I've been of the opinion for some time now that the top 3 to ever do it are Big L, Pac, and Rakim (not in that specific order)

Taking into considerations all that goes into rapping: Flow, charisma, personality, lyrics, cleverness, battling, song writing ability-- I'm going to have to say that Big L was the greatest.

Could he battle? Yes. He was an underground legend, and rumor has it that he never lost a battle.

Song Writing ability? Check. Casualities of a Dice game is one of the best constructed stories in rap history. Though most often remember L for his punchlines, he could pen some pretty coherent songs, with each verse being relevant to the topic and backing up his thesis with points. Check, No ends no skinz, Casualities of a Dice game, How will I make it.

Flow? One of the greatest ever. You'll never hear Big L off rhythm on a song. His flow was so smooth. Every line was in synch with the last. Also, he had the rare ability to change speeds in his flow within a verse.


Cleverness, creativity? Big L is known as the punchline king. No one came with more wittyness than him.

I honestly think that if you want to take all things into account, you'd have to say that L was the greatest, technically.

The good die way too ****ing young, Big Pun and Big L never got the chance to explode properly yet they had HUGE talent.

I put L top 5, But on that punchline comparsion.. check Big Daddy Kane. Punchline king aswell as Big L.

hell yes cause his **** is still good and every album he drops goes gold or platinum. plus how many rappers that were huuuuuuge in the 80s do u see now. thread ened. thank u thank u :D

I put L top 5, But on that punchline comparsion.. check Big Daddy Kane. Punchline king aswell as Big L.
Big Daddy Kane had no flow at all. He was the stop and shoot type rapper. I am a big fan of Kane, but I think he lacked rhythym. But he was good at changing speeds in verse.

Big L punchlines hit harder than a prime Tyson.

Big L is the greatest of all time no doubt!

Big L is the greatest of all time no doubt!


thats a stretch

can anyone upload ebonics?

hell yes cause his **** is still good and every album he drops goes gold or platinum. plus how many rappers that were huuuuuuge in the 80s do u see now. thread ened. thank u thank u :D


Whom the hell are you talking about? I'm sorry, man, but I've seen a lot of your post in this forum, and you seem to not have a good knowledge of rap at all.


Flipside you say it's a stretch that he's the greatest ever. Why do you feel that way? Let's see some detailed and intelligent responses rather than some one or two liners like you guys are posting.

I feel like Big L had a lot of star quality in him and was a very talented emcee. Dude had unlimited lines packed in his head that he could just weave together whenever he wanted to.

However, his life was cut short, by no means do I think he's the greatest. For some reason when you die you become a legend....

hell yes cause his **** is still good and every album he drops goes gold or platinum. plus how many rappers that were huuuuuuge in the 80s do u see now. thread ened. thank u thank u :D


Big L was never huge, and he wasnt around in the 80's. Your welcome.

Big L was and still is the best free-style rapper,no diggty-doubt!

For some reason when you die you become a legend....


That's far from the truth. It's more so if you're great when you were alive, you're going to have a lot of people putting more focus to you and giving you your deserved accolades because you're not around anymore to do anything and them doing that is just a way to remember you and pay their honors.

Ol Dirty died and you don't hear anyone calling him a legend.

I'm not talking about songs, we know that others had better songs and albums, I'm talking about TECHNICAL RAP SKILLS. I don't see how his death somehow hinders peoples abilities to judge what he did, while he was alive, on a technical basis.

That's far from the truth. It's more so if you're great when you were alive, you're going to have a lot of people putting more focus to you and giving you your deserved accolades because you're not around anymore to do anything.

Ol Dirty died and you don't hear anyone calling him a legend.

I'm not talking about songs, we know that others had better songs and albums, I'm talking about TECHNICAL RAP SKILLS. I don't see how his death somehow hinders peoples abilities to judge what he did, while he was alive, on a technical basis.


If we are talking about the basic fumdamentals of rhyming....delivery, breath control, cadence, etc then yeah, L was great.

Also, things like song writing, flavor, competency when freestyle, etc aren't technical aspects of rhyming so much.

Also, things like song writing, flavor, competency when freestyle, etc aren't technical aspects of rhyming so much.

lol, No one said "technical aspects of rhyming" we're talking about technical aspects of rapping. Song writting is one of, if not the biggest technicallities of a rapper. If you cannot craft good songs, then your lyrics lack depth and coherency to them.

So, I'll ask it again, taking everything that it takes to be a rapper into account, is Big L the greatest? And if not, who has better technical skills than him?

Also, things like song writing, flavor, competency when freestyle, etc aren't technical aspects of rhyming so much.

lol, No one said "technical aspects of rhyming" we're talking about technical aspects of rapping. Song writting is one of, if not the biggest technicallities of a rapper. If you cannot craft good songs, then your lyrics lack depth and coherency to them.

So, I'll ask it again, taking everything that it takes to be a rapper into account, is Big L the greatest? And if not, who has better technical skills than him?


Okay...

Chuck D
Aceyalone
Rakim
AZ
Nas
BIG
LL
Ice Cube
Face
Kane
Meth
Keith
Monch

All better as far as "technical skills" go. These guys have pretty much everything covered as far as your criteria go. Flavor (what you'd call cleverness I guess), content, delivery, style, breath control, charisma, freestyle/battle rapping ability, longevity...

Their best work was better than his best work...their best songs better than his best songs. Big L was nice, but not the best.

Okay...

Chuck D
Aceyalone - did not have the punchlines or has good of a flow as Big L.

Rakim- doesn't have as good of a flow as L
AZ

Nas- flow isn't as good.

BIG- again, creativity wasn't up there with L and his flow wasn't as good either.

LL- I'll give you this one. He's pretty much complete.

Ice Cube- flow wasn't as good as big L

Face- doesn't have the battle skills or the punchlines, creativity level of Big L.

Kane- not as good of a songwriter

Meth- This guy isn't versatile. He moslty raps about this same things on every song.

Keith- is this a joke?

Monch- close






^^^^^^ :boxing: :boxing:

^^^^^^ :boxing: :boxing:


Fair enough...I beg to differ ESPECIALLY about aceyalone. Dude is about as complete an emcee as you'll find.

Also, I've never really thought you can judge something like "flow"....since one persons rhymestyle may please one person and piss off another.

Delivery is something you can judge...aceyalone has one of the smoothest deliveries raps ever seen.

And BIG isn't as creative as Big L? Have you heard songs like Suicidal Thoughts, Machine Gun Funk, 10 Crack Commandments? Those are more creative than anything I've heard from Big L.

For every conceptual thing Big L used to rhyme about, he used to rhyme about getting cream and hugging the block 10x over. Not neccessarily a bad thing, but I don't think he was nearly as versatile as those guys I named.

Also, have you heard Kool Keith's work with the Ultramagnetic MC's? Basically just his **** before he started going crazy....

He was a very skilled emcee. Dr. Doom and Dr. Octagon were revolutionary works...Keith has a personality bigger than life.

Yeah, it's all opinions, man so there's really no point to use arguing.

L is the best rapper, but not my favorite. But he had flow, punchlines, concepts, humor, emotion, everything else that makes a rapper complete, but it's sad that he had to go because if he were larger he woulda been alot better because of the type of beats he could work off of when he's large and has more access to great producers.

a girl ask me for a ring and i put one around her whole eye //

:boxing:

big l is in my top 5 probly second after you know who

Big L was the man! He sure as hell is ONE OF the greatest rappers of all time.