10 SONGS TURNING 20 IN 2023

The year was 2003 and Pharrell was running the radio, flare leg jeans were in & everyone had a flip phone. Before fans and music critics were fixated on analytics, artists were driven to make music that moved the crowd. During this time, we were given some of the greatest records including Beyoncé & Jay-z ‘s "Crazy in Love" and Twista’s hit record "Slow Jamz". Check out a list of smash hits turning 20 this year:

Before Get Rich Or Die Tryin, 50 Cent had spent years mercilessly deriding his Queens rap rival Ja Rule as a fake gangster, who wanted nothing more than to make sickly-sweet pop love songs. With “21 Questions,” 50 shamelessly drew from the Ja Rule playbook. “21 Questions” is proudly soft. It’s 50 Cent’s version of puffball heartthrob rap, his take on the genre that LL Cool J invented 16 years earlier with “I Need Love.” He told MTV, “I really made that record because I was in a car and LL Cool J came on. The girl next to me was all into it. It was a soft record, but she was so into the record that I said, ‘I want to make something that makes girls respond like that to me.'”“21 Questions” did what 50 needed it to do. Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ was the biggest-selling album of 2003, and it eventually went platinum nine times over. 50 spent that summer on a contentious co-headlining tour with Jay-Z.

Chingy had some great hits in the early 2000s, from "Right Thurr" to "Holidae Inn." In 2004, he kept his run going with the rap ballad "One Call Away" featuring J Weaver. Don't forget J Weaver played a young Michael Jackson in "The Jacksons: An American Dream" miniseries and sang Simba's songs in the "The Lion King." The goal for Chingy was to create appeal to a wider audience. "It's gonna go all the way over," Chingy said of "One Call Away," his third single from Jackpot. "It's real crossover mainstream, but it's still hip-hop, so it's gonna do real good." The song peaked at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 and added to the emerging versatility in Hip Hop at the time.

What a classic! This Kanye-produced track changed the game for sampling, featuring and overall Hip Hop! Upon release, "Slow Jamz" peaked at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, which was the first number one song for Twista, West, and Foxx. It samples Vandross' 1981 cover of Dionne Warwick's 1964 ballad "A House Is Not a Home." The recording was groundbreaking and brought a whole new vibe to Hip Hop production. Kanye also produced Twista's "Overnight Celebrity" single, further proving that he is one of the greatest composers of our time.