Honourable mentions: “Dipset Anthem”, “I’m Ready”, “Oh Boy”, “Down and Out” It’s everything that made us fall in love with Tribe’s music in the first place. But hey, rap music is competitive, what can I say? “Electric Relaxation” is Tip at his best – conversational and down-to-earth with a bouncy flow. It almost feels blasphemous to have the lead rapper of one of the greatest hip hop groups of all time this low on the list. Honourable mentions: “Bonita Applebum”, “Can I Kick It?”, “Scenario”, “Excursions”, “Steve Biko (Stir It Up)”, “Award Tour” So let’s get into it, from Jay-Z to Nas, Eminem to Andre 3000, MF Doom to Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar to Lil Wayne, we rank the 50 greatest rappers of all time. It was hard finding a spot for most of them on this list, so we’ve created a separate one for the best rappers of the 2010s. Over the past decade, we’ve seen some of hip hop’s greatest talents emerge and dominate the industry.
That goes for OGs like Melle Mel, Kool Moe Dee, Grandmaster Caz, T La Rock, DJ Hollywood, Lovebug Starski, Busy Bee Starski, Kurtis Blow, and Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force. So, we’re going to acknowledge the originators of rap as the godfathers and say they’re automatically included at the very top. In our opinion, it’s almost impossible to include them on the list because you could make a strong argument for them shutting everyone else out of the top rankings. We’re trying to do something different here, and by picking their best song, we’re also looking to talk about the record that best represents that rapper.īefore we get into the list, let’s talk about the old school hip hop legends, the ones who pioneered the game and made it possible for rappers today to be doing what they’re doing. We’re going to list our top 50 rappers (surprise, surprise), but we’re going to try and talk about them through the lens of their best song. So we’re going to do things a little differently here.
The peak-moment for this category when a couple years was when The Brew Podcast posted up a list that had Joe Budden at the number three spot. I think we’ve all had enough of reading lists about the 50 best rappers of all time.