YW's Fifty Greatest Rappers of All Time: 8,7,6

When compiling this list, I was constantly reminded of the question of the great philosopher Fredro Starr aka Shorty Duwop when he wondered, "Sunset Park, what time is it?" My only response mirrors that of Terrence "Spaceman" Howard, "It's time to get live it's time to represent." This article has four writers, the outspoken Rodney Angerfield, the ever-lude yet always genius Jerk Store, YW affiliate and overrated rapper Dash Speaks, and myself (intro). Peep the list after the jump.


8) Nas
Average Score: 8.6
Government Name: Nasir Jones
Known For: Nas, or God's Son as he likes to be called, is the quintessential rap poet, using actual metaphors rather than the silly simple similes of other rap-tools. Nas came on the scene at 19 with his debut album Illmatic. His elaborate wordplay earned him critical acclaim through tracks like "The World is Yours...," "Life's a Bitch," and my favorite, "It Ain't Hard to Tell."
Nas' complicated and cryptic rhyme schemes are as much of a paradox and mystery as the man himself: he is simultaneously a gangster and a humanist, a thug and a scholar, and most recently, a chauvinist and a monogamist (via his marriage to Kelis). Nas' career has had the same paradoxes, being filled with both peaks and valleys, many people find have a love/hate relationship with the emcee. There was the feast of "Illmatic" and "It Was Written...," and the famine of "Nastradamus." Nas is also unpredictable, as his response to Jay-Z's "Takeover" diss record, "Ether," was quite possibly the first or second best diss record ever recorded, not only because of what was said, but beacuse no one believed that Nas would be able to come back. He not only destroyed the most popular rapper at the time (who was also my favorite rapper at that time and in the battle), but came back from certain career death with one of the best rap albums of all time.
Nas has made a career of spitting complex rhymes that are not only raw, but also thought provoking and meaningful, the same cannot be said about much of his competition. He has enjoyed commercial success rapping about politics, relationships, and consistently gives us a fresh perspective on our societal and cultural norms. Continuously evolving his style as he grows as a person, from thug, to celeb, to politician, Nas has been a role model rap artist for most of his career, making music he wants to make and not what his label desires, a characteristic that can be admired by all. His ability to consistently make meaningful music with transcendent messages makes him, in this blogger's opinion, the best rapper of all-time and someone to admire.
Essential Album: Illmatic (1993)
By Rodney Angerfield

Tied 6) The Wu Tang Clan
Average Score: 8.7
Government Names: Robert Diggs (RZA), Gary Grice (GZA), Corey Woods (Raekwon), Lamont Hawkins (U-God), Dennis Coles (Ghostface Killah), Jason Hunter (Inspectah Deck), Clifford Smith (Method Man), Elgin Turner (Masta Killa), Russell Jones (Ol’ Dirty Bastard).
Retrospective: It's hard to believe it's been almost 16 years since the members of the Wu-Tang Clan announced their ascendance from the thirty-six chambers and then proceeded to revolutionize the climate of hip-hop. And in that time the Wu has become the empire RZA intended it to be, using rap as an excuse to march into movies, clothing, record labels and, of course, more rap -- this is, by design, one of the most far-reaching family trees in music. From group albums to solo albums from the Original Nine -- RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard -- to side projects from Wu affiliates, the Killa Bees have been hard on their grind since the release of their seminal album in 1993.
It may be difficult to put into scope just how important their first album, Enter the Wu-Tang, really is. Upon its release in fall 1993, it wasn’t as highly regarded as it is now, but it immediately sounded classic. The levity of that statement is only amplified when you remember that the album arrived at a time when hip-hop was saturated with West Coast rap -- a sound that relied heavily on Parliament samples. The RZA created a backdrop of dusty soul samples, kung-fu-movie dialogue and eerily off-key guitars and pianos that helped bring attention back to the East a year before Biggie or Nas dropped.
And nearly 16 years later, it is still amazing – Top 3 Hip-Hop Albums of All-Time, in the estimation of this writer. Each track is solid enough to be a single. And yet perhaps one of the biggest achievements is the Clan's ability to allow so much individual personality to be spread among such a large group of hungry emcees. Whether it was ODB offsetting the Wu’s gritty style with his clown prince act and over-the-top delivery, or Ghostface laying the first bricks of free association in hip-hop by letting his stream-of-consciousness dictate his form, or Method Man’s Tom Waits-like voice bringing punchlines and allusions with a bravado unmatched at that time, the Clan laid out the blueprint for how to present a crew on wax. But more important, it successfully built an empire that is still thriving and worshiped to this day.
Some will say that the Clan’s later efforts saw the crew fall off, but these individuals need to open their ears. Every album Wu-Tang has put out has been at the forefront of hip-hop, introducing and pioneering new sounds and rhymes that have been copied and expanded on ad infinitum. In fact, I challenge anyone to name a Wu-Tang album that didn’t have at least four fire tracks on it. Haters are welcome…

Fun Fact: Aside from being cousins, the founders of Wu-Tang – RZA, GZA, and ODB -- had previously formed the group Force of the Imperial Master (later known as All in Together Now after the release of a popular single by that name). The group attracted the attention of some notable figures in the industry, including Biz Markie, but did not manage to secure a record deal.
Essential Album: Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
by Jerk Store


Tied 6) Andre 3000
Average Score: 8.7
Government Name: Andre Benjamin
Influence: Every now and again, and by that I mean quite rarely, an artist comes along who possesses the ability to act outside of societal norms while dictating what happens within them. There are many great rappers, but even among the greatest, very few can counter culture with such ferocity, confidence, and amiability that we don't even realize they are a voice of protest: we assume instead that their voice proclaims institutional decree. We don't consider the adversity of such a rebellious force, because we imagine that artist is impervious to ridicule. Hip hop has had its share of geniuses and its share of the artistically defiant, but only Andre 3000 is so genius in his defiance that opposing powers concede in his wake.
Before I go further, I should clarify what I mean by artistic defiance. I am not talking about political or social protest in the manner of Tupac (vs. Dolores Tucker), Kanye ("George Bush doesn't care about black people."), or Mos Def (crashing the VMA's and performing Katrina Clap). I am not talking about Nas naming his album N**ger. I am not even really talking about Andre's fashion sense, which has imposed an aesthetic peculiarity upon him amongst his rapper peers (particularly before Pharell and Kanye), leaving him looking like a gay Sherlock Holmes character on The Wire. I am talking about the kind of defiance that one can see in Michelangelo's Rondanini Pieta, when he rejected the naturalist form, or the kind that Duchamp showed when he submitted Fountain to the Salon.
Yet even with these famed and revolutionary artists, there was a widespread rejection of these particular works, and after 445 years and 98 years respectively, there still is. Michelangelo's David or original Pieta are much more celebrated than Rondanini Pieta, and some people (probably a respectable percentage of YW readers) reject Da Da as good art. But the transformation of Andre 3000 from the effectively conformist (albeit good) emcee on Southern Playalistic to the eccentric on ATLiens and beyond to the wholly defiant monster on Aquemini onward demonstrates the deconstruction of the hegemonic regime of "how a rapper should rap" as a critically and commercially acclaimed achievement.
So, in an act of homage (and because I have other shit to do) I will end with the line which concludes the Love Below. "And that's as far as I got."
Essential Album: Aquemini (1998)
by Dash Speaks