Yo, yo, yo, it’s Tunesday! Let’s take it back to the early 2000s to hear ten of the most poppin’ shawties in Y2K hip-hop. These ladies preceded and inspired modern rap, set fashion standards, took pop culture by storm and did it all with a badass attitude and NSFW vocab. Prepare to get offended by a diss, dance to some dope beats and laugh at graphic descriptions of sexy times. Explicit content ahead! 

SLIDE – MISSY ELLIOT Whenever this comes on, I magically time travel to a packed, pumping RnB club in late 2002. I’m wearing apple bottom jeans, a Juicy Couture velvet zip-up and destroying the dancefloor to this insane techno beat. I can so clearly picture potential choreography for this one too, which isn’t hard, as the lyrics outline strict instructions for grooving: “slide, slide, dip, shake, move it all around.” Missy hits us with the slammer: "Your chain platinum or is it really sterling?” As someone who mainly wears stainless steel: ouch, girl!

A-ALIKES – JEAN GRAE Throughout “A-Alikes,”I forget if I’m listening to a song or reading Baroque poetry because of fire lines like, “A burnt sky scorched the earth's flesh / At the same time the murderous text arose / Like a phoenix with the glow of death.” That is a literary genius. Raised by two jazz musicians, rap-poet Jean Grae is a hidden gem forged in the New York underground hip-hop scene, and comic fans may have picked up on the fact that her stage name is a reference to the X-Men character Jean Gray. She’s been working under no label since 2008, but she will always have her page in the history book of female hip-hop, praised for her clarity and cadence. 

QUIET (FT. THE GAME) – LIL KIM Another NYC local, Lil Kim spent much of her young adulthood on the streets until fellow rap legend, The Notorious B.I.G., invited her to join his group Junior M.A.F.I.A. Successful hip-hop stars need three things: good rhymes, a fiery attitude and the ability to write a good diss line, and Kim ticks every box. I’m a big fan of her saying all the big tough gangster men are actually “softer than chinchillas,” she also infers her rivals in the genre use “ghost writers,” which is pretty ruthless. They don’t call her the Queen Bee of rap for nothing.

212 (FT. LAZY JAY) – AZEALIA BANKS OK, this one is from 2012, but this song is so good we’ll give it a pass. I was listening to this as a freshly spawned teen with no idea what the lyrics were or what they meant – probably for the best. No one raps by Azealia. She uses filthy words like string and beads and weaves them all together to form this weird, clunky necklace of a song, but it works, and once you start listening, you can’t stop. In “212”, the beat sounds to me like dancing in the sand. It’s the newest song in today’s list and it’s pushing the barriers of Y2K, but it’s so unforgivingly iconic, how could we not throw it in?

SATISFACTION – EVE We’ve probably all heard “Let Me Blow Your Mind,” which slaps, but just a year later Eve delivered the ingeniously titled album Eve-olution, where “Satisfaction” debuted. A lot of ladies in the scene had humble beginnings (to say the least), and Eve is no exception. Her big break came being signed to Dr Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment, and she reminds us in “Satisfaction” how she overcame her doubters in pursuit of the rap dream: “Everything I am, just because I had to make it happen / They never thought that I would make it rappin'.” Her triumph is inspiring, and hearing it mixed with a funky beat is all the better.

I DON’T CARE – FOXY BROWN If you’ve been listening along as we go, you know by now how great hip-hoppers are at dissing competitors. It’s one thing to clap back with a clever comeback, but Foxy Brown teaches us the best way to deal with such negativity: don’t care! She spits the lines, “I don't care if I might be on top, I can give a flyin' f---k If you like me or not,” and I fail to think of a better attitude one could have towards being famous. This is what I listen to post-personal epiphany after feeling down, to reiterate the only person who gets to judge me is myself.

FAMILY AFFAIR – MARY J. BLIGE Hip-hop and soul are a natural combination, and no one does it better than Ms. Blige. This was the first single from the 2001 album No More Drama and remains one of Blige’s biggest hits. I still struggle to understand the line, “Let’s get it crunk upon,” but whatever it means, it still makes me want to dance. If you feel the need to break into some freestyle popping and locking too, I won’t stop you. I’ll just be over here, getting “crunk” to Mary J.

GOT IT POPPIN – DA BRAT I feel like this is what all the duck nail McBling older sisters were listening to in their ‘90s Nissan Pulsars in 2003. Sorry if that’s too specific, but Da Brat’s voice paints a very specific picture of the life of a rap queen in the early 2000s. Acts like hers helped forge the way for modern rap women like Nicki Minaj, Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B by expressing sensual female experiences without fear of backlash. It’s hard to believe she sang in a church choir as a kid. She’s got “so, so many dudes,” “platinum cards,” and “a bottle of Seagram’s gin,” all in “the Very Important People section.” Doesn’t sound half bad!

STILL – REMY MA Let’s get real for a second. I love women rapping about the lavishes of the lifestyle, slinging disses and getting lyrically slick on the topic of sex. I also love these strong women spilling their emotions to a beat like the pages of a diary, being honest with their fans and family. Remy Ma does just that in “Still.” Dealing with self-doubt and change are part of the human experience and Remy manages to juggle both with sentimental grace, smooth flow and respect. The last lines of the chorus double as the last lines of the song, and leave us gentle and thoughtful: “Ain’t sh-t changed, naw, I’m still the same / So wish me well.”

REACH OUT – TRINA Remember those retro buttons and dial tones on your flip phone? Who would’ve thought to make that into a sick beat? Trina, that’s who! A major theme in female hip-hop is self-love and she sums it up in one line: “I'm so sexy I could kiss myself.” Put that on a bumper sticker with a lipstick kiss print! I reckon this song is also on the burnt CD of the McBling girls listening to Da Brat’s “Got It Poppin”. And next time you get a spam call, Trina has the perfect comeback in “Reach Out’s” intro: “Well I didn't give you my number so you shouldn't call my phone!”