That's a boring and predictable list, mainly because I like it.
And I agree with the rest Grandmaster Flash and DJ Premier are for example as important as the artists they worked with, they created legacies together and it's difficult to separate them. Maybe widening it to, most influential Hip Hop artists, would make an interesting debate.
Exactly! It's such a boring list, that's why I didn't bother writing that initially
I love hip-hop too much to ever be bored by it or make it generic and bland.
But then I knew that if I came in the thread and put in any one of Lil Wayne, Kanye, Pimp C or MC Lyte - i'd end up with a bunch of notifications too that I wouldn't be bothered to reply to or try to justify, even though I don't think they're too crazy to suggest.
Good list that doesn't look out of place in the thread.
You've gone through a few criteria that you think we've used in judging these rappers such as; lyricism, flow and impact on the genre.
There's 2 other things that are extremely important to rap lovers that haven't been mentioned but help form our opinions and that is Cadence and timing, in fact I'd go as far as to say THE most important thing for judging a rapper is cadence.
It doesn't matter whether a rapper has swallowed a thesaurus or sucked a producer off for fire beats, if they can't ride the beat in a timely and melodic way then they're not worth their own self proclaimed accolades.
If it was just about lyrics then we would have seen more Jeru and Canibus on the lists.
I agree completely about the delivery and flow, it's the reason why Biggie stands the test of time despite a limited discography - his flow is unmatched and arguably, the most influential, ever. Notable mentions include Andre 3k, Big Pun, Busta, Kool G, Masta Ace.
Then when it comes to delivery, you can't exclude DMX, Scarface, Snoop, Method Man, GfK from the conversation either.
This is why these lists are so limiting, there's so much hip-hop to be discussed and we shouldn't put it into a box.
We're never going to agree on who the best is, so we often just default to who we think the best should be and that's how they end being so generic.
Hip hop has grown into the biggest genre in the world, that wasn't be accident. It influences almost anything in pop culture from clothes, to dancing, to slang and has been doing so since Run DMC in the 80s and the adidas sneaker.