My trumpet stay shine famo!!!
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Angel Gabriel shapeshifter trickster elf at your service 
.
Also, shout out Conway The Machine. New joint is epic all the way through. Just wait and don’t lose it when it drops. Full on flame.
First single with Westside Gunner is out on YT. Peep.
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Rakim
MCA
The Abstract & Phife Diggy
Guru
Chuck D
Kendrick
Andre 3K
De La
and I certainly wouldn’t turn off any Craig Mack, Chubb Rock, Kane or Slick Rick.
The usual suspects but they’re up there for a reason.
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Here are some contenders…… actually no, these are the best rappers.
Big L - best freestyler ever, very dark but funny rhymes and punchlines. Can rhyme for hours with no mistakes and ridiculous precision. Shout out to Lord Finesse for similar reasons.
Krs -1 - most consistent - Took the crown from Queens back to the Bronx in the 80s. His style evolved and he became a lyrical monster in the 90s with probably the strongest stage presence of any rapper ever.
Big daddy kane - crazy flow, poly rhythms, great voice.
Rakim - the god! in doubt? Listen to “Lyrics of Fury”.
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This is the best post edit I’ve ever come back to read and be surprised by. What is it with pizza places and organs?
Here in town there used to be this place called pizza and pipes before it got torn down for either some kind of health code violation or bygone era economic struggles but they didn’t really have anyone playing, it was a player piano organ but the entire wall was pipes for the pipe organ and the pizza was awful, the music was awful, and it would robotically go off like clockwork at a volume beyond what a normal person can ingest and keep pizza down at.
That’s so great that you have pictures of it though, I wish I had some shitty memories on film of that pipes place. They had like the 3 or 4 of the most fun video games you could play in the early 90’s though, guantlet 3, off-road, street fighter 2 and I think there was one more that is evading me but it was the saving grace beyond the bad pizza and terrible pipe organ music.
Anyways great pics and fun story with no MC’s involved lol!
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It’s MF DOOM. Why? Because he was in a league all of his own.
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Jam Baxter
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I don’t think Eminem gets enough respect. Maybe he just got too big for people to take seriously enough, but his bit on this Logic track is some of the best rapping I’ve ever heard.
Also have to agree somewhat with @PeterHanes, Doseone is the shit, I remember when I heard “it’s them” for the first time. Motherfucker is rapping polyrhythms and time signatures all over the place, blew my tiny mind.
Also Flowdan, his ability to combine humour and threat in the same bars is second to none.
But then everything goes back to Wu Tang. To me, everything since Wu Tang sounds a little bit like Wu Tang. Raekwon was my G back in the day, what a flow…
But I stand by my original pick, Gift of Gab was the king. Great flow, beautiful lyrics and so much heart. Immense live presence too.
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RJ Payne ( for the punchlines and freestyles)
A-F-R-O because the kid is entertaining
Sean Price ( RIP)
Roc Marciano ( he has his own style and choses beats to match)
Zack de la rocha (does his own thing, love his shit with rage)
To many to name.
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- Jean Grae
- Jean Grae
- What? What?
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There’s some good taste on display in this thread guys! Love the names mentioned here.
There’s so many aspects of the craft which can make a rapper good: flow, wordplay, voice, lyrics, the content of songs/albums, emotion, the beats one chooses to rhyme over…
I’m into all of the usual suspects, but some of my favorites are:
- Kendrick: love everything about him except for some of the beats he chooses recently.
- Immortal technique: I’m into a lot of his songs’ message, and also like the power of his voice, his ‘fuck you’ attitude and most of the beats he raps over. It’s a shame he’s been so quiet the last few years.
- The Last Emperor: wildly overlooked. He was signed to dr dre but was let go when they signed eminem. He’s made some of the most heartwarming and personal tracks I’ve ever heard.
Dutch rap:
- Appa: he’s made some of the best dutch rap songs ever imo.
- Typhoon: really like his lyrics, but also really hate the type of beats he picks to rap over.
@Jedilicious it’s funny you mention robian, I’ve met him a few times while performing at the same venues, really nice guy with a unique style.
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The thread got long quick. Has Percee P been mentioned? I love his flow.
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Was going to make a list but it’s pretty much all rappers that have been mentioned already. Great lists
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Hang on, I’ll just read through the whole thread and let you know…
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Chuck D for me was the father and mentor. Bought It Takes a Nation… as my first ever hiphop album in 1988. Still unbeatable.
MF Doom - for sure.
Kool Keith - for getting me back into hip hop in the nineties.
Dose One - such a recognizable wonderful nasal flow.
Ishmael Butler/Butterfly/Palaceer Lazaro - I like his whole career
Kendrick Lamar - Everything before DAMN was impeccable.
Little Simz - made the best rap album of 2021
Kae Tempest - maybe not exactly rap, more like spoken word or poetry but amazing stuff anyways
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Damn. I forgot 3k. Gotta re-edit my top 10. Already took out Aesop Rock and Rakim. And Gift. Wow this is tough.
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That’s awesome. I mainly know Robian because I was in high school with Surya.
They did some great stuff together like “Darwins nachtmerrie” and “battleverhaaltje”
Also, they have recently joined up with Engel & Just. Together they have an album as a group called Ambachtslieden
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@Fin25, I was lucky enough to have seen him (GOG) four times all in Denton or Dallas Texas. Three times with Blackalicious and once was a solo show on the 4th Dimensional Rocket Ships tour.
Solo show he murdered everything and only brought a DJ. Two of the three Blackalicious shows were just GOG and Chief Xcel. However, my favorite memory of seeing him live was a Blackalicious show in which they brought the full live band line up on tour. Chief held down the ones and twos and any sampler business while the rest of the band played the tunes. They had a male and female background singer, drums, bass, guitar, and synth/keys. The keyboard player was a funky ass white boy and he was doing Jackson 5 dance routines while playing the keys during the whole show. It was fabulous.
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I only saw him the once, in Melbourne with Blackalicious about 20 years ago. At the time, Melbourne had this shitty sort of white boy hip-hop scene that was 50% poor man’s Jurassic 5 and 50% Maroon 5.
Seeing Gift just waltz in and floor a room full of people for something like 2 hours was fucking mezmerizing.
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Yeah man! His breath control is unparalleled in the game. And he puts on a hell of a show. I don’t know how he did it either. Anytime I rap for over two hours in a night, I feel like I got hit by a Mack truck the next day. Dude had super powers I swear to God. Truegoy, MF DOOM, Gift, and Shock G all passing recently each f’d me up one at a time. My heros are greying. It’s weird.
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