1. ‘Juicy’ by The Notorious BIG
No one before or since has done more to justify the gangsta rap lifestyle than Christopher Wallace, on the lead single to his immense debut album ‘Ready to Die’. ‘Juicy’ works because Biggie balances his history of Bed-Stuy poverty so precisely against the braggadocious trappings of fame and fortune (including a Super Nintendo and a Sega Genesis – a reference that now sounds as quaint as the Sugarhill Gang’s ‘hotel, motel, Holiday Inn’).