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The 20 Best Brooklyn Anthems - In 2012, Manhattan isn't the only borough "makin' it" anymore. Once downtrodden Brooklyn has experienced an incredible rebirth recently, capped off by today's opening of the Barclays Center, new home to the relocated Brooklyn Nets. Jay-Z, the Brooklyn boy made good, owns a piece of the team, and has become goodwill ambassador to a skeptical borough. He's christening the $1 billion arena with eight sold-out shows, starting today. To celebrate the occasion — and the borough's first pro sports team in more than half a century — we've assembled this list of the top 20 songs about the County of Kings, ideal for blasting over the Barclays Center's PA system. With Brooklyn's rich musical history, it wasn't easy. —Alex Gale (Photo: BRENDAN MCDERMID/LANDOV/REUTERS)

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19. "Brooklyn Took It," Jeru Tha Damaja - Backed by a jerky beat from hometown legend DJ Premier and the classic "Brooklyn keeps on takin' it" sample from Boogie Down Productions' "The Bridge Is Over," East New York rapper Jeru reps for the borough's notorious club-brawlers and stick-up kids on this 1994 underground banger. It's the perfect song to play after Deron Williams strips the ball from Lebron.   (Photo: Courtesy Polygram Records)

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18. "Brooklyn Queens," 3rd Bass - Shhh. Don't tell anyone, but Brooklyn has some of the baddest, boldest, most beautiful women on the planet. We aren't the first ones to say this though: 3rd Bass let the kitty out the bag in 1989 on this funky underground hit produced by Prince Paul.   (Photo: Courtesy UMG Recordings)

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17. "Brooklyn," Fabolous feat. Jay-Z and Uncle Murda - Fab recruits Brooklyn hip hop's haves (Jay-Z) and have-nots (Uncle Murda) to represent the keep-on-taking-it side of his hometown on this 2007 banger. (Photo: Thaddeaus McAdams, Exclusive Access.net, Drew Mims of Mims Media, LLC, Danny Vega)

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16. "The Place Where We Dwell," Gang Starr - Though plenty of songs use Brooklyn as a rallying cry, few have broken down the borough in more diverse detail than this cut from Gang Starr's 1992 album Daily Operation. Over a sparse breakbeat and the familiar "Go Brooklyn" Stetsasonic sample, Guru shouts out hoods from Red Hook to Bushwick, calls BK the "home" of Black "cultural awareness" and even gives you train directions. (Photo: Courtesy Virgin Records)

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15. "Kickin' 4 Brooklyn," MC Lyte - Around-the-way girl MC Lyte takes out-of-towners for a trip over the bridge on this hard-as-nails track from her criminally overlooked 1988 debut, Lyte as a Rock.  (Photo: Derick E. Hingle/PictureGroup)

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14. "Hello Brooklyn," Beastie Boys - In the middle of the nine-song medley "B-Boy Bouillabaise," from their 1989 sophomore album Paul's Boutique, the Beasties shout out their home borough over a woofer-busting 808 beat that recalls the perfection of "Paul Revere."  (Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)

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13. "Hello Brooklyn 2.0," Jay-Z feat. Lil Wayne - Before he started beefing with both Jay-Z and New York as a whole, Weezy hooked up with Hov for this 2007 remake of the 1989 Beastie Boys song of the same name. And surprise, surpise: Five years later, "Hello Brooklyn" is the tagline on Nets billboards and posters throughout the borough.  (Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Photo By Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

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12. "Lighters Up," Lil' Kim - This dancehall-driven 2005 anthem finds Bed-Stuy's own Lil' Kim taking listeners on a "walk through" her side of BK, where people "dice games kill more n----s than cancer."  (Photo: Courtesy WMG)

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11. Jay-Z feat. Santigold, "Brooklyn Go Hard" - The King of Brooklyn links up with Bed-Stuy newcomer Santigold for this Kanye-produced banger from the soundtrack of the Biggie biopic Notorious, name-dropping Brownsville, Bainbridge Street and Branch Rickey, legendary owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, along the way. (Photos from left to right: Jason Kempin/Getty Images, Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Moet Rose)

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10. "Crooklyn," Crooklyn Dodgers  - This supergroup of three generations of Brooklyn rap icons — Masta Ace, Buckshot and Special Ed — assembled to reminisce on Brooklyn's highs and lows over a sublime Q-Tip production for the soundtrack of the 1994 Spike Lee film Crooklyn.  (Photo: Courtesy MCA Records)

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9. "Definition," Black Star (Mos Def & Talib Kweli) - Mos Def and Kweli repurposed two Boogie Down Productions anthems — "P Is Free" and "Stop the Violence" — for this 1998 hit dedicated to "Brooklyn, New York City, where they paint murals of Biggie." (Photo: Courtesy Rawkus Records)

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8. "Return of the Crooklyn Dodgers," Crooklyn Dodgers '95 - Spike Lee brought together a new lineup of Brooklyn's finest — Chubb Rock, Jeru and O.C., with DJ Premier on the beautiful, cello-driven beat — to break down Brooklyn's bloody backstreets for his 1995 film Clockers. (Photo: Courtesy 40 Acres and a Mule/MCA Records)

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7. "Bucktown," Smif-N-Wessun - Before Barclays Center landed, before beards, bikes and bands took over Williamsburg, Brooklyn was known as "Bucktown," and for a reason. Boot Camp Clik duo Smif-N-Wessun bring the nickname for the "home of the original gun clappers" to life over one of the Beatminerz' best productions. (Photo: Courtesy of Facebook)

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6. "Where I'm From," Jay-Z - This 1997 fan favorite is a virtual time-machine trip back to the days when Hov roamed the hallways of the notorious Marcy Projects, and a basketball team in Brooklyn — let alone one co-owned by a rapper from Bed-Stuy — was just a pipe dream.  (Photo: Courtesy Roc-a-Fella Records)

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5. "We Live in Brooklyn, Baby," Roy Ayers - Vibraphonist-singer Roy Ayers' 1971 "We Live in Brooklyn, Baby" is a fusion masterpiece. Backed by mysterious string drones and a frenetic jazz melody, the chanting, relentless hook captures the borough's aspirational aesthetic perfectly: "We're gonna make it, baby...we gotta make it, baby...our time is now." (Photo: Samir Hussein/Getty Images)

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4. "Unbelievable," The Notorious B.I.G. - True, this is more of an extended boast than a toast to Brooklyn, but it's the borough's rap patron saint at his best, and don't forget about the unmistakable opening lines: "Live from Bedford-Stuyvesant, the livest one, representin' BK to the fullest."    (Photo: Chris Walter/WireImage)

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3. "Brooklyn's Finest," Jay-Z feat. The Notorious B.I.G. - Rap's two GOATs — yeah, we said it — trade bars toe-to-toe for the title of Bed-Stuy's best on this 1996 classic, which shouts out half the neighborhoods in Brooklyn by name.   (Photos from left: Courtesy Bad Boy Records, Frank Micelotta/ImageDirect)

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2. "No Sleep Till Brooklyn," Beastie Boys - Boasting air-guitar-able power chords, a pep rally of a chorus and hometown cred, this 1987 rap-rock classic is pretty much ready-made to shake the 20,000 seats at the Barclays Center. (Photo: Courtesy Island Def Jam Music Group)

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1. "Brooklyn Zoo," Ol' Dirty Bastard - ODB's riotous "Brooklyn Zoo" personifies the wild side of Kings County perfectly. We can't think of a better song for the Nets to take the court to come November. In fact, how much cooler would it have been if they'd just renamed the team the Brooklyn Zoo? (Photo: Courtesy Elektra Records)