Best Rap Single of the 90s Tournament: 1996

[OHSNAP!]

Crossroads or Cali Love, nothing comes close. Both stormed charts worldwide while being both phenomenal and highly influential, true classic cuts

 

[badboys11]

if i ruled the world. that song was magnificent. i was in baltimore the day it was written came out, bought the album and the new source magazine with nas on the cover, those 2 went hand in hand. hearing the message for the first time that was the intro for the video it just brings back so many memories

 

[mobbinfms]

Crossroads or Cali Love, nothing comes close. Both stormed charts worldwide while being both phenomenal and highly influential, true classic cuts

They’re tied up right now

 

[Illeye buckmatic]

:naswon:
Unbiased opinion 2pac

 

[mobbinfms]

:naswon:
Unbiased opinion 2pac

Pac takes the lead

 

[Techniec]

at the time i recall crossroads being bigger, but years later ive heard california love get played 100 times for each time cross roads got played



tough one for me...pac my goat...bone my fav rap group

i chose crossroads but cant go wrong with either one

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

You need to link all these in the OP of each thread...or maybe just the 1990 or 1999 thread

 

[Homeboy Runny-Ray]

I'm not into post-death retrospect thing. crossroads owned that year by a mile. shouldn't even be close.

like somebody said earlier, California love wasn't even really bigger than WOO-HAH.

shame how busta should prolly be in 2nd place, but he ends up 2nd-to-last.
​

at the time i recall crossroads being bigger, but years later ive heard california love get played 100 times for each time cross roads got played

you know dead rappers get better promotion.

 

[mobbinfms]

I'm not into post-death retrospect thing. crossroads owned that year by a mile. shouldn't even be close.

like somebody said earlier, California love wasn't even really bigger than WOO-HAH.

shame how busta should prolly be in 2nd place, but he ends up 2nd-to-last.
​

you know dead rappers get better promotion.

Crossroads was definitely the biggest.
California Love was objectively bigger than Woo Hah. CL went to number one and stayed there two weeks. Woo Hah didn’t do that.

As for hearing CL more than Crossroads now, that’s prinarily due to the fact that Crossroads isn’t gonna get played at a club.

 

[mobbinfms]

Is Crossroads gonna go out like Uncle Charles?

 

[FreshAIG]

Crossroads was 100% the biggest single of 1996 but it wasn't the best to me.

 

[Bugsmoran]

Honorable Mention



Crucial Conflict - hay



De la Soul - stakes is high

 

[kingofnyc]

this site, really hates biggie & jay z

 

[ChuckTaylor84]

California Love was huge

 

[Homeboy Runny-Ray]

California Love was huge

yea

but crossroads was huger.

clearly.
​

Crossroads was definitely the biggest.
California Love was objectively bigger than Woo Hah. CL went to number one and stayed there two weeks. Woo Hah didn’t do that.

As for hearing CL more than Crossroads now, that’s prinarily due to the fact that Crossroads isn’t gonna get played at a club.

I think he was referring to radio & video play. cali love gets way more play than crossroads in revisionist retrospect. shoot, theres a lot of singles that they give a lot more airplay to now. even some 2nd-tier stuff. its a shame how you go from both single & video of the year on mad outlets, to getting the same retrospect runs as joints that didn't even crack the top 20 at the end of the year. all while your catalog is still selling better than 98% of these people.

cali love may have charted higher, but woo-hah had a better run on the daily countdowns. they were out at the same time too.
in fairness, "new York new York" may have taken a lot of votes away from "cali love".