After a short hiatus, it's time to start ego trippin' once again kids. However...although I've been remaining mostly faithful to the original list's produced by the now defunct magazine, as the years have progressed, I've began switching out some weaker tracks and adding some personal favorites from each year that were more deserving. This is especially apparent in this week's year: 1998. There was a gang of tracks I flat out disagreed with...as well as a bunch that I felt needed to be added, which resulted in an extremely large list of almost 60 tracks!! This year also marks the end of their lists...so from this point forth...aka years 1999-2007 will be entirely compiled by me, myself, and I.

As we continue on into the tail end of hip-hop's glory years, we've made it to 1998 which sparked a bunch of new trends, and a new breed of superstars began to emerge attempting to fill the enormous void left in the game after the untimely deaths of Tupac Shakur & Chris Wallace. The beef between regions began to simmer and in fact, the once localized Southern music scene gained some national spotlight thanks to the overnight success of labels like: Master P's No Limit & Baby's Cash Money and their stables of artists. Many consider this to be the beginning of the end for mainstream hip-hop, as both groups capitalized on very basic rhymes, simplistic bass driven beats, and awesomely horrendous cover designs. However, the year was far from a total bust as many East Coast artists stepped their game up in an attempt to claim the the crown as the new King of New York. This was clear right off the bat as a slew of young cats dropped classic debut albums like DMX's "It's Dark & Hell Is Hot", Big Pun's "Capital Punishment", & Mos Def & Talib Kweli's "Blackstar". The year also saw solid albums from The Roots, Gang Starr, Busta Rhymes, Redman, and Xzhbit and a genre-bending, critically acclaimed classic from Lauryn Hill which landed her 10 Grammy nominations and 5 wins...including Album of the Year, becoming the first hip-hop artist to ever accomplish such a feat. '98 was also the year that Jay-Z made some serious power moves in his mission to fill the enormous shoes left by Biggie Smalls as he dropped the commercial smash "Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life" which spawned numerous hits propelling him to the top of the charts and it's pretty safe to say...he never looked back. All in all, 1998 was a pretty eventful year in hip-hop as it was the beginning of a new chapter in the game with a whole new breed of emcees producing quality music while gunning for the #1 spot.

Lets get right into the top 40 (...or 60) of 1998....

01. 2Pac - Do For Love (4:14)
02. A Tribe Called Quest - Find A Way (3:22)
03. All City - The Actual (4:11)
04. AZ - How Ya Livin' (feat Nas) (4:30)
05. Big L - Ebonics (3:12)
06. Big Pun feat. Fat Joe - Twinz (Deep Cover '98) (3:47)
07. Big Pun, Nas, Lox - Johnny Blaze (4:43)
08. Big Punisher ft. Joe - Still Not A Player (3:56)
09. Black Star - Definition (3:26)
10. Black Star feat. Common - Respiration (6:05)
11. Busta Rhymes - Dangerous (3:37)
12. Busta Rhymes - Turn It Up (Fire It Up) (3:57)
13. Cam'ron - Horse & Carriage (feat. Ma$e) (4:02)
14. Cam'ron Featuring DMX - Pull It (3:00)
15. Canibus - Second Round K.O. (4:37)
16. Cocoa Brovaz ft. Raekwon - Black Trump (4:24)
17. Dilated Peoples - Work The Angles (4:00)
18. DMX - Get At Me Dog (2:59)
19. DMX - How's It Goin' Down (4:42)
20. DMX - Ruff Ryders Anthem (3:34)
21. DMX,Method Man,Nas & JA Rule - Grand Finale (4:36)
22. E-40 - Hope I Don't Go Back (4:37)
23. Gang Starr - Moment of Truth (4:07)
24. Gang Starr ft. Freddie Foxx & Big Shug - The Militia (4:50)
25. Goodie Mob - They Don't Dance No Mo' (3:25)
26. Ice Cube f/ DMX - We Be Clubbin [Remix] (4:22)
27. Jayo Felony ft. Method Man & DMX - Whatcha Gonna Do (4:35)
28. Jay-Z - Hard Knock Life (3:58)
29. Jay-Z ft. Ja Rule & Amil - Can I Get A (5:09)
30. Jermaine Dupri ft. Jay-Z - Money Ain't a Thing (4:16)
31. Juvenile - Back That Azz Up (4:25)
32. Juvenile - Ha (4:52)
33. Kurupt - We Can Freak It (4:10)
34. Lauryn Hill - Doo Wop (That Thing) (5:20)
35. Lauryn Hill - Lost Ones (5:33)
36. Mase - Lookin' At Me (4:14)
37. Mase ft. Total - What You Want (4:02)
38. Master P - I Got The Hook Up (4:17)
39. Master P - Make Em Say Ughh (5:06)
40. Missin Linx - MIA (3:58)
41. M.O.P. ft. Jay-Z - 4 Alarm Blaze (4:29)
42. M.O.P. - Blood, Sweat, Tears (4:07)
43. Noreaga - Superthug (4:58)
44. OutKast - Aquemini (5:25)
45. Outkast - Rosa Parks (5:24)
46. Pete Rock ft. Inspectah Deck & Kurupt - Tru Master (3:59)
47. Pras ft. ODB + Mya - Ghetto Supastar (4:21)
48. Puff Daddy - Victory (4:56)
49. Redman - I'll Bee Dat! (4:31)
50. Redman - Da Goodness (4:08)
51. Show & AG - Spit (3:25)
52. Silkk The Shocker & Mystikal - It Aint My Fault (3:26)
53. Snoop Dogg - Still A G Thang (4:20)
54. Sporty Thieves - Cheapskate (3:53)
55. The Roots - Adrenaline (Feat. Dice Raw & Beanie Sigel) (5:17)
56. Timbaland & Magoo - Luv 2 Luv U (3:58)
57. Xzibit - 3 Card Molly (ft Rass Kass & Saafir) (3:55)
58. Xzibit - What U See is What U Get (5:09)