Hip Hop: Top 5 MCs dead or alive

Good Hump Day people!  After reading the comments on yesterday’s post, let me be the first to say that I stand corrected!  Corduroy needs to know his Bible better.  However, Bible stories usually don’t come to mind when I watch NBC.  Still no excuse though, I just need to know my Bible.   I beg for your forgiveness, loyal Corduroy blog followers!

killer mike

Well how bout I talk about something that I DO know about??  lol.  Allhiphop.com interviews artists and they have an insightful piece that asks the artists who the top 5 mcs are dead or alive.  The usual suspects are 2pac, Biggie, Jay-z, Nas, and for some reason Lil Wayne.  The rappers they ask usually have reasons like “such and such brought this to the game….lyrically they’re this….they have a flow like that….their swagger…etc, blah blah blah.”

Now generally speaking, I think the critical mass of rappers out there are idiots because they can’t articulate themselves.  How a person communicates is probably one of the most direct links to their level of intelligence, hence my aversion for misspelled words, “text talk”, and the misuse of homonyms (see they’re, their, and there). When these rappers talk they often speak in vague terms peppered with hip hop vernacular “catch-alls” (“nah mean?”, “ya feel me?”……..no nigga…we don’t know what you mean.  that’s why we asked you the question in the first place)

However, there are a handful of rappers that go against the grain that I think are truly intelligent, and if not intelligent, at least mature enough and conduct themselves like grown men are supposed to. For example, I think 50 cent is a pretty smart dude. This may surprise some of you, but understand I think his intelligence can be surmised to the extent of his manipulation of the media.  He has been around for a minute and still has the ability to keep his buzz going without hit records out.  He has made some pretty good power moves too in business with Vitamin water, Video games, and movies.  Now as far as the content of his music, it has as much substance as angel food cake with its tales of drugs, guns, and sex, but at the same time, 50 has never professed to strive for anything else except to make money and  he definitely has proven that.  Other rappers that I think are intelligent dudes and respect are Talib Kweli, Chuck D, KRS-One, Mos Def (who can be a little off at times), and Killer Mike.

There are other rappers that I respect because they speak from a place of wisdom and maturity, and two come to mind: Scarface and Bun B.

There are a handful of rappers that I think deserve honorable mention because I think that in spite of their product and persona, they aren’t dummies.  Ludacris, Lil Wayne, Jay Z come to mind in this category.

Now I could go on and on and on with different categories of rappers and how I feel about each and my reasons for each, but that could get pretty lengthy.  One thing remains though in my assessment of hip hop and artists in general: I place an extremely high value on intelligence and the content of their messages, because no matter how much an artist can claim that their music is for grown folks, or no matter how much of a hip hop head an adult claims to be, hip hop is largely a music of the youth, and as people get older, they listen to hip hop less and less.

I think I grew up in the golden age of hip hop (mid 80s  to mid 90s) as well as the golden age of the NBA (Magic, Kareem, Bird, Jordan, Dominique, Worthy, Barkley, Isaiah).  There was a time during the golden age of hip hop where it was all about being pro black and celebrating your African heritage.  I had an African leather medallion, a box, and the whole nine.  I know I didn’t understand everything that Public Enemy or the X clan was talking about, but I know they were giving me messages that were good for me.

Nowadays that’s not what’s poppin in the streets (nod to Chappelle).  I don’t know how or when the positive black messages got out of fashion, but I hate that they did. Instead you have the same ole stories of how much money a rapper has, how many different ways they can kill someone, or how much sex they can have.  Don’t get me wrong, I think all the messages have their place, but for those messages to serve as what the most popular stuff is just hurts me to my heart.  I don’t listen to the radio for that reason.  I turn it on and hear a little bit, shake my head, and try to quickly find the “old school R&B” station for the REAL music.  It’s so funny how dramatic your tastes change as you get older.

Anyhow, I’ve meandered enough, so getting back to the point of this blog…I was reading Allhiphop yesterday and found Killer Mike’s top 5 dead or alive.  He gave a pretty darn good list and pretty good reasons for each.  Here is the list, and to recap it he named Andre 3000, Ceelo Green, Eminem, Scarface, and AZ.  I probably wouldn’t have put AZ on that list, but he gave a decent reason and it made me want to find some AZ stuff to see what he had to say.  Killer Mike is a pretty smart dude too, and it’s not because he went to Morehouse, because even though there are smart dudes that go there, not everyone is as sharp as a tack. Just listen to his music and read any of his interviews.  His intelligence always shines through.

Anyhow, I’d like to give my top 5 mcs dead or alive.  Let me preface it by saying that neither Nas, Biggie, nor Jay-Z go on my list. Why? Cause I just don’t think they were/are that great in my opinion.  A person posted the comment “Opinions are like as$holes” and nothing could be truer.

So here it goes:

Rakim

Rakim: in his prime, Rakim had the best voice and smoothest delivery ever.  He was like James Earl Jones on the mic.

Grand Puba

Grand Puba:  Plenty of you would be like huh? who? Yeah, he’s most known as the lead rapper in Brand Nubian.  People talk about “swagger” nowadays (hip hop translation: “style”), and Grand Puba had TONS of style.  Hip hop fashion was primarily thought of as gold chains, expensive tennis shoes, and a lot of stuff that was really pretty outlandish, inaccessible, or fadish to be wearing to school.  Grand Puba really and truly brought the preppy style to the forefront with Tommy Hilfiger, which was cool because it was quality stuff, but at the same time timeless gear and accessible for kids in school.  Apart from his style, he had a flow and delivery that was probably the most content rich while playful at the same time. It was almost like he was telling jokes every time he rapped.  I think he is the blueprint for Kanye West.  Just check him out.

Pos

Posdnous: Again, plenty of ya’ll are like huh? who? He’s the darkskin rapper in De la Soul.  When they came out back in 88, he was so ahead of his time that most people didn’t get it and still don’t.  Yeah, a lot of the stuff he rapped about was pretty esoteric, but his word choice, cadences, content, and delivery make Pos top notch in my book.  The only song non fans can think of is “Me myself and I”, which is cool (definitely not my favorite or their best), but just that style in itself was different because De La always dared to be different. They get much respect for that.

pharoahe monch

Pharoahe Monche:  This dude is probably the most lethal on the mic.  Listening to him rap sounds like he is doing verbal surgery on your ears.  You can hear EVERY word he says, which is a skill that not many mcs can claim (KRS One, Kool Moe Dee, and plenty other old school rappers, because for some reason, modern day rappers have speech impediments that hamper their ability to enunciate).  Pharoahe Monche used to be in Organized Konfusion and I didn’t listen to him then, but then he went solo and after I heard “Simon Says” I have been in awe of his skills ever since.

KRS One

KRS-One: Ok, I think KRS has to be the most intelligent pro black rapper ever.  Whenever he raps he is teaching.  That’s one of his monikers too: “the teacher”.   If you can find the video on youtube for the song “You Must Learn” you’ll see what bag he is coming out of.  For all you BDP historians out there, you can say that his first album had questionable content (“Criminal Minded”), and it did.  I’m not making excuses for it, but it was 1987 and he was young.  And he has since more than made up for that musical misstep. Also, that album shouldn’t be totally discounted because of the hip hop classics “The Bridge is over”, “Superho”, “Poetry”, etc.

Now I know what the bloggers mean when they say that a top 5 list is difficult.  I wanted to put 2pac in there, Talib Kweli, and even Snoop Dogg up there for their strengths.  Maybe I’ll talk about them in another blog.  This one has rambled on enough though.  What say you?