2000s Hip Hop Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
8correct to beat the crowd
This 2000s hip hop trivia quiz has 97 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 97 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
8 Mile's 'Lose Yourself' won Best Original Song at the March 2003 Oscars; Eminem assumed he would lose and was asleep at home, so 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
50 Cent was shot nine times outside his grandmother's house in South Jamaica, Queens, on May 24, 2000, almost three years before his major-label debut Get Rich or Die Tryin' arrived in February 2003.
Q 03On what date was Jay-Z's album The Blueprint released?
September 11, 2001
September 11, 2001, the morning of the attacks, and it debuted at number one anyway, with Kanye West and Just Blaze producing most of it. It was added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry in 2019.
Q 04Eminem's guest verse, the only feature on Jay-Z's The Blueprint, came on which track?
Renegade
'Renegade', which Eminem also produced, carries the album's only credited guest verse; Nas's 'Ether' later mocked Jay-Z for being outshone by Eminem on his own track.
Q 05Which Nas album contained 'Ether', his 2001 answer to Jay-Z's 'Takeover'?
Stillmatic
'Ether' appeared on Stillmatic, released in December 2001; the title signalled a return to the form of his 1994 debut Illmatic after the poorly received 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
'Through the Wire' samples Chaka Khan's 1984 ballad 'Through the Fire', pitch-shifted and sped up, and its title puns 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
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below won Album of the Year at the February 2004 Grammys, five years after Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill became the first hip hop album to take the prize.
Q 08Which 2000 OutKast single was inspired partly by André 3000's relationship with Erykah Badu and her mother?
Ms. Jackson
'Ms. Jackson' is addressed to the mother of André 3000's ex, Erykah Badu; Badu later said her mother embraced it and bought a 'Ms. Jackson' licence plate, mug and headband.
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
'Hot in Herre' won Best Male Rap Solo Performance at the 2003 Grammys, the first year the rap solo award was split by gender; the song had spent seven weeks at number one.
Q 11In the 'Dilemma' video (2002), Kelly Rowland tries to text Nelly using what kind of app on her Nokia?
A spreadsheet
She types her message into a spreadsheet on a Nokia 9210 Communicator; years later the scene became a running internet joke about Kelly Rowland texting in Microsoft Excel.
Q 12Who is the featured artist on Snoop Dogg's 'Drop It Like It's Hot' (2004)?
Pharrell Williams
Pharrell Williams is the credited feature, having produced the track with Chad Hugo as the Neptunes; Billboard later named it the most popular rap song of the 2000s.
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 which real person, unconnected to him?
A Los Angeles drug kingpin
He borrowed the name of 'Freeway' Rick Ross, the Los Angeles drug kingpin of the 1980s crack era, who later sued the rapper unsuccessfully over its use.
Q 22Who were the duo behind Gnarls Barkley's 'Crazy', the first UK No. 1 on downloads alone?
CeeLo Green and Danger Mouse
CeeLo Green and Danger Mouse spent nine weeks at UK number one with 'Crazy' in 2006, then deleted the single so listeners would not tire of it; it was the year's best seller anyway.
Q 23Which 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
'Weird Al' Yankovic's 'White & Nerdy' parodied 'Ridin'' in 2006 and became his first top-ten hit; 'Ridin'' itself won Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group at the 2007 Grammys.
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
'Get Low' first appeared on the 2002 album Kings of Crunk and spent weeks stuck at number two behind Beyoncé's 'Baby Boy' in autumn 2003.
Q 16Which Atlanta group's snap single 'Laffy Taffy' hit number one in January 2006?
D4L
D4L, the Atlanta group of Fabo, Shawty Lo, Mook-B and Stoney, topped the Hot 100 with 'Laffy Taffy' in January 2006, a snap hit carried by record-setting download sales.
Q 17Soulja Boy produced 'Crank That' (2007) on a demo copy of which software?
FL Studio
Soulja Boy built 'Crank That' in a demo version of FL Studio using its 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
T-Pain stands for Tallahassee Pain, a nod to the hardships of growing up in Florida's capital; he became 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
So Far Gone was self-released as a free download under Drake's October's Very Own banner on February 13, 2009; 'Best I Ever Had' then climbed to number two on the Hot 100.
J Dilla produced 'Love Is...' and 'It's Your World' on Be, with Kanye West handling the rest; the album was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2006 Grammys.
Q 24Lupe Fiasco's 2006 debut single 'Kick, Push' told a love story set in which subculture?
Skateboarding
'Kick, Push' is a love story set in skateboarding: a young skater meets a girl with her own board and they ride the city together; it earned two Grammy nominations.
Q 25The Game's 2005 debut, executive produced by Dr. Dre and 50 Cent, carried what title?
The Documentary
The Documentary sold 586,000 copies in its first week of January 2005; The Game's relationship with G-Unit collapsed within weeks, and 50 Cent dropped him from the group that February.
Q 26DMX was the first artist to have how many albums in a row debut at number one on the Billboard 200?
Five
Five straight DMX albums debuted at number one, from It's Dark and Hell Is Hot in 1998 through Grand Champ in 2003, a first for any artist.
Q 27Federal agents raided which record label in 2003 over alleged money laundering for Kenneth 'Supreme' McGriff?
Murder Inc.
Murder Inc., home of Ja Rule and Ashanti, was raided in January 2003 and later renamed The Inc.; founders Irv and Chris Gotti were acquitted of money-laundering charges in December 2005.
Q 28Which Harlem collective, founded by Cam'ron and Jim Jones, released Diplomatic Immunity in 2003?
The Diplomats
The Diplomats, also known as Dipset, were founded in Harlem in 1997 by Cam'ron and Jim Jones; Diplomatic Immunity (2003) was the crew's debut album, led by the Heatmakerz-produced 'Dipset Anthem'.
Q 29Cam'ron's 2002 hits 'Oh Boy' and 'Hey Ma' came from which album, released on Roc-A-Fella?
Come Home with Me
Come Home with Me (2002), Cam'ron's first album on Roc-A-Fella, produced the Just Blaze-made 'Oh Boy' and 'Hey Ma', which reached number three on the Hot 100.
Q 30Which 2006 Nas album, his first for Def Jam, carried a title that Southern rappers took as an insult aimed at them?
Hip Hop Is Dead
Hip Hop Is Dead, which Nas said was about the music's commercial decline, though Atlanta's rappers heard a diss. It also holds 'Black Republican', his first collaboration with Jay-Z after their feud, with a will.i.am-produced title track.