411’s Top 100 Songs of the 2000s: #40 – 21

Posted by Mitch Michaels on 12.02.2009

Join the 411 Music staff as we continue to count down the absolute best songs the decade had to offer. Part four features tracks by Rihanna, Kanye, 50 Cent, Metallica and more…

Thanks for joining us for yet another week. We're heading for the final stretch of our look back on the first decade of the new millennium, where the 411 Music crew has assembled what we believe are the Top 100 songs to be recorded and played over the past ten years.

Back a couple of months ago, we all compiled our list of the Top 100 songs of the 2000s. The only rule was that the song had to be released or chart sometime between 2000 and now. We then compiled those lists and pared them down to the best 150, and from THAT list we determined the cream of the crop.

This is the result. This is…


This is week four – the second to last set of twenty. Just that much better than #100-41 which, by the way, you can catch up on here, here and here.

So check it out, and if you don't know some of these songs – don't let this decade end without hearing them!

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#40Wolf Like Me TV On The Radio from Return To Cookie Mountain
		Chart History: Released July 25, 2006 #37 Modern Rock
"No song this decade had more primal energy than ‘Wolf Like Me' and it also is probably the sexiest song released in some time. Singer Tunde Adebimpe lets the tension and power build along with the rest of the band. The result is both cathartic and exhausting, with Adebimpe delivers lines like ‘We're howling forever,' with the proper amount of knowing sexuality, turning them into vicious come-ons. In addition, the production - like on most TVOTR songs - is flawless, with the song adding up to far more than the sum of its parts. ‘Wolf Like Me' is in my opinion one of the decade's best songs because it's an unrelenting attack on the sense and soul, the type of intricate and emotional music TVOTR have turned into an art form." - Andrew Moll

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#39Times Like These Foo Fighters from One By One
		Chart History: Released January 6, 2003 #65 Hot 100 #5 Modern Rock #5 Mainstream Rock
"Great and has a timeless feel to it. If we can be specific, I think the acoustic version of this song is leaps and bounds better than the already great original version. Sure, Dave Grohl was the drummer for arguably the best band of the 90's, but with tracks like this and dozens more he proves himself to be one of the best overall musicians AND writers in music. Screw it, I'll say it. I liked Nirvana's music and loved Kurt, but Dave Grohl is the backbone of the rock music of the 00's." - Mikey MiGo

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#38Judith A Perfect Circle from Mer de Noms
		Chart History: Released August 8, 2000 #4 Mainstream Rock #5 Modern Rock
"Layered, haunting beauty with some of the most iconic instrumental hooks of recent years, and Maynard at his characteristic emotive best. More accessible and traditional in formula than Tool, but more direct for that. A heartfelt ballad or controversial deity bashing, it doesn't matter as either interpretation appeals to me deeply and the whole song is a work of genius, pure & simple." - Chris Crowing "Maynard is represented very well in this one. The first band I ever saw live was in fact A Perfect Circle. It was before this single hit the airwaves and before Mer De Noms was released. Since then we've gotten a couple more Tool and a handful of A Perfect Circle albums. Outside some of the tracks of the most recent Tool album, this is easily the biggest hit of Maynard's 00's." - Mikey MiGo "If it weren't for Maynard Keenan's involvement in the critical and media darling band, Tool, this one would probably never have gotten played (simply because of its damning subject matter). Thank God, however, that everyone latched onto the singer and let it fly anyway. What came out was a dense-yet-simple condemnation that stuck under the skin and stayed there for quite a while." - Michael Melchor

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#37Ether Nas from Stillmatic
		Chart History: Released December 18, 2001 #50 R&B/Hip-Hop
"'Processed Beef' - This was the phrase that I coined to describe the idiocy of the hip-hop beef that we've been inundated with over the past 10 years. Beef in hip-hop is nothing new, but when you constantly hear of Rapper-A getting at Rapper-B over something incredibly stupid, or Rapper A getting at Rapper C for simply doing a song with Rapper-B, and none of this foolishness results in a good record from any of them...It's enough to make you embarrassed to be a hip-hop fan. However, this song deserves to be on this list, as both this and Jigga's ‘Takeover' are the two best songs to ever come out of processed beef." - Phil Watts, Jr. "Much like Eminem's ‘Stan' phrase entering the hip-hop lexicon, Nas' ‘Ether' also has a spot there for describing someone who has been utterly destroyed on the mic. In 2001, Jay-Z and Nas were engaged in a war of words and arguably coming out of a creative slump in terms of their music. ‘Ether' easily helped Nas make a triumphant return to the hip-hop scene, having released Nastradamus, his weakest album, two years earlier. Attacking Jay brutally from the very start, ‘Ether' shows Nas at his most relentless and the significance of this song is that had it not been come to fruition, Nas and Jay-Z may well have retired somewhere in the earlier part of this decade. Instead, both got stronger as a result of their feud and this song." - Patrick Robinson

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#36Slither Velvet Revolver from Contraband
		Chart History: Released May 24, 2004 #56 Hot 100 #1 Mainstream #1 Modern Rock
"In the midst of a decade ruled by cookie-cutter acts, with just the right hairstyles and a socially-acceptable amount of angst, the sheer joyous sleaze of ‘Slither' was a breath of fresh (possible not the right word) air. There's the rumbling introduction to a serious contender for Riff of the Decade, all set off to perfection by Scott Weiland's snake-hipped, cynical-lipped front-man act. Very rarely in modern times has being bad seemed so, well BAD! That's a good thing...Weiland, McKagan, Slash & company simply ooze rock credibility – this is how it's meant to be, dirty, riffy goodness with a world weary and cynical overtone. You can keep your scene of the moment, thanks but no thanks!" - Chris Crowing

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#35Fell In Love With A Girl The White Stripes from White Blood Cells
		Chart History: Released April 23, 2002 #121 Hot 100 #12 Modern Rock
"‘Fell in Love with a Girl' was the song that made people pay attention to the White Stripes and it's a quick burst of rock, clocking in at under two minutes. The song is so frenetic and energetic that the band and track didn't need anything more than Jack and Meg pounding away. A big part of why the song is so memorable, however, is Michel Gondry's groundbreaking video with its Lego animation of the band thrashing around that was a hit on MTV. But the song is so good that it didn't need a video to make audiences remember it; all you need to hear is Jack's great riff and those catchy vocals to know how good it is." - Andrew Moll

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#34Kick, Push Lupe Fiasco from Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor
		Chart History: Released April 18, 2006 #78 Hot 100 #56 R&B/Hip-Hop
"The successes of both Common and Kanye gave many MC's the freedom to talk about other subjects in their songs. In this case, Lupe Fiasco, who tried to start his career as a Cassidy-sound-alike thug rapper, took the opportunity to talk about his love for SKATEBOARDING. Yeah, a lot of skateboard crews came out and called him a poser, but the simple fact that he would come out in the open with a song about skateboarding while everyone else was about thuggin' (and the fact that the song got the mainstream airplay that it did) was one of 2006's biggest surprises." - Phil Watts, Jr. "The best song on Lupe Fiasco's debut Food & Liquor, ‘Kick, Push' is also without a doubt one of the best hip-hop songs of the decade. Lupe uses skateboard culture as the background for a song about getting older and falling in love. The beautiful and lush strings and horns make this song stand out from most everything else you hear in hip-hop. There's also a joy and easiness in his simple of refrain of ‘Kick, push, coast,' and that's part of the reason why Lupe Fiasco is so good and so enjoyable to listen to." - Andrew Moll

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#33Time To Pretend MGMT from Oracuar Spectacular
		Chart History: Released March 3, 2008 #23 Modern Rock
"This single took time to resonate with me. It appeared in many a teen prime time soap drama in 2008, not bad for a couple of college kids from Brooklyn. The sound is very European, but the single about the decadence that comes along with being famous made this a synth pop gem." - Tom Santoro "This ode/send up of rock star excesses contains one of the best hooks of the decade. That keyboard instantly draws you into the song and gets it stuck in your head for days. MGMT's lyrics are dripping with sarcasm, as they sing, ‘We'll choke on our vomit and that will be the end/We were fated to pretend.' There aren't many songs that have that amount of humor to go along with a memorable keyboard riff and an infectious hook, but MGMT achieved it with ‘Time to Pretend.'" - Andrew Moll

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#32In Da Club 50 Cent from Get Rich Or Die Tryin'
		Chart History: Released February 4, 2003 #1 Hot 100 #1 R&B/Hip-Hop #1 Rap
"Dance floors still fill as soon as the Dr. Dre beat hits and 50 starts to chant ‘Go shorty, its your birthday.' As the first single off of Get Rich or Tryin', which went on to sell 12 million copies worldwide, ‘In Da Club' announced the beginning of 50 Cent's move from underground upstart to commercial force. The songs finds 50 temporarily letting down his tough guy façade, flexing his new Shady/Aftermath connection and, as he raps, ‘toasting to the good life.' Also check out the spot on mashup of ‘In Da Club' and Nine Inch Nail's ‘Closer'." - Michael James "Dr. Dre really is an evil genius deep down because in one way or another, he's responsible for a large part of the songs appearing on this list. Handling the production duties for ‘In Da Club', he struck gold with yet another beat that will go down in hip-hop history as one of the most memorable ever made. 50 may not be the best rapper, far from it, but on this track, he managed to display his versatile flow which has always been a strong point for him. It's one of those tracks that gets people dancing and the opening lines have almost guaranteed it a spot during play lists for birthdays and to me, had 50 not released this as a single, I doubt he'd be as famous as he is today - it was that significant." - Patrick Robinson

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#31Down With The Sickness Disturbed from Sickness
		Chart History: Released October 31, 2000 #104 Hot 100 #5 Mainstream Rock #8 Modern Rock
"‘Down With the Sickness' is an iconic song that deserves Top 10 status in my opinion. The passion, fury, and heaviness in this song are among the most that I have ever heard and Disturbed delivered a gem with this one. Dave Draiman's barking vocals are ferocious and straight up scary. Honestly, this song is scarier than Dawn of the Dead. Disturbed would be high on my list of top bands of the 2000's and ‘Down With the Sickness' is their crown jewel. I have very fond memories of this song as my high school football team would blast it in the locker room before every single game to get pumped up. With that strategy, we won two state titles and went to three in four years - that proves that ‘Down With The Sickness' gets your adrenaline pumping like no other and that is why it is on this list of the greatest songs of the decade." - Jacob Leo "Many point at ‘Stupify' to see where Disturbed first made their name. That was a decent start, but this may be where it all started to happen for them. David Draiman would come to somewhat regret the ‘sound effects' he did in this song and all over the first album, but, in between the warnings of someone coming completely unraveled and the rant against his ‘mommy', I'm not sure how many people really notice those ‘effects' today." - Michael Melchor

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#30What You Know T.I. from King
		Chart History: Released February 28, 2006 #3 Hot 100 #1 R&B/Hip-Hop #1 Rap #10 Pop
" T.I. was certainly already famous by pretty much anyone's standards...and then came ‘What You Know.' This is, without hesitation, my favorite hip-hop song of the decade and I'm not ashamed to say it in the least. This is the quintessential big summer track - I can still remember driving around Bloomington, Illinois in the middle of July just blasting this song and being totally unable to keep myself from feeling slightly tougher just by proxy. It sounds - and probably is - totally ridiculous, but the slow, don't-give-a-damn pacing, the absolutely epic layered synth line, and T.I.'s cocksure delivery make this one of the most epic, heavy songs of the last ten years - hip-hop or otherwise." - Mac Scarle

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#29Californication Red Hot Chili Peppers from Californication
		Chart History: Released June 20, 2000 #69 Hot 100 #1 Modern Rock #1 Mainstream Rock
"RHCP had already went from well-tenured rock band to world-renown when Californication was released. Amazingly, after years of being a bouncy, funky underground act, RHCP took the fame that ‘Give It Away' allowed them and used it as a jumping off point for a more mellow, more mature sound. And God, did it ever work. The Californication album was so revolutionary to their sound that it completely changed the way the world listened to the band. Even now – ten years later – the band plays very little from their older albums in their live shows. And for good reason – RHCP have been consistent hit makers for this entire decade, building off of this sound. The title track was the fourth single from the album, but still caught fire at radio and earned the band their third gold single. ‘Californication' features some of Anthony Keidis' best writing – peering us into the dark corners of the seedy L.A. that he knows all too well, while also peeling off those layers of shine from the things we think we know. Throw in John Frusciante's melancholy guitar riff and you have a classic. And who knew this would be the beginning of a trilogy?" - Mitch Michaels

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#28All Nightmare Long Metallica from Death Magnetic
		Chart History: Released December 15, 2008 #9 Mainstream Rock
"A flurry of rolling riffs, a catchy chorus and more headbanging goodness than you'll find at your local Viking drinking hall, this song, like almost every track from Death Magnetic, was a clarion call that the Four Horsemen are back. Seventeen years on from their last genuine crack at 'classic' material, Metallica were back on a mission, and it showed. Tossing riffs, rolls, licks and lyrics about with joyous abandon, this is the sound of a band having FUN, and just happening to be the very best heavy metal band in the world, ever. I'd say that this song isn't #1 as the voting for the tracks from Death Magnetic was split between the various songs (‘Cyanide', ‘the Judas Kiss' and ‘The Day That Never Comes'.) Not a definitive uber-single like ‘Enter Sandman', but a damn near definitive statement nonetheless." - Chris Crowing

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#27Party Hard Andrew W.K. from I Get Wet
		Chart History: Released October 29, 2001 #14 UK
"Released just after September 11th, Mr. W.K. gave us a reason to forget all those terrorists. The entire album has titles about partying with this being the most famous. There is no reinvention of the wheel; it is loud, hard and about partying. There is no room for interpretation." - Tom Santoro "At almost any other time Andrew W.K. and his first single would have been catapulted to mega stardom. Unfortunately, nu metal was in its final phase of arena size popularity and modern rock radio was beginning to play indie bands on the air. The mainstream public was too jaded for an unusually positive, classically trained pianist moonlighting as a metal head, with one of the best trained ears for anthemic hard rock we might ever hear. ‘Party Hard' is a scorching, keyboard laden headbanger that is not about getting ‘fucked up' but about having the most fun you can possibly have with your life, regardless of what other people might think. This one was off his debut I Get Wet but you should also check out his criminally underrated follow-ups: The Wolf and Close Calls With Brick Walls." - Brian Berry "Let's be real here: nothing I say can possibly do this song justice, and I mean that. This is rock and roll stripped to its absolute most powerful, pure and most importantly fun level. There is not a single time that I can remember ever hearing this record, or seeing this video, and not busting out into just the most idiotic grin possible. I have seen more basements, apartments, houses, and even car dashboards wrecked to this song than any song by Slayer and Pantera combined. After seeing Andrew W.K. in DeKalb in 2002, I left the theater fully aware that I would never have more fun at a concert for the rest of my life. I was 16. The most frightening thing? This isn't even the best song on the album." - Mac Scarle

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#26The Way I Am Eminem from The Marshall Mathers LP
		Chart History: Released December 8, 2000 #1 Hot 100 #4 R&B/Hip-Hop #2 Rap
"Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP was much darker than his first major label album The Slim Shady LP and found him grappling with the burdens of his new status as a superstar. ‘The Way I Am' finds Em railing against the unreasonable expectations thrust upon him by an adoring yet hypocritical public. The vocal performance is captivating and stunning with Em spitting each line as if he can't bear to hold his rancor in for another moment. His fury is amplified by Dr. Dre's production and the ominous chimes that kick off the track. With intense lyrics like ‘Since birth I've been cursed with this curse to just curse/and just blurt this berserk and bizarre shit that works/and it sells and it helps in itself/ to relieve all this tension/ dispensing these sentences/ getting this stress that's been eating me recently off of this chest/ and I rest again peacefully' make this the my favorite song Eminem has ever released." - Michael James "Another rant from Eminem. How original. Only this one, instead of his ex- or his mom, is about…wait, this is about us? But, we made him! He wouldn't be shit without us! And, if it means he can be a private person again like any of the rest of us can, he'd give it up in a heartbeat, according to this. Now that takes some guts." - Michael Melchor

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#25Paper Planes M.I.A. from Kala
		Chart History: Released February 11, 2008 #4 Hot 100 #1 Dance #36 R&B/Hip-Hop
"Where do you begin when talking about ‘Paper Planes' and its place as an important record in the first decade of this millennium? Well, first and most obviously, it's a great fucking song. M.I.A. delivers it spot on, somehow sounding like a tough chick that remains non-threatening despite the gunshots going off around her. Then you have the amazing backing track – who hears The Clash and "Rump Shaker" and thinks, ‘Hey, I could turn this into a killer alternative hip-hop track'? So yeah, you've got the awesomeness of the song, which is enough to put it into our Top 100. But maybe even more significant is how the song caught fire. M.I.A. is an admitted underground act, but when the people responsible for the movie Pineapple Express decided to use a snippet in the trailer, people couldn't get enough. In fact, ‘Paper Planes' is no doubt more memorable than even the movie itself. After that, T.I. decided to sample the track for his own ‘Swagga Like Us' single, which sort of became an advertisement in itself for ‘Paper Planes'. And have we mentioned how perfect this track is for a ringtone? ‘Paper Planes', aside from a great track, is proof that music is still VERY viable as a business in this new decade – there's just a brand new way to market it." - Mitch Michaels

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#24Mr. Brightside The Killers from Hot Fuss
		Chart History: Released June 10, 2004 #10 Hot 100 #5 Pop #3 Alternative #4 Dance
"A song about good old fashioned jealously is in my opinion the best rock song of the decade. Its theme and singer Brandon Flowers' desperate delivery gives ‘Mr. Brightside' its universal appeal. Everyone has the feeling of being cheated on and ‘Mr. Brightside' conveys that perfectly. My top song of the millennium." - Tom Santoro "The melody is at once winsome and sad. And Brandon Flowers can hit the right emotional notes – of melancholy and longing – better than most, really. This is where the total package of the Killers shines real well. Bonus points for the video with a slimy Eric Roberts being the guy you really don't want to see the girl you like with." - Michael Melchor

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#23Umbrella Rihanna feat. Jay-Z from Good Girl Gone Bad
		Chart History: Released March 29, 2007 #1 Hot 100 #4 R&B/Hip-Hop #1 Dance #1 Pop
"All of this love for Dr. Dre on this list (and rightfully so), it's good to see Tricky Stewart getting his props as well. ‘Umbrella' was Rihanna's coming party. Hell, before Good Girl Gone Bad, we couldn't even figure out if she was hot or not. Jay-Z literally raps Rihanna's intro into superstardom and ‘Umbrella' is without a doubt one of the most recognizable hits of the past ten years. Big drums, catchy vocals and a pretty girl out front – the pinnacle of 00's pop." - Mitch Michaels

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#22Gold Digger Kanye West feat. Jamie Foxx from Late Registration
		Chart History: Released August 2, 2005 #1 Hot 100 #1 R&B/Hip-Hop #1 Rap #1 Pop
"This, not Ray, is where Jamie Foxx started his music career in earnest. That was just a good impression. In this, at the request of Kanye, Foxx actually contributed to new, original music. But that's not the point at all. An example of the creativity and originality in Kanye West's beats, the hook to this song is something that so easily could have gone wrong. Not since Wu-Tang Clan's ‘Method Man' has there been such a good vocal hook in rap. The lyrics are a little bit more generic than Kanye's earlier big songs, eschewing message for honesty and a little misogyny, but it manages to be inoffensive in rap terms. I argue there were a few better on Late Registration, but this was the hit song, and the one that continued Kanye's rise to superstardom, so I can't argue it's importance." - Lucas Wesley " It's far from the best hip-hop track of the last decade, but it's quite possibly the best example of giving a song from the genre mainstream/pop accessibility without falling into the ‘comedy rap' fallback that other artists like Eminem tend to utilize in order to obtain universal chart success. There's humor and wit in the song, yes, but the track is fueled more so by the excellent - if a little creepy - Jamie-Foxx-as-Ray-Charles vocal line, the simple beat, and that terrifyingly infectious chant-along chorus. Combine that with an awesome Hype Williams video, and you get a song that was absolutely inescapable during the summer of 2005, with good reason." - Mac Scarle "My disdain for Kanye West runs deep. I think he's an arrogant fellow with little cause. In fact, my disdain for Kanye is so well known amongst my friends that they didn't believe me when I told them that I thought ‘Gold Digger' was an incredible song. Kanye finally produced something worth bragging about. The beats and lyrics are incredibly catchy, not to mention Jamie Foxx's hook. I had to see the video before I could actually believe that was him." - Jasper Jones "About the nicest way of calling a chick greedy without actually calling her greedy. That Kanye's such a nice fellow. Granted, I could have done without Jamie Foxx's Ray Charles impersonation (since playing the late legend in a biopic somehow convinced Foxx he's a musician), but the song's catchy enough to be able to overlook that." - Michael Melchor

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#21In The End Linkin Park from Hyrbid Theory
		Chart History: Released October 9, 2001 #2 Hot 100 #3 Mainstream Rock #1 Modern Rock #1 Top 40 Mainstream #2 Top 40 #15 Adult Top 40
"Nu metal rose to prominence in the late 90's and, while it wore out its welcome fairly quickly, it was definitely still a commercial success as the new decade dawned. Nu metal gets a lot of hate in retrospect (and when it was around – hell, the genre might as well be rock's "boy band" label with all the insults hurled at it) – it's even gotten some jibes in this very feature. But the sad thing is that a few bands actually did justice to the sound – enter Linkin Park, arguably the biggest rock band of the 2000's not named Nickelback. And so here we have it – the biggest song by the best nu metal band taking its spot one step shy of the Top 20 songs of the decade. Listen to ‘In The End' and tell me it doesn't deserve it, motherfucker." - Mitch Michaels

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And that wraps us up again this week. Come back next week, when we close this puppy out with THE GREATEST 20 songs of the 2000's.