My Top Five Rappers Of All Time

For anyone that doesn't know, I'm a huge fan of music. Like, lots of music. I started The Ross Radio Show just to share all the types I love listening to with the world. There isn't a single day that goes by where I don't listen to at the very least an two and a half hours of music. Lately I have been listening to and reading lots of lists, most being the best rapper of all time. This is an issue that almost no one is going to agree on because there is so many different forms of rap and rappers. Some say hip-hop but when I use that word I have to actually pause a split second and say it. My brain goes to “rap” automatically.

Making my own list wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be though at the last second I did change who my number one was. If you ask me for my top five ten years from as we're hunkered down waiting for the dirt people to leave town with fresh new victims I'll probably have one or two other rappers on here. But as of this date, November 26^th 2013, these are my Top Five Rappers Of All Time.

5. Ice T

This one may be surprising to younger people who kinda know that he used to rap, but back in the day this guy was a monster when he wrapped. I had heard lots of songs about partying, guys saying which other rappers they were better than, or about how rough certain cities were. When I first heard the song “Colors” (1998) my mind was blown.

This guy was singing about the stuff that I saw on a daily basis: gangs. I wasn't exposed to that musically until this song and after that I started listening to more and more of his stuff. The lifestyle of a pimp, a guy with money, and getting all the women. Not the girls in your neighborhood that were attainable (unless you were me). Ice T was talking about the kind of women you only saw in movies or on the arms of celebrities. He glorified the life of a man who had everything but also had songs that let you see the other side of it, the downfall. His flow wasn't like any other rapper I'd ever heard and his voice...his fucking voice. If Ice T called your house right now you'd know it was Ice T immediately. No one has had a flow like him and no one ever will.

4. KRS One

Hey, everyone! Not every rapper is a gun toting thug! KRS One showed me that rappers could be good and make sense. Some of his songs would make me feel like I was sitting in a class listening to a really good teacher letting me know about the stuff that the news wasn't telling me or a history lesson.

The first song I ever heard by him was “9mm Goes Bang” (1987). Its a song about a guy using his gun to kill someone, kill some drug dealers, get high, and then brag about it to his friend. Now, the funny thing about these first two songs is that they are about the type of things that parents have fought for years against saying it makes kids violent. Maybe stupid kids. I'm 34 and have never been arrested, in jail, or have kids spread around the country. And yeah. I'm Black...and fully aware that the second and first paragraphs totally contradict each other. He's just telling stories, people!

3. Ice Cube

Whether with N.W.A or by himself this guy is incredible. Strangely, not many people ever bring his name up when they talk about some of the greatest rappers of all time. Ice Cube has made albums where every single song was good. My exposure to Cube came from my late brother blasting it in his car. You have not lived until you've heard “Steady Mobbin'” blasting so loud in your ears that you cant taste the gum you're chewing.

Ice Cube to me has always had a very straight forward style, particularly in his later albums. Before then he was about story telling or god forbid you got on his bad side just destroying MC's. Good lord, his track “No Vaseline” that he made against his former band members N.W.A forever changed how I looked at those guys as gangsters. Ice Cube can easily transverse between gangster rap, teaching you something, and partying.

2. Eminem

If you can name five of the best rappers of all time and Eminem isn't in your list then you've never heard him rap or you are just a hate filled factory of hate. He's so damned good that my spell check knows his name. I have never in my life heard a rapper use their personal life as so much fuel for their rhymes in my life and still come across as strong. He is White, grew up poor, got his ass kicked, and had the mother of his child cheat on him. This isn't new information. He knows it, puts it in his music, and asks you “So what you have to say about me that I already haven't?” This fucker is unbreakable.

Eminem has a flow that can absolutely not be touched by anyone. Lots of rappers rap fast. Its very popular right now. But he does it faster and you can actually understand what he is saying. I have heard other rappers like talk about how great his is which is something most wont do until someone dies. Kanye West said that no one will ever top Eminem, Game has said “One thing that stuck with me is that Eminem is not to be fucked with ever in hip-hop, ever.” Even Scarface of The Geto Boys has stated after being asked if he would record a track with him “I'm not fin to go in there fuckin' with that white boy, man!” How many rappers are so good that other greats are afraid to collaborate with them?

1. Big Daddy Kane

Big Daddy Kane is absolutely 100% one of the best rappers of all time. To me he represented a lifestyle that I dreamed of having. Just being so damned smooth it was impossible to hate him for it. There weren't many rappers that could step up wearing a suit and rings that covered his fist rapping to a beat by the Mary Jane Girls (“Smooth Operator”) and then turn around and destroy anyone in the room with songs like “Raw” and “Set It Off.” Till this day his songs are comparable with anything that is still being made. That is the definition of timeless.

“I Get The Job Done” and “Wrath Of Kane” are the kind of songs that would piss me off if I were an MC. There's no damned way that you would want to hear this guy and have to follow him. You'd slip on all the panties being thrown on stage. Besides his flow, look, and presence there's the fact that he influenced so many other great MC's (Eminem, Dan-e-o, Jay-Z). Even now he is still performing and has not lost a step.