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Where will Pete Rock rate in MusicRadar's Top 10 beats?

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Kanye West claims he's produced "probably one of the best hip-hop beats of all time" for Jay-Z's new album, The Blueprint 3. And that's fighting talk.

MusicRadar likes Kanye's self-confidence, but we can't let his claim go unchallenged. Yup, his beats for Jay-Z just might be the best (when we hear them), but MusicRadar has its own Top 10 of hip-hop's greatest beats.

Kanye - have you done better than these tracks? It's Parental Advisory all the way.

In reverse order, MusicRadar presents…

Hip-hop's 10 greatest beats

10. Pharoahe Monch - Simon Says

Producer: Pharoahe Monch
Album: Internal Affairs (1999)

Pharoahe monch simon says

Former Organised Konfusion spitter Pharoahe Monch returned on the solo tip with a thunderous self produced floor-shaker of a tune. Tearing up clubs all over the world with a cheeky uncleared sample from the Godzilla movie theme, a fight-starting chorus and a simple but effective plodding beat, it propelled Monch into the mainstream. Also check out the lesser-known UK remix which saw Skitz rework the track with added bars by Roots Manuva and Rodney P.

9. Dr Dre Featuring Eminem - Forgot About Dre

Producer: Dr Dre
Album: 2001 (2000)

Eminem forgot about dre

The second single from Dre's long-awaited 2001 featured an instrumental that sounded like none of the good Dr's tracks before. It swapped the G-Funk he'd made famous for a dark and brooding electronic double timed track featuring an immense string intro, sparse keys, electronic blips and rumbling bass, with Dre and Eminem trading verses of comical horror over one of many amazing beats on the whole album. Will Dre switch his style up again for the forthcoming Detox album?

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