11 Kick-butt Songs That Keep It 100

Reading Time: 11 min read

11 Kick-butt Songs That Keep It 100 💯 features songs by AJR, BabyTron, Crystal Waters, Jonas Blue x Eyelar, and Quincy Jones.

This list is about one number and one number only: 100. 11 Kick-butt Songs That Keep It 100 💯 features 11 songs with the number 100 in their title. PERIOD. It’s not rocket science, folks. Even so, this playlist has been in the works, rather the backlog, for a minute… 💯. Now, it sees the light of publication! 11 Kick-butt Songs That Keep It 100 features songs by AJR, BabyTron, Crystal Waters, Jonas Blue x Eylar, and Quincy Jones. So, not much more to say, let’s jump right in 💯!

~ Table of Contents ~

1. Jonas Blue & Eyelar, “100 Lives”

2. BabyTron, “100 Bars”

3. AJR, “100 Bad Days”

4. Future, “100 Shooters” (Ft. Meek Mill & Doe Boy)

5. Logic, “100 Miles and Running” (Ft. Wale & John Lindahl)

6. Florence + The Machine, “100 Years”

7. Mac Miller, “100 Grandkids”

8. Sampha, “Plastic 100ºC”

9. Rick Ross, “100 Black Coffins”

10. Crystal Waters, “100% Pure Love”

11. Quincy Jones, “One Hundred Ways” (Ft. James Ingram)

1. Jonas Blue & Eyelar, “100 Lives”

“100 Lives” // Blueprint Music Limited / Universal Music Operations Limited // 2024

“Ooh, you and I / Oh, what a ride / I never thought we’d make it through / To the other side.” But we made it, didn’t we Eyelar (Eyelar Mirzazadeh)? The Dutch musician links up with English DJ, songwriter, and producer Jonas Blue (Guy James Robin) for “100 Lives”. This three-and-a-quarter-minute joint was penned by Jonas, Eyelar, and Ollie Green. Blue produced. The sounds are exuberant. The background is bright and sunny, anchored by an electrifying beat. The drop is sickening – the expectation from Blue. This is the perfect inspiration for Eyelar’s vocals.

Like the accompaniment, Eyelar is enthusiastic. As evidenced in the first verse, her and her significant other have locked down love! “I’ll take the lows / You take the highs / Look at how we’re growing,” she sings in the second verse. In the pre-chorus, she sings, “Dark were the days,” adding, “So far, but now we’re making our way back into the light.” Eylar rises to the occasion in the centerpiece, the chorus:

“I could touch the sky

Chase the night with you

Could live and die

A hundred lives with you…”

Easy on the ears and utterly optimistic, “100 Lives” is the perfect dance-pop song for summer and well beyond. Jonas Blue and Eyelar make a formidable team!

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2. BabyTron, “100 Bars”

6 // The Hip Hop Lab / EMPIRE // 2023

“Bitch, yeah, let me count for y’all.” WOO!!! Michigan rapper BabyTron (James Johnson) teaches us to count to 100 on “100 Bars”. Who would’ve thought the opener from his 2023 album, 6, would be so educational? Technically, there are more than 100 bars, but this two-part rap banger wasn’t devised to be a music theory lesson 😉. Instead, this is an opportunity for Johnson to show off his creative rap skills. Aiding those skills are his masculine voice, and his chill but commanding approach and flow. BabyTron came to rap, eating up the beat by Damjonboi. Earlier, I mentioned that “100 Bars” was a two-part song. Expectedly, half the bars (50) fall into part one, beginning with “One of one, it ain’t no duplication of my DNA,” and concluding with “Fifty rackies if you never seen that lil’ boy, you a shrimp.” Part II acknowledges the beat switch, beginning with “Fifty-one lines in, forty-nine to go,” and concluding with “Ninety-nine my overall, that ain’t shit to go get a bucket / Only right we end it here, gon’ always keep this shit a hundred.” Now that’s 💯 for sure! In between, Johnson catches the ears many times whether he has “20/20 vision off the shrooms, I’m in Wonderland,” “Twenty-two, I tote the deuce, deuce, this bitch a tummy tuck,” or “Fourth and fifty-six, fuck it, gang, I’m goin’ long.” “100 Bars” needs no extensive analysis – it speaks for itself!

Appears in 🔻:

BabyTron, 100 Bars: Rap BNGRZ 🔥 27 (2023)

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3. AJR, “100 Bad Days”

Neotheater // AJR Productions, LLC / BMG Rights Management (US) LLC // 2019

“Woah, when all is going wrong, and you’re scared as hell / … Maybe a hundred bad days made a hundred good stories / A hundred good stories make me interesting at parties.” One of the biggest pros for “100 Bad Days”, a standout from the 2019 AJR album, Neotheater, is the sick production work. Groovy from the onset, “100 Bad Days” is chocked-full of awesome sounds, including the anthemic, brassy chorus. During this same section, Jack Met sounds incredibly passionate vocally, dropping the strongest section of the record. Interestingly, the final two lines of the pre-chorus (excerpted above) kick off the chorus, which continues, “…Yeah, no I ain’t scared of you / No, I ain’t scared of you no more.” In the verses, Jack Met highlights ‘bad’ happenings exemplifying the ‘millennial’ tilt. On the first, he sings, “Remember when we all got drunk? / I ended up with two broke thumbs.” On the second, matters of love have him feeling bad – “Remember when she broke my heart / Waitin’ for the waiter to return my card?” But, as the chorus made crystal clear, Jack and company are turning bad into good, or something along those lines.

Appears in 🔻:

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4. Future, “100 Shooters” (Ft. Meek Mill & Doe Boy)

High off Life // Epic // 2020

“100 Shooters” featuring Meek Mill and Doe Boy marks the 20^th track on High Off Life, the 2020 studio album from Grammy-winning rapper, Future. The trap banger was released as a single in 2019, long before the album materialized. Respectable, “100 Shooters” checks off the usual boxes: ear-catching production work (Tay Keith and Cubeatz) and a catchy chorus that serves as the centerpiece. Each rapper gets a verse, encompassing the usual topics. For example, Meek Mill focuses on drip (“Fifty ‘mil buried in my safe, that’s a graveyard”), sex (“Famous ho, she threw me that pussy, I’ma slay her raw, yeah”), and of course, ‘shooters’ (“Hundred shooters, I can get your clique hit”). The needle isn’t moved, but the hard flex is fully intact 💯.

Appears in 🔻:

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5. Logic, “100 Miles and Running” (Ft. Wale & John Lindahl)

YSIV // Def Jam // 2018

“New York to L.A., Hawaii, and Japan / I’m the motherfuckin’ man, ‘least I’m feelin’ like I am / Got the whole wide world in the palm of my hand / But don’t give a goddamn, I’m Sam, I am.” Grammy-nominated rapper Logic enlists Wale and John Lindahl for the grooviest song from his 2018 LP, YSIV, “100 Miles and Running” 💯. Here, both distance (“100 miles”) and tempo (running is a fast action, duh) are a factor. Safe to say, Bobby goes TF off, delivering his most agile rhymes of the LP. Wale doesn’t do too shabby for himself either, eating the beat alive during his guest verse (“Been the talk of the town, nigga, Virginia, Maryland / Did it all for the capital, hope you haven’t forgot”). As for Lindahl? His falsetto is fierce to the nth degree.

“And it’s on now

Everybody know that it’s on now

Get in the zone now

Oh, no, no, no.”

Appears in 🔻:

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6. Florence + The Machine, “100 Years”

High as Hope // Virgin //  2018

Florence + The Machine delivers a gem with “100 Years,” which ranks among the brighter spots of their fourth studio album, High as Hope. “100 Years” drops ‘spiritual bombs,’ something that consistently occurs throughout the LP. In the chorus, Florence Welch sings:

“And, Lord, don’t let me break this

Let me hold it lightly

Give me arms to pray with

Instead of ones that hold too tightly.”

Another poetic moment occurs later as she asserts, “My heart bends and breaks so many, many times / And is born again with each sunrise.” “100 Years” is arguably the most epic number on High as Hope, and that’s against formidable competition.

Appears in 🔻:

13 Songs Centered on the Year (2019)

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7. Mac Miller, “100 Grandkids”

GO:OD AM  // Warner // 2015

“I swear to God I put the hero in heroin / These flows, kilos, I could sell snow to a ski slope / I could sell evil to the devil / Nonbelievers to a temple / Shit, I could sell water to a speedboat.” The late, great Mac Miller kills it on “100 Grandkids”, the crème of his cleverly titled 2015 album, GO:OD AM  (it’s a swear word if you couldn’t figure it out). Miller is incredibly creative with his words dropping some sick punch lines. He makes “grandkids” and “100 grand” related. Among his best lines:

“When I first made a hundred grand, thought I was the shit

When I first made a hundred grand, thought I was a king.”

He’s thought he was “the shit” and a “king” when he made $100,000.

Appears in 🔻:

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8. Sampha, “Plastic 100ºC”

Process // Young Turks // 2017

“It’s been so hot I’ve been melting out here,” Sampha sings on the chorus of “Plastic 100˚C,” continuing, “I’m made out of plastic out here.” “Plastic 100˚C” commences Process, the 2017 debut album by the British musician. A personal record, Sampha is filled with emotion. Lyrically, he relies on outer space references to share his emotional rollercoaster. The best instance of this occurs throughout the choruses as he sings, “You touched down in the base of my fears / Houston, can-can-can you hear me now?” His voice is pained, clearly wearing his emotions on his sleeves. A prime example of the emotional toll occurs in the first verse, where he asserts:

“Usually, I’d run home and tuck the issue under

Oh, sleeping with my worries, yeah

I didn’t really know what that lump was, my luck.”

He does a phenomenal job of depicting his vulnerability musically.

Appears in 🔻:

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9. Rick Ross, “100 Black Coffins”

Django Unchained (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) // Visiona Romantica, Inc // 2013

“Ooh, now you are one lucky n****r / You gotta listen to your boss white boy / Oh I’m gonna walk in the moonlight with you / You wanna hold my hand?” Holy shit 😳! For some context to the use of the ‘hard N-word,’ the lines hail from the Quentin Tarantino film, Django Unchained which takes place during slavery. The lines are used in the intro of the Rick Ross song, “100 Black Coffins”, the 12^th track from Django Unchained (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). It was written by Ross and Jamie Foxx, who portrays Django in the film. Foxx produced it with Brainz Dimilo. The Grammy-nominated rapper is true to self on “100 Black Coffins.” A prime example of this is his signature ad-lib, “Oh Lord!” Besides the ad-lib, there are plenty of memorable lyrics. Concluding the first verse, he spits, “Hundred dead bitches, hundred black coffins / Money on his head, bitch, I’m trying to make a fortune.” WOO! The second verse ends similarly: “Hundred dead bitches (Lord), hundred black coffins (Why) / 12 gauge, shotgun, chest full of carbon (boom-boom). The chorus is the section to beat:

“I need a hundred black coffins for a hundred bad men

A hundred black graves, so I can lay they ass in

I need a hundred black preachers, with a black sermon to tell

From a hundred black Bibles, while we send them all to hell

I need a hundred black coffins, black coffins, black coffins (Oh, Lord!)…”

Notably, Western sounds adorn the production in this hip-hop cut, fitting given that Django Unchained is a Western. All told, Rick Ross delivers a banger. “Our revenge is the sweetest, bitch ‘cause I’m coming.” Hell yeah!

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10. Crystal Waters, “100% Pure Love”

Storyteller // UMG Recordings, Inc. // 1994

“I’ve come to take you there / Show you how to care / Just be aware / That you’ll have to share.” Word, Crystal Waters. The renowned dance and house singer/songwriter dropped a jewel in 1994 with “100% Pure Love”. It peaked at no. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. It asks how this surefire, house/dance-pop bop missed the top 10. SMH! Regardless, “100% Pure Love” and its parent album, Storyteller, were certified gold by the RIAA. “100% Pure Love” was produced by The Basement Boys. The beat is sick, PERIOD. Also sick are the keys and synths. The organ makes everything better, as do the strings. “100% Pure Love” has both. The backdrop is nothing short of hypnotic – mesmerizing!

Do you know what the not-so-secret weapon of “100% Pure Love” is? Crystal Waters, of course! She brings the heat. Her performance is energetic, fun, and sassy. She infuses ample personality as she delivers memorable lyrics and melodies. “You call my name again / No, it’s not a sin / I’ll show you how to win / And where I’ve been,” she sings in the second verse. She follows with the refrain (pre-chorus), asserting, “I’ll be your answer / I’ll be your wish / I’ll be your fantasy / Your favorite dish.” Ooh-wee! The crowning achievement, unsurprisingly, is the chorus:

“From the back to the middle

And around again

I’m gonna be there ‘til the end

100% pure love.”

And if the chorus wasn’t enough, Waters confirms the 100% pure love even more in the bridge: “You’ll never have to run away / You’ll always have a friend to play / You’ll never go out on your own / In me / You will find a home / Home.” “100% Pure Love” is the cat’s meow. One of the great dance records of the ‘90s.

Appears in 🔻:

Crystal Waters, 100% Pure Love: Bangerz N Bopz 🔥 63 (2024)

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11. Quincy Jones, “One Hundred Ways” (Ft. James Ingram)

The Dude // UMG Recordings, Inc. // 1981

“Love her today / Find one hundred ways.” Aww – how chivalrous, dedicated, and sweet to the nth degree, James Ingram! “One Hundred Ways” appears as the seventh track on the 1981, Quincy Jones album, The Dude. The Dude added to Jones’ Grammy hardware (he’s won 28 Grammys), while the late Ingram, the vocalist on “One Hundred Ways,” won the Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male. Take one listen to “One Hundred Ways,” and it’s plain to hear why it was Grammy-worthy and helped propel The Dude to platinum status. The record itself was pop hit, peaking respectably at no. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982.

“In your arms tonight

She’ll reflect

That she owes you the sweetest of debts

If she wants to pay

Find one hundred ways.”

It should be noted that neither Jones nor Ingram penned “One Hundred Ways.” Jones is responsible for the incredibly lush, smooth production. The sound is idiomatic of the refined, quiet storm brand of R&B that ruled in the 1980s. As for the songwriting, those honors belong to Benjamin Wright, Kathy Wakefield, and Tony Coleman. All three writers did a fabulous job of composing thoughtful, love-driven lyrics, and tuneful melodies. The harmonic progression that underlies is sweet too, leaning into jazz extending beyond the standard I-IV-V. Ingram brings “One Hundred Ways” to life. Does he ever perspire as he lends his expressive, nuanced pipes to Wright, Wakefield, and Coleman’s epic song? I don’t believe so. Love never sounded so lit in his hands as it does on the R&B gem, “One Hundred Ways”!

Appears in 🔻:

Quincy Jones, One Hundred Ways: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 138 (2023)

~ Table of Contents ~ // ~ intro ~

11 Kick-butt Songs That Keep It 100 (2024) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; AJR Productions, LLC, Blueprint Music Limited, BMG Rights Management (US) LLC, Def Jam, EMPIRE, Epic, The Hip Hop Lab, UMG Recordings, Inc., Universal Music Operations Limited, Virgin, Visiona Romantica, Inc, Warner, Young Turks; Leonardo Goncalves wild from Pexels]

11 Kick-butt Songs That Keep It 100 | Playlist 🎧

Published by the musical hype on September 2, 2024September 2, 2024