In the half-decade since his debut hit, "Hustlin'," Rick Ross has grown from a second-tier drug rapper into one of hip-hop's steeliest MCs. Now he's a mogul, and by the sound of this showcase for three rappers he signed to his record label, he's a good one. Meek Mill offers gruff gangsta-isms; Wale flaunts his sleek bohemian-hardcore style on bragfests like "600 Benz." But the real find is Pill, who steps up to the major leagues without taking the street-level grit out of crack-trade tales like "Pacman." Ross pops up throughout, adding his booming voice and knack for terse disses: "Fuck a blog, dawg, 'cause one day we gon' meet."

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“The Pretender”

This song wasn't part of the planned track listing for 2007's Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, and was put together in a day. "It happened after we recorded a lot of stuff," said Dave Grohl. Yet it ended up as the album opener and the lead single. Grohl called it "a stomping Foo Fighters uptempo song with a little bit of Chuck Berry in it." The singer hinted at the lyrics' political overtones: "Everyone's been f---ed over before and I think a lot of people feel f---ed over right now and they're not getting what they were promised."