This 2000s hip hop trivia quiz has 100 free questions with answers and covers rap from 2000 to 2009, the decade the genre took over the pop charts. You will get questions on Eminem's Grammy and Oscar wins, 50 Cent's arrival, Jay-Z's fake retirement and his feud with Nas, Kanye West's rise from producer to Album of the Year contender, OutKast's double album, and Lil Wayne's million-copy week. It also digs into the sounds and scenes of the era: crunk, snap, hyphy, ringtone rap, the Neptunes and Timbaland, Auto-Tune, MySpace and 106 & Park. It is built for anyone who grew up with these songs on the radio, at parties, or on a burned CD, and it works for a music-night round or a solo test of memory. The questions ask about who made what, when it came out, what it sampled, what it sold, and what it won. There are no lyric questions. Every answer was checked against a reference page before publishing, so the facts about chart peaks, release dates, producers and awards hold up.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which 2002 film gave Eminem the first hip hop song to win the Oscar for Best Original Song?
8 Mile
Eminem skipped the ceremony because he assumed he would lose and was asleep at home when 'Lose Yourself' won; co-producer Luis Resto accepted the statue for him.
Q 02How many times was 50 Cent shot on May 24, 2000, an incident that became central to his legend?
Nine
The shooting happened almost three years before his major-label debut arrived and made him the most talked-about newcomer in rap.
Q 03Jay-Z's album The Blueprint was released on which now-infamous date?
September 11, 2001
Despite arriving on the day of the attacks, it still moved more than 427,000 copies in its first week and debuted at number one.
Q 04Eminem's guest verse, the only feature on Jay-Z's The Blueprint, came on which track?
Renegade
The album's beats came mostly from Kanye West, Just Blaze and Bink, and it later became the first 21st-century recording added to the National Recording Registry.
Q 05Which Nas album contained 'Ether', his 2001 answer to Jay-Z's 'Takeover'?
Stillmatic
The title signalled a return to the form of his 1994 debut Illmatic, and the album revived a career that had sagged after Nastradamus.
Q 06Kanye West's debut single, recorded with his jaw wired shut after a 2002 crash, samples which Chaka Khan song?
Through the Fire
The vocal sample is pitch-shifted and sped up, and 'Through the Wire' takes its title from a pun on the original's name.
Q 07Which OutKast release won the 2004 Album of the Year Grammy, only the second hip hop album to do so?
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
Lauryn Hill had been the first, five years earlier; the double album was later certified diamond for five million double-disc units in the US.
Q 08Which 2000 OutKast single was inspired partly by André 3000's relationship with Erykah Badu and her mother?
Ms. Jackson
Badu later said her mother embraced it, buying a licence plate, a mug and a headband with the title on them.
Q 09Tha Carter III (2008) was the decade's last rap album to hit what first-week US sales milestone?
1,000,000
It shifted 1,005,545 copies in its opening week and went on to win Best Rap Album at the 2009 Grammys.
Q 10Nelly's 'Hot in Herre' (2002) won the first-ever Grammy handed out in which category?
Best Male Rap Solo Performance
The song, which spent seven weeks at number one, samples Chuck Brown's 1979 go-go single 'Bustin' Loose'.
Q 11In the 'Dilemma' video (2002), Kelly Rowland tries to text Nelly using what kind of app on her Nokia?
A spreadsheet
The scene became a running internet joke years later; the software was the Symbian Sheet app on a Nokia 9210 Communicator, often misremembered as Microsoft Excel.
Q 12Who is the featured artist on Snoop Dogg's 'Drop It Like It's Hot' (2004)?
Pharrell Williams
Billboard later named it the most popular rap song of the entire decade.
Q 13Dr. Dre's album 2001 was released in November of which year?
1999
It was originally going to be called Chronic 2000 until a trademark tangle with Death Row Records forced the change; 'Forgot About Dre' with Eminem won a Grammy in 2001.
Q 21Rick Ross took his stage name from a real person with whom he has no connection. Who?
A Los Angeles drug kingpin
In 2008 The Smoking Gun linked his social security number to an 18-month stint as a Florida correctional officer, which he first denied and then admitted.
Q 22Who were the duo behind Gnarls Barkley's 'Crazy', the first UK No. 1 on downloads alone?
CeeLo Green and Danger Mouse
The pair deleted the physical single while it was still number one so people would not get sick of it; it was the UK's best seller of the year anyway.
Q 23Which late producer handled the tracks on Common's 2005 album Be that Kanye West didn't?
J Dilla
Q 14Chamillionaire's 'Ridin'' (2006) won a Grammy and inspired which 'Weird Al' Yankovic parody?
White & Nerdy
The original was the best-selling ringtone of 2006 with 3.2 million sales, making Chamillionaire the first multi-platinum Mastertone artist.
Q 15Which 2003 Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz single featuring the Ying Yang Twins peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100?
Get Low
It first appeared on the 2002 album Kings of Crunk and later landed at number 99 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip-Hop.
Q 16Which Atlanta group's snap single 'Laffy Taffy' hit number one in January 2006?
D4L
Its ringtone was certified triple platinum, three million units, against a mere gold for the single itself.
Q 17Soulja Boy produced 'Crank That' (2007) on a demo copy of which software?
FL Studio
He used only the program's most basic stock sounds; the record spent seven weeks at number one and was nominated for Best Rap Song.
Q 18Faheem Najm's Auto-Tune-heavy stage name is short for what phrase?
Tallahassee Pain
He chose it because of the hardships of growing up in the Florida capital, and went on to become the face of Auto-Tune vocals in the late 2000s.
Q 19Jay-Z's 'D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)' was partly inspired by hearing the effect in an ad for which fast-food chain?
Wendy's
Produced by No I.D., the track won Jay-Z the 2010 Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance.
Q 20Drake released his breakthrough mixtape So Far Gone in February 2009 under which label of his own?
October's Very Own
'Best I Ever Had' climbed to number two on the Hot 100 and its video was directed by Kanye West.
It was Common's first album for Geffen and picked up four Grammy nominations, including Best Rap Album.
Q 24Lupe Fiasco's 2006 debut single 'Kick, Push' told a love story set in which subculture?
Skateboarding
It picked up two Grammy nominations, and his follow-up single 'Daydreamin'' with Jill Scott actually won one.
Q 25The Game's 2005 debut, executive produced by Dr. Dre and 50 Cent, carried what title?
The Documentary
It sold 586,000 copies in its first week and remains The Game's biggest album; his relationship with G-Unit collapsed soon afterward.
Q 26DMX was the first artist to have how many albums in a row debut at number one on the Billboard 200?
Five
The run began with It's Dark and Hell Is Hot in 1998 and included ...And Then There Was X and The Great Depression.
Q 27Federal agents raided which record label in 2003 over alleged money laundering for Kenneth 'Supreme' McGriff?
Murder Inc.
The label was renamed The Inc. later that year, and founders Irv and Chris Gotti were acquitted of all charges in December 2005.
Q 28Which Harlem collective, founded by Cam'ron and Jim Jones, released Diplomatic Immunity in 2003?
The Diplomats
Juelz Santana joined two years after the founding; the group's lead single 'Dipset Anthem' was produced by the Heatmakerz.
Q 29Cam'ron's 2002 hits 'Oh Boy' and 'Hey Ma' came from which album, released on Roc-A-Fella?
Come Home with Me
'Oh Boy' was produced by Just Blaze and 'Hey Ma' reached number three on the Hot 100, his highest peak.
Q 30Which Nas album, his first for Def Jam in 2006, carried a title that angered Southern rappers?
Hip Hop Is Dead
The title track was produced by will.i.am, and the album also featured 'Black Republican', his first collaboration with Jay-Z after their feud.