A Soundtrack For the End of the World

Ride out Armageddon with these apocalyptic anthems.

10 Songs About the End of the World - If you're reading this, the world hasn't ended—yet. But until the clock strikes midnight tonight, December 21, we won't know if the Mayans were wrong about today's impending armageddon. All we can do is wait in fear, with the blankets over our heads, while listening to the following apocalytpic soundtrack. If we're going to die, there may as well be some great music playing.   (Photo: Three Lions/Getty Images)

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10 Songs About the End of the World - If you're reading this, the world hasn't ended—yet. But until the clock strikes midnight tonight, December 21, we won't know if the Mayans were wrong about today's impending armageddon. All we can do is wait in fear, with the blankets over our heads, while listening to the following apocalytpic soundtrack. If we're going to die, there may as well be some great music playing.   (Photo: Three Lions/Getty Images)

Busta Rhymes - Busta joined the YMCMB squad in November 2011 and has yet to drop an album on the label. Busta has stayed busy with several mixtape-like albums and cameo features, however, and is supposed to finally drop his Cash Money debut, E.L.E..2 (Extinction Level Event 2), this year. (Photo: Rick Diamond/Getty Images for BET)

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Busta Rhymes, "Extinction Level Event (Song of Salvation)"  - Back in the '90s, Busta Rhymes was rap's premier proponent of Y2K paranoia, and he lays out his case, with plenty of bragadocious digressions, on the title track to his third album in 1998.  (Photo: Rick Diamond/Getty Images for BET)

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Prince, "1999" - It sounds quaint now, but back in 1982, with renewed fears of the Cold War and nuclear proliferation, some folks thought we'd never make it to the millennium. Prince captured the zeitgiest with this apocalyptic anthem, which will party your end-of-the-world blues away. "We could all die any day, but before I let that happen, I'll dance my life away," he sings.  (Photo: Stuart Wilson/Getty Images)

Marvin Gaye, "I Should Die Tonight" - Leave it to Marvin Gaye to find the romance in dying before your time on this 1973 ballad. "Oh, If I should die tonight...I won't die blue, sugar, 'cause I've known you," he croons.  (Photo: David Redfern/Redferns)

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Marvin Gaye, "I Should Die Tonight" - Leave it to Marvin Gaye to find the romance in dying before your time on this 1973 ballad. "Oh, If I should die tonight...I won't die blue, sugar, 'cause I've known you," he croons.  (Photo: David Redfern/Redferns)

Jay-Z, "If I Should Die" - Jay-Z reups Marvin's concept for the streets with this 1998 banger, which recounts the full life he's lived. "If I should die, don't cry...it's been one hell of a ride," he and Roc-A-Fella duo Da Ranjahz spit on the hook.   (Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage for Turner Networks)

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Jay-Z, "If I Should Die" - Jay-Z reups Marvin's concept for the streets with this 1998 banger, which recounts the full life he's lived. "If I should die, don't cry...it's been one hell of a ride," he and Roc-A-Fella duo Da Ranjahz spit on the hook.   (Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage for Turner Networks)

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Nelly Furtado, "End of the World" - Make sure you're booed up for armageddon before listening to this self-explanatory power ballad from Nelly's recent album, Spirit Indestructible. "I'd go anywhere with you, even to the end of the world," she sings. (Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Syracuse University)

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Nelly Furtado, "End of the World" - Make sure you're booed up for armageddon before listening to this self-explanatory power ballad from Nelly's recent album, Spirit Indestructible. "I'd go anywhere with you, even to the end of the world," she sings. (Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Syracuse University)

Lupe Fiasco, "End of the World" - Ride out the apolcalypse with your fist in the air via this 2011 mixtape cut dedicated to Occupy Wall Street. (Photo: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

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Lupe Fiasco, "End of the World" - Ride out the apolcalypse with your fist in the air via this 2011 mixtape cut dedicated to Occupy Wall Street. (Photo: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

Mase feat. DMX, Black Rob & The Lox, "24 Hrs. to Live" - Go out blasting with this 1997 posse cut from Harlem World. Whether your bucket list includes drinking a Nantucket Iced Tea, robbing a bank or blowing up City Hall, Mase and his boys got you covered.(Photo: Bad Boy Records)

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Mase feat. DMX, Black Rob & The Lox, "24 Hrs. to Live" - Go out blasting with this 1997 posse cut from Harlem World. Whether your bucket list includes drinking a Nantucket Iced Tea, robbing a bank or blowing up City Hall, Mase and his boys got you covered.(Photo: Bad Boy Records)

Charles Bradley feat. Menahan Street Band, "The World (Is Going Up in Flames)" - It's OK to shed a tear—the world is ending, after all. Mourn Mother Earth with help from this bluesy, gut-wrenching song from No Time for Dreaming, the 2011 debut from old-school soul revivalist Charles Bradley. (Photo: ALEXANDRE MOREIRA/BRAZIL PHOTO PRESS/AE DPA /LANDOV)

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Charles Bradley feat. Menahan Street Band, "The World (Is Going Up in Flames)" - It's OK to shed a tear—the world is ending, after all. Mourn Mother Earth with help from this bluesy, gut-wrenching song from No Time for Dreaming, the 2011 debut from old-school soul revivalist Charles Bradley. (Photo: ALEXANDRE MOREIRA/BRAZIL PHOTO PRESS/AE DPA /LANDOV)

Lenny rocked the house - Rocker Lenny Kravitz kicked off the ceremony with a performance of  "Black and White in America" and "Are You Gonna Go My Way." (Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

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Lenny Kravitz, "It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over" - Here's a crazy thought: Maybe the Mayans were wrong? Optimists can hold on to a shimmer hope by blasting this 1991 classic in their bunkers.  (Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards)

"Ten Crack Commandments," Notorious B.I.G. - On his biggest selling LP, 1997's Life After Death, the Notorious B.I.G. both sold and told the game when he issued this hit single, which explicitly laid out the rules of crack dealing. That the song came out during the waning days of the drug's popularity didn't lessen the song's power, or humor.   (Photo: Chris Walter/WireImage)

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The Notorious B.I.G., "Ready to Die" - If the world really does end today, there's not much you can do about it. So you might as well be mentally prepared—with help from the title track to the Notorious B.I.G's essential debut, of course. (Photo: Chris Walter/WireImage)