Top 20 Hip-Hop Music Videos of All Time, According to YouTube’s Tuma Basa

What are the best rap music videos of all time?

It’s a big, daunting question to answer. After all, hip-hop has been around for over 50 years, and during that time, we’ve seen countless classic music videos, from artists like OutKast, Missy Elliott, Busta Rhymes, Kanye West, Travis Scott, and many more.

To properly answer a question like this, you need to have decades of experience as a diehard fan of the genre, with firsthand experience in the world of music videos. That’s where Tuma Basa comes in. He’s currently YouTube’s Director of Black Music and Culture, and he’s been obsessing over rap videos his whole life—from his childhood as a hip-hop fan to his esteemed career in the music industry.

So, in honor of YouTube’s 20th anniversary this year, he decided to finally tackle the question. And what better time than now, in the middle of Black Music Month?

But first, some stipulations. To make such a large and ambitious task a little more manageable, Basa narrowed the contenders. He only considered videos that had enough views to crack the top 10,000 most popular music videos on YouTube, and from there, he ranked the list based on “impact of the song, memorability of the visuals, and snapshot of the time.”

Complex spoke with Basa to get more insights into his rationale behind the rankings. You can read the short interview below, and then continue for the full top 20 ranking.

What made you want to make this list right now?
A few reasons… The first being that 2025 is YouTube’s 20th birthday. Second, music videos are an important staple on YouTube. Lastly, I believe in my heart that YouTube is the institutional memory of hip-hop. You name it, we got it. Everything is on YouTube: podcasts, freestyles, streamers, live performances, rap battles, lyric videos, historic moments in the culture. It's all there on YouTube. It’s the best place for music fans. No exaggeration.

What criteria did you use when you ranked this list?
The quantitative part was that it had to be in the Top 10,000 music videos on YouTube. The qualitative part was a mix of impact of the song, memorability of the visuals, snapshot of the time. Now, if view count wasn’t part of the filter, Busta Rhymes, with his legendary video catalog, would have easily had five spots on this list. Busta’s the Michael Jordan of videos in hip-hop.

While I’m at it, can I shout out some of my honorable mentions? Juice WRLD’s “Lucid Dreams,” Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP,” OutKast “Ms Jackson,” and Lil Dicky “Freaky Friday” (the video where he swaps bodies with Chris Brown). Classic visuals!

There's a good mix of videos from across different eras and subgenres. Was it a goal of yours to have a diverse selection that represents all sides of hip-hop?
I think that’s an unintended byproduct of my exposure and longevity in the game. I’ve never really fit into any one bucket. I grew up in Zimbabwe in the early ‘90s watching VHS tapes of Yo! MTV Raps and Rap City over and over again. And then within a decade, I got to live my dream by working at both of those music video outlets. So my taste isn’t locked into one era or one sound. It’s always been broad, because that’s how I came into the culture.

Also, in terms of eras, I believe there are two eras: the “Handkerchief Era” and the “Kleenex Era.” The Handkerchief Era was like the 1990s and 2000s, when videos were big-budget productions and made like mini-movies—shot on film, built to last, just super evergreen. Even when it comes to the process, they had multiple treatments before shooting, big productions, multi-day shoots, heavy post. They were designed to stick around.

Then came the Kleenex Era, when DSLR cameras like the Canon 5D Mark II made it easy to shoot something that looked like film on a budget. Videos became more disposable—quicker turnarounds, less planning, shorter shelf lives in the cultural conversations. Artists would drop one and move right on to the next. Of course, there were exceptions. Shout out to Cole Bennett and Lyrical Lemonade for keeping creativity alive in that space.

Older videos dominate the very top of the list, but Travis Scott's more recent 2018 single "Sicko Mode" comes in at No. 2. What impressed you so much about that one?
I can watch that video a million times in a row. Matter of fact, I may actually be a million of the billion views that “Sicko Mode” has. First of all, shout out to its director, Dave Meyers, who also directed Missy’s “Work It,” and in the spirit of “Work It,” there’s just constant visual stimulation. It’s like three videos in one. The hyper-edits are bananas. It’s like every frame is different and switches perfectly to the next frame and matches the energy of the song, which is already a classic in my personal opinion.

Also, I love when artists use their music videos to pay tribute to their city, like when the video for Nelly “Country Grammar” came out. Travis pays tribute to Houston hard! And he does it without being literal. Everything from the nod to DJ Screw’s store, to the Astros jackets, to the chopped-and-screwed visual effects. I catch new details every time… The transitions, the talking painting, the color palettes. If you watch a lot of music videos, that density matters. It’s beautiful chaos, especially for my ADHD brain.

"It Was A Good Day" tops the list. Why is that your #1 pick?
This song was a mini-motion picture, and it's kind of a precursor to the classic movie Friday, which all happens in one day, too—both directed by F. Gary Gray. Getting a beep from Kim, watching Yo MTV Raps, the Lakers beating the Supersonics… This is another video I can watch a million times without getting sick of it. It’s a perfect snapshot of the 90s. It also ends in a cliff hanger. A lot of people forget that it’s the first part of a visual duology. The video for “Check Yourself” is the sequel. It starts off exactly where “Good Day” ended. And it’s such a great song. Our grandkids are gonna be rocking it. That’s durability!

Tuma Basa’s full ranking of the top 20 hip-hop music videos is below.