12 Songs From 2013 That Are Killing It In 2014

A number of 2014's big hits actually came out last year.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Thanks to the wonders of technology, instant gratification is now put at a premium. Anybody can download an album within seconds of its release and react just as quickly using social media. The side effect of this focus on the incredibly new is an increased distaste for anything that seems old. No one wants to be seen as behind the times, so we all collectively engage in a race to be the most up to date. In this competition to stay current, gems can be tossed aside because something came out that's not only hotter, but newer.

Despite this phenomenon, some of the biggest and best songs of 2014 didn’t even come out this year. Whether they were released in the waning moments of 2013 or simply took a while to catch on, some songs from 2013 have dominated airwaves in 2014. That's why it's frustrating for us when we make a list like The Best Songs of 2014 when we can't include one of the biggest songs of the summer (Chris Brown's "Loyal") because it actually came out last year. 

But it's not just Chris Brown, other superstars like Beyonce and Drake dropped bangers just as we flipped our calendars (and had already dropped out list of the Best Songs of 2013) while other songs from lesser known artists like Young Thug or Que bubbled below the surface before blowing up long after their initial release. So please, let's make things right and take a minute to appreciate 12 Songs From 2013 That Are Killing 2014

Written by Max Goldberg (@goopygold)

RELATED: The Best Songs of 2014 (So Far)
RELATED: The Best Albums of 2014 (So Far)

Nico & Vinz "Am I Wrong"

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Album: Black Star Elephant
Label: 5 Star Entertainment/EMI Music Norway/Warner Bros.
Producer: Nasty Kutt

Usually, we Americans like to think we're always in the know when it comes to new music. We believe we set the trends and then other countries follow suit, not the other way around. Well, Nico & Vinz's "Am I Wrong?" had to come through and fuck that whole theory up.

The Norwegian duo had some success in Europe but were basically unknown in the U.S. until just a few months ago. Their world-music inspired track "Am I Wrong," which was released in Europe back in April 2013, made serious waves overseas but needed something to help it impact US listeners. That something came in the form of a signing with Warner Bros. Records in January. There's been no looking back since, as the song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in May and has now skyrocketed up to No. 4. You might not know the duo or the song's title, but we promise you've heard this song before. Our only question is, why didn't FIFA pick this as the World Cup anthem? 

Young Thug "Danny Glover"

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Album: N/A
Label: N/A
Producer: 808 Mafia

Young Thug had been bubbling below the surface for a few years before "Danny Glover" sent his career into overdrive. The 808s Mafia-produced banger first hit the web around November 2013. But it felt like everywhere on the 'Net where it went up, it soon got taken down.

As so often happens, the uncertainty only fueled demand. Fans grew hungrier and hungrier for the song and soon enough videos of Drake and Kanye wilding out to the song surfaced (the caption in the Drake video about "needing two deals" is pretty ironic). With that much anticipation surrounding the song, it was officially released around mid-January. If the hype wasn't already great enough, a killer remix from none other than Nicki Minaj put the song over the top. 

Drake f/ Soulja Boy "We Made It"

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Album: N/A
Label: N/A
Producer: PurpDogg

After a year that saw him cement himself as hip-hop's brightest young star with the release of Nothing Was The Same, Drake used the final moments of 2013 to drop a banger that sent the Internet into a frenzy. Remember, when "We Made It" dropped, all the rap world could think about was "Trophies." While it would've been easy to be overshadowed by the hype surrounding "Trophies" (it was the Jan Brady to "Trophies'" Marcia ), "We Made It" stood out on its own.

In a testament to the insane amount of power that he yields in hip-hop, Drizzy took a Soulja Boy mixtape cut that approximately zero people cared about and not only turned it into a hit but revived Soulja's career. If you had told Soulja Boy when he released "We Made It" that in less than a year everyone from Jay-Z to Cam'ron would freestyle over his song, he would have Supermaned right out of the conversation due to sheer disbelief. But that's hip-hop in 2014. Drake's Midas touch is so real that he can throw Soulja Boy and Kenny Powers into a pot, put his spin on it, and have people shouting "We Made It" months after the song's release.

T-Pain f/ B.o.B "Up Down (Do This All Day)"

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Album: Stoicville: The Phoenix
Label: Nappy Boy Entertainment/Konvict Muzik/RCA
Producer: DJ Mustard

If seeing "Up Down" become a major club song in 2014 didn't make you scream out an auto-tuned shout of approval, you might have a heart made of ice. The delayed success of the DJ Mustard-produced hit meant one thing; a return to prominence for T-Pain.

When the song was first released, we were several years removed from T-Pain's absolute dominance of the mid-2000s. Pain hadn't had a major hit in years, so the song's initial lack of success certainly seemed like the final nail in T-Pain's diamond-encrusted coffin. It took about a month for the song to be picked up by most radio stations and it didn't make an appearance on the all-important Hot 100 until December, four months after its release. However, once the song caught on there was no looking back.

While T-Pain certainly did his thing on the song and his arrival back to relevancy absolutely helped boost the song's popularity, DJ Mustard's sound is so in demand right now that it was only a matter of time until this song found some success. So we tip our gigantic and hideous top hats to you and your return, Mr. Pain.

Que "OG Bobby Johnson"

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Album: N/A
Label: N/A
Producer: Bobby Johnson

We bet you forgot this song existed! "OG Bobby Johnson" might sadly become a forgotten footnote of 2014, but it was killing shit in the first three months of the year. LeBron James made it his personal anthem and you should've made it yours too. First released in September, few songs could match the terrifyingly turnt ambiance that "OG Bobby Johnson" brought to any place you played it. 

The song was aided by a few star studded remixes. First the T.I. and Young Jeezy ATL Mix was a clear cosign of the song's impact. Next came Pusha T, Snoop Dogg, and A$AP Ferg, each doing their thing over the now iconic big bass and snare snaps. While both remixes solidified the song's status as an anthem, neither can touch the raw awesomeness of the original.

John Legend "All of Me"

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Album: Love in the Future
Label: G.O.O.D. Music/Columbia
Producer: Dave Tozer and John Legend

If anyone could ever make you look at yourself and feel like shit, it's gotta be John Legend. Ivy League graduate? Check. Grammy winner? Check. In a relationship with a super model? Check. However, until 2014 John Legend was just like you and me in one respect; he had never had a No. 1 single.

He checked off that last box with the surprising success of his tear-jerking love ballad "All of Me." The song's success is unexpected for a few reasons. For one, it reached the top of the charts a whopping 10 months after it was first released. And two, it sounds exactly nothing like any of the other major hits of the last year or so. In fact, "All of Me" might be the exact diametric opposite of Chris Brown's "Loyal."

All those factors beg the question of why did this song eventually become so successful? The answer is simple; it's beautiful. John Legend is as earnest as can be and his loving words for Chrissy Teigen paired with the toned down piano are enough to make a grown man shed a couple tears.

DJ Snake & Lil Jon "Turn Down for What"

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Album: N/A
Label: Columbia
Producer: Lil Jon, DJ Snake

In the same way generations have pondered questions like "What's the meaning of life?" future generations will ask themselves, "Turn down for what?" It's an excellent question, and one that would've never gotten the proper attention it deserved if not for Lil Jon and DJ Snake. Well, mostly Lil Jon.

Released around in December 2013, "Turn Down for What" and its intentional absurdity reached its peak in large part thanks to the ridiculousness of its video. The video is basically "Gangham Style" 2.0, and matches the song's single mindedness with a video full of exaggerated turn up. Depending on your outlook, "Turn Down for What" is either awesome or everything that's wrong with the youth today. It blurs the line between Internet meme and real life song, which just might be the key to its success. Either way, the world is always a better place when Lil' Jon is relevant.

Drake "Trophies"

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Album: Young Money: Rise of an Empire
Label: Young Money/Cash Money/Republic
Producer: Hit-Boy, 40

"Trophies" was going to dominate 2014 even before Drake released it on December 30th. The hype started way back in September when the song's now unmistakable horns were used as the backing to the Nothing Was the Same trailer. The anticipation only grew as fans salivated over snippets and clips of it being played in clubs and at Drake shows. People were legitimately more excited for this one song than other rapper's entire albums. The fervor got so crazed that, one night, Drake had to take to Twitter to tell people to go to sleep because he wasn't gonna drop it.

When the song finally did drop, it lived up to the hype. The beat reminded us that Hit-Boy is still one of the best producers out and seemingly everyone has memorized Drake's to-the-point verses. The fact that "Trophies" was later released as a part of the Young Money: Rise of an Empire compilation will forever be an afterthought because its 2013 release made for a legitimate moment not to be forgotten.

Young Thug "Stoner"

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Album: N/A
Label: N/A
Producer: Dun Deal

The past 12 months have seen Young Thug go from one of our 25 New Rappers to Watch Out For to gracing our cover and from someone few people knew about to someone everyone has an opinion on. That's certainly a fast rise, but not an unexplainable one. This time last year, when we we're appointing Thugger as a rapper to look out for, we said "he hasn't had The song yet. Once that happens, though, watch out." Well, he found it in the form of "Stoner" (and then he found it again with "Danny Glover").

Originally released back in October, "Stoner" saw Thugger finally putting his raw talent all together. He's awesomely weird and all over the place but he managed to strike gold with a hook that anyone could recite. Still, it took a while for the song to take off.

Once 2014 rolled around, the song soon began to grow into full-on hit mode. Quickly, everyone from Wale to Jim Jones tried their hands at a remix, none of which could hold a candle to the original. With this and "Danny Glover" powering his ascent, soon everyone was talking about Young Thug. 

Beyoncé f/ Jay Z "Drunk In Love"

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Album: BEYONCÉ
Label: Parkwood/Columbia
Producer: Detail, Boots, Beyoncé Knowles, Timbaland, Jerome Harmon and Brian Soko

The unconventional release of BEYONCÉ was an event that had both a short and long term impact on music. But the song from that album that had the most impact was "Drunk In Love." The song's lyrics and visuals provided memes aplenty that everybody ran with. "Surfboard" became a way of life. To top it off, Bey and Jay opened up the 2014 Grammys performing the song.

What can get lost in all of that is just how awesome this song is. Beyoncé alternates between tough talk and flexing her pipes and eventually drops a legitimately fire verse that makes her husband's effort seem kind of embarrassing. So few artists could do what she did on that song and it deserved every single part of the insane amount of praise it received.

Pharrell "Happy"

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Album: G I R L
Label: Back Lot Music/i Am Other/Columbia
Producer: Pharrell Williams

Usually when a song becomes as omni-present as "Happy" became it stops being liked and shifts to being hated. Like, "I never want to hear it again" type of hatred. While "Happy" may have gotten a little overplayed and the "Pharrell is an ageless vampire" jokes definitely became old, it is still really hard to hate this song because it's just that good.

Originally released as a part of the Dispicable Me 2 Soundtrack back in June of 2013 and then pushed as a single in November, "Happy" didn't have "historically large hit" written all over it. But 320 million YouTube views, a 24-hour music video, countless annoying fan versions, and 10 weeks as the number one song in the country later, anyone who had a pulse in 2014 will never be able to forget "Happy," even if tried their hardest. It wasn't just an American thing either, it became a worldwide phenomenon.

Ultimately, "Happy" was the cherry on top of Pharrell's move from a perceived cold streak, which actually was just a small stint of non-dominance, to a total pop culture icon. Even with all the huge moments Pharrell has had the past few years, "Happy" will undoubtedly be his enduring legacy of 2014.

Chris Brown f/ Lil Wayne & Tyga "Loyal"

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Album: X
Label: RCA
Producer: Nic Nac

2014 has been an up and down year for Chris Brown. Mostly down because he has been spending his time in jail after his penchant for acting like a violent jackass finally caught up with him. But also up because his song "Loyal," originally released in 2013, has turned into a massive hit.

Despite the fact that the pairing of Chris Brown's well publicized history of domestic violence and the content of this song is borderline vomit inducing, the song is just so damn catchy. However, the majority of that credit should go to Nic Nac for crafting that incredible beat, to Tyga for walking what appears to be an Ocelot or some other exotic cat around in the video, and Ty Dolla $ign for writing the song. As much as we hate the message in the song, the phrase "These hoes ain't loyal" it just too easy to sing. 

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