The secrets behind 1Xtra's 10 biggest hip hop tunes of all time

This Easter, 1Xtra counted down the 100 biggest hip hop tracks of all time, based on sales and streaming.

Ace, Yasmin and Nick Bright guided listeners through the tunes, which of course include some of the most important names in the game, from modern stars to iconic hip hop icons.

But how well do you know the world's biggest hip hop hits? Discover the secrets of the Top 10 here, from the artist who named their child after their hit single and who hadn't written the lyrics to a chorus before they got in the booth to lay down their vocals...

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Stan was one of Eminem's early global hits but while it had a huge impact on his career, it probably had an even bigger impact on Dido, who guested on the track.

Not only did it help her score a hit with her then-two year old track Thank You (which Stan samples) but she also called her first son Stanley.

Dido denied she was influenced by the song; however, telling the Guardian it was just one of her favourite names.

"I don't mind people thinking that anyway because it was such a great period in my life," she said after his birth in 2011.

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Ray Dalton's chorus was the last part of the song to be recorded and when he joined Macklemore and Ryan Lewis in the studio, it still hadn't been written.

Fortunately, inspiration struck when checking Ray's levels in the booth.

"What happened was we were looking for a hook and it had no hook. There was just space; there weren't even words," Ray told MTV.

"So when Ryan was testing my levels, I started humming them a melody, and that melody is what is now today

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In 1997, US DJ and producer Jason Nevins got hold of Run DMC's 1983 tune and turned it into one of the biggest selling singles of the nineties.

His remix sold more than 5 million copies worldwide.

But how much did Nevins get paid for remixing the track? Just $5000.

We're sure the royalty checks more than made up for such a low fee.

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Eminem shook up the Oscars when his song from 8 Mile was nominated, and won, the 2003 Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2003. It was the first time a rap song had ever won the award.

Eminem refused to perform the song at the awards show, however, because organisers wanted a 'radio friendly' version of the song and he wanted to perform the track as he wrote it.

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See You Again was used as a tribute to Fast & Furious actor Paul Walker but the song reportedly had a more personal impact on rapper Wiz Khalifa's life.

US gossip website TMZ claims his lyrics in the song sparked an emotional reaction in his ex Amber Rose after she heard the track.

Sources claim it prompted the celebrity exes to pledge to work together to care for their son Sebastian.

Coolio's 1995 hit is the biggest of his career but nearly didn't happen when Stevie Wonder refused to let his song Pastime Paradise be sampled on the track.

He objected to swearing in Coolio's lyrics but changed his mind when the song was re-written to get his approval. It's one of the few songs Coolio has ever released that doesn't include swearing.

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The Fugees' 1996 cover of Lori Lieberman's 1971 song Killing Me Softly (Roberta Flack's 1973 version was also a cover) was such a massive hit, that the band were forced to take drastic steps to move on with their career.

They were so keen to promote their follow-up track Ready Or Not, The Fugees' record label withdrew all copies of Killing Me Softly (this was pre-downloads, pre-streaming) from stores, to give another song some attention.

The trio (Wyclef Jean, Lauren Hill and Pras Michel) originally planned to re-write the lyrics of the song to carry an anti-drugs and anti-poverty message but the writers of the original refused.

Love The Way You Lie tackles the delicate subject of abusive relationships and Rihanna, who suffered domestic abuse, said she agreed to join Eminem on the track because the story felt 'authentic'.

"It's something that, you know, Eminem and I have both experienced, you know, on different sides, different ends of the table," Rihanna told Access Hollywood.

"It just was authentic. It was real. It was believable for us to do a record like that, but it was also something that needed to be done and the way he did it was so clever.

"He pretty much just broke down the cycle of domestic violence and it's something that a lot people don't have a lot of insight on, so this song is a really, really powerful song and it touches a lot of people."

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Musicians have to be really strict with samples these days (everyone's suing everyone else) but back in 1997, Puff Daddy was a bit too relaxed about putting this global smash together.

He didn't get permission from Sting to use his song, Every Breath You Take, until after the song was released. Thankfully, Sting loved the song and took a writing credit on the track (ker-ching).

However, he was later sued by a gospel and country music publishing company over Faith Evans' "Some glad morning when this life is over" line, which had been taken from a 1929 song without getting the sample cleared.

Singer Kyla had quit music to start a family when she got a call telling her that Drake wanted to sample her 2009 single, Do You Mind, for One Dance.

She didn't believe the request was real.

"I got a call a while back, and I was getting loads of emails," she told Trevor Nelson on 1Xtra.

"To be honest, I was really bad and kept putting them aside like 'I'll call later'. You know how it is, sometimes we've had things come in and they fall through at the last minute.

"When we phoned, the company said 'A huge international star wants to sample your tune and they wanna have a meeting with you'. I was like 'Yeah ok, who?' and when they said Drake I was like 'Yeah right!'

"We signed papers and I still didn't believe it. I had a feeling someone was gonna say to me 'April Fools.'"