Category: Hip Hop

In early 1975, the Blackbyrds, the group inspired, mentored and produced by the great jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd, were on their way to their biggest record of their career.

The group, who featured some of the jazz students that Byrd taught at Howard University, had previously had a Top 30 R&B record in America in 1974 with “Do It Fluid.” Written by the master himself, it was the opening song from their self-titled debut album, produced by Byrd with Larry Mizell. That had only reached No.69 on the pop chart, but now it was time for their big crossover moment. It was the magical “Walking In Rhythm.”

Listen to “Walking In Rhythm” on the Blackbyrds’ Walking In Rhythm: The Essential Selection 1973-1980.

The song was on their second album for the Fantasy label, Flying Start, also released late in 1974 and this time solely produced by Byrd. Written by Barney Perry, the track was an infectious, feelgood number highlighted by a brilliant, fluid flute solo by Allan Barnes, who also played tenor and soprano saxophone in the band.

“Walking In Rhythm” entered Billboard’s Hot Soul Singles survey at No.89 on February 1, 1975 and was soon climbing on three charts. It wound up hitting No.4 on that listing, No.5 on the magazine’s Easy Listening countdown and No.6 on the Hot 100.

Listen to the best of Donald Byrd on Apple Music and Spotify.

There was further acclaim for “Walking In Rhythm” across the Atlantic, when it hit the UK singles chart at the end of May and climbed into the Top 30. Meanwhile the Flying Start album went to No.2 on Billboard’s jazz chart, No.5 and a very respectable No.30 on the pop LP survey. Among a total of 11 R&B chart singles, the Blackbyrds had another Top 10 soul success, this time at No.3, with 1976’s “Happy Music,” which also gave them a second pop Top 20 single.

Browse Donald Byrd’s music on limited edition vinyl and CDs here.

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Strange as it seems now, there was a period in the 1960s when Billboard magazine stopped publishing its R&B chart. From late 1963 until early 1965, the publication did not carry a separate soul listing from its main pop-oriented Hot 100.

Hot R&B Singles made its last showing in the November 23, 1963 edition. The celebrated chart compiler Joel Whitburn’s reference books use rival magazine Cash Box’s Top 50 In R&B Locations list from that period. The modern understanding of the decision not to publish is that it was because Billboard felt the R&B and pop charts had become too similar, with so many soul records crossing over to the pop market.

It was certainly true that the gap occurred as Motown tightened its grip on the national soul and pop consciousness — but when the chart returned, the company’s dominance was all the greater, not to mention the soul-to-pop preeminence of Stax, Chess, Atlantic and other power bases.

On January 30, 1965, when the soul chart made its Billboard comeback as Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles, Motown ruled the roost, with two of the top three and three of the Top 5. The Temptations were No.1 with the timeless “My Girl,” for the first of what would be six-week reign.

Listen to the best of The Temptations on Apple Music and Spotify.

In a 40-position chart that technically contained 40 new entries, the great Texas soul man Joe Tex was at No.2 with “Hold What You Got.” Motown was at No.3 with the Supremes’ “Come See About Me” and No.5 with Marvin Gaye’s “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You).” In between came the blue-eyed soul of the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin.’’”

Sam Cooke, tragically shot dead only weeks before, had two titles in the Top 10, “Shake” and its poignant, nominal B-side “A Change Is Gonna Come” (listed in the R&B countdown as “…Going To Come”). Cooke was further represented at No.40 with “Cousin Of Mine.”

Also in the Top 20, Ray Charles was “Makin’ Whoopee,” the Radiants were urging you to “Voice Your Choice,” there was more Motown action from the Marvelettes and the Contours, and the Impressions were giving the chart some gospel with “Amen.”

Otis Redding debuted with “That’s How Strong My Love Is” and there were chart 45s for two of Chess’ great ladies of R&B, Jan Bradley with “I’m Over You” and Mitty Collier with “No Faith, No Love.” Billboard had truly got its soul back.

Browse our R&B / Soul / Funk collection featuring limited edition vinyl and CDs here.

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After a seven-album run as a pop hitmaker, Rihanna sought to change her formula like never before. Breaking a four-year silence – her longest yet – Anti was, as she told Vogue, the result of her search for music to “match my growth.” Going platinum in less than 24 hours, it saw the Barbadian pop icon conquer her fears and push her creative boundaries even further. Hitting No.1 on the Billboard 200, it also made Rihanna the first black female artist to chart for 200 weeks on the coveted listings. In the risk-averse world of pop, she had proved, yet again, that she was capable of shaking things up.

An enigmatic arrival

Since her 2005 debut album, Music Of The Sun, the superstar had released a new album almost every year, with a deluxe Reloaded edition of Good Girl Gone Bad filling a gap in 2008. Following 2012’s Unapologetic, Rihanna had also been expanding her empire into other industries, from film to fashion, while dropping a string of singles to appease the masses.

The pop diva formed part of an unlikely trio on the folky, strumalong single “FourFiveSeconds,” which was released in January 2015 and was quickly followed by the swaggering trap hit “B__ch Better Have My Money,” on which Rihanna reminds everyone: “Don’t act like you forgot/I call the shots, shots, shots.”

With divergent sounds on each single, critics and fans didn’t know what to expect from Anti. The unorthodox cover art was equally inscrutable, engulfed in a wash of red paint and picturing a young Rihanna holding a balloon and wearing an oversized crown that covers her eyes. The artwork also featured a poem in Braille, entitled “If They Let Us, Part I,” which made the album’s narrative arc more clear: “I sometimes fear that I am misunderstood. It is simply because what I want to say, what I need to say, won’t be heard. Heard in a way I so rightfully deserve.”

Maintaining her status

Despite a meticulous launch plan, Anti leaked on January 27, 2016 – the same day the singer dropped its first single, “Work,” and two days before the album’s scheduled release date.

Though “Work” shared similar dancehall DNA to Rihanna’s previous albums, it saw her pay tribute to her Caribbean roots in more than just production. Singing in Jamaican patois, Rihanna confused most international listeners, who initially wrote off the lyrics as gibberish. In the same Vogue interview, however, the signer explained how “Work” was one of her most authentic singles: “That’s how we speak in the Caribbean. It’s very broken and it’s, like, you can understand everything someone means without even finishing the words.”

While many listeners were hooked by the earworm chorus, which helped propel the song to No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100, they missed the more nuanced context.

Listen to Rihanna’s Anti now.

Featuring a guest verse from Drake, “Work” operates on two counts: working hard to maintain a relationship, while also working hard to fix oneself. Just as Rihanna states, “I got to do things my own way, darling,” on Anti’s opener, “Consideration,” “Work” also refers to how the singer tirelessly worked to maintain her status.

An album of moods

Though most of Rihanna’s discography is punctuated by flashy dance-pop numbers and radio-ready R&B ballads, Anti is made up of moods. With a more scaled-back production, her voice takes center-stage over minimalistic beats as she embraces the more languid, genre-averse approach to the then-emerging strain of pop-R&B. To achieve this, she enlisted all the star architects of this sound, including The-Dream, Timbaland, and The Weeknd.

If Rated R was all bombast and arena-sized pop-rock, Anti (and its second single, “Kiss It Better”) paid homage to the sexier, funkier side of 80s pop. While not as commercially successful as some of her bigger hits, the sexed-up “Kiss It Better” was emblematic of everything that Rihanna had been working towards; channeling Prince throughout, Rihanna also gave the song the erotically-charged video it deserved.

Throughout the 2010s, Rihanna had been the outlaw of pop music, but even with her unorthodox style she managed to find hits that reached large audiences. Following “Kiss It Better” with the trap-R&B hit “Needed Me,” she returned to her gun-toting persona, flipping the script as she declares, “Didn’t I tell you I was a savage?/ F__k your white horse and your carriage,” on the Top 10 hit.

Just as Anti was an experiment with genre and production, Rihanna also used the album to explore new vocal techniques. From her Island drawl on “Work” to the staccato delivery she employed for the outlaw balled “Desperado,” Rihanna plays with different personas on each track. “Woo” features even more vocal distortion, plus a guest vocal and production by Travis Scott, as Rihanna sings about an on-again, off-again relationship.

A pop rebellion

From the title alone, it’s clear that Anti was a reaction to popular music at the time. That said, Rihanna still expressed a desire to create “timeless music,” which is where “Love On The Brain” fits in.

The doo-wop-soul ballad is darker than you realize upon first listen, as Rihanna confesses, “It beats me black and blue, but it f__ks me so good.” A year after Anti’s release, and its accompanying world tour, “Love On The Brain” reached the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Elsewhere, the acoustic ballad “Never Ending” is clearly inspired by her previous collaborators Coldplay (it would have felt right at home on that band’s Mylo Xyloto album) and borrows a vocal melody from another adult contemporary staple, Dido’s “Thank You.”

The latter half of Anti is full of more downtempo, sensual cuts. Both “Yeah, I Said It” and “Same Ol’ Mistakes” see Rihanna at her most vulnerable. Produced by Timbaland, the former is a steamy romp that nods to moody 90s quiet-storm R&B and is reminiscent of the track “Skin,” from her 2010 album, Loud.

An exploratory nature

One of biggest surprises on Anti was Rihanna’s faithful rendition of Tame Impala’s Currents track “New Person, Same Old Mistakes.” Retooled and retitled as “Same Ol’ Mistakes,” Rihanna sings the song from a feminine perspective, giving it a new artistic meaning. It’s here that she realizes she can’t dwell on the mistakes she keeps making and learns to love the individual that she’s become.

At the tail-end of the album, Rihanna displays her vocal talents on a string of ballads. On “Higher” she sings with abandon, tapping into a more raw, raspier part of her voice, while closing track “Close To You” is the kind of torch song she’d been striving for her whole career. As a whole, Anti’s exploratory nature revealed more facets of Rihanna’s creative restlessness, as she retreated further away from music, turning the album into what came to feel like a closing statement.

Anti can be bought here.

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Summer Walker has announced that she’ll be hitting the road in 2026. The Still Finally Over It Tour will begin on May 26 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

From there, the R&B icon will head to Chicago, Detroit, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and more, before concluding the run on July 3 in Vancouver. Odeal will serve as direct support, with Monaleo also joining on a number of dates. After the last North American gig, Summer Walker will head to London’s O2 Arena on August 2 for a special performance.

Summer began teasing the tour last week with a surprise appearance at Georgia State University. There, she was joined by 40 women dressed in bridal gowns. Additionally, Still Finally Over It limousines were spotted driving around Atlanta and Los Angeles to help hint at the tour.

The singer’s clever activations to announce the tour didn’t serve as her only innovative promo during the Still Over It era.

Ahead of the album, Walker began introducing the context and themes of the project with 90s-inspired hotline commercials and a lie detector test interrogating fan-theories about who might appear on the album. She also introduced the Finally Over It escape room in Atlanta and sent a Finally Over It dump truck on tour around ATL to collect any items from exes that fans wanted to get rid of.

After the lie detector test, Summer Walker shared the album’s featured artists with a wedding reception-themed seating chart and video. Artists featured on the project include Latto, Mariah the Scientist, Bryson Tiller, Teddy Swims, GloRilla, Sexyy Red, Brent Faiyaz, 21 Savage, Anderson.Paak, The Dream, Jeremih, Troy Taylor, Bryan-Michael Cox, Nineteen85, Ant Clemons, Jean Baptiste, and more.

Finally Over It was released on November 14 and was an immediate success, debuting at No.2 on the Billboard 200 and No.1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The album concludes a trilogy that began with 2019’s Over It and continued with 2021’s Still Over It, which gave the star her first No.1 Album on the Billboard 200.

Buy Summer Walker’s Still Over It here.

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D’Angelo’s neo-soul masterpiece is remembered not only for the indelible mark it left on R&B but also the impossible story behind bringing the album into existence. Released on January 25, 2000, just one month into the new millennium, Voodoo would define the decade, setting the bar so high with its ingenuity and progressiveness that wouldn’t be met until D’Angelo returned 14 years later with Black Messiah.

Buy D’Angelo’s Voodoo on limited edition zoetrope vinyl.

Considered “post-modern” and “radical” at the time, Voodoo can’t lay claim to any one era. Produced in the 90s, and assembling sounds and ideas from 60s, 70s, and 80s funk and soul, it represented a coalescence of every great black innovator of the past – Jimi Hendrix, Curtis Mayfield, George Clinton, Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, Al Green, and Prince – and produced something that was built to last.

Once hailed as the next Marvin Gaye, D’Angelo become the harbinger of hip-hop soul with his first release Brown Sugar in 1995. At the ripe young age of 21, he was responsible for rethinking an entire genre and had laid the path for Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite (’96), Erykah Badu’s Baduizm (’97), The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (’98), and the neo-soul movement. But on the dawn of Y2K, contemporary R&B had morphed into a slick, club-friendly state. Voodoo emerged as a response to this, bringing back earthy 70s production powered by experimental, hip-hop-influenced rhythms.

After its release, Voodoo topped the Billboard albums chart just two weeks later, won two Grammy’s, achieved platinum status, and produced a hit that would turn D’Angelo into a pin-up for ages. The album made an arresting statement, not just musically but visually. With its cover and provocative video for “Untitled (How Does it Feel),” D’Angelo bared more than his soul. What perhaps meant to be a vulnerable statement looked more like an illicit invitation.

D’Angelo’s perfectionism is well documented and with the fate of R&B foisted upon his shoulders, he was debilitated by the fear of the sophomore slump and determined not to make another Brown Sugar. During the five year interim between the two records, he’d switched managers, changed record labels, made brief cameos, and tinkered in the studio for years on end. Fans held out hope, with two promo singles, first the sample-driven “Devil’s Pie” in ’98 and “Left and Right” with features by Redman and Method Man a year later.

When it came time to record, D’Angelo took a page from his predecessors and set out to create a spontaneous, jazz-like approach to recording. Recruit the best R&B musicians around, give them free rein to jam, and capture the magic on tape. A method that harkened back to how funk records were made in the pre-Napster era. As D’Angelo told Ebony Magazine at the time, he wanted to “make strong, artistic Black music.”

As if trying to conjure up the ghost of Jimi Hendrix and all those that recorded there, D’Angelo decamped to Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village and brought his motley crew of fellow musicians to soak in soul and rock records and try to recreate some of the magic that had been made there. These studio sessions went on for years, but the result was an organic, in-studio sound that can only be pulled off by masters of their craft. The real players behind the curtain were Questlove (The Roots) on drums, Pino Palladino on bass (John Mayer Trio, The RH Factor), guitar veterans, Spanky Alford and Mike Campbell, fellow Roots member James Poyser on keys, and jazz prodigy Roy Hargrove on horns.

D’Angelo’s soul revivalist vision didn’t stop at just the studio setting. He didn’t want it to just feel like old soul, but to sound like it as well. It’s a shame his analogue obsession pre-dated the great vinyl renaissance, but we all get to reap the rewards now. Employing vintage gear and recording instrumental takes live, it seemed wasted on the mp3 era.

For an R&B album, Voodoo eschews common song structures and instead feels like an on-going conversation – a peek inside D’Angelo’s stream of consciousness. While its freeform, downtempo aesthetic alienates some, its intoxicating and jazz-like vibe surprises with each listen. With each track clocking in at six minutes or more, it wasn’t exactly radio-friendly. And its heavy use of back phrasing further puts you into a state of drugged euphoria. The album’s title takes on a literal meaning, it’s full of speaking in tongues, divine healing, and mystery.

The spoken word intros, outros, and bits of dialogue were a commonly used device at the time, (see any rap album and other neo-soulites (Lauryn Hill) that have only recently made a comeback on Solange’s A Seat At the Table. Amid these layered vocals, there is a heavy emphasis on guitars and horns on “Playa Playa” and especially “Chicken Grease” that puts the funk front and center. “The Line” meanwhile features more confessional lyrics, as he answers his critics “I’ve been gone, gone so long. Just wanna sing, sing my song, I know you’ve been hearin’, hearin’ a lot of things about me” in his breathy falsetto.

Sampling takes on an important role throughout the album, a practice that had been honed over the past decade, but D’Angelo does so with care, whether it’s Kool & the Gang‘s “Sea of Tranquility” on “Send it On” or the drums from Prince’s “I Wonder U” on “Africa.” Every track serves a purpose, there is no filler here. His cover of Roberta Flack’s “Feel Like Makin’ Love” is turned into a breezy song of seduction, while the Latin jazz-infused “Spanish Joint” hints at the heat to come.

But none of these songs fully prepare you for the ultimate slow-burn ballad that is “Untitled (How Does it Feel).” Co-written by Raphael Saadiq, it shall go down in the annals of makeout music history and even cuts off in the middle, leaving you wanting more. Whether consciously or subconsciously inspired by the “Purple One,” it was ironic that Prince seemed to be inspired as well, releasing “Call My Name” just a few years later.

Given such a beguiling track, it needed an equally provocative video to accompany it. At a time when every R&B video was dripping in bling, D’Angelo’s Grecian torso actually felt stripped down rather than an erotic performance. The song was a blessing and a curse. The video turned him into a sex symbol overnight but it also led to him becoming a recluse over the years. Voodoo still stands as a wildly innovative, forward-thinking, and challenging record, who knew it would take 14 years for D’Angelo to top it? As Questlove put it: “How can I scream someone’s genius if they hardly have any work to show for it? Then again, the last work he did was so powerful that it’s lasted ten years.”

Buy D’Angelo’s Voodoo on limited edition zoetrope vinyl.

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New Edition’s fifth LP, Heart Break, is set to be reissued on vinyl. The release will come in two formats, in standard black vinyl and a “colorless” vinyl.

Heart Break marked the Boston R&B group’s return to a quintet after Bobby Brown left the group. For Heart Break, Johnny Gill was added as a fifth member.

The album features seminal production from Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and produced a number of highlights like “Not My Kind of Girl,” “Boys to Men,” “Can You Stand The Rain,” and “If It Isn’t Love.” The album is certified double platinum by the RIAA.

The album was also a critical smash, in addition to all of the commercial accolades it earned. AllMusic editor Craig Lytle said the record was an “outstanding album overall,” and that it displayed “New Edition’s growth and maturity due in part to the production work of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and the addition of group newcomer Johnny Gill.”

Washington Post critic Joe Brown said that, “New Edition has grown up visibly and audibly, and it doesn’t hurt that they’ve taken on D.C.’s own Johnny Gill as front man. The lyrics on Heart Break exemplify the changes – as usual, Jam-Terry Lewis spent some time hanging out with the group, then tailored the tunes with an autobiographical slant.”

Jimmy Jam spoke about the album on its 25th anniversary with Rap Rehab. He explained how production for the album fused elements of classic R&B with more mainstream hip-hop. Jam said: “We used a lot of different drum machines. I think that was the first time we used an SP-1200. It was a very popular drum machine with New York hip-hop producers and we wanted some of that East Coast presence on the record. So, a lot of the sonic choices we made were along those lines. Hip-hop was a huge influence at that point in time. We wanted to meld hip-hop into some of the smooth R&B sounds. And they were the perfect group to do it.”

Buy New Edition’s Heart Break on vinyl here.

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Wednesday, January 21, 1959: Cecil B DeMille, the movie mogul who directed The Greatest Show On Earth, died. It was one of a few historic events that day. Not many people noticed another one, however, which led to what could also lay claim to being the greatest show on earth: the Motown Corporation’s first single, Marv Johnson’s “Come To Me,” was released on the Tamla label.

The company had little pedigree, no distribution deal, and Marvin Earl Johnson was a complete unknown. Just six short years later, Motown sold 15 million dollars’ worth of records and was on the way to becoming America’s biggest black-owned business. This unprecedented success started with Marv Johnson’s single and was built by label founder Berry Gordy, Jr’s spirit of enterprise, and his and Smokey Robinson’s unsurpassed instinct for a great record.

“I went into the master-making business,” said Berry Gordy of the early days of Tamla. “Some of the records we made went to other companies, we’d lease these records and we found a great deal of the profit was lost. We got very low royalty rates or did not receive royalty statements on time, and we would perhaps have gone out of business.” One of those leased records was “Come To Me,” which was licensed to United Artists after its limited release on Tamla showed commercial potential by gaining airplay around Detroit. UA pushed it to No.30 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

Listen to the best of Motown on Apple Music and Spotify.

“Come To Me” was a decent record, co-written by Gordy and Johnson. It already showed hints of the classic Motown sound in the emphasis on the tambourine-boosted dance beat, and the “Black-sounding” vocals, which contrasted strongly with the cheesy choirs deployed by the producers of some of the Jackie Wilson records Gordy had co-written in his initial foray into the business. Gordy borrowed $800 from his cautious family to get Johnson’s debut single released – and had to sign a contract agreeing on a repayment schedule to get his hands on the cash.

In some respects, Johnson was unlucky. His beautiful voice, floating elegantly between the styles of Clyde McPhatter and Jackie Wilson, put him in at the start of the greatest soul music company of all. But UA signed him after this initial hit and continued to release his records, which Gordy still co-wrote and produced. For a while it worked, and Johnson broached the US Top 10 with the classic “You Got What It Takes” and “I Love The Way You Love,” but this hitmaking run had faded by mid-’61. Meanwhile, Motown rose: Smokey’s group, The Miracles, the youthful Marvin Gaye, the dazzling Mary Wells, and the fabulous Marvelettes all benefited from working for a label at the heart of the nascent soul scene’s creativity, while the singer who’d helped start it all could not catch a break at UA. By the time he was free to sign to Motown in 1965, he was trying to compete with a roster of established stars, and his success was limited. But credit where credit is due: Marv Johnson’s “Come To Me” was key to launching a music-business legend.

“I’ll never forget we went up to a record plant in Owosso, American Record Pressing,” says Smokey Robinson, recalling a 100-mile trip north for Johnson’s groundbreaking single. “We were going to get the first batch of 45s – about a hundred records! It was the wintertime and the highway was like glass. We went over into a ditch twice – we had to be towed out. One time it was to avoid being crushed by a Mack truck! We finally got back to Detroit with the record and the local DJs started to play it. It was really the birth of Motown records.”

Shop our Motown collection featuring limited edition vinyl and CDs here.

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In February, José James will present a pair of shows celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Marvin Gaye’s I Want You.

The concerts will take place on Friday, February 6, in the Symphony Center at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Saturday, February 7, at the Matthews Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey. The vocalist and composer will be joined at both shows by Grammy-nominated singer Lizz Wright. More special guests will be announced. James has also assembled a world-class live band featuring guitarist Marcus Machado, bassist David Ginyard, and drummer Jharis Yokley.

Gaye released albums at a steady clip throughout the 1960s and ’70s, pretty much one record a year. In 1971, he unveiled a shift in artistic direction with What’s Going On, which commented on social, ecological, and human issues. Gaye followed that album with the 1972 soundtrack to the low-budget blaxploitation crime thriller Trouble Man. 1973’s Let’s Get It On introduced the loverman persona that Gaye would embody for the rest of his career. Three years later, he emerged with his 14th solo album, a bold blend of jazz, funk, R&B, soul, and disco that has had a profound impact on artists then and now.

After struggling to find a direction for his new album, Gaye was revived by meeting Leon Ware, songwriter for Michael Jackson, The Miracles, and Minnie Riperton, among many others. At the time of recording, Gaye was in a long-term romantic affair with Janis Hunter, who had inspired Let’s Get It On. Gaye’s obsession with the younger woman, who he would later marry, likely inspired the carnal desire that flows through I Want You.

The dancing scene of the album’s cover art, a 1971 painting by Ernie Barnes entitled “Sugar Shack,” made Gaye’s intentions for the album abundantly clear: he wanted his listeners to get-down to his erotic fantasies and sensual flights of fancy.

Buy Marvin Gaye’s music on vinyl or CD now.

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Last week, Teyana Taylor became a first-time Golden Globe winner for her performance in One Battle After Another. This week, she visited The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon for an interview and a performance of her song “Hard Part” featuring Lucky Daye.

“My first televised performance in a long time,” Taylor shared in a statement, “and wow it felt so good to be back… thank you Jimmy Fallon for having us and welcoming me back with so much love, warmth, and open arms. We all had a blast!!”

In the performance, Taylor and Daye sit across from each other onstage in a living room setup, trading verses about a relationship gone wrong. They join together on the chorus, singing: “Can’t believe you never said it to me/I never said it’d be еasy/But the hard part is over with it.”

“Hard Part” is featured on Taylor’s 2025 record Escape Room, which is nominated for Best R&B Album at the upcoming 68th Annual Grammy Awards. Escape Room was Taylor’s return to music following a five-year hiatus, and her first album distributed by Def Jam. Of the record, she told Variety: “I poured my heart into every layer, from the story to the sound, to capture that journey we all take through the shadows of heartbreak… and guide you toward the lightness of healing.”

Taylor additionally sat down for an interview with Fallon, where he showed off her new Golden Globe statue. The pair talked about the viral clip of Leonardo DiCaprio chatting animatedly during a commercial break, and Teyana’s quest to figure out the context behind it. Originally, she believed she “broke the Da Vinci code,” when she told Access Hollywood that Leo was talking to her about Kpop Demon Hunters, but walked back that claim after calling her co-star. “Apparently he had two KPop Demon Hunter conversations that night, so KPop Demon Hunters was just in his mouth all night!”

Shop Teyana Taylor’s Escape Room on vinyl or CD now.

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The best music videos of the 00s are a varied bunch. There’s unique visual trickery by masters of the form. There’s genre-defining moments in neo-soul and hip-hop, as well as genre-busting efforts by folks that subverted tropes built up since the arrival of MTV in August of 1981. What’s perhaps most interesting about this list of the best music videos of the 00s was the widespread arrival of the internet later in the decade. You can see a marked shift in the ways that musicians and film directors began to play with the format. It was a new era, for better or worse.

Buy the best 2000s music on vinyl and CD now.

50: Sum 41: Fat Lip (2001)

Directed by: Marc Klasfeld

These Canadian skate-punk rockers begin this anarchic video doing a short, impromptu four-part rap in a liquor store before the action cuts to a concert in a dry river bed, which is then interwoven with footage of the band acting up in front of the camera. Like the song it’s representing, the video is taut and frenetic but is also an honest portrait of the band’s raucous, youthful energy.

49: Birdman & Lil Wayne: Leather So Soft (2006)

Directed by: Aaron Courseault

Despite the fact that we see a dreadlocked Lil’ Wayne channeling his inner guitar-toting rock star on this video, it’s replete with all the usual hip-hop iconography; designer jewelry, expensive cars, and gyrating, scantily clad women. Somewhat bizarrely, though, it includes scenes featuring child ballet dancers and a woman using sign language; images that seem at odds with the song’s sexually explicit lyrics.

48: Dr. Dre feat. Eminem: Forgot About Dre (2001)

Directed by: Philip G. Atwell

Eminem channeled his Slim Shady alter ego in Dre’s angry riposte to other rappers who had disrespected him. In an unusual twist, the final minute of the video is devoted to Dre’s protégé Hitman, who’s seen performing his song “Last Dayz.”

47: Ludacris: Get Back (2004)

Directed by: Spike Jonze

Not all pop videos have glamorous settings; take the one to Ludacris‘ “Get Back,” for example, which begins with the rapper being hustled by a wannabe (played by ex-Pharcyde member Fatlip) while relieving himself in a public urinal. The video is also noteworthy for depicting Ludacris with huge, Popeye-like forearms.

46: Mariah Carey feat. Jay-Z: Heartbreaker (1999)

Directed by: Bret Ratner

Contractual reasons prevented Jay-Z taking part in this video, which resulted in an animated sequence appearing in the section of the song where he performs his rap. Costing an eye-watering $2.5 million, “Heartbreaker,” which was mainly shot in the historic Los Angeles Theatre, remains one of the most expensive and best pop music videos of the 00s.

45: Pulp: Bad Cover Version (2002)

Directed by: Jarvis Cocker and Martin Wallace

“Spot the lookalike” is the premise of this spoof documentary-style video which parodies Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas.” It features 29 celebrity doppelgangers; from David Bowie to Missy Elliott. Although Pulp‘s Jarvis Cocker is also represented by an impersonator, he appears in the video disguised as Queen’s Brian May.

44: Soulja Boy Tell’em: Crank That (Soulja Boy) (2007)

Directed by: Dale Resteghini

Atlanta MC Soulja Boy (real name DeAndre Cortez Way) ignited a new dance craze that spread like wildfire across America with his video to an insanely catchy tune that spent seven weeks at the summit for the US pop charts. The rapper’s label boss, music mogul “Mr. Collipark” appears as himself in the video.

43: Drake, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Eminem: Forever (2009)

Directed by: Hype Williams

Four hip-hop heavyweights assembled for this video promoting the first single from the soundtrack to basketball player LeBron James’ documentary More Than a Game. It was shot in a Miami hotel though Eminem filmed his contribution in Detroit. James appears briefly, playing online poker at the beginning of the video.

42: Damian Marley: Welcome to Jamrock (2005)

Directed by: Ras Kassa

The Jamaican Tourist Board certainly wouldn’t endorse Marley’s view of his country in the reggae singer’s hard-hitting video to his 2005 hit, which depicts what most visitors don’t see when they go there on vacation: crime, violence, poverty, and corrupt law enforcement agencies. Paradise lost? Absolutely.

41: Radiohead: Knives Out (2001)

Directed by: Michael Gondry

Anatomical and surgical imagery abound in this surreal early 2000s video, which finds singer Thom Yorke in a hospital while his partner undergoes a bizarre operation. Thankfully, the video for “Knives Out” made no reference to the song’s cannibalistic theme, but it still had a nightmarish quality that seemed to capture the disquieting tone of Radiohead’s music.

40: Fall Out Boy: Sugar We’re Goin Down (2005)

Directed by: Matt Lenski

The video for this Top 10 US hit by the quartet focuses on an angst-ridden teenager’s struggle between being himself and conforming to societal conventions. Filmed in Margaretville in the Catskill Mountains, it depicts a young man who’s born with antlers and charts his journey from self-loathing to self-acceptance.

39: Björk: Triumph of a Heart (2005)

Directed by: Spike Jonze

One of the most mind-boggling videos of the 2000s was this one by the Icelandic avant-pop queen, which shows the singer going on a drinking binge to escape her husband, who is played by a cat wearing a vest. Halfway through, there’s a raucous beat-boxing competition held in a bar before Björk reunites with her husband, now suited, who grows to human size and then dances with her. If social media had been more of a thing back then, we’re sure this would have been the source of a thousand memes.

38: Green Day: American Idiot (2004)

Directed by: Samuel Bayer

A protest song railing at what Green Day perceived as the propagandist tendencies of the mainstream US media, “American Idiot” came with a subversive video showing the Cali neo-punk trio playing on a soundstage with a green-tinted version of the American flag as a backdrop. The video mirrored both Green Day’s pent-up energy and the band’s innate rebelliousness.

37: Elton John: I Want Love (2001)

Directed by: Sam Taylor-Wood

The Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr, stars in this video, lip-syncing to Elton John‘s plaintive ballad as he strolls pensively through the luxurious Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills. It was filmed in one continuous take but took sixteen attempts to get it to the director’s satisfaction.

36: Destiny’s Child: Say My Name (2000)

Directed by: Joseph Kahn

Although they didn’t sing on the record, Michelle Williams and Farrah Franklin were installed as new members of Destiny’s Child in time for shooting “Say My Name’s” video. Their hasty recruitment meant they didn’t have much time to learn the video choreography but you wouldn’t guess that witnessing their assured moves in this colorful promo that remains one of the best music videos of the 00s.

35: Fountains of Wayne: Stacy’s Mom (2003)

Directed by: Chris Applebaum

The biggest US chart hit by these New York purveyors of punky power pop, “Stacy’s Mom” came with a video featuring actor/model Rachel Hunter as the titular character who fuels the sexual fantasies of an adolescent boy. Packed with hilarious vignettes, it deservedly topped both MTV and VH1’s video charts in 2003.

34: Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Y Control (2004)

Directed by: Spike Jonze

With its shocking image of children disemboweling and mutilating each other as well as playing with a dead dog, this video sparked outrage and vociferous protests in some quarters. Even so, it got played on MTV, which blurred out some of the film’s more gruesome scenes.

33: Justice: D.A.N.C.E. (2007)

Directed by: Jonas & Francois

This French electronic duo blended a Chic-inspired disco groove with children’s vocals for “D.A.N.C.E.,” whose attention-grabbing video cleverly married pop art iconography with animation. Most of the screen time is devoted to a series of images that appear in a continuous flow on the two musicians’ T-shirts. Easily one of the best music videos of the 00s.

32: Taylor Swift: You Belong With Me (2009)

Directed by: Roman White

“Be true to yourself” seems to be the leitmotif in this multi-award-winning video where Taylor Swift plays two opposing roles; a quiet, studious and sensitive person and a more brazen, shallow, and outgoing girl who’s more popular with boys. Both are adversaries in a rom-com style love war where ultimately, authenticity triumphs over posturing.

31: Red Hot Chili Peppers: Californication (2000)

Directed by: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

A rumination on how Hollywood exerts a powerful, sometimes dark, influence on people around the world, “Californication” resulted in the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ most popular video, which depicts the band as characters in a video game. To date, it has racked up over 800 million views on YouTube.

30: Daft Punk: Interstella 5555 (2003)

Directed by Leiji Matsumoto

The enigmatic French electronic duo’s second album Discovery was accompanied by this epic 65-minute dialogue-less sci-fi themed anime movie. Subtitled The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, it first appeared in four online installments before the full movie premiered on DVD.

29: Weezer: Pork and Beans (2008)

Directed by: Matthew Cullen

This was Weezer‘s response to their record company asking them to be more commercial: a defiant declaration of individuality, which produced a hilarious internet-inspired video featuring tons of cameos. It received a million views in its first week of release and in 2009 won a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video.

28: Kylie Minogue: Come Into My World (2002)

Directed by: Michel Gondry

Filming the Australian pop princess walking in a circle doesn’t sound like a viable idea for a music video but when you have French director Michel Gondry behind the camera, an unremarkable concept can blossom into an inspired visual symphony. One of the best music videos of the 00s, Minogue’s walkabout took place in Paris, used 50 extras, and was filmed in one continuous take.

27: Beyonce: Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) (2008)

Directed by: Jake Nava

Many pop videos of this era bombarded the viewer with a complex array of visual images but Beyoncé went for a relatively straightforward approach on this black and white promo film, which captured her dancing against an unchanging background. It’s powerful because it gives the impression that we are witnessing a complete, uninterrupted performance by the singer, whose dancing exudes mesmerizing energy.

26: Bat for Lashes: What’s a Girl to Do (2006)

Directed by: Dougal Wilson

British singer and auteur Bat For Lashes (real name Natasha Khan) funneled the spirit of her favorite sci-fi movie Donnie Darko in this video, where she’s seen riding a bike on a road at night accompanied by several insidious animal figures. Its surreal, nightmare quality harmonizes with the song’s unearthly ambience.

25: My Chemical Romance: Helena (2005)

Directed by: Marc Webb

This New Jersey band took the intense and brooding sound of emo into the mainstream with their single “Helena,” whose macabre video depicted a funeral filmed in a Los Angeles Presbyterian church. The song was supposedly inspired by the passing of frontman Gerard Way’s grandmother, though it’s doubtful she had a send-off like the one in the video.

24: Gorillaz: Clint Eastwood (2001)

Directed by: Jamie Hewlett and Pete Candeland

Ex-Blur singer Damon Albarn’s anime-inspired virtual band paid tribute to the titular Hollywood star by referencing the “Spaghetti Western” movie The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. The song’s colorful and entertaining animated video alludes to zombie movies and includes a pastiche of Michael Jackson’s 80s classic “Thriller” brought to life by undead, giant gorillas.

23: Kanye West: Stronger (2007)

Directed by: Hype Williams

Renowned as a perfectionist, Kanye West spent three months editing this video, which took twelve days to film and depicts a futuristic, robot-dominated world. Shot using guerrilla-filmmaking techniques in both Tokyo and Los Angeles, it won eight awards and stands as one of the best music videos of the 00s.

22: The Chemical Brothers: Star Guitar (2002)

Directed by: Michael Gondry

Some songs don’t require expensive and flashy music videos to resonate with viewers, as this Chemical Brothers promo film proves, which offers a continuous shot from a train window as it speeds through rural and urban landscapes. The resulting travelogue is perfectly in sync with the Mancunian dance duo’s evocative soundscape.

21: Bon Jovi: It’s My Life (2000)

Directed by: Wayne Isham

The New Jersey rock group’s most viewed video – which has exceeded one billion views – stars actors Will Estes and Shiri Appleby as the song’s main characters Tommy and Gina. Its scenes where Tommy dodges a succession of obstacles as he runs to meet Gina was inspired by the action sequences in the 1998 German movie Run Lola Run.

20: Nelly: Dilemma (2002)

Directed by: Benny Boom

Ex-Destiny’s Child singer Kelly Rowland is the object of Nelly‘s furtive desire in this video set in a fictional suburb called “Nellyville.” If you think the actor playing Rowland’s mother looks familiar, it’s because she’s soul music legend Patti LaBelle.

19: Snoop Dogg feat. Pharrell Williams: Drop It Like It’s Hot (2004)

Directed by: Paul Hunter

The inherent simplicity of this catchy hip-hop dance groove – just a bare beat behind some dope rhymes – is echoed in the starkness of its distinctive, award-winning black and white video. Although it features all the stereotypical accouterments associated with rap videos – weed smoking, scantily clad women, flash cars, and designer jewelry – the promo exudes a certain clean-cut elegance.

18: Feist: 1234 (2007)

Directed by: Patrick Daughters

Shooting a pop video in one continuous take is a challenging task, especially if, like this one, it involves complex choreography and directing 100 dancers. After many hours of rehearsal, “1234” took over 20 takes to get right, but as the beautifully realized end product reveals, the director’s perfectionism was justified. One of the most complicated (and best) music videos of the 00s.

17: Christina Aguilera: Dirrty (2002)

Directed by: David Lachapelle

With its sweaty sequences depicting a women’s boxing match, mud wrestling, and bump ‘n’ grind dance moves, this is one of those videos that will prompt many viewers to yearn for a cold, cleansing shower. Described by one reviewer as a “post-apocalyptic orgy,” Aguilera’s video was highly controversial but that didn’t stop it topping MTV’s video chart.

16: The Strokes: Last Nite (2001)

Directed by: Roman Coppola

The New York rock band used a simple concept for one of their first music videos: Play live on a large soundstage that looked more than reminiscent of a group like The Beatles playing the Ed Sullivan Show. For a back-to-basics rock group, it was the perfect fit for their debut album.

15: Lady Gaga: Bad Romance (2009)

Directed by: Francis Lawrence

This risqué video by the queen of art pop – where she’s kidnapped, sold into slavery, and then exacts revenge – is what you’d expect from an artist who likes to take creative risks and break boundaries. Replete with outlandish costumes and stunning ensemble choreography, it confirmed GaGa as one of pop’s most provocative video makers of the 00s.

14: White Stripes: Fell In Love with a Girl (2002)

Directed by: Michel Gondry

Some music videos eschew glossy, high-tech gadgetry, unlike this one to The White Stripes’ garage rock classic, which relied entirely on hand-assembled constructions of Legos. The promo film was painstakingly pieced together using single-frame shots which were then segued to create an unforgettable moving montage, the spirit of which seemed to mirror the band’s DIY aesthetic.

13: 50 Cent: In Da Club (2003)

Directed by: Philip Atwell

Dr. Dre and Eminem pose as lab scientists in this futuristic video set at a top secret “Artist Development Center” where we first glimpse 50 Cent as a cyborg being repaired on an operating table. (A reference, perhaps, to the rapper being shot seven times in real life). The video won two MTV awards and in 2020, surpassed one billion YouTube views.

12: The Avalanches: Frontier Psychiatrist (2000)

Directed by: Tom Kuntz and Mike Maguire

For the uninitiated, seeing this video might be likened to experiencing a drug-induced hallucination, such is the surreal quality of its imagery. The video is presented as a continuous stage performance with a host of different characters voicing the song’s many sampled fragments of dialogue.

11: Rihanna feat. JAY-Z: Umbrella (2007)

Directed by: Chris Applebaum

Rihanna unsurprisingly grabbed the Video Of The Year gong at MTV’s 2007 Music Video Awards for her visually stunning promo film for “Umbrella,” which involved her body being smeared with silver paint during a sequence filmed in black and white. That USP combined with neon-style rain effects conspired to make an unforgettable pop music video.

10: Johnny Cash: Hurt (2003)

Directed by: Mark Romanek

Cash was in the twilight of his career and seven months from death when he shot the video for his haunting cover of Nine Inch Nails’ funereal ballad. Contrasting archive footage of a younger Cash with his older, frailer, self transforms the video into a poignant, requiem-like, reflection of the country legend’s life and career.

09: Erykah Badu: Honey (2007)

Directed by: Erykah Badu and Chris Robinson

Set in a record store, this ingenious video embodies Erykah Badu‘s musical eclecticism and pays tribute to her many musical influences. We follow a customer thumbing through racks of LPs from different genres – ranging from Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain to The Beatles’ Let It Be – and each one finds a moving image of Badu as part of the album artwork.

08: Britney Spears: Toxic (2004)

Directed by: Joseph Kahn

“Appearances can be deceptive” seems to be the message of this classic spy-themed video, where Spears morphs from a blonde flight attendant into a thrill-seeking redhead and finally into a raven-haired femme fatale. In between, Spears can be seen performing in a transparent, diamond-studded bodysuit, which caused controversy and prompted MTV to limit the video to nighttime viewing.

07: Missy Elliott: Work It (2002)

Directed by: Dave Meyers

Elliot’s producer Timbaland and his protégé, singer Tweet, appear in this vibrant video with elaborate choreography. It also features Cheaper By The Dozen child actor Alyson Stoner executing some breakdance moves. The rapper also pays homage to the late R&B stars Aaliyah and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, whose images adorn a car hood with the words “In Loving Memory.” Clearly one of the best music videos of the 00s.

06: Pink, Mya, Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim: Lady Marmalade (2001)

Directed by: Paul Hunter

This spirited reboot of a classic 70s LaBelle number appeared in the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann’s hit movie, Moulin Rouge!, and produced an eye-catching video where its lingerie-clad stars fused contemporary hip-hop sass with vintage Parisian cabaret to stunning effect. Unsurprisingly, it scooped the Best Video Of The Year prize at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards.

05: Eminem: Stan (2000)

Directed by: Dr Dre and Philip Atwell

British singer Dido, whose song “Thank You” served as the sampled hook line in “Stan,” starred in the song’s cinematic video as the pregnant girlfriend of an obsessive, unstable Eminem fan whose life ends in tragedy. Aside from its standing as one of the best music videos of the 00s, the word stan has also come to become a major part of fan culture.

04: OK Go: Here It Goes Again (2006)

Directed by: Trish Sie

One of the best-choreographed scenes in a 00s music video was provided by this Windy City indie rock quartet for “Here It Goes Again,” where the band members dance both on and in between eight strategically placed treadmills. Filmed in a single continuous take, it took them seventeen attempts to perfect their routine but the final result, which won a Grammy, was undoubtedly worth the extra effort.

03: Fatboy Slim: Weapon of Choice (2001)

Directed by: Spike Jonze

The British DJ and producer didn’t appear in the video for his second music promo clip with Spike Jonze; instead, he allowed pop culture icon Christopher Walken to dance his way through the track in an empty hotel. The pièce de résistance is when the Hollywood legend levitates across the room.

02: Outkast: Hey Ya (2003)

Directed by: Brian Barber

Though it was set in London, the inspiration behind the Atlanta hip-hop duo’s multi-award-winning video for their No. 1 US smash was The Beatles’ debut appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. It finds singer André 3000 playing all eight members of a faux eight-piece band called The Love Below in front of screaming fans.

01: D’Angelo: Untitled (How Does It Feel?) (2000)

Directed by: Paul Hunter

The concept of this video was to make the viewer feel that they were having one-on-one time with a very ripped-looking D’Angelo, who appears to be naked (though we only see his upper torso) as he sings directly at the camera. The promo was successful in mirroring the intimate vibe of the neo-soul man’s song, and is still regarded as one of the best music videos of the 00s.

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