Looking back on 2016, there were a lot of stellar hip hop releases; J. Cole's "4 Your Eyez Only," A Tribe Called Quest's "We Got It From Here...Thank You 4 Your Service," Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered," and numerous more from the likes of Ab-Soul, Common, Kid Cudi, Kanye West, Schoolboy Q, Childish Gambino, De La Soul, & many others. Many of these releases feature real artistic indiviudality and carefully-constructed lyricism, very much in the vain of older, classic hip hop. Time will tell how the legacy of these releases will be seen, but it's quite possible that 2016 was a year of new classic songs & verses that will see be seen with even greater acclaim in the future. Hip hop has a rich history of providing memorable, clever, & poetic verses from a number of artists, so, in honor of these 2016 releases, here are ten of the greatest hip hop verses of all time.

1. Inspectah Deck- "Triumph" by Wu-Tang Clan

(from 1997's "Wu-Tang Forever")

I bomb atomically, Socrates' philosophies and hypotheses/Can't define how I be dropping these mockeries/Lyrically perform armed robbery/Flee with the lottery, possibly they spotted me/Battle-scarred Shogun, explosion when my pen hits tremendous/Ultraviolet shine blind forensics/I inspect you, through the future see millennium/Killer Beez sold fifty gold, sixty platinum/Shackling the masses with drastic rap tactics/Graphic displays melt the steel like blacksmiths/Black Wu jackets, Queen Bees ease the guns in/Rumble with patrolmen, tear gas laced the function/Heads by the score take flight incite a war/Chicks hit the floor, die hard fans demand more/Behold the bold soldier, control the globe slowly/Proceeds to blow, swinging swords like Shinobi/Stomp grounds and pound footprints in solid rock/Wu got it locked, performing live on your hottest block

2. Nas- "N.Y. State of Mind"

(from 1994's "Illmatic")

Rappers, I monkey flip 'em with the funky rhythm I be kickin'/Musician, inflictin' composition of pain/I'm like Scarface sniffin' cocaine/Holding an M16, see with the pen I'm extreme, now/Bullet holes left in my peepholes/I'm suited up in street clothes, hand me a 9 and I'll defeat foes/Y'all know my steelo with or without the airplay/I keep some E&J, sitting bent up in the stairway/Or either on the corner betting Grants with the cee-lo champs/Laughing at baseheads tryna sell some broken amps/G-packs get off quick, forever niggas talk shit/Reminiscing about the last time the task force flipped/Niggas be running through the block shootin'/Time to start the revolution, catch a body, head for Houston/Once they caught us off-guard/The MAC-10 was in the grass and/I ran like a cheetah with thoughts of an assassin/Picked the MAC up, told brothers, "Back up!" the MAC spit/Lead was hittin' niggas, one ran – I made him backflip/Heard a few chicks scream, my arm shook, couldn't look/Gave another squeeze, heard it click, "Yo, my shit is stuck"/Try to cock it, it wouldn't shoot, now I'm in danger/Finally pulled it back/And saw three bullets caught up in the chamber/So now I'm jetting to the building lobby, and it was full of children probably, couldn't see as high as I be/(So what you sayin'?) It's like the game ain't the same/Got younger niggas pulling the triggers/Bringing fame to their name/And claim some corners, crews without guns are goners/In broad daylight, stickup kids, they run up on us/45's and gauges, MAC's, in fact/Same niggas will catch you back-to-back/Snatching your cracks in black/There was a snitch on the block getting niggas knocked/So hold your stash 'til the coke price drop/I know this crackhead who said she got to smoke nice rock/And if it's good, she'll bring you customers in measuring pots/But yo, you gotta slide on a vacation, inside information/Keeps large niggas erasin' and their wives basin'/It drops deep as it does in my breath/I never sleep, ‘cause sleep is the cousin of death/Beyond the walls of intelligence, life is defined/I think of crime when I'm in a New York state of mind

3. R.A. the Rugged Man- "Uncommon Valor: A Vietnam Story" by Jedi Mind Tricks

(from 2006's "Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell")

True story, call me Thorburn, John A., staff sergeant/Marksman, skilled in killing, illing, I'm able and willing/Kill a village elephant, raping and pillage a village/Illegitimate killers, U.S. Military guerrillas/This ain't no real war, Vietnam shit/World War II, that's a war, this is just a military conflict/Soothing drug abusing, Vietnamese women screwing/Sex, gambling and boozing, all this shit is amusing/Bitches and guns, this is every man's dream; I don't wanna go home where I'm just an ordinary human being/Special Op, Huey chopper gun ship, run shit/Gook run when the minigun spit, won't miss/Kill shit, spit four-thousand bullets a minute/Victor Charlie, hair-trigger, hit it, I'm in it to win it/Get it, the lieutenant hinted, the villain, I been it/The killing, I did it, cripple, did it, pictures I painted is vivid/Live it, a wizard with weapons/The secret mission, we 'bout to begin it/Government funded, behind enemy lines/Bullets is spraying, it's heating up a hundred degrees/The enemy's the North Vietnamese, bitch please/Ain't no sweat, I'm told be at ease/Until I see the pilot got hit, and we 'bout to hit some trees/Tail rotor broke, crash land/American man in Cambodia, right in the enemy hand/Take a swig of the Whiskey to calm us/Them yellow men wearing black pajamas, they wanna harm us/They all up on us; bang, bang, bullet hit my chest, feel no pain/To my left, the Captain caught a bullet right in his brain/Body parts flying, loss of limbs, explosions/Bad intentions, I see my best friend's intestines/Pray to the one above, it's raining, I'm covered in mud/I think I'm dying, I feel dizzy, I'm losing blood/I see my childhood, I'm back in the arms of my mother/I see my whole life, I see Christ, I see bright lights/I see Israelites, Muslims and Christians at peace, no fights/Black, Whites, Asians, people of all types/I must've died, then I woke up, surprised I'm alive/I'm in a hospital bed, they rescued me, I survived/I escaped the war, came back, but ain't escape Agent Orange/Two of my kids born handicapped/Spastic, quadriplegia, micro cephalic/Cerebral palsy, cortical blindness – name it, they had it/My son died, he ain't live/But I still try to think positive, ‘cause in life, God take, God give

4. Eminem- "The Way I Am"

(from 2000's "The Marshall Mathers LP")

I sit back with this pack of Zig-Zag's and this bag/Of this weed, it gives me the shit needed to be/The most meanest MC on this on this earth/And since birth I've been cursed with this curse to just curse/And just blurt this berserk and bizarre shit that works/And it sells and it helps in itself to relieve all this tension/Dispensing these sentences, getting this stress/That's been eating me recently off of this chest/And I rest again peacefully/But at least have the decency in you/To leave me alone, when you freaks see me out/In the streets when I'm eating or feeding my daughter/To not come and speak to me/I don't know you, and no, I don't owe you a mothafuckin' thing/I'm not Mr. N'Sync, I'm not what your friends think/I'm not Mr. Friendly, I can be a prick if you tempt me/My tank is on empty, no patience is in me/And if you offend me, I'm lifting you ten feet in the air/I don't care who was there and who saw me just jaw you/Go call you a lawyer, file you a lawsuit/I'll smile in the courtroom and buy you a wardrobe/I'm tired of all you, I don't mean to be mean/But that's all I can be, it's just me.

5. Melle Mel- "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five

(from 1982's "The Message")

A child is born with no state of mind/Blind to the ways of mankind/God is smiling on you, but he's frowning too/Because only God knows what you'll go through/You'll grow in the ghetto living second-rate/And your eyes will sing a song called deep hate/The places you play and where you stay/Looks like one great big alleyway/You'll admire all the number-book takers/Thugs, pimps and pushers and the big money-makers/Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens/And you'll wanna grow up to be just like them, huh/Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers/Pickpocket peddlers, even panhandlers/You say "I'm cool, huh, I'm no fool."/But then you wind up dropping outta high school/Now you're unemployed, all null and void/Walking 'round like you're Pretty Boy Floyd/Turned stick-up kid, but look what you done did/Got sent up for a eight-year bid/Now your manhood is took and you're a Maytag/Spend the next two years as a undercover fag/Being used and abused to serve like hell/'Til one day you was found hung dead in the cell/It was plain to see that your life was lost/You was cold and your body swung back and forth/But now your eyes sing the sad, sad song/Of how you lived so fast and died so young, so...

6. Rakim- "Paid In Full" by Eric B. and Rakim

(from 1987's "Paid In Full")

Thinking of a master plan/Cause ain’t nothing but sweat inside my hand/So I dig into my pocket, all my money spent/So I dig deeper, but still coming up with lint/So I start my mission, leave my residence/Thinking how could I get some dead presidents/I need money, I used to be a stick-up kid/So I think of all the devious things I did/I used to roll up, this is a hold up/Ain’t nothing funny/Stop smiling, be still, don’t nothing move/But the money/But now I learned to earn cause I’m righteous/I feel great so maybe I might/Just search for a 9 to 5/If I strive then maybe I’ll stay alive/So I walk up the street, whistling this/Feeling out of place cause, man, do I miss/A pen and a paper, a stereo, a tape of/Me and Eric B and a nice big plate of/Fish, which is my favorite dish/But without no money it’s still a wish/Cause I don’t like to dream/About getting paid/So I dig into the books of the/Rhymes that I made/So now's a test to see if I got pull/Hit the studio, cause I’m paid in full.

7. 2Pac- "Keep Ya Head Up"

(from 1993's "Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z...")

Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice/I say the darker the flesh then the deeper the roots/I give a holla to my sisters on welfare/2Pac cares if don't nobody else care/And I know they like to beat you down a lot/When you come around the block, brothers clown a lot/But please don't cry, dry your eyes, never let up/Forgive, but don't forget, girl, keep your head up/And when he tells you you ain't nothing, don't believe him/And if he can't learn to love you, you should leave him/‘Cause, sister, you don't need him/And I ain't trying to gas ya up, I just call 'em how I see 'em/You know what makes me unhappy? When brothers make babies and leave a young mother to be a pappy/And since we all came from a woman/Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman/I wonder why we take from our women/Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?/I think it's time to kill for our women/Time to heal our women, be real to our women/And if we don't we'll have a race of babies/That will hate the ladies that make the babies/And since a man can't make one/He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one/So will the real men get up?/I know you're fed up, ladies, but keep your head up

8. Jay-Z- "Dead Presidents II"

(from 1994's "Reasonable Doubt")

Who wanna bet us that we don't touch lettuce/Stack cheddars forever/Live treacherous, all the et ceteras/To the death of us: me and my confidants, we shine/You feel the ambiance, y'all niggas just rhyme/By the ounce, dough accumulates like snow/We don't just shine, we illuminate the whole show, you feel me?/Factions from the other side would love to kill me/Spill 3 quarts of my blood into the street/Let alone the heat/Fuck em, they hate a nigga loving this life/In all possible ways, just know the Feds is buggin my life/Hospital dazed, reflecting when my man laid up/On the uptown high block he got his side sprayed up/I saw his life slipping, this is a minor setback/Yo, still in all we living, just dream about the get-back/That made him smile, though his eyes said "pray for me"/I'll do you one better and slay these niggas faithfully/Murder is a tough thing to digest, it's a slow process/And I ain't got nothing but time/I had near brushes, not to mention/Three shots close range, never touched me: divine intervention/Can't stop I, from drinking Mai-Tai's, with Ty-Ty/Down in Nevada, ha ha, poppa, word life/I dabbled in crazy weight/Without rap, I was crazy straight/Partner, I'm still spending money from '88

9. Ice Cube- "Straight Outta Compton" by N.W.A.

(from 1988's "Straight Outta Compton")

Straight outta Compton, crazy motherfucker named Ice Cube/From the gang called Niggas Wit Attitudes/When I'm called off, I got a sawed-off/Squeeze the trigger and bodies are hauled off/You too, boy, if you fuck with me/The police are gonna have to come and get me/Off your ass, that's how I'm going out/For the punk motherfuckers that's showing out/Niggas start to mumble, they wanna rumble/Mix 'em and cook 'em in a pot, like gumbo/Going off on the motherfucker like that/With a gat that's pointed at your ass/So give it up smooth/Ain't no telling when I'm down for a jack move/Here's a murder rap to keep y'all dancin'/With a crime record like Charles Manson/AK-47 is the tool/Don't make me act a motherfucking fool/Me you can go toe to toe, no maybe/I'm knocking niggas out the box, daily/Yo, weekly, monthly and yearly/Until them dumb motherfuckers see clearly/That I'm down with the capital C-P-T/Boy, you can't fuck with me/So when I'm in your neighborhood, you better duck/‘Cause Ice Cube is crazy as fuck/As I leave, believe I'm stompin'/But when I come back boy, I'm coming straight outta Compton (Compton Compton Compton)

10. Chuck D & Flava Flav- "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy

(from 1989's "Do the Right Thing" soundtrack)

Elvis was a hero to most/But he never meant shit to me you see/Straight up racist that sucker was/Simple and plain/Mother fuck him and John Wayne/Cause I'm Black and I'm proud/I'm ready and hyped plus I'm amped/Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps/Sample a look back you look and find/Nothing but rednecks for 400 years if you check/Don't worry be happy/Was a number one jam/Damn if I say it you can slap me right here/(Get it) lets get this party started right/Right on, c'mon/What we got to say/Power to the people no delay/To make everybody see/In order to fight the powers that be