25 Influential Hip Hop One-Hit Wonders

Sometimes one song is all it takes to make a big impact.

Twenty-Five Influential Hip Hop One-Hit Wonders - This week (Jan. 22) we saw the fifth anniversary since the passing of Flavor Unit emcee Apache. Considered to be a one-hit wonder, he left a huge impression on the game with a single blow: the 1993 Bonnie & Clyde smash "Gangsta B**."But he's not the only MC who's managed to leave a lone, outsize mark on music. Read on.—Alex Gale(Photo: Tommy Boy Records)
Vanilla Ice, 'Ice Ice Baby' - This 1990 song may have become a punchline of sorts, but it was the first hip hop song to top the Billboard charts, changing the game in terms of what the genre could and couldn't do commercially. (Photo: SBK Records)
Craig Mack, 'Flava in Ya Ear' - The song that built Bad Boy. Diddy's premier artist until the Notorious B.I.G. made his mark, Craig Mack created a bona fide rap classic with this 1994 banger, but then failed to live up to the potential the song showed. The remix, featuring Biggie, LL Cool J, and others, is even more celebrated, and helped set off the Bad Boy-led trend of "remixing" hits with new verses from a lineup of all-stars.(Photo: Bad Boy Records)Luniz, 'I Got 5 on It' - The Luniz's only hit failed to establish a foundation for a long career for the Bay Area duo — although Yukmouth is still a local icon — but it went platinum, and created a new slang term people still use and abuse today. Diddy later jacked the song's funky beat for his 1999 hit with R. Kelly, "Satisfy You." (Photo: Noo Trybe)

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Twenty-Five Influential Hip Hop One-Hit Wonders - This week (Jan. 22) we saw the fifth anniversary since the passing of Flavor Unit emcee Apache. Considered to be a one-hit wonder, he left a huge impression on the game with a single blow: the 1993 Bonnie & Clyde smash "Gangsta B**."But he's not the only MC who's managed to leave a lone, outsize mark on music. Read on.—Alex Gale(Photo: Tommy Boy Records)

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