Like everyone has said, it's near impossible to narrow it down to one but for years I've always been perfectly comfortable ending up at this song and have consistently said it.

It just has everything I look for and love about hip-hop. Kweli's verses are the perfect mix of thought-provoking and slick. There's wordplay. There's social commentary. There's braggadocio. There's "dissing wack MCs til the day that" he dies. Etc. And he blends all of this subject matter together so effortlessly and seamlessly. A good example of rap as poetry.

Then there's the beat. Ohhhhh man what the fuck can I say about this beat. That piano loop. Ugh. So subtle yet so powerful and potent. The bassline that Kweli rides so flawlessly. The drum beat hitting at all the right times. Hi-Tek's lowkey scratching during the hook. "ohhhh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy". Just such a perfect beat, in my eyes.

What a song. kinda changed the way I look at hip-hop songs after I began to recognize its brilliance.

Rawkus really was the shit back in those days man.