Except for the songs that made my Top 20 songs of 2002 and the representative tracks from my Top 20 Albums of 2002, these are the rest of the best indie and indie-minded hip hop tracks of 2002. To be eligible, a song needed to be included on an album released in the United States between December 1, 2001 and November 30, 2002.

1. Blackalicious “Sky Is Falling” Blazing Arrow (MCA)
2. Talib Kweli “Get By” Quality (Rawkus)
3. J-Live “One for the Griot” All of the Above (Coup d’Etat)
4. Nas “One Mic” Stillmatic (Ill Will/Columbia)
5. Styles featuring Pharoahe Monch “The Life” A Gangster and a Gentleman (Ruff Ryders/Interscope)
6. Mr. Lif “The Now” I Phantom (Definitive Jux)
7. Jurassic 5 “What’s Golden” Power In Numbers (Interscope)
8. The Roots and Cody ChestnuTT “The Seed (2.0)” Phrenology(MCA)
9. Talib Kweli featuring Bilal “Waitin’ For the DJ” Quality (Rawkus)
10. Nonphixion “The CIA Is Trying To Kill Me” Future Is Now
(Landpseed)
11. J-Live “Satisfied?” All of the Above (Coup d’Etat)
12. Mr. Lif featuring Insight “Status” I Phantom (Definitive Jux)
13. Jurassic 5 featuring Nelly Furtado “Thin Line” Power In Numbers (Interscope)
14. Scarface “Keep Me Down” The Fix (Def Jam)
15. Nonphixion “Black Helicopters” Future Is Now (Landpseed)
16. Jean Grae “What Would I Do” Attack of the Attacking Things (Third Earth)
17. J-Live “How Real It Is” All of the Above (Coup d’Etat)
18. Anti-Pop Consortium “Ping Pong” Arrhythmia (Warp)
19. Blackalicious “4000 Miles” Blazing Arrow (MCA)
20. People Under the Stairs “Jappy Jap” O.S.T. (OM)