With beautiful works of art like the Motorola Razr and tragedies like the Zune, the 2000s were both a dark, dark era and a wonderful, necessary decade that propelled us into the culture we enjoy today.
The 2000s gave us some of the most iconic clothing trends, songs, and albums to date, and still only managed to sapped some of us of our youth, happiness, and innocence. It was a pretty fair trade, especially with everyone clamoring for 2000s nostalgia content. The beginning of the millennium was a wonderful time to exist and consume content, so long as you were doing it right.
Sadly, as with all things, over time, the greatest parts of an era tend to be washed away, forgotten about until stumbled upon by accident. We all have the friend that loves to play throwbacks, centering their playlist around standard tracks like “Buy U A Drank,” “Gold Digger,” and “Hey Ya!” While these songs still remain bangers, they haven’t exactly left the public’s collective conscience in the way many others have: they still get somewhat regular radio rotation, they pop up on Spotify playlists, and you can even still hear them in the club.
So instead of highlighting those tracks, and to satisfy the authentic trip down memory lane you deserve, we’re diving into the nitty gritty, covering everyone from from one-hit wonders to still-popular artists, to paint a picture complete enough to make you think you’re bumping these tracks on an iPod Nano.
From Fort Minor to Sean Kingston, don’t let these songs die in vain. If you downloaded it from LimeWire and burnt it to a CD, there’s a good chance it’s here. Here are 15 hip-hop songs from the 2000s you probably forgot about.