Just discovered theremixbaby, the best music blog I’ve discovered in the last few months.  This 98-02 pop/rap/rnb playlist is the crowning achievement I’ve found in 6 pages of reading:

HOT MILLENNIUM GURL (a spotify playlist)

“HOT MILLENNIUM GURL” is a playlist of my favorite mainstream hip-hop, R&B and urban pop songs that charted between Jan. 1998 and Dec. 2002. It is the culmination of several months of pop music curating. The playlist consists of 40 tracks, a little over 2 hours, and should ideally sound like the best Hot Urban format radio station that didn’t exist ~ten years ago.

Why 98-02? You see, decades are totally and completely arbitrary. And so, decade retrospective lists have the unfortunate effect of skewering interesting trends and developments that happen at those bridges between decades. I hope to remedy this a little by examining music made during what I affectionately call ‘the turn of the century.’

Why hip-hop and R&B? BECAUSE ITS THE BEST MUSIC. Or at least, it’s my favorite kind of music. This (along with a smattering or MOR pop-punk) is the music of my tweenhood, of middle school dances and late nights secretly listening to Hot 96.3 in my room. There’s aren’t deep cuts; almost all of them cracked the top 10 on the Billboard Hot Hip-Hop/R&B chart. No hidden jemz. Just old favorites. I hope you enjoy reliving these songs as much as I do.

(understand that some really great songs aren’t included because either (a) they aren’t available on spotify, (b) they didn’t chart high enough, or (c) one playlist should only have so many Nelly songs, i’m sorry)

TRACKLIST (songs arranged in rough chronological order):

Nice & Slow - Usher

Gone Till November - Wyclef Jean

Too Close - Next

Doo Wop (That Thing) - Lauryn Hill

It’s All About The Benjamins - Puff Daddy and the Family feat. Notorious BIG

Still Not A Player - Big Pun feat. Joe

So Into You - Tamia

Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem) - Jay-Z

No Scrubs - TLC

Back That Thang Up - Juvenile feat. Mannie Fresh and Lil Wayne

Heartbreaker - Mariah Carey feat. Jay-Z

Say My Name - Destiny’s Child

Untitled (How Does It Feel) - D’Angelo

Maria Maria - Santana feat. The Product G&B

Party Up (Up In Here) - DMX

Big Pimpin’ - Jay-Z feat. UGK

Ms. Jackson - Outkast

Differences - Ginuwine

Ride Wit Me - Nelly

Get Ur Freak On - Missy Elliot

Where The Party At - Jagged Edge feat. Nelly

Fallin’ - Alicia Keys

I’m Real (Remix) - Jennifer Lopez feat. Ja Rule

IZZO (Hova) - Jay-Z

 Area Codes - Ludacris feat. Nate Dogg

Raise Up (North Carolina) - Petey Pablo

What Would You Do - City High

Oops (Oh My!) - Tweet

Foolish - Ashanti

More than A Woman - Aaliyah

Addictive - Truth Hurts feat. Rakim

Still Fly - Big Tymers

Dilemma - Nelly feat. Kelly Rowland

Hey Ma - Cam’Ron feat. Juelz Santana and Toya

Don’t Mess With My Man - Nivea feat. Brian & Brandon Casey

When the Last Time - Clipse feat. Pharell and Kelis

Lose Yourself - Eminem

sry if there’s too much jay-z no im not