GonzoStyle
01-11-2008, 10:09 PM
back on oa.com we did this debate years ago, for all my hip hop fans out there. I was actually discussing it with someone and i figured it's time to update my list, see what everyone here thinks.
and if you think rap isnt music, blah blah blah, get over it.
Rules are you need to back up each choice with a lyric selection that displays why you consider them to be deserving, since this has to do with strict emcee quality. So make it a good choice. I'm doing 20 but you can do 5 or 10 if you want, whatever.
20. Ras Kass
"I ain't never seen an angel, virgin bitches with halos
But my secular metaphysical theology is fatal
Because me with a mic cable is a religious experience in itself
I got a message from God
He said, "Don't even try to fuck with me," suckered reluctantly
Carried the cross and uppercuts and at that, I'm hazardous
I speak to the heads and raise the dead like Lazarus
Led the fucking lambs to the slaughter, and walked on water
When it's frozen, in the ground influence and I'm on point" -- On earth as it is
19. Scarface
"Now as I open up my story
with the blaze a your blunts
And you can picture thoughts slowly
up on phrases I wrote
And I can walk you through the days that I done
I often wish that I could save everyone but I'm a dreamer
Have you ever seen a nigga who was strong in the game
overlookin' his tomorrows and they finally came?" -- Smile
18. Big L
"o one can match me, tax me or wax me
If you want me to write you some raps G just ask me
Cause on the shelf is where your LP cold stood
Because it was no good, that shit ain't even go wood" -- All Black
17. Immortal technique
"I know too much to government is trying to murder me
No coming back like cutting your writs open vertically
How could the serpant be purposely put in charge of the country
Genetic engineered sickness spread amongst me
My people are so hungry that they attack without reason
Like a fuckin' dog ripping off the hand that feeds him
Immortal Technique is treason to the patriot act
So come and get me motherfucker cause I'm not coming back" -- The Point of no return
16. Q-Tip
"Back in the days when I was a teenager
Before I had status and before I had a pager
You could find the abstract listening to hip hop
My pops used to say, it reminded him of be-bop
I said, well daddy dont you know that things go in cycles
The way that bobby brown is just ampin like michael
Its all expected, things are for the lookin
If you got the money, quest is for the bookin
Come on everybody, lets get with the fly modes
Still got room on the truck, load the back boom
Listen to the rhyme, to get a mental picture
Of this black man, through black woman victim
Why do I say that, cuz I gotta speak the truth man
Doing what we feel for the music is the proof and
Planted on the ground, the act is so together
Bonafied strong, you need leverage to sever" -- Excursions
15. Talib Kweli -
"Nowadays rap artists coming half-hearted
Commercial like pop, or underground like black markets
Where were you the day hip-hop died?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?" -- Too Late
14. GZA
"Picture bloodbaths and elevator shafts
Like these murderous rhymes tight from genuine craft
Check the print, it's where veterans spark the letterings
Slow moving MC's is waitin for the editin
The liquid soluble that made up the chemistry
A gaseous element, that burned down your ministry
Herbal vapors, and biblical papers
Smokin Exodus, every square yard is plush" -- Duel of the iron mic
13. Ice Cube
"Exploitin' us like the Caucasians did
For 400 years - I got 400 tears- for 400 peers
Died last year from gang-related crimes
That's why I got gang-related rhymes
But when I do a show ta kick some facts
Us Blacks don't know how to act" -- Us
12. Mobb Deep
"I got you stuck off the realness, we be the infamous
You heard of us
Official queensbridge murderers
The mobb comes equipped with warfare, beware
Of my crime family who got nuff shots to share
For all of those who wanna profile and pose
Rock you in your face, stab your brain wit your nosebone
You all alone in these streets, cousin
Every man for theirself in this land we be gunnin
And keep them shook crews runnin
Like they supposed to
They come around but they never come close to
I can see it inside your face
Youre in the wrong place
Cowards like you just get theyre whole body laced up" -- Shook Ones Part 2
11. Wu-Tang Clan
"I bomb atomically, Socrates' philosophies
and hypothesis can't define how I be droppin these
mockeries, lyrically perform armed robbery
Flee with the lottery, possibly they spotted me
Battle-scarred shogun, explosion when my pen hits
tremendous, ultra-violet shine blind forensics
I inspect you, through the future see millenium
Killa B's sold fifty gold sixty platinum
Shacklin the masses with drastic rap tactics
Graphic displays melt the steel like blacksmiths
Black Wu jackets queen B's ease the guns in
Rumble with patrolmen, tear gas laced the function
Heads by the score take flight incite a war
Chicks hit the floor, diehard fans demand more
Behold the bold soldier, control the globe slowly
Proceeds to blow swingin swords like Shinobi
Stomp grounds and pound footprints in solid rock
Wu got it locked, performin live on your hottest block" -- Triumph
10. Chuck D.
"Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Mother fuck him and John Wayne
Cause I'm Black and I'm proud
I'm ready and hyped plus I'm amped
Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps
Sample a look back you look and find
Nothing but rednecks for 400 years if you check
Don't worry be happy
Was a number one jam
Damn if I say it you can slap me right here" - Fight The Power
9. Canibus
"Watch the ripper crucify you with verse
My urethra to ya uvula, quenches your thirst
Put your flames out with dry desert dirt where leopards lurk
Lock your soul down with an esoteric weapon search
Strap a bomb to one of your labels record clerks
And activate it as soon as they get to work
Ring the alarm, red alert, nigga it gets worse
Bypass security networks with select words
Megahertz make nebulas reverse till your head burst" -- Poet Laureate
8. 2pac
"Dear Mama, can you save me? And fuck peace
‘cause the streets got our babies, we gotta eat
No more hesitation each and every black male's trapped
And they wonder why we suicidal runnin round strapped
Mista, Po-lice, please try to see that it's
a million motherfuckers stressin just like me
Only God can judge me." -- Only God can judge me
7. Eminem
"I’m about to kill it, I can feel it building up,
Blow this building up, I’ve been sealed enough,
My cup run it over I’ve been filled up,
But then explosion bust and spills my guts,
You think all I do is stand here and feel my nuts,
But I’m a show you what, you gonna feel my rush,
You don’t feel it then it must be too real to touch,
Feel to touch, I’m about to tear shit up,
Goosebumps, yeah I’m make your hair sit up,
Yeah sit up, I’m a tell you who I be,
I’m make you hate me cause you ain’t me" -- Run Rabbit, Run
6 . Nas
"I got so many rhymes I don't think I'm too sane
Life is parallel to Hell but I must maintain
and be prosperous, though we live dangerous
cops could just arrest me, blamin us, we're held like hostages
It's only right that I was born to use mics
and the stuff that I write, is even tougher than dice
I'm takin rappers to a new plateau, through rap slow
My rhymin is a vitamin, Hell without a capsule
The smooth criminal on beat breaks
Never put me in your box if your shit eats tapes" - N.Y. State of Mind
5. Big Daddy Kane
"Here I am, R-A-W
A terrorist, here to bring trouble to
phony MC's, I move on and seize
I just conquer and stomp another rapper with ease
Cause I'm at my apex and others are below
Nothing but a milliliter, I'm a kilo
Second to none, making MC's run
So don't try to step to me, cause I ain't the one
I relieve rappers, just like Tylenol
And they know it, so I don't see why you all
try to front, perpetratin a stunt
when you know that I'll smoke you up like a blunt
I'm genuine like Gucci, raw like sushi
To stage a rage is what rap did to me" -- Raw
4. Jay-Z
"Still haven't apologized
so please play this back
while I try to come to terms
with such a heinous act
you know in more than one way
cocaine numbs the brain
All I did was think about
how the funds once came
then I ran across this memory
and it stung the brain
How can you ever destroy the beauty
from which one came
That's a savage you're the reason
why me and these beats make a marriage
why I rhyme above average and
I ain't shit
Glad you got yourself together
no thanks to me
Strong and beautiful the way thangs should be
You must love me" -- You must love me
3. Notorious BIG
"Shit's official, only, the Feds I fear
Here's a tissue, stop your blood clot crying
The kids to Don, everybody buying -- no lying
So don't you get suspicious
I'm Big Dangerous you're just a Lil Vicious
As I leave my competition, respirator style
Climb the ladder to success escalator style
Hold y'all breath, I told y'all -- death
controls y'all, Big don't fold y'all, uhh
I spit phrases that'll thrill you
You're nobody 'til somebody kills you" - You're nobody 'til somebody kills you
2. KRS-One
"Yo I'm strictly about skills and dope lyrical coastin
Relying on talent, not marketing and promotion
If a dope lyrical flow is a must
You gots to go with a name you can quickly trust
I'm not sayin I'm number one, uhh I'm sorry, I lied
I'm number one, two, three, four and five
Stop wastin your money on marketing schemes
and pretty packages pushin dreams to the beams
A dope MC is a dope MC" - Step into a world
1. Rakim
"I was a fiend before I became a teen
I melted microphone instead of cones of ice cream
Music orientated so when hip-hop was originated
Fitted like pieces of puzzles, complicated
’cause I grabbed the mic and try to say, " yes y’all!"
They tried to take it, and say that I’m too small
Cool, ’cause I don’t get upset
I kick a hole in the speaker, pull the plug, then I jet
Back to the lab ...without a mic to grab
So then I add all the rhymes I had
One after the other one, then I make another one
To dis the opposite then ask if the brother’s done
I get a craving like I fiend for nicotine
But I don’t need a cigarette, know what I mean?
I’m raging, ripping up the stage and
Don’t it sound amazing ’cause every rhyme is made and
Thought of, cuz it’s sort of...an addiction,
Magnatized by the mixing
Vocals, vocabulary, your verses, you’re stuck in
The mic is a drano, volcanoes erupting,
Rhymes overflowing, gradually growing
Everything is written in the cold, so it can coin-
Cide, my thoughts to guide,
48 tracks to slide
The invincible, microphone fiend rakim
Spread the word, ’cause I’m in
E-f-f-e-c-t
A smooth operator operating correctly," - Microphone Fiend
Honorable mentions to snoop, kurupt, slick rick, common, dead prez, LL Cool J and others.
and if you think rap isnt music, blah blah blah, get over it.
Rules are you need to back up each choice with a lyric selection that displays why you consider them to be deserving, since this has to do with strict emcee quality. So make it a good choice. I'm doing 20 but you can do 5 or 10 if you want, whatever.
20. Ras Kass
"I ain't never seen an angel, virgin bitches with halos
But my secular metaphysical theology is fatal
Because me with a mic cable is a religious experience in itself
I got a message from God
He said, "Don't even try to fuck with me," suckered reluctantly
Carried the cross and uppercuts and at that, I'm hazardous
I speak to the heads and raise the dead like Lazarus
Led the fucking lambs to the slaughter, and walked on water
When it's frozen, in the ground influence and I'm on point" -- On earth as it is
19. Scarface
"Now as I open up my story
with the blaze a your blunts
And you can picture thoughts slowly
up on phrases I wrote
And I can walk you through the days that I done
I often wish that I could save everyone but I'm a dreamer
Have you ever seen a nigga who was strong in the game
overlookin' his tomorrows and they finally came?" -- Smile
18. Big L
"o one can match me, tax me or wax me
If you want me to write you some raps G just ask me
Cause on the shelf is where your LP cold stood
Because it was no good, that shit ain't even go wood" -- All Black
17. Immortal technique
"I know too much to government is trying to murder me
No coming back like cutting your writs open vertically
How could the serpant be purposely put in charge of the country
Genetic engineered sickness spread amongst me
My people are so hungry that they attack without reason
Like a fuckin' dog ripping off the hand that feeds him
Immortal Technique is treason to the patriot act
So come and get me motherfucker cause I'm not coming back" -- The Point of no return
16. Q-Tip
"Back in the days when I was a teenager
Before I had status and before I had a pager
You could find the abstract listening to hip hop
My pops used to say, it reminded him of be-bop
I said, well daddy dont you know that things go in cycles
The way that bobby brown is just ampin like michael
Its all expected, things are for the lookin
If you got the money, quest is for the bookin
Come on everybody, lets get with the fly modes
Still got room on the truck, load the back boom
Listen to the rhyme, to get a mental picture
Of this black man, through black woman victim
Why do I say that, cuz I gotta speak the truth man
Doing what we feel for the music is the proof and
Planted on the ground, the act is so together
Bonafied strong, you need leverage to sever" -- Excursions
15. Talib Kweli -
"Nowadays rap artists coming half-hearted
Commercial like pop, or underground like black markets
Where were you the day hip-hop died?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?" -- Too Late
14. GZA
"Picture bloodbaths and elevator shafts
Like these murderous rhymes tight from genuine craft
Check the print, it's where veterans spark the letterings
Slow moving MC's is waitin for the editin
The liquid soluble that made up the chemistry
A gaseous element, that burned down your ministry
Herbal vapors, and biblical papers
Smokin Exodus, every square yard is plush" -- Duel of the iron mic
13. Ice Cube
"Exploitin' us like the Caucasians did
For 400 years - I got 400 tears- for 400 peers
Died last year from gang-related crimes
That's why I got gang-related rhymes
But when I do a show ta kick some facts
Us Blacks don't know how to act" -- Us
12. Mobb Deep
"I got you stuck off the realness, we be the infamous
You heard of us
Official queensbridge murderers
The mobb comes equipped with warfare, beware
Of my crime family who got nuff shots to share
For all of those who wanna profile and pose
Rock you in your face, stab your brain wit your nosebone
You all alone in these streets, cousin
Every man for theirself in this land we be gunnin
And keep them shook crews runnin
Like they supposed to
They come around but they never come close to
I can see it inside your face
Youre in the wrong place
Cowards like you just get theyre whole body laced up" -- Shook Ones Part 2
11. Wu-Tang Clan
"I bomb atomically, Socrates' philosophies
and hypothesis can't define how I be droppin these
mockeries, lyrically perform armed robbery
Flee with the lottery, possibly they spotted me
Battle-scarred shogun, explosion when my pen hits
tremendous, ultra-violet shine blind forensics
I inspect you, through the future see millenium
Killa B's sold fifty gold sixty platinum
Shacklin the masses with drastic rap tactics
Graphic displays melt the steel like blacksmiths
Black Wu jackets queen B's ease the guns in
Rumble with patrolmen, tear gas laced the function
Heads by the score take flight incite a war
Chicks hit the floor, diehard fans demand more
Behold the bold soldier, control the globe slowly
Proceeds to blow swingin swords like Shinobi
Stomp grounds and pound footprints in solid rock
Wu got it locked, performin live on your hottest block" -- Triumph
10. Chuck D.
"Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Mother fuck him and John Wayne
Cause I'm Black and I'm proud
I'm ready and hyped plus I'm amped
Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps
Sample a look back you look and find
Nothing but rednecks for 400 years if you check
Don't worry be happy
Was a number one jam
Damn if I say it you can slap me right here" - Fight The Power
9. Canibus
"Watch the ripper crucify you with verse
My urethra to ya uvula, quenches your thirst
Put your flames out with dry desert dirt where leopards lurk
Lock your soul down with an esoteric weapon search
Strap a bomb to one of your labels record clerks
And activate it as soon as they get to work
Ring the alarm, red alert, nigga it gets worse
Bypass security networks with select words
Megahertz make nebulas reverse till your head burst" -- Poet Laureate
8. 2pac
"Dear Mama, can you save me? And fuck peace
‘cause the streets got our babies, we gotta eat
No more hesitation each and every black male's trapped
And they wonder why we suicidal runnin round strapped
Mista, Po-lice, please try to see that it's
a million motherfuckers stressin just like me
Only God can judge me." -- Only God can judge me
7. Eminem
"I’m about to kill it, I can feel it building up,
Blow this building up, I’ve been sealed enough,
My cup run it over I’ve been filled up,
But then explosion bust and spills my guts,
You think all I do is stand here and feel my nuts,
But I’m a show you what, you gonna feel my rush,
You don’t feel it then it must be too real to touch,
Feel to touch, I’m about to tear shit up,
Goosebumps, yeah I’m make your hair sit up,
Yeah sit up, I’m a tell you who I be,
I’m make you hate me cause you ain’t me" -- Run Rabbit, Run
6 . Nas
"I got so many rhymes I don't think I'm too sane
Life is parallel to Hell but I must maintain
and be prosperous, though we live dangerous
cops could just arrest me, blamin us, we're held like hostages
It's only right that I was born to use mics
and the stuff that I write, is even tougher than dice
I'm takin rappers to a new plateau, through rap slow
My rhymin is a vitamin, Hell without a capsule
The smooth criminal on beat breaks
Never put me in your box if your shit eats tapes" - N.Y. State of Mind
5. Big Daddy Kane
"Here I am, R-A-W
A terrorist, here to bring trouble to
phony MC's, I move on and seize
I just conquer and stomp another rapper with ease
Cause I'm at my apex and others are below
Nothing but a milliliter, I'm a kilo
Second to none, making MC's run
So don't try to step to me, cause I ain't the one
I relieve rappers, just like Tylenol
And they know it, so I don't see why you all
try to front, perpetratin a stunt
when you know that I'll smoke you up like a blunt
I'm genuine like Gucci, raw like sushi
To stage a rage is what rap did to me" -- Raw
4. Jay-Z
"Still haven't apologized
so please play this back
while I try to come to terms
with such a heinous act
you know in more than one way
cocaine numbs the brain
All I did was think about
how the funds once came
then I ran across this memory
and it stung the brain
How can you ever destroy the beauty
from which one came
That's a savage you're the reason
why me and these beats make a marriage
why I rhyme above average and
I ain't shit
Glad you got yourself together
no thanks to me
Strong and beautiful the way thangs should be
You must love me" -- You must love me
3. Notorious BIG
"Shit's official, only, the Feds I fear
Here's a tissue, stop your blood clot crying
The kids to Don, everybody buying -- no lying
So don't you get suspicious
I'm Big Dangerous you're just a Lil Vicious
As I leave my competition, respirator style
Climb the ladder to success escalator style
Hold y'all breath, I told y'all -- death
controls y'all, Big don't fold y'all, uhh
I spit phrases that'll thrill you
You're nobody 'til somebody kills you" - You're nobody 'til somebody kills you
2. KRS-One
"Yo I'm strictly about skills and dope lyrical coastin
Relying on talent, not marketing and promotion
If a dope lyrical flow is a must
You gots to go with a name you can quickly trust
I'm not sayin I'm number one, uhh I'm sorry, I lied
I'm number one, two, three, four and five
Stop wastin your money on marketing schemes
and pretty packages pushin dreams to the beams
A dope MC is a dope MC" - Step into a world
1. Rakim
"I was a fiend before I became a teen
I melted microphone instead of cones of ice cream
Music orientated so when hip-hop was originated
Fitted like pieces of puzzles, complicated
’cause I grabbed the mic and try to say, " yes y’all!"
They tried to take it, and say that I’m too small
Cool, ’cause I don’t get upset
I kick a hole in the speaker, pull the plug, then I jet
Back to the lab ...without a mic to grab
So then I add all the rhymes I had
One after the other one, then I make another one
To dis the opposite then ask if the brother’s done
I get a craving like I fiend for nicotine
But I don’t need a cigarette, know what I mean?
I’m raging, ripping up the stage and
Don’t it sound amazing ’cause every rhyme is made and
Thought of, cuz it’s sort of...an addiction,
Magnatized by the mixing
Vocals, vocabulary, your verses, you’re stuck in
The mic is a drano, volcanoes erupting,
Rhymes overflowing, gradually growing
Everything is written in the cold, so it can coin-
Cide, my thoughts to guide,
48 tracks to slide
The invincible, microphone fiend rakim
Spread the word, ’cause I’m in
E-f-f-e-c-t
A smooth operator operating correctly," - Microphone Fiend
Honorable mentions to snoop, kurupt, slick rick, common, dead prez, LL Cool J and others.