A decade ago, Kanye West, this era's most compelling pop musician, released his first album. The conflicted artist presented on The College Dropout—an avowed-Christian backpacker rapping about money, hoes, and rims again—has only grown more complicated in the years since then, and the result is a contradictory, often frustrating body of work. That is to say, an inadvisable subject for ranking.

The 90s were the "Golden Age" of hip hop. Brooklyn is Brooklyn. These are the nine best Brooklyn-themed hip hop tracks of the 90s.