I have been wanting to do this for a while now, but the names on the paper I wrote the list keeps changing. It is very hard to narrow down 10 rappers and say they are the greatest of all time. I mean, this is not talking about the best in a year or an era, but the greatest of all time. The placement of rappers on the top 5 of my list was the hardest, so at this point, I say all of the rappers I consider top 5 could take the top spot. Get it?
Before I begin, please note that this is not a popularity contest, or a list of the rappers that sold the most albums. If it were so, rappers like
Vanilla Ice,
MC Hammer, and
Nelly would have made the list (they all sold over 10 million copies of their individual albums). No offense to those rappers, they have their place in Hip Hop history, but not just on this list.
According to Oxford online dictionary, the definition of great is-
"of an extent, amount, or intensity considerable above average." Working with this definition, I would be using
longevity,
consistency,
content, and
skill on the mic as my criteria. So, with that said, here we go.
10. Drake
Arguable the biggest rapper in the game right now, but that is not the only quality that gets this young man a spot on the list. Since he got in the game in 2009, he has not lost a step, getting better with each year. You can't say he has not been consistent. And speaking on his skills on the mic, he has been on trap songs, dance songs, hardcore rap songs, and still held his own. He is one exceptional rapper that has been able to balance great rapping with great song making skills. There are a lot of rappers out there who are cool on the mic, but can't make a good song to save their lives. Drake has been on the scene for 6 years, has released 3 multi platinum selling albums, and even one of his mixtapes (If You Are Reading This It's Too Late) went platinum.
9. LL Cool J
Ladies Love Cool J, but he would still knock the fellas out in a battle. One of the first rappers signed to Def Jam in the mid 80s. He became very popular for making songs for the ladies, but could still be as gutter as it gets. Like
Nas said on that
Classic song,
'or you went platinum, yea, that's nice, now let me see you do the same thing twice, three times, four times, then a couple of more times.' If you sell platinum once, you might be the hot trend of the moment, but if you can sell platinum 7 times, like
LL did in his career, then you definitely have above average ability.
With a career spanning over 20 years, asides from
Nas and
Jay Z, no other rappers have been able to stay that long within the rap game, and not be pushed to the side. Of cos very few people talk about
LL Cool J in today's hip hop discussions, but counting my twenty years from 1985-2005, I am not wrong in saying that this man is one of the greatest rappers of all time.
8. Lil Wayne
Hate him or love him, you can't deny
Lil Wayne's input in Hip Hop. He might not score high in the content department, but if we are speaking skills on the mic, flow, versatility, longevity, and consistency, then
Wayne is high up there. He came on the scene at 16 years old with the Hot Boyz in 1999, and 4 solo platinum albums later,
Lil Wayne is still doing his thing in 2015. Of course there was a time when he was below the radar (2001-2003), but he never stopped rapping.
7. Ice Cube
"I started this gangsta shit...And is this the motherfucking thanks I get?" Those words were put forward by
Ice Cube on
Hello, a song off his year 2000 album,
War & Peace, Volume 2. That's
Cube reminding people of his place in Hip Hop and demanding the respect he deserves. Yea,
Ice Cube really deserves a lot more accolades than he gets. To think of the fact he was writing majority of
Dr. Dre and
Eazy E's verses back in their NWA days in the 80s just blows my mind. And then he went on to have a very successful solo career, spanning 5 platinum albums between 1990 and 1998. Yea, he is off the rap radar right now, but the things he achieved in the late 80s and 90s cannot be overlooked in hip hop history.
He might not have been super skilled on the mic, but he always had a lot to say, whether politically or motivational, so he scores high in the area of content. His first solo album,
AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted was released in 1990 after his departure from NWA, and it got 5 mic rating from the Source Magazine, so you have an idea of how credible he was.
6. Biggie
The Notorious B.I.G released two albums in his lifetime (the two were recorded while he was alive...the second one was released weeks after his death), and the two are considered classics.
Biggie doesn't score high in the area of longevity as he was on the scene for just about 4 years, 93-97. But ofcos he was consistent during those four years. Considering the fact that most rappers that get to the top in rap always enjoy a 3-4 years of massive popularity before they decline, it is hard to say
Biggie would still be hot if he hadn't been killed in 1997.
Lyrical content and skills on the mic give
Biggie a high rating on this list. He was the wordplay king before
Eminem came on the scene. He was also very versatile. He could do his usual slow flow, like what you would hear on
One More Chance remix, or switch it up to a fast flow, like on the collaboration he did with Bone Thugs N Harmony,
Notorious Thugs, and not lose a beat. That's how much of a rap god
Biggie was.
5. Rakim
Rakim ruled the 80s when it came to lyricism and complex rhyme patterns. When he came on the scene in 1986, no one had heard rapping the way he was delivering it. Multi syllabic flow, effortless delivery, without cursing...who did that?
Rakim. I mean, every verse from
Rakim was flawless. Go back and listen to his verses today (from his Paid in Full album- 1987), they still sound pristine. His productions and hooks might sound a bit dated today, but not his rap verses.
He came on the scene as a duo with
Eric B, but it was more like a
DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince thing;
Rakim was the one doing all the rapping. He was consistent during his active years between 1986-1992, releasing 4 albums during the time. One of his albums went platinum, and two went gold.
4. Jay Z
Who has been more consistent and had the kind of longevity
Jay Z has had? Really, maybe just
Nas, no other rapper. Even though he didn't drop his first album till 1996 (Reasonable Doubt),
Jay Z has been on the rap scene since the late 80s, appearing in his first rap video,
Hawaiian Sophie, in 1989- a song by
Jay Z's then mentor,
Jaz O, which had a line or two from
Jay. He went on to perfect his craft, going from hanging around
Jaz O, to learning and touring with
Big Daddy Kane, to parlaying
Biggie, and then partnering with
Dame Dash and
Kareem Biggs to form Rocafella Records.
Jay Z perfected not only his rhyming technique which would go on to earn him millions, but he also perfected the business side of the music industry.
He might not be the deepest when it comes to lyrics, but he has a great delivery, and complex rhyme patterns and double entendre's which put him above most rappers of his era, the past era, and the future. He didn't go platinum till he released his third album, but right now, all his 12 solo albums are platinum.
3. Eminem
No rapper on earth can match Eminem's delivery on the mic...None! The way he switches up his flow is just insane. He might not be saying much in some of his very playful songs, but the way he says those things he says makes you overlook his comedic rhymes most times. And it doesn't mean he doesn't have some serious songs. When he gets emotional, he brings out another side of him; a very serious one. I guess that's one of his strengths; his ability to appear vulnerable, and reveal his many negativeness. All his 7 solo albums are platinum. And as for consistency and longevity,
Eminem is not doing badly. He came on the scene in 1999, and for 16 years, apart from the period between 2005-2008, when he was dealing with the loss of his best friend,
Proof, he never really lost a step.
2. Tupac
The energy this man brought to the scene was over the top, and his songs are evergreen, that's why you can still play any of his songs today, and relate to them in a great way. He could be shouting thug life on one song, and then asking you if America is ready for a black president on the next- on that conscious tip. He released 4 albums before his death, and 6 after he was killed in cold blood back in 1996. That is a total of 10 albums released between 1991 and 2006. All but the last one (
Pac's Life, released in 2006) have individually sold over a million copies. That is 9 platinum selling albums to his name. That's how gifted and how much of a hardworker he was.
Yea, he wasn't complex with his lyricism like
Nas,
Biggie, and
Jay Z, but he made up for that in the area of great song writing, delivery, passion for music, and longevity.
1. Nas
This man took a little bit of all the greats that came before him and embodied it in his one self. I think the next rapper on the track to do that is
Kendrick Lamar, but he has a little more show and prove to do before he can be put amongst the greats.
Nas took
Rakim's rhyme scheme, Slick Rick's story telling ability,
Kool G Rap's rapid fire delivery and mafioso style, and
Big Daddy Kane's flossing rap style, and he perfected all their styles, and then put his own little touch to it. This is one thing that has made this man so great...the little bits of everything he embodies.
Nas dropped his first verse on Live at the Barbecue (song by Main Source feat.
Nas,
Akinyele, and
Joe Fatal) in 1991, and then went to drop the first single off Illmatic,
Halftime the following year. Over 20 years later, he is still waxing strong. Longevity? Check. He dropped his 10th studio album three years ago, and is about to drop his 11th. He was just featured on
Game's new album, and on
Justin Bieber's new album. The versatility speaks volumes. Consistency? Check. 10 albums in 20 years, and 7 of those albums are platinum. For the 20 something years he has been in the game, he always managed to stay on the scene, persevering through all the eras. Content? Check. He had authors writing books about his lyrics, and he is the only rapper to receive a W.E.B Du Bois award at the prestigious Harvard University. With all that said, I consider
Nas the Number One on the list of greatest rappers of all time
Honorary mentions include,
Scarface,
Big Pun,
Redman,
DMX, and
KRS 1.
