In honor of today being 4/20—every smoker's favorite day of the year—SOTC has compiled the 25 Best Rap Songs relating to weed. Though some may be more about bud than others, all are guaranteed to make your high all the more enjoyable. Be forewarned, though... this list doesn't have any happy hippy weed music—this is straight thugged-out entertainment. Locate your lighters.

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via MySpace

Tail-end golden era rap fanatics rejoice—the Hit Squad is back! Emerging after Long Islanders Erick Sermon and Parish Smith found fame as EPMD, the Hit Squad drafted in the duo's pugnacious rap mates Redman, K-Solo, Keith Murray and Das EFX and reigned as one of the most beloved rap posses of the early '90s. Alas, internal bickering scuppered the crew's chances of any real longevity, but in the Hit Squad's pomp they helped forge a period of raw-but-funky east coast '90s rap. With what's being billed as a full-on reunion show this Friday at the Best Buy Theater—although with the egos involved, you'll want to take that with a healthy dose of cynicism—here's a countdown the Squad's most dynamite hits. (Possibly Convoluted Pedant's Note: While Sermon's post-EPMD break-up Def Squad splinter group subsequently dropped some dope jams—and that long-ass eight-minute posse cut with Busta Rhymes's Flipmode goons—we're running with the logic that only when EPMD were officially in business could a song be classified as a true Hit Squad moment.)

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MTV turns 30 on Monday. To celebrate, we're running a bunch of pieces on the channel, its legacy, and its future.

Debuting during the golden year of '88, Yo! MTV Raps revolutionized TV coverage of hip-hop music. Of course, hip-hop videos existed long before Yo! launched—Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five's gritty street-level visuals for "The Message," peeping Kurtis Blow clad in black leather pants performing in front of a silhouetted Manhattan-skyline backdrop in "If I Ruled The World"—but the show provided hip-hop junkies with rap reportage like never before. Hosted by Ed Lover and Doctor Dre (the lesser-heralded one), who were assisted by Fab 5 Freddy, Yo! MTV Raps didn't just showcase new videos and air interviews; it took viewers inside the worlds of the artists they profiled, which might mean delving down into producer Pete Rock's dingy Mount Vernon basement, trading barbs with N.W.A. in LA, or letting shout-rap oiks Onyx slam dance with Freddy on the Brooklyn Bridge. Here are five of the best moments from its archives.

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That right there is three people in happier times. [Alexander Richter via Eskay]

On Monday night, Method Man and Redman took their Blackout! 2 promotional tour to Jimmy Fallon, an evening that promised to join the rapidly growing pantheon of incredible rap performances on Fallon's show--the Roots backing veterans that went as far back or farther in the game than they did, guys notorious for bringing their own tremendous energy and charisma to live appearances finally joining with the hypest live band in rap. But when Red and Meth took the stage, they did "Ayo" with a DJ, and not the Roots, behind them. What happened?

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Rap's 36-posts-or-so-per-mp3-blog-a-day regimen hasn't had nearly the same obliterative effect on the music itself as it has in, say, indie rock: If anything, it makes tracks by veterans like Red and Meth seem like major events, when in reality both of those guys have spent the better part of two decades tossing songs like this off in their sleep. But lacking something to prove is its own asset: listen to how assured everyone on "City Lights" sounds. Redman, Method Man, and Bun B are three of the most effortlessly conversational MCs in all of rap, and they take their time with this one. Redman's references--Jada Pinkett Smith, "chinky eyes," R. Kelly's sex trial--are, as ever, charmingly dated, and Method Man, evidentially, just heard Diplomatic Immunity for the first time in while (or ever?): "I dropped in '95, now I'm on 95 / South in the Dirty, been riding dirty since Dirty died." Old dogs, new tricks, etc.

Feel-good throwback of the day: Meth and Red's "A Yo," the usual weed-kissed melange of gritty New York baller-talk and goofy Kill Bill references. These guys have become something like a beloved movie in deep cable syndication, and even they're watching. Guess which rapper spit this: "And now I'm on this grind like Method Man in his prime." [OnSmash]