Top 5 Dead Or Alive

The list every rap fan has. The most debated and argued over. I'm sure some fights have started and friendships have ended over certain lists. For the longest time my list has been comprised of the top Emcees from my youth. I realize that is no longer a fair comparison for today's conversation on who's the nicest in the game. I'm an old school cat. My list was strictly Emcees, no rappers. Shit, my current list is still Emcees but I'm saying. For those not in the know let me make this distinction clear: All Emcees are rappers but not all rappers are Emcees. I'm an east coast Hip Hop head but also a huge admirer of music of all kinds, so I'm not limited to my region of growth, though I was when I was younger when it came to rap music. I've since grown and have a huge appreciation of rap from all regions around the world, as long as it's good, I'm good. I'm big on lyrics and lyricism and intelligence so most pop-rap is crap-rap to me. Hey, I told you I'm old school. I'm from the era when rap was NOT mainstream and the damn U.S. government was having Senate meetings and such to try and shut rap down. Yeah. Youngin's today have know idea about that!

Anyways, to my lists. Yes that's plural. I don't just have a T5DoA list because there are just too many excellent emcees out there. The kulture and it's music has expanded so much since it's beginnings that 5 is just not realistic. Let's start with my original list:

KRS-One
Big Daddy Kane
Rakim
MC Lyte
Chuck D

Obvious why this is my list, right? Also completely unfair to modern emcees and rappers to make comparisons to them, right. Each of these cats is truly a GOD MC now. Also they each can still kill the mic and still produce music today. They are for all intents and purposes above the ranking. Also those I think are above the ranking are: L. L. Cool J, The Fresh Prince Will Smith, Ice Cube, Slick Rick, Q-Tip, Guru, and Queen Latifah. I feel I'm missing someone but I'm writing this off the dome so forgive me.

So, that's the GOD MC list. Next I think I'll make a list of the Legendary MC's which are right below GOD status but almost there and just above the running for the t5doa list.

Redman
Pharoahe Monch
Black Thought
GZA
Ghostface Killa
Method Man
Raekwon
Q-tip
Busta Rhymes
Heavy D
Chubb Rock


I'll leave it at ten. Honorable mentions here for Biggie, Pac, and Big Pun since, you know, they're gone.
Now the next list is current cats that have been out for a while. Still hot and making moves in some ways but not youngin's anymore. Legendary or damn near, at least to me.

Jay-Z
Mos Def
Talib Kweli
Eminem
Kanye West
Nas (I'm not a huge fan or admirer but respect is given.)
Snoop Doggy Dog
DMX (Not current but dude took the game for a few years and held it in a chokehold. Huge fan)
Ludacris (Hugely underrated!)
Andre 3000
Big Boi
Royce da 5'9"
RZA (As a producer he's above this ranking but this is strictly emceeing right now.)
Xzibit
Missy Elliot
Freddie Foxxx aka. Bumpy Knuckles
Skillz


Again I know I'm missing some more but this is good for now. Next is cats that have been in the game for a while but are recently making a buzz and younger cats that have been out for a minute.

Sean Price (Ruck from Heltah Skeltah. Been on his solo thing for a few now and he's MAD NICE!)
Jean Grae (Viciously nice! Very very few are messing with Jeanie-Jean lyrically!!!)
Lupe Fiasco
Skyzoo
Naledge (from Kidz in the Hall)
Black Milk
Lil' Wayne (He started so damn young! He should be one up but I'm still putting him here. Sleep or hate if you want, shorty can spit.)
Fat Joe (Scoff if you want but few Emcees have consistently improved over time like Joey Crack!)
Joell Ortiz
Joe Budden
Crooked I
Immortal Technique
50 Cent
Freeway
Beanie Sigel
Pusha T (one half of the Clipse. He's spittin' hard right now!)


There are more but you get the drift. Now onto the new jacks. I don't really keep up with many 'cause I am probably officially an old head as far as Hip-Hop and rap music is concerned. I try and keep my ears open for what's nice by my standards. Here you go.

J. Cole (His 'official' studio album is on the cusp of dropping but the mixtapes and guest shots show shorty is nice lyrically. The proof is he got signed by Jay. Looking forward to the album.)
Drake (I'm back and forth with this kid but he's nice. I think J. Cole is better but he's cool.)
Nicki Minaj (She. Can. Spit. )
Cory Gunz (He's been around for a minute and probably would have blown up a while ago if his father wasn't screwing up his business. Kind of sorry for a father to be so obviously jelly of his son's talent. Check the show 'Son of a Gun' to see what I mean. But he's down with Weezy's click now so I can't wait for his official studio album debut. He is nice on the mic!)
Diggy Simmons (Who saw that coming?! Shorty got skills! 2nd generation stand up!)

There's a bunch of new jacks out there signed and making music but, again, I'm not really current with them. I know the names, i.e.: Whiz Kalifa, Yelawolf, Wale, Kid Cudi, Cyhi the Prince, etc. but I haven't heard enough from them to be impressed.

SO, these are my humble opinions on the T5DoA discussions. But if you must have a list of five I'll give you my current 5 favorites:

Jay-Z
Royce da 5'9"
Pharoahe Monch
Sean Price
Skyzoo

These cats are on heavy rotation on my Zune (yeah ZUNE!) at all times, and on backup duty on my iphone when the Zune runs out of juice.

If you want to comment go for it. I look forward to the ranting and raving!

LAterz

The Realness

I LOVE PHAROAHE MONCH!!One of THE Top Emcee's in the game, period! And doing a remake, revamp of a classic and still relevant Public Enemy track was pure genius. He just re-classified a classic! Which is very rare and near impossible to do. WELCOME TO THE TERRORDOME!!!!!


Welcome To The Terrordome from W.A.R. Media on Vimeo.

Hard. Core. Hip. Hop.

I've mentioned here previously my love for Hip Hop music. I LOVE Hip Hop music in all of it's forms, as long as it's good. Some people, fair weather fans, only like brainless pop rap and talk down and/or bad about hard core rap. (By the way I'm not a fan. Don't like the term. It's short for fanatic. I'm not fanatical about much, especially entertainers. I'm an avid ADMIRER. [Well sometimes I'm a fan! ;-)]) Well, they just don't get it. That's their business. Me? I love hard core hip hop. Not fake gangster bullshit but REAL gritty, grimy street shit. And my preference is East Coast stylie because I'm a proud New Yorker, South Bronx Baby!! Birthplace of Hip Hop Kulture. Nothing against other regions but hard core is different in different places and I understand NY more than anything else. But real recognize real so I have know problem with hard core MC's from other places. Some of my favorites are the aforementioned Onyx, M.O.P.(these guys are HARD BODY for REAL. Check this out. I LOVE this track. Tell me Remy Ma didn't kill this!), Ghostface and the whole Wu-Tang really, Freddie Foxxx, Ice Cube and the whole BCC. Boot! Camp! Click!

I'm loving the resurgence of the BCC! These cats is really killin' it right now. They've never gotten the props as a crew and especially as a label, Duckdown Records, that other cats have but they're tight. Who doesn't remember Black Moon's breakout hits "Who Got Da Props" and the ILL "How Many MC's..."?! Come on, these cats came out as new jacks in '93 talkin' 'bout, how many MC's must get dissed?! I LOVED that shit. And so did ALL of New York! Mad large crew, with mad nice MC's. And them signing new jacks, Kidz In The Hall, was just a brilliant move. These kids are nice and new blood is always good.

Now the last few years, Sean Price, Ruck of Heltah Skeltah, has been KILLIN' shit on the underground music scene. I'm a huge admirer of his style. And with Sean laying a new foundation he's joined back with his rap brother Rock, and Heltah Skeltah is back in action and harder than ever. Here is the new video for the new single, "So Damn Tuff", from Heltah Skeltah's new album, which is FIRE!!! The title of the album is D.I.R.T. (Da Incredible Rap Team) and it is off the hook nice hard core, hard body rap!

I'm not one of these people who think rap should go back to the old days and was only good then. I LOVE the late 80's and early 90's. Mad classic music was made but I'm a big proponent of progress. There are mad nice MC's still making good and great Hip Hop music today, it's just the business side, the huge conglomerate corporations that PUSH the candy ass pop rap that has the game twisted. But REAL Hip Hop music is still being made out there you just have to look beyond what's being pushed. I'll leave this line alone 'cause I already addressed it in a previous post (also linked above).

But yeah, I really just wanted to say the new Heltah Skeltah album is NOICE!! Go get it!

Since I mentioned the song's here they are:
Black Moon: How Many MC's


and Who Got Da Props


Here's the lead single video from Heltah Skeltah:


I dare you to tell me they not nice!

The Madd Face Invasion

I'ma just say this straight: I AM AN ONYX FAN!!! PERIOD!!! When the west coast was smashin' erething in rap in the early '90's they was the FIRST cats that held down the hard core side of rap on the east coast. I know Naughty By Nature was out first, and I was and still am a huge fan of theirs, and The Wu-Tang Clan dropped the same year as Onyx but Onyx were just HARD and I have been hooked ever since. Bacdafucup is a mothafuckin' HIP HOP CLASSIC! PERIOD! And if you really listen to their second LP, All We Got Iz Us, you can see these dudes was trying to spark a damn revolution. Like the one Gil Scott Heron said would not be televised. Yeah, that kind. You gotta really listen to that album. Another CLASSIC! And Shut 'Em Down is just the shit. The title track is STILL one of the hardest and tightest tracks ever put on wax. And to show you what good dudes they are as far as Hip Hop is concerned, on that 3rd album they gave two little known but up and comming rappers a chance. DMX and 50 Cent. I'm an X fan but he never really gave Onyx any love publicly after he blew the fuck up. Same with fiddy. And it's not like Onyx just let them get on the track, no! They let these dudes get shine in the VIDEO as well. Who the fuck does that now?! Who did that then?! And they never got NO LOVE back from these dudes once they became successful themselves. To this day they still remain good dudes, helping up and coming artists. I think it is a shame and really, really fucked up how Onyx is rarely mentioned in the history of Hip Hop music we call rap. You know every one talks about the early nineties as the era of the west coast take over and that's true. However, people always seem to remember to mention the Wu-Tang Clan and sometimes Naughty. But no one EVER mentions Onyx. And that is some BULLSHIT!!! Like P.E. these dudes is STILL doing they thing. Still recording and releasing albums. And I'ma always be down for the U.S.G. Onyx. True originators. SHIFTEE, LOW DOWN GRITTY AND GRIMY!!!!!!!