MOG

1. E-40, "Yay Area." 40's been making music for more than a decade, and the people in the Yay love him, but despite his solid sales and clear influence on other rappers, you could almost call him a cult artist. Critics have mostly ignored him ... he doesn't have even one album or single listed on Acclaimed Music's critical collating site. All of this is very weird, because he is, among other things, one of the most purely enjoyable rappers to listen to.

2. Lady Sovereign, "Love Me or Hate Me." This ain't no Monie Love. Hip-Hop is world music at this point ... Lady Sovereign is a little shrimp English woman who grew up in a London ghetto listening, according to AMG, to her mom's Salt-n-Pepa albums.

3. Public Enemy, "Raw Shit." People keep expecting PE to go away, but they won't. This album may mark the beginning of a new renaissance for the now-venerable band, who have been recording for twenty years. No video for this one, so the link takes you to one of their very best later works, "He Got Game."

4. Pink, "U+Ur Hand." Last summer we were driving around Germany with Robin's sister and her family, and their cute little squirt Ava, who isn't five yet (is she?) loved to sing along with this song. As Pink's #1 fan, I have no problem with young girls locking into the music. I'm just pretty sure Ava didn't know what the song was about. Pink's got versatility, too ... the video shows how the song plays in the context of a big giant rock show, while we saw her sing it at the Fillmore, and it worked there, too.

5. Willie Nile, "Police on My Back." You never know where/when the great stuff will hit. Willie Nile was one of a thousand "New Dylans," although he came along late enough in the game that he was more of a "New Springsteen." He made two albums in two years, then didn't release another for a decade. He lived the life of a cult favorite, and then, in 2006, at the age of 57, he released perhaps the best album of his career. It included this stomper, a very accurate rendition of the Clash's version of the old Eddy Grant song. It's Clash Resurrected. There's no Willie Nile video ... I told you he was a cult favorite ... so the link is to the Clash circa 1983.

6. Bruce Springsteen, "Open All Night." Bob Dylan gets credit for the creative ways he reworks his old chestnuts, but this one's truly different. Start with a song from Nebraska ... granted, in the context of that album, this song is a rocker. Bring in the Seeger Sessions Band, an oddball melange of New Orleans R&B, traditional folk music, and large doses of the trademark Bruce Ham. Add an arrangement that recalls the Andrews Sisters, and you have a Nebraska song like you never heard before. American fans stayed home in droves, Europeans ate it up.

7. Madeleine Peyroux, "I'm All Right." What's weirder, an English ghetto gal singing rap music, or a child of hippies who channels Billie Holiday? My wife never knows who is singing when she hears music on the radio ... I told her once if she heard someone that sounded like Billie Holiday and it was being played on the radio in the 21st century, it was probably Madeleine Peyroux.

8. The Beatles, "Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing." Everyone else is doing mashups of the moptops, might as well let George Martin give it a try. But why let Martin have all the fun? RickStark79 creates his own video mashup of Martin's audio mashup, using material from the old Beatles cartoon show!

9. Todd Snider, "Carla." "I didn't mind you walking away, what hurt was how you walked so slow."

10. Kimya Dawson, "I Miss You." I haven't kept the stats, but at 38 seconds, this may be the shortest song in Random Ten history. As you might expect with such a short song, there is no video, so the link takes you to a slightly longer one called "I Like Giants."