In his book ‘There’s a God on the Mic: The True 50 Greatest MCs‘, Kool Moe Dee uses a points system to determine the best that ever did it. Each artist featured is reviewed against seventeen areas of skill –
Originality, Concepts, Versatility, Vocabulary,
Substance, Flow, Flavour, Freestyle, Vocal presence,
Live performance, Poetic value, Body of work, Industry impact,
Social impact, Longevity, Lyrics, Battle skills.
As you can see, some of the skills on the list could have been combined, if it wasn’t for needing to fill a whole book’s worth of content, but generally the methodology and results make for a great, comprehensive read, showcasing and promoting the intricate and complex nature of rhyming.
The title of the book itself offers a history lesson in the origins of Rap and Hiphop. The ‘Emcee’, ‘MC’ or M.C’ originally being a performing speaker presiding over musical gatherings such as DJ Kool Herc’s Hiphop founding parties at Sedgwick Avenue, Bronx New York. Rap, being one of seven elements that make up Hiphop culture. Fast forward 50 years on from those early days and you find that there’s few well known Emcees around in the traditional sense, in the mainstream commercial arena at least, but rappers are everywhere from question and answer sessions with horrific politicians to TV commercials for yoghurt products.
You could spend 60 hours listening to KRS One‘s (the most highly strung individual in Hiphop history) back catalogue and indulge yourself in what constitutes Rap Vs Hiphop, consider that Bob Dylan was actually the first ever rapper (or Emcee) way before Big Bank Hank ripped off Grandmaster Caz inRapper’s Delight or just say to hell with all the jargon and settle on the fact that rhyming is a wonder to listen to when it’s done well. It’s not the 70s and I’ve already exhausted myself and anyone reading with pigeon holes and Hiphop dogma, so let’s park all of this and move forward with the more conventional term ‘Rapper’.
As you’d expect, a lot of Kool Moe Dee’s top 50 list features older names from yester-year including Melle Mel, Rakim and Big Daddy Kane, though some younger names feature. Nas, Jay Z and Method Man can be considered the fresher faces in the list, even though they’re now all over the age of 40. (Jay Z secretly being 50 if some rumours are to be believed).
The magical, subjective, unexplainable nature of music isn’t lost on me (let’s leave mathematics and classical composition for another day too), but I thought it would be fun to re-visit Moe Dee’s points system to determine who’s the best in my eyes.
Because I’m not great at maths and don’t have to cover 500 pages of space, I streamlined the 17 skills down to five areas which I feel sum up the full package.
My skills list became as follows, and I decided to score each candidate a maximum of ten points in each area.
- Creativity – The originality and imagination of the rapper
- Flow – The delivery of the rapper’s vocals
- Wordplay – The choice and mastery of words
- Body of work – How the full back catalogue looks and stands
- Live performance – How everything translates onto the stage
No system’s perfect and my maths skills are really weak. This system could be better if it somehow takes into account the number of years each artist has been active and how many full album’s they’ve delivered (especially in regards to the ‘Body of work’ and ‘Creativity’ areas), but my results generally supported what I would have spontaneously rolled off at a party if someone asked me my top ten. Which goes ‘a little something like this’ (KRS One reference there)…
Note: This represents who I believe are the best rappers, not necessarily my definite favourites. For example, what Busta Rhymes did at his peak was off this planet but I wouldn’t touch any of his work from 2001 onwards with a barge pole, so can I really say he’s a favourite?
Nas
Creativity 8, Flow 7, Wordplay 7, Body of work 9, Live Performance 7 = 38
Eminem
Creativity 8, Flow 8, Wordplay 9, Body of work 7, Live Performance 6 = 38
Pharoahe Monch
Creativity 8, Flow 9, Wordplay 9, Body of work 5, Live Performance 3 = 34
Chester P
Creativity 7, Flow 7, Wordplay 6, Body of work 6, Live Performance 7 = 33
Busta Rhymes
Creativity 6, Flow 8, Wordplay 6, Body of work 6, Live Performance 7 = 33
Jehst
Creativity 7, Flow 6, Wordplay 6, Body of work 8, Live Performance 6 = 33
El-P
Creativity 6, Flow 5, Wordplay 5, Body of work 8, Live Performance 7 = 31
Andre 3000
Creativity 6, Flow 8, Wordplay 6, Body of work 8, Live Performance 2 = 30
Kendrick Lamar
Creativity 6, Flow 8, Wordplay 7, Body of work 3, Live Performance 6 = 30
Ghostface Killah
Creativity 7, Flow 6, Wordplay 5, Body of work 7, Live Performance 4 = 29