A classic hiphop song is similar to a classic song from other genres. For example Jimi Hendrix to me is one of the best if not the greatest to ever play the guitar. He died many years ago but I will teach my children about him. His music and leagacy will forever live on, his music is truly classic.

One quality the song has to have it has to be timeless, for example tribe called quest's scenario remix sounds as hot to me right now as it did the first time I heard it. A classic song captures the time and era at which it was made without be trendy and following fads.

Another quality that gets highly over looked today in all music but espeacially hiphop is lyrical content. Myself being an MC and Poet it is very difficult to listen to wack lyrics, the lyrics have to be tight and the mc has to be saying something. Today hiphop is global and everybody is an mc but there isn't alot of people on the mic saying anything worth listening to.

Another quality is the production. It doesn't have to be overproduced it just has to be hot. Producers like Madlib, Preemo, Dr. DRE, Pete Rock, RZA and many others have a cartain quality to their beats cause they do it from the soul and they keep it original. R.I.P. one of my favorite producers J-Dilla He is the perfect example what it takes to make a classic. J- Dilla would be on that next level. While alot of the mediocre beat makers would be trying to capture his sound and his essence.

The last thing but definitely not least it has to be from the heart if your desire to make money is stronger than to make music at that end of day people can read through that.I know every record executive in the back of their mind have a time tested formula to make hits.Thats good and everything but there is too many hits out there and not enough "CLASSICS"!!