just curious to see some responses on this topic

1. Nas
2. Ghostface
3. Biggie
4. Gza
5. Guru from Gangstarr
6. Mos Def
7. MF Doom
8. Pharoahe Monch
9. Jay-Z
10. Talib Kweli

humor me, fuckos

these aren't in order

1. rakim
2. ghostface
3. kool keith
4. del
5. chuck d
6. mf doom
7. e-40
8. sadat x
9. az
10. big daddy kane

i wouldn't put him anywhere near my top ten, but it still warms my heart to see Sadat X

as far as my number one, i think that Nas is the most talented, but Jay Z is my favorite.


1. Jay Z
he makes the best albums and songs, he may be a thief, but as Bowie said of himself, he's a tasteful thief. He's always been creative with beat choices, and helped shape the direction of rap for six summers.

2. Nas
when he's on his the best, but he has terrible beat selection, and can be anywhere from boring to flat out bad. His best songs are untouchable.

3. Grand Puba
Might be a nostalgic pick, but I find his flow style perfect.

4. Biggie
I feel like i should like him way more than I do, but sometimes a lyric of his hits me really hard. Parts of his albums are bad, his best songs are incredible, but Brand Nubian meant more to me, so that's how he fell to four.

5. Big L
incredible potential wasted by gunfire. An incredible talent that was a better rapper than a songwriter.

6. Cam'ron
He might deserve to be higher on my list. I like him in the ways I like Jay Z, as a songwriter, rapper and great chooser of beats.

8. Ghostface
One of the most creative and daring guys out there, and his albums are almost always solid.

9. Rakim
a great rapper I feel like i should know more about. Dated production probably keeps me from ranking him higher.

10. Honorable mentions: Guru, Big Daddy Kane, Lord Finesse, Redman, Snoop . . .

my top 5


Chuck D - powerful voice, powerful words, excellent control in terms of presentation and expression

krs-one - multiple flow styles, lots of energy, mad freestyle skills

kool moe dee - one of the best, if not the best lyricist of his (prime) time (86-89). lots of boasts, but some interesting stories as well. great flow - really extends it out beyond what other rappers were doing at the time.

rakim - very quick but ridiculously smooth (many rappers are one but not the other).

gift of gab - i'll throw in a current rapper. this guy is awesome. amazing wordplay, speed, and storytelling.

though he does fast and slow raps, I think of Rakim as a slow rapper.

i'd probably snicker if someone else wrote that.
oh jewels.

most of my influences lie in the mid to late 90s but Kane, Rakim, Kool Keith, and Big L are all more than worthy.

Redman / Ghost - I have a hard time separating these two, as I think that they have similar senses of humor. Ghost is more clever but Redman is more blunt and I can't pick one.
Nas / Rakim - I see a lot of similarities in these two as well
Big Daddy Kane - pretty much the godfather of rap as an art
Biggie - seems really minimalist in retrospect, sort of the Andrew Wyeth of street poetry
Siah - never recorded much but i really, really liked this guy ten years ago
J-Live - this may be a placeholder for the "technician" rappers like pharaoh monche but he seems to be the most accessible.
Method Man - nostalgia's sake. he may have had the best voice ever, and when he's on he's ON. but that seems to depend more upon the beats available than anything else. Cheese!
Aesop Rock - sad to realize how much i like this guy's highwater marks, because he's the absolute definition of a "technical" rapper like Steve Vai, and he's one of the few rappers that I go back to and get different things out of time after time, but it seems like too much work sometimes. still, his "hit singles" are great to me.

i'm going to keep thinking about this and listen to Capital Punishment when i get home. Big Pun has a chance here.

i don't hear that many similarities between ghost and redman

My list is not very good, due to my limited exposure to rap, but you said "personal", so here goes.

1. Jay-Z
2. Chuck D
3. Q-Tip
4. Shock G
5. Rakim
6. Mos Def
7. 2Pac
8. Ad-Rock
9. Biggie
10. Busta Rhymes

i dunno, that looks like a pretty good list. particularly for someone with limited exposure. I wouldn't put Q Tip so high, but he was part of two of my all time favorite albums. I wouldn't put Ad Rock on my list either, but he's entertaining.

Q-Tip:
It's not his flow, it's the buttery voice mixed with the combination of his flow. Technically, I don't think he's that great, but there is just something about him that I LOVE.

Ad Rock:
Entertaining is the only reason he made my list.

i think this is the reason sadat x is on my list. well, i wouldn't say he has a buttery flow. more like he sounds like he's on the verge of hysterics all the time.

i'll rank mine as far as who's songs i like listening to the most

1 jay z

2 kanye west

3 eminem

4 dr dre

5 andre 3000

6 lil wayne

7 royce da 5'9

8 bun b

9 pharoahe monch

10 cee lo green

you may now flame me...

I love how most of Sadat's lyrics don't rhyme.

kanye, huh?