10 Of The Best Album Intros And Interludes

Sometimes the best parts of songs aren't the songs at all.

Intros/Interludes > Songs? - There are album intros you skip over and interludes you’ll never listen to after the first time. Then there are some that, right as you’re about to skip over, get you to listen carefully and press your ear up against the speaker.This batch of intros and interludes are classics that are hard to erase from memory. Some are skits, others actual tracks with beat and bars that set the perfect tone for some of our favorite albums. - Jon Reyes(Photos from Left: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Live Nation, Theo Wargo/Getty Images for CBGB, Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

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Intros/Interludes > Songs? - There are album intros you skip over and interludes you’ll never listen to after the first time. Then there are some that, right as you’re about to skip over, get you to listen carefully and press your ear up against the speaker.This batch of intros and interludes are classics that are hard to erase from memory. Some are skits, others actual tracks with beat and bars that set the perfect tone for some of our favorite albums. - Jon Reyes(Photos from Left: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Live Nation, Theo Wargo/Getty Images for CBGB, Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

2Pac - “Ambitionz Az A Riddah,” All Eyez On Me (1996) - The 1996 album was the last album that would be released when the rapper was alive, and it was an ambitious effort. It was one of the first double-disc hip hop albums to be released.“Ambitionz Az A Riddah” is a hell of an opener for the double disc, especially since it was rumored to be one of the first tracks Pac produced when he was released from jail. It served as a perfect demonstration of the rapper riding the line between being sinister and incredible skills as a storyteller.(Photo: Death Row Records)

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2Pac - “Ambitionz Az A Riddah,” All Eyez On Me (1996) - The 1996 album was the last album that would be released when the rapper was alive, and it was an ambitious effort. It was one of the first double-disc hip hop albums to be released.“Ambitionz Az A Riddah” is a hell of an opener for the double disc, especially since it was rumored to be one of the first tracks Pac produced when he was released from jail. It served as a perfect demonstration of the rapper riding the line between being sinister and incredible skills as a storyteller.(Photo: Death Row Records)

The Notorious B.I.G. - “Intro,” Ready To Die (1994) - The legendary intro takes listeners through a ride of Big’s life: birth, violent childhood, life of crime, and subsequent punishment with a backdrop of funk and old-school hip hop. Right before jumping into “Things Done Changed,” it was clear what listeners were going to get. There's another interlude on this one that brings more of the LOLs. It involves pickle juice, and you know exactly what we're talking about.(Photo: Bad Boy Records)

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The Notorious B.I.G. - “Intro,” Ready To Die (1994) - The legendary intro takes listeners through a ride of Big’s life: birth, violent childhood, life of crime, and subsequent punishment with a backdrop of funk and old-school hip hop. Right before jumping into “Things Done Changed,” it was clear what listeners were going to get. There's another interlude on this one that brings more of the LOLs. It involves pickle juice, and you know exactly what we're talking about.(Photo: Bad Boy Records)

Lauryn Hill - “Intro,” The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998) - It isn’t just an intro that tells you what the album will be about; it’s pretty and cinematic. With a guitar gently plucking way and a teacher taking roll call as Lauryn Hill’s name gets called over and over again, there’s a sadness that Lauryn wasn’t in that class to absorb the lessons that were learned there, but thankfully for us she did miss out so that we could have this gorgeous masterpiece. The work is also punctuated with classroom interludes featuring actual students in a class taught by Newark, New Jersey's now mayor Ras Baraka.(Photo: Ruffhouse, Columbia Records)

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Lauryn Hill - “Intro,” The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998) - It isn’t just an intro that tells you what the album will be about; it’s pretty and cinematic. With a guitar gently plucking way and a teacher taking roll call as Lauryn Hill’s name gets called over and over again, there’s a sadness that Lauryn wasn’t in that class to absorb the lessons that were learned there, but thankfully for us she did miss out so that we could have this gorgeous masterpiece. The work is also punctuated with classroom interludes featuring actual students in a class taught by Newark, New Jersey's now mayor Ras Baraka.(Photo: Ruffhouse, Columbia Records)

Jay-Z - “Interlude / December 4th,” The Black Album (2003) - “I learned that all things must come to an end...” says the voice on the first track of Jay-Z’s then farewell album before blasting into “December 4th.” The track includes spoken word interludes from HOV’s mother over a “That’s How Long” by The Chi-Lites sample. It’s a heartfelt account of HOV’s early life immersed in triumph.(Photo: Roc-a-Fella Records)

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Jay-Z - “Interlude / December 4th,” The Black Album (2003) - “I learned that all things must come to an end...” says the voice on the first track of Jay-Z’s then farewell album before blasting into “December 4th.” The track includes spoken word interludes from HOV’s mother over a “That’s How Long” by The Chi-Lites sample. It’s a heartfelt account of HOV’s early life immersed in triumph.(Photo: Roc-a-Fella Records)

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Kanye West - “Intro / We Don’t Care,” The College Dropout (2004) - What better way to start an album about college (or lack thereof) than with the voice of an annoying faculty member asking Kanye to “something for the kids”? “We Don’t Care” is brilliant in juxtaposition and a tongue-in-cheek response to what people do out of desperation.(Photo: Roc-a-Fella Records)

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Kanye West - “Intro / We Don’t Care,” The College Dropout (2004) - What better way to start an album about college (or lack thereof) than with the voice of an annoying faculty member asking Kanye to “something for the kids”? “We Don’t Care” is brilliant in juxtaposition and a tongue-in-cheek response to what people do out of desperation.(Photo: Roc-a-Fella Records)

Nas - “The Genesis,” Illmatic (1994) - Illmatic introduces us to one of hip hop’s most cinematic rappers with an intro that contains audio clips from Wild Style, a movie that inaugurated hip hop into film.(Photo: Columbia Records)

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Nas - “The Genesis,” Illmatic (1994) - Illmatic introduces us to one of hip hop’s most cinematic rappers with an intro that contains audio clips from Wild Style, a movie that inaugurated hip hop into film.(Photo: Columbia Records)

Kendrick Lamar - “Sherane a.k.a. Master’s Splinter Daughter,” good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012) - For his modern-day opus, Kendrick Lamar starts off perfectly and subtly as he tells us the story of falling for Sherane “the hood rat” while painting the canvas with vivid illustrations of growing up in Compton.(Photo: Top Dawg Entertainment, Interscope)

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Kendrick Lamar - “Sherane a.k.a. Master’s Splinter Daughter,” good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012) - For his modern-day opus, Kendrick Lamar starts off perfectly and subtly as he tells us the story of falling for Sherane “the hood rat” while painting the canvas with vivid illustrations of growing up in Compton.(Photo: Top Dawg Entertainment, Interscope)

Outkast - “Where Are My Panties?,” The Love Below (2003) - An all around hilarious take on the “morning after,” where you can listen to a gal look for her panties and André 3000 giving himself a pep talk to stay “ice cold!” It’s even more hilarious when it jumps right into André’s “Prototype.”(Photo: Arista records)

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Outkast - “Where Are My Panties?,” The Love Below (2003) - An all around hilarious take on the “morning after,” where you can listen to a gal look for her panties and André 3000 giving himself a pep talk to stay “ice cold!” It’s even more hilarious when it jumps right into André’s “Prototype.”(Photo: Arista records)

Fugees - “How Many Mics?”, The Score (1996) - An intro that would introduce the world at large to an incredibly skillful group where in one track manages to reference Frederick Douglass, Tommy Mottola, Stanley Kubrick, Nation of Islam, and more while outstandingly flexing intellectual muscle at a time when hip hop was shedding blood and losing constituents.  Honorable mention goes to the "Chinese Restaurant Skit," where a restaurant owner is getting trolled by patrons asking for no onions in their rice, as the owner becomes infuriated and attacks Kung-Fu style, but not before shouting "But like Burger King, have it your way!"(Photo: Ruffhouse Records, Columbia Records)

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Fugees - “How Many Mics?”, The Score (1996) - An intro that would introduce the world at large to an incredibly skillful group where in one track manages to reference Frederick Douglass, Tommy Mottola, Stanley Kubrick, Nation of Islam, and more while outstandingly flexing intellectual muscle at a time when hip hop was shedding blood and losing constituents.  Honorable mention goes to the "Chinese Restaurant Skit," where a restaurant owner is getting trolled by patrons asking for no onions in their rice, as the owner becomes infuriated and attacks Kung-Fu style, but not before shouting "But like Burger King, have it your way!"(Photo: Ruffhouse Records, Columbia Records)

N.W.A - “Straight Outta Compton,” Straight Outta Compton (1988) - The title track to the group’s debut album doubly served as an introduction of N.W.A to the world. It also set the tone for a group that would get the conversation started on music censorship in the U.S. a couple of years later. The title alone has proven to live on by itself, as it became the title to one of the biggest films of 2015 based on the group’s ascent to super stardom.(Photo: Ruthless/Priority Records)

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N.W.A - “Straight Outta Compton,” Straight Outta Compton (1988) - The title track to the group’s debut album doubly served as an introduction of N.W.A to the world. It also set the tone for a group that would get the conversation started on music censorship in the U.S. a couple of years later. The title alone has proven to live on by itself, as it became the title to one of the biggest films of 2015 based on the group’s ascent to super stardom.(Photo: Ruthless/Priority Records)