As a follow up to my top 10 MCs piece, I offer up the proof.
Right click, save as, act like you know.
Files removed due to space constraints.
At present I speak the new beginning when every other trend fell short
so who’ll be the shareholder of my kinda thoughts besides the studious
What makes Bahamadia a great MC? She kicks it like she has nothing to prove. Taking a path opposite from Lil Kim, Foxy Brown and others, she elevates above the fray. Where they try to prove that they are as tough as their male counterparts, Bahamadia plays a different game altogether. Her laid back, poetic style perfectly suits her thought provoking lines. What other rapper would whisper the chorus of a track?
Gang Starr w/Inspecta Deck – Above the Clouds
Heed the words; it’s like ghetto style proverbs
The righteous pay a sacrifice to get what they deserve
Cannot afford to be confined to a cell
Brainwaves swell, turnin a desert to a well
Both Guru and Deck kick confident, wise words on this scratched-up string-laden beat by DJ Premier. You get the feeling that you are listening to soldiers who have been through years of battles and made it through battered but determined.
While you kick those sellout flows
In hope to sell out shows
But get your spots taken easy as the wind blows
Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if J-Live had sold out and started rapping about bling and bitches rather than kicking intelligent real life rhymes. He’s got the full package, voice, delivery, timing etc, and would skin just about any MC in the game. You have to admire someone who has stayed true to himself even when it meant less fame and fortune. But his reward is credibility: No one’s taking his spot, not with a wind and not with a hurricane.
Jeru The Damaja – How I’m Livin’
Now how you living? Like a turkey on Thanksgiving.
Me? I keep it tight and lock it down like a virgin’s pops.
From crack rocks to suburbian spots I’m hot.
Don’t forget or have you forgot that I’m a surgeon.
Unforgiving and unforgettable, Jeru is a master of unconventional delivery. His staccato flow is a perfect match for the layered images in his lines, and his distinctive baritone voice commands respect. Although he has suffered since becoming estranged from DJ Premier, his body of work is impressive.
Now let’s get it all in perspective
For all y’all enjoyment, a song y’all can step wit’
Y’all appointed me to bring rap justice
But I ain’t five-O, y’all know it’s Nas yo
Coming at the end of a silly feud with the Hova, Made You Look was a brilliant return to form from Nas. God’s Son was a solid album and proof that Nas should always be listed in the top flight of MCs.
But back to the problem, I gotta habit,
You can’t solve it, silly rabbit
The prescription is a hypertone that’s thorough when
I fiend for a microphone like herion
If you love hip hop, you know just what Rakim is saying. He’s has many hits over a long career, but this one says it all. Hip hop as a way of life, hip hop as religion, and hip hop as a drug. That’s about right.
You’re wack like Will Smith, your rhyme style is pansy
I fuckin murder your young style like JonBenet Ramsey
Now who the master to beg? Your demo gets passed on the reg’
You shouldn’t have been signed if you had a white cast on your leg
I’ve talked about this jam before, but X and Chino murder it and prove my point that they deserve to be mentioned with the best in the game.
I bomb atomically, Socrates’ philosophies
And hypothesis can’t define how I be droppin these
Mockeries, lyrically perform armed robbery
You had a Navy Green salamander fiend,
bitches never heard you scream
You two – faces, scum of the slum,
I got your whole body numb
Both Ghost and Deck kill shit on this Wu banger. Deck takes it deep and dark and Ghost kicks some signature stream-of-consciousness biz. It gets no better than this track.
I’ve beeeeen this way and I can’t stop (ah)
Hands on the ball and I won’t drop (no)
Half-assed rhymes that you can’t watch (no)
It ain’t cause I want to it’s cause I got-ta
No one works harder than Xzibit. Unfortunately he’s stuck behind a deep bench at Aftermath, and doesn’t get the beats or profile that he deserves.
Showin me that tan line and that tatoo
Playin Sade, “Sweetest Taboo”
Burnin candles, all my other plans got canceled
Man I smashed it like an Idaho potato
She call my at my J.O., �come now’, I can’t say no
Mos Def can flow with the best of them. I wish he would concentrate more on rhyming than acting, but it’s his life. He didn’t make my top 10 because of consistency issues, but Ms. Fat Booty is one of my favorite tracks ever.
I don’t know fear I pour beer on the curb,
Puff herb, drink liquor to get my swerve
Fuck what you heard ‘n what you said
The lead will put end to those who pretend to be my friend
The definition of grimey. Nine didn’t make my top 10 list, but that’s only because he disappeared after his second album. It’s a shame that he didn’t get the chance to record more, but rapping about the death penalty is tough stuff, and most don’t want to hear about it.