“With great aux cord comes great responsibility.” - Franklin “Diddy” Roosevelt

Forget FOMO. The real plague of the modern Millennial is fear of the infamous aux cord violation. If you are anything like me, you are probably pretty self-assured in your own music taste, and confidently can DJ a blend of old and new songs tailored for your specific audience. But sometimes you are passed the aux cord in an unfamiliar environment with a judgmental car full of people demanding a degree of coolness you’re unsure you can muster. Your palms start to sweat, what if that one (OK, three) Macklemore song you have on your phone comes on shuffle by mistake? What if you start blasting A$AP Rocky and it’s way too early in the day, so they oust you for a smug frenemy who has Bryson Tiller’s entire discography? It is a lot of pressure.

If this sounds like you, I have the perfect solution: play these songs in the car to make you seem cooler than you actually are.

1. "Angels" by Chance the Rapper ft. Saba

Nothing better than blasting this on a sunny day with the windows down. Chance the Rapper is in that perfect sweet spot where he is mainstream enough that any self-respecting pretentious young adult knows his music, but thinks that Chance is obscure enough that this knowledge makes them morally superior. Ride this phenomenon as far as you can. Hearing you play Chance, they’ll simultaneously be self-satisfied (happy audiences are easier to please!) and impressed (“wow, you know him, too???”). "Angels" is also nice because it came out pretty recently, so they’ll probably not know it and feel a little threatened by your ability to flawlessly rap the second verse*. You’ll know this worked perfectly when you hear them mumble something vague about how "Sunday Candy" is totally on their Spotify and sink lower into their seats.

*You've gotta learn how to flawlessly rap the second verse, by the way.

2. "Runaway" by Kanye West ft. Pusha T

This song is absolutely lovely. It has a very melodic chorus, rhythmic verses, a minute of eerie piano chords (artsy!), and gets you feeling some type of way. It’s a genuinely great song. But analytically speaking, it makes the list for the fact you can easily learn the words (very key to looking suave in shotgun) and is mostly sung, which is great because people hate to admit they love catchy melodies, so their charm is most effective when one can pretend it’s straight hardcore rap. Plus it’s Kanye West on "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy," which everyone knows they’re supposed to like, but probably don’t know (since we were like 12 when it came out). They’ll be awe-inspired by your knowledge and shamed by their lack thereof. Major cool points.

Also, this song has the additional benefit of being about your ex-boyfriend. No, not generically. It’s literally written about your specific ex-boyfriend. Or at least you’ll be convinced it is, which is basically the same thing!

3. "Pop Style" by Drake ft. The Throne

You show me a person who doesn’t like Drake and I will show you a liar. Or Meek Mill. Universally appealing, the Canadian rapper is to the world of hip hop what oatmeal is to the world of breakfast cereals: predigested. To avoid erring on the side of basic, I have you playing one of his most recently dropped singles (peep "Views" on April 29th!).This song is just the right amount of uptempo and, much like the "Degrassi" star himself, your audience will love pretending they’re a little more street than they actually are. As an added bonus, if you are the kind of person who is finding memorizing lyrics a challenge, I promise you can handle Jay Z's verse. Like seriously, it's just two lines.

4. "Feeling Myself" by Nicki Minaj ft. Beyoncé

“The queen of rap slaying with Queen B/If you ain’t on the team you playing for team D.” - Nicki Minaj

Okay, technically speaking that may be from the remix to "**Flawless" (also a great song to blast in the car), but the sentiment stays true. Two of the most prominent and powerful female musicians killin’ it on a rap anthem about how much they have already killed it? I have chills. Put this through the car speaker and I guarantee you the car will be bouncing more than Minaj’s butt in the "Anaconda" music video. This song is upbeat, empowering and after 3:58 minutes will have every person in the car thinking you’re DJ Mustard in disguise -- that is, if the driver doesn’t accidentally crash first because they were too busy booty-popping to steer.

WARNING: This has the opposite effect if your target audience is a douchy teen who only listens to “real MCs” (code for male rappers). If this person is in your car, I have an alternate course of action:

1.Turn the song off

2. Get on the highway

3. Open the car windows

4. Slow down a little.

5. Push them out. Then turn the music back on and keep driving.

5. "Super Rich Kids" by Frank Ocean ft. Earl Sweatshirt

Turn the bass up, turn the angst up. This song is great to show people your unfathomed depths. There’s nothing cooler than a mysterious, complicated life. Try to look out the window dramatically and sigh a few times. If you can work the sentence “I don’t deserve love” into the conversation, that would be great (but make sure it’s organic!). Frank’s soulful croon will close out your set and make sure people know that you are, in every way, a little better than them. If they’re still not convinced, throw out a “damn, how’d Kanye get Frank Ocean on his album before Frank Ocean got Frank Ocean on his album.” Very topical.

And after this set, your coolness should be well established and hopefully, your destination reached. If not, truly consider why you are spending 25 minutes of your life driving with people you have to posture around. Then give up trying and play your favorite 2012 pop remix. I’m sure they’ll know all the words too.