VIBE reader poll: Eminem is the best living rapper

Kanye's new track, Love Lockdown, is so amazing. I heard it for the first time the other night.

 

Really? I liked his last effort a lot, much better than his sophomore album. But he hasn't come close to matching The College Dropout. I put that album in my Top 10 because at the time, it really was a style most people had never heard before. The College Dropout changed my hip-hop preferences. That album was a breath of fresh air at a time when everyone was rapping about the same garbage.

 

I grew up in the '80s. Rap was real, it was raw, it spoke about social conditions (and was goofy and stupid). Into the '90s, Arrested Development continued that trend with the heavy on social conditions; too bad their infighting split the group.

I just see today's stuff and compare it with my era, and little of it holds up. Some does, and some of it is tremendous.

I didn't even mention De La Soul. You're trying to tell me Eminem is better than any of those fellas?

 

At their peak there were very few groups better than DLS, maybe A Tribe Called Quest, maybe.

 

Boogie Down Productions and Public Enemy were in that strata, too.

 

Yeah, NWA also. Ice Cube was a great rapper before he started making movies.

 

I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but this is a great thread and it's sparked a lot of thoughts. So here goes.

1) That was a great post by double down, especially on em. He was right on the mark with a ton of things. I do disagree that Tupac's "Hit em up" was the greatest dis track of all-time. It's not, for the simple fact that Pac only had one verse, and the other two guys on that track were hot garbage.
"The takeover" by Jay, Nas' "Either" and LL's "Can-I-Bus" were all better dis tracks, as was Biggie's "What's beef", which was aimed at Pac but done in such a great way that people had to really analyze it.

2) Pac was overrated. Not that he wasn't great, because he was. He was really great. But the Pac that was great was the early Pac, the Pac who dropped "Trapped" and "Brenda's got a baby". The later Pac, the death row Pac was too busy trying to be a thug. Even his contemporaries, Ice-T to be specific, said that he played himself in those years. Pac wasn't a thug. He was a middle class cat that wanted to be a thug. Anyone who attended the Baltimore music and acting academy wasn't a thug. Pac wanted to be a thug, it took away from his tremendous talent and it eventually cost him his life. The sad thing for all of us was the fact that he had a chance to be a leader. He had that kind of quality and that, more than anything, was the thing that separated him and Biggie. Had Pac continued to make music, not gotten caught up in trying to be something he clearly wasn't and not gotten caught up in that silly feud, he would still be alive, he would've matured and he probably would be looked upon today as the best that ever did it.....which leads me to......

3) The best that ever did it. For years, I said that Big was the best ever. I still think he was the best rhymer ever, and I still think "Ready to die" was the very best hip-hop album ever and I don't think that's even close. I also think "life after death" is the best double album ever, and that's not even close. And I think the cat on this thread that said big had "15 good cuts in his career" is either too young to have listened to him or needs to go back and listen to not only those two cd's, but his mix-tape stuff as well. Plus, Big was the best storyteller of his time, with respect to Slick Rick. Anyone who doesn't think that, go listen to "I gotta story to tell" and "niggas bleed" off the double album. Those are the two best storytelling songs I ever heard.
That being said, Jay-Z's not only the best rapper alive, but the best to ever do it period. I say this because he's put out more quality than anyone over a 12 year period. He's smart enough and business savvy enough to have achieved an untold fortune, but his music is also good enough that it didn't commercialize over time and he kept his street cred. That alone is an extremely difficult thing to do, but Jay did that. He's got three bona-fide "classics" in "Reasonable doubt", "The blueprint", and "The Black album". He's got another one "Volume 2" that is right on the cusp of being a classic. He still rhymes hard, he still makes great appearances. He's not the best rhymer ever, but he's close. He is, however, the entire package of an mc, and for that I think nobody in hip-hop history has put together the body of work that Jay has. And for the poster that said "Either" killed Jay, I disagree. I do think "Either" (sp?) got the best of Jay, but I also think Jay's verse in "the takeover" hit home to Nas in a way that Nas could never retort. Jay straight broke his career down, and called it like it was. Nas had one hot album "Illmatic" in a five year average. In fact, I submit if it weren't for Jay, Nas would've never come back hard with "stillmatic" and never gotten himself out of the rut he encountered with his sophomore and junior albums. For that, I really think Jay saved Nas' career.

4) Dre is not a rapper. Yes he rhymes, but he's a producer. And I think he's the best producer ever. His beats are ridiculous, and they go way back to his NWA days. The beats on "fuck tha police" and "gangsta gangsta" would still hold up today. "The chronic" was definitely one of the best albums ever, but it's a compilation album. He had a lot of help from cats like Snoop, daz, kurrupt and the rest of death row. Still, he's the best producer ever and by a pretty wide margin.

5) I'm torn on the best group ever in three ways. I loved Public Enemy, what they stood for, the albums, and the effect they had on my childhood years. I LOVED NWA for the talent, the rawness and those three albums they put out were just hip hop mastery. I also love Mobb Deep because they were just raw and they have two "classics". I lean towards NWA because "straight outta compton" was the truth.

6) Lil Wayne needs to stop proclaiming himself as the best rapper alive. It's disrespectful because he's nowhere near that. That being said, "tha carter III" was a great effort and should be considered a "classic"

7) There are several underrated rappers, some vastly so. People like Mos Def, Talib, Tha Roots, Skills, Redman, Method Man, Scarface, Eminem. That's a lot of great talent right there. Em's underrated because
people think he can't bring it lyrically. "Stan" was a gripping tale that had a startling ending. He also outdid Jay-Z on his own track in "renegades" off "the blueprint". Em can certainly bring it. That's why he never had that much beef. Cats wanted to get at him for sure. They just didn't want to go toe-to-toe lyrically with him because they would've been embarrassed. He definitely deserves to be in the conversation of the best mc's of all-time.

 

I am the cat that said Big had like 15 good cuts and I believe that. I just was not a fan of BIG and the main reason was because I found some of the Puff Daddy chanting on his tracks really annoying. BIG had some songs that were great but most of the stuff he put out just didn't hit me in the way that Pac did.

I have always felt that Pac was the greatest ever for his whole body of work. He has a great catalog of music that I listen to almost all the time. I have to admit that part of what draws me to certain artists are the beats in their music. I like hip hop that is a little more laid back, I hate the aggressive beats that some artists have on their tracks. I like to chill when I listen to music and the west coast sound, I feel, is a little more conducive to that.

As far as underrated rappers, I love The Roots, Method Man, Scarface, Mc Breed, E-40, DJ Quik (who is my personal favorite). There are so many more talented artists out there.

 

Puff's chanting doesn't diminish Big's tremendous talent. Big's talent and his wordplay were undeniable. Even if Puff was annoying, which I concede he was at times, 15 good tracks? Really? In his entire career? Let's just say you're the first person I ever heard say that. DJ Quik was really good. As was MC Eight, whatever his name was. Plus, "ready to die" was the one album that puff's chanting actually wasn't a liability. Pac's got a great catalog of music....posthumous music. And that's why Jay's eclisped him and Biggie. You can only make so many tracks from six feet under. Jay's continued to put out bangers, and for that he's earned his spot as the best ever.

 

Good stuff here. But you didn't even address Rakim, so it's a flawed argument.

Edit to say "flawed" not "failed." Lots of good stuff other than my main concern.

 

I think Rakim is one of the best lyricists ever, definitely. The cat was ahead of his time as an MC. But he didn't come close to the body of work of Biggie, Jay, Pac. In fact, after his split with Eric B, he was barely heard from. But he was great, no doubt about that.

 

The body of work of the ones you mentioned?

Those cats' body of work ain't all that great, and it's hardly even good. It's listenable. Some of it is top-shelf.

Tupac I've grown to appreciate since he disappeared died. As close to Rakim as anyone's been.

But the rest are all pedestrian, and not within a country mile of KRS-1, either.

Different eras, I guess.