Need help composing a Top Ten Best MC's

[michiehoward]

Ok so after watching a show last night "The Top Ten MC's of 21st Century", the show and its results started a major debate at my house. So I am going to post the Boards I frequent, my facebook (which I hate), and my deviantART journal to get replies and opinion and personal lists.

This is Top Ten Best of all time MC's

Firstly if you don't like, enjoy, or listen to hip hop/rap, don't crap on my thread please.

Secondly the Criteria

Artists on your list must have at least one commercial record released by a record company.

You can't pick an entire group or crew EX: Bone Thugs and Harmony or WuTang, must be specific ie: Bizzy Bone

My own personal criteria I'll be using as well as well as the criteria above:

Flow

Lyrical Impact

Cultural Influence


This may turn into a top 20 with additional honourable mentions, cause lets face it, we all have our favourites.

A big Thank You and happy list making.

PS This really isn't meant to turn into debate or arguments, debate is welcome though, also links to lyrics and vids are welcome.

 

[BonsaiK]

Hang on.... the 21st century? We're only ten years into it, and most of the best MCs did their better work before the millennium ticked over. I can list a lot of MCs but I'd struggle to find ten really good active ones that didn't start back in the 1990s or before.

EDIT: okay, of all-time then. I can't really give you a definitive top-ten but I can tell you who I think is most important in each criteria you selected.

In terms of flow and the development of rap as vocal music, Rakim is the most important MC ever to exist, because he broke rap out of rhyming-couplets land into more sophisticated territory, and actually understood vocal meter. Every other MC after him of any worth really just built on what he did. The following vocal performance was unprecedented for 1988:


In terms of lyrical/cultural impact (I don't believe these can be separated), the most important rapper was probably Ice Cube. When "gangster rap" came up, people wrote it off as a fad, and looked to other more politically-themed or socially conscious rap artists to show the way forward. Boy, did these people get it wrong: history has now shown, much to the horror of many, that the political stuff was actually the short-lived fad, and the tales of urban street life were where rap music was to find its longevity and ongoing cultural relevance.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

Don't really like the genre, so this is a general tip: Never start with number one. Ever. The list starts at ten and goes down. Always.

Good luck.

 

[tomtom94]

This guy:

OT: Ignore those who are "popular" and just go with your favourites. Always.

 

[michiehoward]

Yes thats why I want "of all time" top ten, lemme edit my post LOL

 

[michiehoward]

This guy:

OT: Ignore those who are "popular" and just go with your favourites. Always.

yes which is why I added abit of criteria, one record released by a record company, because they guy on lives of my street doesn't count (yet) nor my little brother ect ect or the guy on youtube

 

[michiehoward]

Don't really like the genre, so this is a general tip: Never start with number one. Ever. The list starts at ten and goes down. Always.

Good luck.

Which is why i added "Firstly if you don't like, enjoy, or listen to hip hop/rap, don't crap on my thread please."

so thank you for not crapping on my thread

 

[the Dept of Science]

I don't really know enough about rap to talk about their influences much in the larger scale of things, however, these are some post 2000 artists who have acheived a high level of acclaim and I have enjoyed listening to

Aesop Rock
Sage Francis
Dizzee Rascal
Mike Skinnner (the Steets)
Kanye West
MIA

Some people would also put Slug/Atmosphere or Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip, however am not a big fan of either (espec. DLSvSP)

People from the 90s who released great stuff this century:
Jay Z
Big Boi/Andre 3000
Ghostface Killah
Madvillain

 

[KaosuHamoni]

Grandmaster Flash FTW =] That is all.

 

[michiehoward]

Firstly thank you BonsaiK for taking my idea seriously, Rakim is on my personal list I'm in agreement for the most part how Rakim influence made Rap into what Rap in defined to. I'm alittle shaky on Ice Cube because when taking Cube entire body of work as a whole...well he slips in my list. so maybe you can stew in this for the weekend and maybe form a loose list, cause i value your opinion

 

[michiehoward]

I'm liking your list! Thanks!

 

[michiehoward]

Hip Hop would not be Hip Hop without GMF and the Furious five!

 

[BonsaiK]

Firstly thank you BonsaiK for taking my idea seriously, Rakim is on my personal list I'm in agreement for the most part how Rakim influence made Rap into what Rap in defined to. I'm alittle shaky on Ice Cube because when taking Cube entire body of work as a whole...well he slips in my list. so maybe you can stew in this for the weekend and maybe form a loose list, cause i value your opinion

Well I agree that both Cube and Rakim aren't up to par with their new stuff. The last Rakim album was awful and Cube has been inconsistent since the early 90s. I'll send you a bigger post in a few days once I've thought about your question more.

 

[michiehoward]

Firstly thank you BonsaiK for taking my idea seriously, Rakim is on my personal list I'm in agreement for the most part how Rakim influence made Rap into what Rap in defined to. I'm alittle shaky on Ice Cube because when taking Cube entire body of work as a whole...well he slips in my list. so maybe you can stew in this for the weekend and maybe form a loose list, cause i value your opinion

Well I agree that both Cube and Rakim aren't up to par with their new stuff. The last Rakim album was awful and Cube has been inconsistent since the early 90s. I'll send you a bigger post in a few days once I've thought about your question more.

Thank you!