Luke Skyywalker" Campbell and his booty-obsessed group, 2 Live Crew.

Bass music dominated the Miami soundscape for over a decade, supplanted only by the emergence of Slip-N-Slide Records, Trick Daddy, and Trina at the close of the 1990s. Rappers like Rick Ross and Pitbull took inspiration from Scarface, Miami Vice, and the real-life crime wave that turned the city into America's murder capital in the 1980s.

Equally influential in recent years has been the wave of rap stars from other cities who have settled on Miami’s shores since Urban Beach Week, The Source Awards, and a certain Will Smith song helped turn the city into hip-hop’s favorite playground. The result is a striking duality not found in any other U.S. rap scene, reflecting both the sunny resorts of Miami Beach and the gritty ghettos on the other side of Interstate 95.

As the city’s current don dada, RIck Ross, gets set to drop his long-awaited God Forgives, I Don't—an album that promises to be one of the biggest in Dade Country history—Complex takes a look back at The 50 Best Miami Rap Songs. It’s peanut butter jelly time!

Words by Jesse Serwer (@JesseSerwer)

50. DJ Khaled f/ Rick Ross, T-Pain, Trick Daddy, Ace Hood, & Plies "I'm So Hood" (2007)

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Album: We The Best
Producer: The Runners
Label: Terror Squad, Koch



No joke: Nobody has cast a more immense shadow over Miami hip-hop over the last decade than Khaled bin Abdul Khaled. In his dual capacity as rapacious radio personality (for local hip-hop station 99 Jamz) and the world's most exuberant compilation album curator, the New Orleans-raised jock has become Dade County rap's central axis, a position he's used to assemble ever more massive posse cuts.

Although Khaled has put together more prestigious guest lists since, "I'm So Hood" (from 2007's We The Best) still stands as one of his biggest block anthems. Tapping what were probably Florida's three biggest MCs at the time in Rick Ross, Trick Daddy, and Plies, as well as it's No. 1 rapper-turned-sanga in T-Pain, Khaled turned the Gunshine State quartet loose on a buzzy beat from "Hustlin'" producers the Runners.

A street single in spirit, "I'm So Hood" was actually Khaled's highest charting single until the much more commercial-friendly "I'm On One" surpassed it this summer.

49. Jealous J and MC Gemini "Cut-It-Up-Def" (1989)

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Album: Back on Earth
Producer: Jealous J (aka Jim Jonsin)
Label: Cut it Up Def



One of the first people from outside of Miami's city limits to impact the Bass scene was DJ Jealous J—now known as Jim Jonsin— from two counties up in West Palm Beach. More notable for the advanced scratching techniques Jonsin introduced on the record for than MC Gemini's rhymes, "Cut-It-Up-Def" established the Palm Beach-based record label of the same name as an important outpost for Bass music.

More importantly, it marked the start of a long and fruitful production career that would only hit its stride a decade and a half later, with smash hits like Trick Daddy's "Let's Go," Weezy's "Lollipop" and T.I.'s "Whatever You Like."

48. Smitty "Diamonds On My Neck" (2005)

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Album: N/A
Producer: Swizz Beats
Label: J Records



Representing Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood, Varick "Smitty" Smith seemed poised to become the next Florida MC to blow when he dropped his catchy, Biggie-sampling debut single "Diamonds On My Neck" through J Records in 2005.

Supported by bouncy Swizz Beats production, a Hype Williams-helmed video, and a remix with stellar cameos from Lil Wayne and Twista, "Diamonds" gained Smitty national attention but ultimately was not enough to secure the release of his aborted debut, Life of a Troubled Child.

Though Smitty remains active with ghostwriting, guest appearances and mixtapes, a proper full-length has yet to materialize.

47. 2 Live Crew "Trow The D" (1986) / Anquette "Throw The P (X-Rated Version)" (1986) / Herman Kelly & Life "Dance to the Drummer's Beat" (1978)

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Album: 2 Live is What We Are/N/A/Percussion Explosion
Producer: David "Mr. Mixx" Hobbs/David "Mr. Mixx" Hobbs/Herman Kelly
Label: Luke Skyywalker/Luke Skyywalker T.K. Disco

2 Live Crew "Trow The D"



Given Miami's status as a magnet for expats and transplants, it's apropos that the group most synonymous with the city's hip-hop scene actually originated somewhere else.

Chris "Fresh Kid Ice" Wongwon, David "DJ Mr. Mixx" Hobbs and Yuri "Amazing Vee" Vielo (who was replaced by Mark "Brother Marquis" Ross) started 2 Live Crew all the way across the country in Riverside, California, where they recorded their earliest singles while stationed at that city's March Air Force base.

The last track the group made before leaving Riverside would also be its first release on Luke Skyywalker Records, the label started by Luther Campbell, who was not yet the group's flamboyant leader but an ambitious promoter responsible for bringing them to Miami.

Built around a sample of Herman Kelly and Life's "Dance to the Drummer's Beat," "Trow The D" (as it was spelled on the 12" label) was inspired by the overtly sexual dance style the group had seen kids doing at Campbell's club Pac Jam during sets by his Ghetto Style DJs.

The song (along with "Ghetto Bass") proved so successful that Campbell, taking a page from the battle-of-the-sexes answer records to UTFO's "Roxanne Roxanne," recruited his cousin Anquette Allen to record a female response, "Throw the P, " adding the sort of X-rated comedy record samples (in this case by comedian LaWanda "Aunt Esther" Page) that would become staples of the 2 Live/Luke Skyywalker sound.

Following its use in "Trow the D" and "Throw the P," "Dance to the Drummer's Beat"—the lone hit by Miami percussionist Kelly—became Bass music's foundational breakbeat. Sampled in countless local party records, it's as vital to Bass' DNA as "Triggerman" is to New Orleans bounce.

46. Poison Clan f/ Brother Marquis & Tony M.F. Rock "Poison Freestyle" (1990)

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Album: 2 Low Life Muthas
Producer: David "Mr. Mixx" Hobbs
Label: Effect Records



The flipside to "Dance All Night," Poison Clan's debut single, "Poison Freestyle" stands out as one of Miami hip-hop's earliest posse cuts. It was also one of the first tracks to address the gulf between New York and Southern rap, with JT Money, Debonair, Luke-affiliated Atlanta rapper Tony MF Rock, and 2 Live Crew's Brother Marquis issuing a stern collective challenge to dismissive rappers from up north. Their claims proved to be prescient, as "Poison Freestyle" holds up even better than "Fugitive," the single by New York rapper K-Solo from which its beat was jacked.

45. Trick Daddy f/ Cee-Lo and Big Boi "In Da Wind" (2002)

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Album: Thug Holiday
Producer: Jazze Pha
Label: Slip-N-Slide/Atlantic



With its Big Boi and Cee-Lo appearances and Jazze Pha production, one could argue that "In Da Wind" is more of an Atlanta product than a Miami one. And they might be right. But that would be a disservice to a song supported by the best-looking and most geographically diverse rap video ever filmed in Miami, and the fact that this is the track in which Trick Daddy coined his classic "Trick love the kids" catchphrase.

But what makes "In Da Wind" truly great is the undeniable chemistry between Trick, who's at his most thoughtful and reflective here, and Cee-Lo, who brings a soulful hook that surely ranks among his greatest cameos.

44. Maestro "Table Dance" (1994)

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Album: N/A
Producer: Robert "Pops" Jobs
Label: Pandisc



Not much is known about "Table Dance" rapper Mascerlin "Maestro" Hines Jr. In fact, his only commercially released recording didn't make much of an impact when it riginally dropped in 1994. It wasn't until Chris Rock immortalized the song on Bigger and Blacker that it took its rightful place as the working man's strip club anthem—and a comedy touchstone.

43. Black Mob Group "All Day" (1999)

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Album: The Capitol
Producer: Tony Galvin
Label: Will Records



Tony Galvin, the producer of some of Slip-N-Slide's most creative late '90s records—including Trina's "Da Baddest Bitch" and Trick Daddy's "Shut Up"—was behind the conglomeration of Miami-area MCs known as Black Mob Group. The crew's sole release, '99's The Capitol, flew way under the radar but not for lack of bangers, of which the No Limit-esque "All Day" was certainly one.

42. MC A.D.E. & Posse "How Much Can You Take" (1989)

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Album: How Much Can You Take
Producer: Adrian Hines and DJ Crash
Label: 4 Sight Records



His moniker stood for "Adrian Does Everything" but Adrian "MC A.D.E." Hines actually benefited from the production know-how of Amos Larkins, a one-time engineer at seminal Miami R&B label TK Records, in creating 1985's "Bass Rock Express," the first record to introduce the sustained 808 kick at the foundation of Miami Bass.

A.D.E. would go on to distinguish himself as a producer, though, with "87's "Bass Mechanic" and his classic '89 LP, How Much Can You Take. With its Halloween theme, slasher-movie screeches, and Hines' signature robotic vocals, the album's title track serves as a prime example of how Miami bass songs could be as dark as they were fun.

41. Dre f/ Rick Ross "Chevy Ridin High" (2006)

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Album: N/A
Producer: Cool & Dre
Label: Violator Records



Dre's solo album The Trunk, never saw the light of day—but not for lack of trying. The moonlighting beatmaker, one half of Miami production duo Cool & Dre, actually released some quality singles as he sought to get the project off the ground in '05 and '06. The most visceral of these, "Chevy Ridin' High," had a menacing, appropriately trunk-rattling beat and plenty of lyrical chemistry between Dre and his frequent production client, Rick Ross.

40. Worse 'Em Crew "Triple M Bass" (1986)

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Album: N/A
Producer: Eric "E.G." Griffin and Tony Patterson
Label: Bass Station Records/Profile



An outgrowth of the Triple M DJs, the Worse 'Em Crew—a mobile DJ unit behind the Bass Station nightclub and record label—were on their way to becoming a formidable force in Bass when leader Norberto "Candyman" Morales was killed in 1987.

Their "Triple M Bass" theme (also featuring Young & Restless mastermind Alex "P-Man" Ferguson) was the handiwork of Eric "E.G." Griffin (a.k.a. Speakerhead), a St. Louis native responsible for some of Miami bass's most innovative and challenging records.

The first Bass producer to employ an SP1200 drum sampler (on Dynamix II's "Just Give the DJ a Break"), Griffin also pioneered the use of tonal bass. As with Morales, Griffin—killed in his studio by a rap group he was recording—and Ferguson—a record store owner turned journalist who penned the Hip-Hop Weekly article outing Rick Ross as a former correctional officer—both met violent ends, making Worse 'Em's story among the darkest in a music scene riddled with tragedies.

39. DJ Khaled f/ Pitbull, Trick Daddy, & Rick Ross "Born-N-Raised" (2006)

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Album: Listennn... the Album
Producer: The Runners
Label: TVT Records



With all of the club hits to his credit, Pitbull rarely gets his props as a lyricist. But "Mr. 305" earned his stripes as a battle rapper before realizing that the money comes from dumbing it down, and his albums generally have at least a few showcases for his spit game.

On this Runners-produced posse cut from '06's El Mariel hosted by DJ Khaled (on whose Listenn...The Album it also appears), Mr. 305 gets a chance to flex his flow next to Miami's two greatest lyricists, and comes off looking pretty good for it.

38. 2 Nazty "Pussy Whipped" (1993)

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Album: Indecent Exposure
Producer: DJ Toomp
Label: Attitude Records/Down Payment Records



Aldrin "DJ Toomp" Davis is well known today for his work with T.I. ("What You Know," "56 Bars") and as a frequent collaborator of Kanye West's (he co-produced "The Good Life," among other Graduation tunes, and "The Blame Game") but the Atlanta native first put himself on the map as the DJ and beatmaker for that city's Bass music ambassador, Shy D. Toomp's work in the Bass sphere brought him to Miami, where he formed 2 Nazty with Brother Marquis following the initial breakup of 2 Live Crew in 1991.

"Pussy Whipped," from the duo's sole album, Indecent Exposure, details the depths of Marquis' sex addiction with a mixture of glee and shame ("I'm out of control/A peeping tom, a perverted asshole/Just fucking like fools/A grown-ass man still hanging round high schools," goes one eyebrow-raising sequence).

Never one for niceties, even when shouting out the Lord, Marquis saves his most entertaining lines for the song's outro: "I want to give some shout-outs to everyone who made this possible–first of all, God… and all you raggedy-ass bitches who gon' buy this record."

37. Trina "Da Baddest Bitch" (1999)

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Album: Da Baddest Bitch
Producer: Tony Galvin
Label: Slip-N-Slide



Foul-mouthed female MCs were nothing unusual in the era of Kim and Foxy, but even by those standards the lyrics on Trina's 1999 debut single were notable for their rawness ("I make him eat it when my period on," "See if I had the chance to be a virgin again, I'll be fucking by the time I'm 10," etc.). What elevated "Da Baddest Bitch" beyond mere shock rap, though, was the bottom-heavy boom from Tony Galvin, the under-heralded production genius behind Trick Daddy tracks like "Shut Up." Who's bad?

36. Home Team "Pick It Up" (1992)

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Album: Via Satellite From Saturn
Producer: Luther Campbell and Debonaire
Label: Luke Records



Miami hip-hop during the Bass era wasn't all about ass-shaking and car-speaker rattling. Founding Poison Clan member Debonair grew up in Brooklyn and, based on the sound of his group Home Team's album Via Satellite From Saturn, that's where his heart still was.

The LP's cover art depicted Deb Rock and his younger brother/rhyme partner Drugz rocking Jansport backpacks and baggy Guess sweatshirts, while the album boasted songs with titles like "Wild Style" and "Back to the Bronx."

Their Black Sheep-sampling lead single, "Pick It Up," had a sound more suited to Wild Pitch Records than Luke Records, with Deb rattling off Ultramagnetic-style abstractions like "I'm high-tech, i-rect, side effect, faucet" and "Shake it, bake it, assalamualaik it."

The title of their never-released 1994 follow-up, Malignant Graffiti, suggests that the duo was headed even further underground when Luke Records' bankruptcy brought their career to a premature close.

35. The P.O.D. f/ Rick Ross and Trick Daddy "Something's Going On" (2001)

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Album: The Power of Dollars
Producer:
Label: Poe Boy Entertainment



Not to be confused with the Christian rap-metal band known for "Click Click Boom" (who successfully sued him to change his name), this P.O.D.—short for Prince of Darkness and Power of Dollars—was actually an alias of Leonerist "Prince P." Johnson from the classic Miami Bass duo, Young & Restless.

Although the anthemic 2001 single "Something Going On" has its merits musically, it's most notable for being the first first release on Poe Boy Entertainment—the future home of Flo Rida, Rick Ross and Jacki-O— and the earliest commercial recording to feature a verse from Ross.

34. M.C. Cool Rock & Chazsy Chess f/ Beatmaster Clay D & DJ Magic Mike "Clay D, Get Funky" / M.C. Cool Rock & Chazsy Chess f/ Beatmaster Clay D & DJ Magic Mike "Boot the Booty" (1987)

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Album: Boot the Booty
Producer: Clayton "Clay D" Dixon
Label: Vision Records/Rock Force Records

M.C. Cool Rock & Chazsy Chess f/ Beatmaster Clay D & DJ Magic Mike "Clay D, Get Funky"



DJ Magic Mike helped birth the "car audio bass" sub-genre with booming instrumentals like "Feel the Bass III" in the 1990s but the Orlando native first made his mark working with Miami producer Clay D and his MCs, Cool Rock and Chaszy Chess.

The most successful of these collaborations proved to be "Boot the Booty," a track notable for being the first to link Bass with that term for the female derriere. The bare-bones reworking of the previously released "Clay D, Get Funky" stripped that song of its verses, leaving only the chant: "Ain't nothing but tutti frutti, get on the floor if you got that booty." Equally classic was "Creep Dog," a theme song for a dance by that same name.

33. Rick Ross "Push It To The Limit" (2006)

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Album: Port of Miami
Producer: J. R. Rotem
Label: Slip-n-Slide, Def Jam, Poe Boy



Rick Ross often gets accused of inhabiting a dream world with his boss-of-all-bosses drug kingpin talk. On Port of Miami's "Push It," Officer Ricky literally cast himself in an audio remake of Scarface, telling a suspiciously familiar rags-to-riches story over a triumphant J.R. Rotem beat which sampled shrieky '80s rocker Paul Engemann's "Push it to the Limit," the movie's cheesy montage song. If lines like "You never know that dishwasher may be a beholder/Who knew that fat girl would turn into Oprah?" weren't so entertaining, we'd almost have to laugh at the man's audacity.

32. Clay D & The New Get Funky Crew "Give Me A Bottle" (1991)

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Album: We're Goin' Off
Producer: Clayton "Clay D." Dixon
Label: Pandisc Records



The connection between Bass music and Crunk can't get any clearer than it does on "Give Me a Bottle." Between Clay D's throat-full-of-glass shouted hook and the New Get Funky Crew's let's-get-white-boy-drunk lyrics ("By the time we reach the club/Me and the boys are smelling like an English pub/But that's alright, cover it with Fahrenheit"), "Bottle" could almost pass for a Lil' Jon song from a full decade later.

The anthem's impact could still be felt in 2009, when Pitbull recorded a new, Jim Jonsin-produced version of it, and LMFAO and Lil Jon's similarly-themed "Shots," became an anthem on South Beach and every other binge-drinking destination the world over.

31. Anquette "Janet Reno" (1989)

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Album: Respect
Producer: David "Mr. Mixx" Hobbs
Label: Luke Skyywalker



Nearly two decades before Jacki-O could claim the title, Luther Campbell's sassy female cousin Anquette truly was the "first lady" of Miami rap, her squeaky vocal style a clear antecedent to similarly toned local MCs like Trina. Although she would disappear from the scene by the dawn of the '90s, Anquette followed "Throw the P" with a string of regional hits, including the neighborhood anthem "Shake It (Do the 161st)" and the slow jam "I Will Always Be There For You."

But her most fascinating single was "Janet Reno," which saluted the then-Dade County State Attorney for her hard-line policy on child-support dodgers. Over James Brown and Dragnet samples produced by 2 Live's Mr. Mixx, Anquette celebrates the future Clinton administration Attorney General as a sort of superhero for scorned women, breaking up her rhymes with pro-Reno chants to the tune of "This Old Man" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy."

30. DJ Uncle Al "Mix It Up" (a.k.a. "The Uncle Al Song") (1994)

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Album: What's My Name
Producer: Carlton Mills
Label: On Top Records



A native of Liberty City's notorious Sugar Hill apartment complex who was known for promoting non-violence through his "Peace in the Hood" block parties, the late DJ/hype-man/radio personality Albert "Uncle Al" Moss was one of Miami hip-hop's beloved figures.

Produced by Carlton Mills (who recorded a number of seminal Miami bass hits with his brother Calvin under the names Rock Force, Miami Boyz, and M-4 Sers), Al's 1994 album What's My Name included the Bass classics "Hoes-N-Da-House" and "Keep Dancin." But Moss' masterpiece, also from What's My Name, was undoubtedly "Mix it Up," an R&B-inflected call-and-response record also known as "The Uncle Al Song."

His 2001 murder—allegedly over use of a pirate radio frequency—effectively closed the casket on Miami's Bass music era.

29. Luke f/ Trick Daddy "Scarred" (1996)

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Album: Uncle Luke
Producer: Darren "DJ Spin" Rudnick
Label: Luther Campbell Music



After keeping things squarely 305-focused for most of his career, Luther Campbell's 1996 album Uncle Luke featured cameos from a varied cast including The Notorious B.I.G., Ice Cube and Doug E. Fresh. But the most notable collaboration on the record proved to be with a then-unknown local MC going by the moniker Trick Daddy Dollars.

In a true passing-of-the-torch moment, Trick bounces off of Luke's chants with a level of finesse and rarely heard within the parameters of Bass' quick tempos. "Scarred" is the moment where chant-centric Bass moved over and made way for Miami rap's more lyrical—and thuggish—second phase.

28. DJ Laz f/ Danny D "Mami El Negro" (1991) / DJ Laz "Esa Morena" (1996) / Pitbull "The Anthem" (2008)

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Album: DJ Laz/King of Bass/The Boatlift
Producer: Lazaro Mendez/Lazaro Mendez/Albert Castillo and Rich "DJ Riddler" Pangilinana
Label: Pandisc/Pandisc/TVT

DJ Laz f/ Danny D "Mami El Negro"



As Miami Bass developed in the 1990s, it naturally grew to take on influences from its vast Latin and Caribbean populace. The person most responsible for realizing this evolution was Cuban-American radio personality Lazaro Mendez, whose pivotal "Mami El Negro" (featuring Boys from the Bottom rapper Danny D on vocals) and "Esa Morena" both sample merengues by Dominican singer Wilfrido Vargas. Those samples have given "Mami El Negro" and "Esa Morena" a longer shelf life than most Bass songs, a fact that was not lost on fellow Cuban, Pitbull, when he combined the lyrics from both to make 2008's "The Anthem."

27. Trick Daddy f/ the SNS Express "Take It to Da House" (2001)

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Album: Thugs R Us
Producer: Righteous Funk Boogie
Label: Slip-N-Slide



Trick Daddy has always had a knack for pulling just the right supporting cast of Slip-N-Slide B-teamers together to make great, high-energy posse cuts. Trick and Trina in tandem are generally electric, but when flanked by a crew of J.V. and Money Mark Diggla and C.O. of Tre +6 (all doing business together as SNS Express), over the horns from local disco heroes K.C. and the Sunshine Band's "Boogie Shoes"? Pure Magic City.

26. Poison Clan "The Bitch That I Hate" (1990)

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Album: 2 Low Life Muthas
Producer: Mr. Mixx
Label: Luke Skyywalker



More than two decades after its release, the "baby 2 Live Crew's" 2 Low Life Muthas still stands as one of the most entertaining and complete rap albums to ever come from Dade County. Like the Geto Boys Grip It! On That Other Level, the debaucherous tales on JT Money and Debonair's debut helped lay some of the blueprints for ignorant Southern rap.

In spite of its title, "The Bitch That I Hate" (or, as it was known in its clean version, "The Girl That I Hate") was actually one of the least offensive tracks on the album, chronicling the duo's relationship woes in a manner that was more fair than overtly misogynistic.

25. Pitbull f/ Lil Jon "Culo" (2004)

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Album: M.I.A.M.I. (Money Is a Major Issue))
Producer: Lil Jon
Label: TVT



Pitbull's greatest asset as an artist is his ability to be almost everything to almost everyone. While turning European house songs into global club gold has become his bread and butter, the Cuban-American MC early on forged close ties with the Caribbean, collaborating with dancehall artists like Mr. Vegas and soca superstar Machel Montano.

One of his first hits, '04's "Culo" credited Lil Jon and the Diaz Brothers (beatmakers Lu and Hugo, not the MMA fighters or those pesky thugs who sprayed poor Octavio during the nightclub massacre scene in Scarface) as its producers but was actually recorded on "Coolie Dance," a dancehall rhythm track by Jamaica's Cordell "Scatta" Burrell.

With Lil Jon playing hype man, Pit turned Burrell's India-inspired riddim (also used on Nina Sky's "Move Ya Body" and Elephant Man's "Jook Gal") into a crunked up tribute to Latin women's asses.

24. Prince Rahiem f/ Crazy L'eggs "Loose My Money" (1991)

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Album: Loose My Money
Producer: Darryl Hampton, Prince Rahiem and Frank Cesarano
Label: Vision Records



If Prince Raheim and Crazy L'eggs sound like a pair of NYC old schoolers, well, that would be halfway right. Originally from Queens, Rahiem was a member of Clay D's original Get Funky Crew before departing for a solo career, the highlight of which was this lighthearted send-up of golddiggers. The catchy hook from curiously named sideman Crazy L'eggs still gets folks around Dade County raising their voices several octaves and singing "Loose my money, honey."

23. Trina f/ Trick Daddy "Pull Over" (2000)

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Album: Da Baddest Bitch
Producer: Righteous Funk Boogie
Label: Slip-N-Slide



Before Bobby Valentino's faux siren whoop and a policewoman's snug-fitting uniform had Lil Wayne thinking he "could date a cop" (on Tha Carter III's "Mrs. Officer") Trina was fantasizing about getting pulled over 'cause "that ass is too fat" while Trick Daddy did his best sound-of-the-beast impersonation.

While the song's premise was entirely ridiculous, its percussive, uptempo beat—a sort of Miami Bass/D.C. Go-Go hybrid from the always on-point Righteous Funk Boogie—helped make "Pull Over" undeniable strip-club and dancefloor fodder.

22. Pretty Tony "Fix It In The Mix" (1983)

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Album: Fix it in the Mix
Producer: Tony Butler
Label: Music Specialists



Before Bass music took hold, Miami street music could be summed up in two words: Pretty Tony. The leader of the Partytown mobile DJ crew and co-founder of the Music Specialists record label, Tony Butler was equally effective and influential as a producer of Electro hip-hop (his own "Jam the Box") and Latin freestyle (Debbie Deb's "Lookout Weekend").

His best-known work, Freestyle Express' "Don't Stop the Rock," could accurately be described as a perfect synthesis of both sounds. Though not explicitly a rap song, Tony's "Fix it in the Mix" was the gulliest track to come out of Miami's Electro era, a vocoder anthem with the sort of eminently forceful low end that has always played big in this city.

21. The 2 Live Crew "Get It Girl" (1987) / The 2 Live Crew "We Want Some Pussy" (1987)

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Album: 2 Live Is What We Are
Producer: The 2 Live Crew
Label: Luke Skyywalker

The 2 Live Crew "Get It Girl"



Everything the group released in the mid-to-late1980s should feasibly make this list but "Get It Girl" and "We Want Pussy" stand out as the tracks where 2 Live Crew truly became 2 Live Crew. Deciding that Mr. Mixx, Brother Marquis and Fresh Kid Ice's live presence wasn't bold enough, manager/record label owner Luther Campbell had, by '87, started spicing up their shows with X-rated, call-and-response chants, eventually becoming a full-fledged member.

"We Want Some Pussy" was the first track to apply this formula to wax (and also the first of many 2LC tracks to feature hard rock guitars), and—to those old enough to remember 2 Live Crew before "Me So Horny" and "Banned in the USA"—it's still their definitive song.

But "Get It Girl" (which also featured Luke, boasting to a girl about having a "down payment on Miami," on its outro) holds up even better, a timeless, PG-13 ode to feminine sex appeal that's still capable of getting the party going in any city or state.

20. Iconz "Get Fucked Up" (2000)

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Album: Street Money
Producer: Gorilla Tek, Trak
Label: Slip-N-Slide Records



Released at the height of Slip-N-Slide Records' run of success in 2000, Iconz's Street Money was meant to be a launching pad for the talents of solo artists Luc Duc, Chapter, Stage McCloud, Tony Manshino and SupaStarr. While that plan failed to blossom, the crew did leave behind the memorably nihilistic club anthem "Get Fucked Up" before fading following their sophomore LP, Ya Lookin at Em. in 2003.

A remix with Lil Kim gave "Get Crunked Up" (as it was known in cleaned-up radio form) additional exposure but it's the original—a bouncy, percussion-driven posse cut in the vein of Trick Daddy's "Shut Up" (which actually appears in the opening of the song's video)—that had Iconz looking like Miami's answer to Wu Tang (okay, a bit of a stretch) for a brief, millennial moment.

19. Poison Clan "Shake Whatcha' Mama Gave Ya" (1992)

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Album: Poisonous Mentality
Producer: Kenneth "Devastator " Terry
Label: Effect Records



Poison Clan's sophomore album Poisonous Mentality marked a significant departure for the group, in terms of both personnel and style. With Debonair out and new members Madball and Uzi in, and producer Kenneth "Devastator" Terry replacing Mr. Mixx on the boards, J.T. Money ditched the New York rap and Geto Boys influence of 2 Low Life Muthas, embracing Bass tempos and chant-driven songs. With "Shake Whatcha Mama Gave Ya," he had an instant impact, establishing the gruff, forceful vocal style that would become standard on nearly every Bass record released thereafter.

18. Trick Daddy "I'm A Thug" (2001)

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Album: Thugs R Us
Producer: Righteous Funk Boogie
Label: Slip-N-Slide



The driving musical force behind Trick Daddy's breakout albums www.Thug.com and Book of Thugs—and the lion's share of his classic singles—the seriously underrated Righteous Funk Boogie was Slip-N-Slide's secret weapon before disappearing around the same time as the label's creative decline began.

Taking a page from the book of Disco Rick, RFP matched Trick's unapologetic mission statement in "I'm a Thug" with a sunny children's chorus, setting him up for what was, up to that point at least, his biggest hit.

17. Pitbull "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)" (2009)

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Album: Rebelution
Producer: Lil Jon
Label: The Orchard/Ultra/J/Polo Grounds/Mr. 305



Fellas, leave that rap snob stuff at home when you visit Miami. The ladies decide what's hot here, and if there's one song proven to get women in MIA open, it's "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)." You're not getting anywhere near the clubs on South Beach or Calle Ocho without hearing it, so embrace it, and you just might get lucky.

Like so many of Pitbull's songs, this one originated overseas—the beat is basically identical to that of "75, Brasil Street" by Italy's Nicola Fasano and Pat-Rich—but Pitbull localized it—the song's title refers to the famed central thoroughfare in Miami's Little Havana—while giving it even more global appeal, scoring a No. 1 hit in France and Spain, among other places.

16. DJ Khaled f/ T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Birdman, Lil Wayne, & Akon "We Takin' Over" (2007)

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Album: We the Best
Producer: Danja
Label: Terror Squad, Koch



The "We" in Khaled's "We Taking Over" referred directly to the DJ's network of We the Best affiliates but it could also be read as a celebration of Miami's emergence as a hip-hop capital. Virtually everyone involved in the triumphant 2007 street anthem—Fat Joe, Lil Wayne, Baby, Danja, Khaled himself—were transplants who'd come to the city from somewhere else.

Bearing a polyglot of influences (Wayne's syrup-y martian talk, Danja's Top 40 club-friendly, Virginia Beach synth hop) from all over the map, "We Taking Over" embodied a new Miami hip-hop aesthetic emerging at the time: as sunny as ever but driven less by the urgencies of its ghettoes than by the excesses of already rich-and-famous rappers.

15. Gucci Crew II "Sally (That Girl)" (1987)

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Album: So Def, So Fresh, So Stupid
Producer: Disco Rick
Label: Gucci Records



One of the most prolific—and fun—acts of Bass music's early years, rappers Victor "MC V" May and Cleveland "Too Forty Shorty" Bell released five albums as Gucci Crew II, dropping classic singles like "Truz and Vogues" with Disco Rick on board as DJ and producer in the late '80s.

On 1987's "Sally (That Girl)," the duo sing lines like "I tapped her on the shoulder and said, mm-mm, excuse me, ma'am/She pulled down her pants and said splack these hams" in unison, their rigid delivery closer in tone to preppy '50s vocal groups like the Four Freshmen than 2 Live Crew.

14. Blowfly "Blowfly's Rap" (1980)

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Album: Blowfly's Party
Producer: Clarence Reid and Freddy Stonewall
Label: T.K. Disco



As one of the chief songwriters and producers for Henry Stone's T.K. Records group, Clarence Reid helped give Miami its soul, crafting oft-sampled R&B classics for the likes of Betty Wright and Gwen McRae. But as his Lucha Libre–masked alter ego Blowfly, Reid made the most profane music of Miami's pre-Bass era—or any era, for that matter—including what was likely the first X-rated rap record in 1980s, "Blowfly's Rap."

Reid/Blowfly claims to have originally recorded the song in 1965, which, if somehow true, might make him de facto inventor of rap. The grotesque tale of a Black truck driver's sexual misadventures in the Confederate South, "Blowfly's Rap" clearly impacted the minds of young Luther Campbell and Too $hort. But even Chuck D. cites Blowfly as an influence, crediting a similar line (about Muhammad Ali) from "Blowfly's Rap" for inspiring his famed "Motherfuck him and John Wayne" line from "Fight the Power."

More than 30 years later, "Blowfly's Rap" has lost none of its impact, still capable of grossing out and cracking up even the most desensitized of listeners.

13. MC Luscious "Boom! I Got Your Boyfriend (X-Rated Mix)" (1990)

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Album: Boom! I Got Your Boyfriend
Producer: Jealous J (aka Jim Jonsin)
Label: Heat Wave Records



Miami rap has changed a lot in the last 20 years, but songs about capturing somebody else's significant other never go out of style. An answer to "Boom I Got Your Girlfriend" by the Boys from the Bottom, Rosalyn "MC Luscious" McCall's "Boom! I Got Your Boyfriend" was the best known of these, inspiring Clay D & the Get Fresh Girls' knock-off "I Seen Your Boyfriend" and Luscious' own 1993 follow-up "Boom! There He Is."

More recently Jacki-O updated "Boom!" on her mixtape of the same name. But the best alternate version was Jim "Jealous J" Jonsin's X-rated mix of "Boom!", which added a heavier 808 rumble and some nasty samples to match Luscious' dirtier lyrics.

12. The Dogs "(Your Mama's On) Crack Rock" (1990)

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Album: The Dogs
Producer: Disco Rick
Label: Joey Boy Records

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Bass music was better suited to celebratory expressions than weighty topical content, but it had its own quirky way of addressing the issues of the day. Taking a strikingly lighthearted approach to a notably dark topic, Disco Rick and the Dogs' "Crack Rock" spoke, rather coarsely, to that drug's toll on Black families.

While having little children taunt one another about the depths of their mother's addiction ("My mama told somebody that your mama's selling her body for money/But I don't know what that mean") might not have been in very good taste—and Rick's lyrics about seeing your mama "tricking on the Ave" certainly weren't—but the song's unforgettable "Nah-nah-nah-nah, Your mama's on crack rock" chant helped make it an unlikely hit in 1990, truly capturing a moment in time.

11. Chip-Man & the Buckwheat Boyz "Peanut Butter Jelly" (2001)

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Album: Streetmix, Vol. 1
Producer: DJ Chip-Man
Label: Luke Records



Keeping the spirit of ol' skool Miami party records alive in the modern era, DJ Chip-Man has a deep catalog of high-pitched, child-friendly dancefloor exhortations over "Dance to the Drummer's Beat" and other immortal breaks.

Originally released in 2001, "Peanut Butter and Jelly" took on a bizarre new life when a homemade flash video depicting a dancing banana turned the song and its seemingly non-sensical lyrics ("Where he at? Where he at? I don't know! I don't know! There he go! There he go!") into an Internet meme and, eventually, a Family Guy punchline.

The nearly identical "Ice Cream & Cake" also gained national attention when it was used in a Baskin-Robbins ad, but other Chip-Man classics like "Woo Tang Wid It"—and Chip-Man himself—still remain Miami secrets.

10. L'Trimm "Cars With the Boom" (1988)

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Album: Grab It!
Producer: DSK (Lawrence Davis, Joseph Louis Stone & Paul Klein)
Label: Time-X/Atlantic



Just as DJ Laz's "Mami El Negro" and 2 Live Crew's "Reggae Joint" reflected the influence of the Cuban and Jamaican immigrants who poured into Miami in the 1980s, L'Trimm's bubblegum Bass track "Cars That Go Boom" subtly bears the mark of a less expected but no less apparent segment of the Dade County populace: Jewish retirees from New York.

On their tribute to boys with loud car speaker systems, Lady Tigra and Bunny D, the precocious teen duo from suburban Kendall, tawked their tawk like Jewish grandmas from Queens living in one of North Beach's retirement complexes. The chutzpah of those shiksas!

9. Trick Daddy f/ Trina, C.O. and Duece Poppi "Shut Up" (2000)

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Album: Book Of Thugs: Chapter AK Verse 47
Producer: Black Mob Group
Label: Slip-N-Slide



Due in large part to his own perpetuation of the term, Trick Daddy will always be labeled a thug. But in his Y2K-era heyday, Slip-N-Slide's flagship artist was making records that were as progressive as anything hip-hop's more self-aware innovators were being touted for at the time.

"Shut Up" sounded like nothing else when it hit in 2000, and it still stands out as one of the most unusual sounding rap songs to ever clock national radio play. From the marching-band stomp of Black Mob Group producer Tony Galvin's beat to Trick's head-scratching hook and the charisma-oozing verses from Trina, C.O. (of Miami G-Funk duo Tre +6) and Deuce Poppito, "Shut Up" made everyone who heard it STFU and pay attention.

8. The 2 Live Crew "Pop that Pussy" (1991)

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Album: Sports Weekend (As Nasty As They Wanna Be Part II)
Producer: Davidi "Mr. Mixx" Hobbs
Label: Luke Records



2 Live Crew certainly had bigger hits locally and nationally, but "Pop that Pussy" (or, as it was known in its "clean" edit, "Pop that Coochie") was the song where all of the group's varying parts meshed most perfectly. Mixx's frenetic scratching, Marquis and Ice's casual pervyness, the comedy samples and bongos, that big, dramatic breakdown, Luke's emphatic directions to Madonna to "work that stinky, smelly pussy"—they all combine to make this the Bass song that holds up best 20 years later.

7. Young & Restless "B Girls" (1990)

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Album: Something to Get You Hyped
Producer: Eric "E.G." Griffin and Sam Ferguson
Label: Pandisc



If Rick Rubin set sail to Miami after producing Licensed to Ill and Raising Hell, the result might have sounded something like Young & Restless' "B Girls." But the quirky anthem, which literally slapped harder-edged "new school" Bass up against the lighter, nursery rhyme–inflected style of its early days, was produced by the late Eric "E.G." Griffin of Triple M DJs/Worse Em Crew fame.

A duo assembled by Griffin's Triple M cohort Sam "P-Man" Ferguson, Charles "Dr. Ace" Trahan and Leonerist "Prince P" Johnson" (later known as The P.O.D.) had several more lighthearted Bass hits as Young & Restless, including a cover of The Coasters' "Poison Ivy." But none was as memorable as their send up of "B Girls" who are only after "Broncos, Benz, BMWs, bass, bangles and a pair of bars."

6. J.T. Money f/ Sole "Who Dat" (1999)

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Album: Pimpin' On Wax
Producer: Christopher "Tricky" Stewart
Label: Priority



The market for Miami Bass had almost completely dried up by 1998 but, as Trick Daddy's thug rap broke nationally, a handful of figures from the scene were able to ride a brief renaissance with more traditional rap records.

By far the most triumphant return belonged to former Poison Clan leader J.T. Money, whose gruff "Who Dat"—an early production of Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, best known today for his work with The-Dream—became the veteran rapper's biggest hit.

While J.T. and his female foil Sole's anti-dickrider raps were nothing too special, the self-professed "Bitch-izer" took a page from the Bass music playbook—and New Orleans slang—turning the song's hook into a frenzied (Ay-ya-ya!) call-and-response session that brought the energy level higher and higher until it swallowed the song whole.

5. Rick Ross f/ Styles P "B.M.F. (Blowin Money Fast)" (2010)

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Album: Teflon Don
Producer: Lex Luger
Label: Def Jam/Maybach Music Group



Lightning supposedly never strikes twice, but Rick Ross proved that's not true when he recorded a pair of songs premised on comparing himself to other people over nearly identical beats from Atlanta-based producer Lex Luger. Sequenced back-to-back on Ross' Albert Anastasia mixtape and his Teflon Don album, "M.C. Hammer" and "B.M.F. (Blowin' Money Fast)" each became a massive street single in their own right.

But it was the latter, with its unforgettable "I think I'm Big Meech, Larry Hoover" refrain, that truly became the hood national anthem of 2010. For nearly a whole year it was virtually impossible to hit the strip in Miami or any other U.S. city without hearing "Blowin' Money Fast" booming from at least one trunk.

4. The 2 Live Crew "Me So Horny" (1989)

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Album: As Nasty As They Wanna Be
Producer: The 2 Live Crew/Luke Skyywalker
Label: Luke Skyywalker



Lost on most of 2 Live Crew's detractors was the fact that the group saw themselves more as comedic entertainers in the tradition of Blowfly and Rudy Ray Moore than as rappers. (Of course, anyone who actually listened to their albums would pick this up from all the X-rated comedy album samples). But it was hard to miss the humor in "Me So Horny."

By spinning choice dialogue from the Vietnamese whorehouse scene in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket into one of hip-hop's most memorable samples, Mr. Mixx gave Fresh Kid Ice and Brother Marquis a perfect platform for reaching the masses without watering down their over-the-top pervert talk.

3. Rick Ross "Hustlin'" (2006)

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Album: Port of Miami
Producer: The Runners
Label: Def Jam



Few rappers have ever made a more forceful entrance than Rick Ross did with his debut single. Already something of a known quantity in Miami thanks to cameos on releases by Trick Daddy, Trina and The P.O.D., "Hustlin" was Ross's introduction to the rest of the world—and everything about it was immense and authoritative, from the bottom in The Runners' cinematic beat to Officer Ricky's absurdly grandiose claims of wealth and influence.

2. Trick Daddy f/ Trina "Nann Nigga" (1998)

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Album: www.thug.com
Producer: Righeous Funk Boogie
Label: Slip-N-Slide



Not even Lil Kim and Biggie have a deeper catalog of co-ed classics than Trick Daddy and Trina do with one another. The back-and-forth, battle-of-the-sexes banter on "Nann Nigga," a sort of country-rap spin on the theme of Broadway standard "Anything You Can Do," made ghetto celebrities of both and began Miami rap's late-'90s march into hip-hop's mainstream.

As with so many of Slip-N-Slide Records' hits in the late '90s, producer Righteous Funk Boogie gave the beat a distinctive polish that made it impossible to confuse with anything else out at the time—or now, for that matter.

1. Luke "I Wanna Rock (Nasty Version)" (1991)

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Album: I Got Shit on My Mind
Producer: Kenneth "Devastator X" Terry
Label: Luke Records



Nearly two whole decades before Waka Flocka, it was Luther Campbell who pioneered the hypeman-as-artist career template. After the break-up of 2 Live Crew in 1991, Uncle Luke proved he could be just as entertaining without the services of Brother Marquis and Fresh Kid Ice.

"I Wanna Rock" was basically a medley of Luke's best booty chants ("Face down/Ass Up/That's the way we like to fuck!") with some other peoples' thrown in—"Doo Doo Brown," as this song is sometimes called, came from Two Hype Bros and A Dog's Baltimore house tune by that same name— packaged neatly over a breakneck beat from secret Bass weapon, Kenneth "Devastator X" Terry.

There were more lyrical songs to be sure, but this was the record that broke geographical boundaries. And even to this day "I Wanna Rock" can still totally transform a party. No matter where it comes on, you're in Miami, bitch.

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