43. Weezer - Say It Ain't So (1994)

In response to the latest travesty released by "Weezer" yesterday, I present to you case number one for their relevance at one point in time. This song just contains all of the emotional weight that their material from this decade so sorely lacks.....and above all else, it's just constructed so well. Every time I hear it, I'm back in the 90s, in a time when you could actually listen to the radio and hear something worth listening to, not to mention something that could stick with you for 15 years. I was so excited when I heard of their reuniting in 2000, but now I really wish they would have stayed away and left us with their first two albums of excellence.

27. Nas - Represent (1994)

What do you get when you mix my favorite rapper with my favorite producer of all time? My favorite song on the greatest hip-hop album ever made. Nas' hunger is so apparent in every bar he spits, and every track on Illmatic just explodes from the speakers. The production on the entire album is top-notch, but it's the DJ Premier tracks that have stuck with me the most since I first listened to this album when my cousin let me borrow it 15 years ago. I had heard some hip-hop before (mostly the Beastie Boys and Run DMC), but I'd never heard anything like this in my entire life.....and I still haven't. The beat on this song especially is fantastic....it's so minimalistic and cold sounding, almost RZA'esque. It's the lyrics though, as always with Nas, that carried the day. It really was Nas' world in 1994.