

One of the biggest challenges in writing a list of the best beats of all time? The genre's soundscape is so wide-ranging and incredibly diverse that it creates some difficult calculation issues to work through. They're at the beginning and the end of the creative process that goes into each of these songs. They dictate the time-signature, the tempo, the tone of the lyrics. It's the cornerstone of every song, the foundation lyrics are built upon.

It's arguably the most important element of hip-hop.

The reason "beats" comes first? Production. Beats, Rhymes and Life: The name of the famous A Tribe Called Quest album.
