All Time Best & Worst Rappers
August 31st, 2008
Filed Under: The Usual Rant, humor, music
Can you believe it’s now been nearly 40 years since the birth and rise of Hip Hop?! This week I want to celebrate the music artform I grew up with with different takes of what Hip Hop culture is about, where its been and possibly where it’s going.
Today I offer my list of who I think are the best & worst all time rappers so far. I kept it to a “Top 5″ for each category with exception of the last one. I’m interested to hear what other people think of the lists, and curious to know about your own ones.
Top 5 worst rappers of all time:
5. The Charm — why fat white hicks think they can rap is beyond me.
4. Chingy — Loose change, huh? Holy Christ, he sucks.
3. MC Hammer — No, I DON’T want to touch this, thank you.
2. Fu Shunikins (with cameos by Shaq) — dumb just is backwards rapping.
1. Vanilla Ice — “Ice, Ice, Baby”, do I really need to explain?
Top 5 wanna-be rappers of all time:
5. Puff Daddy/P. Diddy — *SIGH* he IS a savvy business man however…
4. 2 Live Crew — Dumb lewd antics for sure, but sadly still entertaining during spring break.
3. Markey Mark and the Funky Bunch — Craptacular.
2. Brian Austin Green — OMG, really, he tried to rap outside of 90210; David Silva, puh-lease…
1. Elvira — she had a song called “Monsta’ Rap”, lord have mercy on us all.
Top 5 overrated rappers of all time:
5. Master P — Made a career out of groaning “Ugh”.
4. Nelly — It may be hot in here, but band-aid gimmicks can only work for so long brutha.
3. Bubba Sparxxx — What the hell happened to you since “getting ugly”???
2. Will Smith — Sorry, 95% of his music was wack, but he is a successful Hollywood actor.
1. Fred Durst — For someone who is utter garbage lyrically, you still gotta give him props for parlaying his medicore “talent” into frequent invites to the Playboy Mansion.
Top 10 best rappers of all time:
10. Mad Lib Fatlib — It’s a crying shame that his life problems sidelined his budding career.
9. Common — A lyrical genius.
8. LL Cool J — This guy could battle as well as rhyme.
7. KRS-One — A pioneer of how rap (and hip-hop as a whole) can educate & inspire.
6. Andre 3000 — one half of Outkast, always pushing the boundaries creatively.
5. Rakim — street smarts and super intelligence combined.
4. Chuck D — ’nuff said.
3. Biggie Smalls — Damn, he was good. Fugly, but good.
2. Tupac Shakur — Believe it or not I’m actually not a big fan of 2pac but I have always respected his skills as a lyricist. My only real knock on him was the inconsistency of his messages; don’t tell me how much you love yo’ momma on one track while on the very next one calling women bitches & hoes. Hypocrite.
2. Pos D’Nous — How I didn’t include him before is a crime!
1. Mos Def — Because not only is he conscience, has a powerful delivery and smooth flow but also keeps elevating his game and Hip Hop culture at large.
Popularity: 9%
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...---------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.blue22.net/blog/wp/2008/08/31/all_time_best_worst_rappers/trackback/
14 Responses to “All Time Best & Worst Rappers”
HOUSEofCAKES
Haha–For the most part, I agree. What about Kid n’ Play? Just kidding.
Your list is a couple of years after my hip-hop inauguration which I find interesting. Also, I guess the question would be how did you decide–lyrics or beats or both?
KRS-One–great EXCEPT for that weird-christian-rap-album-thing-whatever-that-was that he put out.
I would agree with the Tupac thing. The funny thing is that people 10 years younger than I are still listening to him (and can you believe my Slayer album Seasons in the Abyss is over 10 years old? NO TATTOOS on them!)
I would have to put Public Enemy on the top 10 somewhere I think. One of the best live shows I have seen.
Mike
“10. Mad Lib — It’s a crying shame that his life problems sidelined his budding career.”
who are you referring to? J Dilla with his unfortunate death due to thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura?
As far as Andre edging out KRS, I would have to disagree.
Eminem not showing up anywhere, this somehow reminds me of John Edwards.
..:JJP
Yeah, I was just telling someone the other day about that Christian album that KRS-One put out and he didn’t believe me, saying “KRS-One?! Christ hugger?!! Nooooo… are you sure???”
And I’m a dumbass, I meant Fatlip from The Pharcyde not Madlib but I corrected that above. Sorry!
..:JJP
Sorry, I missed adding my personal “Top 5″ rap groups of all-time:
5. The Pharcyde
4. A Tribe Called Quest
3. Public Enemy
2. Outkast
1. De La Soul
HOUSEofCAKES
Ahh, The Pharcyde. Good times. They have a unique flavor that is for sure.
It’s such a hard call and does Kraftwerk count as a rap group? Aren’t they really the roots of the sample/beat that many hiphop artists got their feel from?
The funny thing too this makes me think of is how difficult it is to lump all of hip-hop into one cateogry and then have to sort through the mess to pull out the gems. I mean, Tribe is more funky and Pharcyde is a little harder. Cypress Hill, House of Pain (haha), it’s hard to imagine them in the same category, right?
Chad
How could you have forgotten Bindi Irwin’s rap on the today show .
I actually say this when I was home sick one day. A blessing and a curse.
Luke
Duuuude, snoop dogg has the best rap voice of all time and kenya west is the most over rated of all time, almost as bad as diddy. ice ice baby kicked ass and you know it.
Chad, that Bindi rap made my day. Cant decide which is worse her raps or those gay guys dancing
..:JJP
No offense to tha Dogg Father, but I’ll take Nate Dogg over Snoop any day as BEST rap voice.
And Bindi, Bindi, Bindi… what the hell wuz ya thinkin’?
Monkey Nutz
5 Worst:
5. Nike Owners kid, yeah, I won’t even look up the name
4. Insane Clown Posse - really???
3. Kid Rock…yeah I said it, glad you found a new direction, and decided to spend some time with Pammy Anderson
2. Shaq - “I’ll do you like Spielberg, you’ll get Jour’ Ass kicked in the par”
1. Vanilla Ice
Top 5 Overrated Rappers:
5. Eminem - I’m sorry, but diss songs of pop groups??? Why has no one EVER called him on that?
4. Bone Thugs and Harmony - Crossroads then over
3. Tupac “Fake Thug” Shakur - Yelling and screaming and creating emotional responses, does not make you a good rapper. Lyrically, he doesn’t exist.
2. Jermaine Dupri - First he copied Snoop, then Bad Boy. And single-handedly destroyed Janet Jackson’s career.
1. Lil’ Wayne - being the “best” of the current crop means nothing, and nobody that says “wobbly, wobbly” will ever get my respect.
Top 5 Groups:
5. Wu-Tang Clan - yes they are irrelevant now, BUT they owned the industry.
4. De La Soul - didn’t want to drop them, but Kast hasn’t dropped a bad album yet, vs latter day De La.
3. OutKast
2. N.W.A - They created teh West Coast, and were actually saying something.
1. Public Enemy - The Legendary Ones
Honorable mention:
Run-DMC, GooDie Mob, Souls of Mischief, A Tribe Called Quest, Pharcyde
I’ll um…adjust this one:
Top 10 Lyricists of All Time:
10. Redman - man that Method Man connection ruined his path
9. LL Cool J
8. Black Thought - The Roots
7. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien - Don’t front on the Yay-Area
6. Common - Chi-Town’s Star
5. Jay-Z - you make not like the content, but you can’t front on the lyrical wordplay.
4. Andre 3G - One of the rare cases of growth over a career
3. KRS-One
2. The Notorious B.I.G. - “Lyrically, I’m supposed to represent, I’m not only a client, I’m the Player President”
1. Rakim - The 18th Letter
Honorable Mention (in no particular order):
Posdonus (De La), Dres of Black Sheep, Q-Tip,
..:JJP
That’s an awesome list Monkey Nutz! And how the hell did I forget about Dres & Q-Tip in this equation?!
And yes, 2Pac was a fake thug.
..:JJP
Del & the Hieroglyphics crew are super good too…
Monkey Nutz
Blender Magazine on Tupac:
An individual with “insane rock-star charisma,” but his music comprised of “larded records with self-mythologizing, mediocre filler.”
Truer words were never spoken.
I have ONE Pac album, ONLY because during my Wu-Tang phase, I had everything they appeared on.
ryno
Individual Rappers:
1. Rakim
2. Talib Kweli
3. KRS-1
4. MF DOOM
5. Pos D’Nous
Groups:
1. Public Enemy
2. Wu-Tang Clan
3. EPMD
4. De La Soul
5. Gangstarr
Overrated:
1. Tupac* (THANK YOU, Monkey Nutz! Amen.)
2. Snoop Dogg
3. B.I.G.*
4. Easy-E*
5. Jay-Z
* I’m sick of “dead = genius,” especially when your lyrics read like 7th. grade poetry (esp. Tupac). B.I.G. could flow, but no substance. Snoop is a one-trick pony. Jay-Z is a pretend Biggie with some pretty good songs due more to nice production than his stupid product name dropping and self-important bragging. Easy was obviously the weak link in NWA, compensating for his lack of “gangsta” credentials with a big mouth and extra-nasty lyrics. I’ll leave 50(per)Cent off this list, because I don’t think anyone really takes him seriously as a rapper anyway.
..:JJP
Fair enough, and thank you (Monkey Nutz & Ryno) for finally bringing me to my senses about Tupac… I never was a fan of his so I shouldn’t have included him in my list in the first place… I feel much better now about my #2 choice, and how I left Pos D’Nous out of it at all is beyond me.
Leave a Reply