Hip-hop quiz: Name these hits from rap’s ’80s and ’90s golden age from just their first second.

Pop Quiz: Can You Name These Classic Hip-Hop Hits by Just Their First Second?

Pop Quiz: Can You Name These Classic Hip-Hop Hits by Just Their First Second?

Brow Beat has moved! You can find new stories here.
Brow Beat
Slate's Culture Blog
Nov. 18 2014 12:16 PM

Pop Quiz: Can You Name These Classic Hip-Hop Hits by Just Their First Second?

Photo illustration by Ellie Skrzat. Photos by Vince Bucci/Getty Images, Stringer PN/Reuters, Blake Sell/Reuters, and Mario Anzuoni/Reuters.
A few of old-school hip-hop's finest.

Photo illustration by Ellie Skrzat for Slate. Photos by Vince Bucci/Getty Images, Stringer PN/Reuters, Blake Sell/Reuters, and Mario Anzuoni/Reuters.

This summer we asked whether you could identify hits of the ’90s, ’80s, ’70s, ’60s, and today from just their first second. We drew from each decade’s biggest hits, but some genres were inevitably underrepresented: Hits from ’80s and early ’90s rap, for example, rarely got the radio play required to make a major No. 1 hit, and so they didn’t show up as often on our quizzes.

This week we’re going to correct that with a quiz of songs just from hip-hop’s “golden age.” Break out your boombox, your Kangol bucket hat, and, of course, your Adidas, and see if you can name these classic tracks.

Chris Kirk is a web developer at New York magazine and Slate’s former interactives editor. Follow him on Twitter.

Forrest Wickman is Slate’s culture editor.