8709 Special | Crunk Came, Saw, and Conquered

Watching the idiot box when I came across Lil' Jon & the Eastside Boyz's "What U Gon' Do." It seems like for-e-ver since Crunk capitalized on Easy Bake rhymes and bombastic southern funk. I was a middle schooler when Jonathon Smith unleashed "What!?!?" & "Okay!!!" in our music veracular, and as a youngin' I became addicted. I rode the crunkmobile all the way to high school right up until lyrical competance became a significant part of hip-hop again. Nontheless Crunk will always hold a special part in hip-hop history......and *tear* in my heart. So here are my top five favorite Crunk hits.

• Let's Go - Trick Daddy ft. Twista & Lil' Jon - Between the "Crazy Train" sample and the inescapable ad-libs from Mr. Smith, this was a definite banger. The year it came out our high school band would tease us with the first 16 bars, and then go into the rest of Ozzy's original headbanger.

• Knuck If U Buck - Crime Mob -

  "I'm that ghetto, pistol-holding nigga on your damn street"

• Some Cut - Trillville ft. Cutty - Damn. My dad even bumped this crunksexycool song. I wasn't sure what cut was then, but i do know. LMAO Dude's voice on the chorus was too cool. Sounded like a 70s pimp.

• Wait (the Whisper Song) - The Ying Yang Twins - How do I explain this one? I first heard this on our church bus on a local trip to WalMart. Don't ask.

• U and Dat - E-40 ft. T-Pain - Monumental moment where Crunk paired with its west coast cousin Hyphy for clubtastic results. I was obsessed with this track for awhile.

Honorable mentions: Damn - Youngbloodz Freek-a-leek - Petey Pablo Neva Eva - Trillville Get Low - Lil Jon & the Eastside Boyz ft. Ying Yang Twins