best rapper in the late 90s and early 2000s

[Jim_Davis]

I rarely listen to hip hop anymore. So what? Is this a thread asking the best rapper of 06/07? No. I still listen to hip hop of course but just not any material of this year. The other day my bro gave me Cormega's new album (I think it was) to listen to. Was pretty ill. But I dont go searching for new hip hop stuff anymore. The commercial stuff is now all southern bull**** and the nearest place to me that sold the more underground records now only sells grime so I been listening to that now.

And the simple fact is you cant argue your point without posting some dumb insulting ****. I wasnt an Eminem fan boy jumping up telling you Eminem is the best rapper in the world. But because I personally like Eminem and think he is much better than these rappers you mention you thought to attack my viewpoints?

[Bucktown Beast]

I'll tell u right now... I can be brash when it comes to arguing about this stuff. My passion is evident because I'm a hardcore fan of the golden era and hip hop was my life when I was a kid. If I think someone is spittin nonsense, I come out with my guns blazing. I personally think some of the stuff u and PBX said has been very uneducated and just flat out wrong.

I just think you have limitations when it comes to this argument. You can argue Eminem is a great MC but your arguments to support such was a matter of discrediting rappers who are clearly more influential and better in the eyes of many people.

[Jim_Davis]

I dont discredit any rapper. They were important in hip hop's growth but I just dont see them as good as people of this era. When I was younger about 13/14/15 hip hop was a huge part of my life. I went through a lot of depression and hard times and as corny as it sounds it was hip hop that helped me out through those years. I just dont like being put into the same category as a fan boy that was only introduced to hip hop when Eminem came out when I've been around it my whole life.

[pbftxrs316]

I'll tell u right now... I can be brash when it comes to arguing about this stuff. My passion is evident because I'm a hardcore fan of the golden era and hip hop was my life when I was a kid. If I think someone is spittin nonsense, I come out with my guns blazing. I personally think some of the stuff u and PBX said has been very uneducated and just flat out wrong.

I just think you have limitations when it comes to this argument. You can argue Eminem is a great MC but your arguments to support such was a matter of discrediting rappers who are clearly more influential and better in the eyes of many people.

woah, first of all, just because i explained that imo eminem is the best rapper alive, doesn't mean i disrespected other rappers. if anything, you're one of the people on here who have disrespected a rapper... ummm.... eminem maybe? yes, just because you're not a fan of his, doesn't mean you have to disrespect him. i have given credit to many hiphop icons and legends before eminem, you have tried to spit on his legacy with your posts. so what if many people find other rappers more influential than eminem.. that's them, so what does that have to do with you? do you base your opinions and arguments off of what other people think? are you not your own person? do you not live your own life? if you disagree with me or naz-fan then that's fine, but to say we haven't given any reasonable arguments and facts to support our claims is downright silly on your part, and just proves that you either don't know how to read well, or you skimmed through our posts and take bits and pieces out to argue against us with. that's what you call disrespectful analyzing. i have given so many reasons and examples to support my claims and naz-fan has given well thought arguments in his posts as well. you're the one who tries to insult us with name calling because you don't agree with us. what's that saying about you? you're closed-minded when it comes to eminem. and you tend to be closed-minded when it comes to arguing on this thread too.

[pbftxrs316]

Was he really 10 in 2000?! If he were that would account for alot. It makes perfect sense that he would think that Eminem introduced non-gangster content into rap music. Well Pbftx just so you know, 80's rap was pretty much devoid of "gangsta" content with the exception of Kool G rap, who really didn't catch on untill he started to emphasize battle rap. All Rap music my friend was about the "other things" in life at that time. In the early 90's Hammer was still big lol and nonviolent jazz inspired groups like a Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and Digable Planets were the standard. Gangsta rap didn't really take off untill "The Chronic". To put it simply, rap music was non-gangsta rap while the street controlled the market for atleast three times longer than it was gangsta rap (and by this I am talking about what was most dominant). So rappers talked about "other things" for a very long time, Eminem was not some revolutionary that introduced this. I can't blame you for assuming that though, I would too if I was your age.

hello res, maybe you didn't read correctly, as i put at the timewhen eminem was on top, not in the 80s, when eminem wasn't mainstream then. i know what hammer did, just like i know what a tribe called quest, and leaders of the new school did, and nwa, and vanilla ice, etc did. i was referring to a specific timeframe when i made my point, yet, once again, you must have disregarded it, like you seem to always do.

[pbftxrs316]

I didn't even notice your "list" and explanations thereof. And its pretty laughable.

My favorites from your list...


lolz...Eminem is better than Big Daddy Kane, Meth, Slick Rick and AZ. Ya heard that everybody? Did you know that Slick Rick is arguably the FIRST lyrical rapper?

Naz, seriously you're too young to really have a coherent argument about all time rap greats. You're just in over your head, and I aint even talkin **** I'm being real. You can't have started listening to rap in 2000 and expect to be able to argue with someone whos been listening to it for almost 20 years. Because you picked up a 10 year old album and listened to it, you aint gonna appreciate it cuz you are from a whole different era. Your list is just blind because you don't know enough about any of those MCs to make good judgement.


Yea I aint all that big on Chuck D. but his influence and catologue alone far surpasses that of Eminem. On that list, he can be switched out for numerous MCs...LL Cool J for one.

you see that where your close mindedness comes in. just because naz-fan has a different opinion than you, he is wrong? then what does that make you to someone else who has a different opinion than you? you are trying to push your opinions off as if they were facts, and it's easy for me ans naz-fan to argue back against you because you're doing that. so because slick rick was the arguably the 1st lyrical rapper, that makes him better than eminem? there is no right answer to this? there are only opinions and arguments, that's it. it you really want to get into it, i know many would say eminem is a much better lyricist than method man and slick rick, not to say that they aren't nice, but let's put in into context for a little bit. when you have top 10 lists, whether it's on mtv2, mtv, bet, vh1, or whatever channel and it has a panelist of black musicians who were pavesetters in hiphop, as well as hiphop historians, many to most of them would have eminem in the top 6 or 7 or even higher let alone top 10. don't believe me, just go and watch them. he would be ranked above slick rick, who was a amazing lyricist and storyteller, and obviously pavesetter for his time, method man, big daddy kane, gza, az, and many other rappers, and why is this? is it because they don't know hip hop music either. they must be too young? no, i think you know better than to answer yes to that one. they put him on the lists, because of his lyircal ability, his impact in rap music, his energy in his songs, his wordplay, flow, rhyme scheme, ability to change his style of flow(which he has done, just listne to mmlp and eminem show alone). there was just a show last year on mtv2, that had hiphop historians like sway and some other cats who place eminem at number 9 all time, above ll cool j, and below ice cube. now, if you listne to em's music and ice cube's music, and compare their flow, many people i'm sure would say em's flow is much better. but, it depends what you look for in an mc to make these decisions, which is why there'll never truly be an all time greatest mc, even if many people agree with a certain rapper taking that acolade, it's a matter of taste like em said in renegades. that's all it is. it's a matter of taste.

[Jim_Davis]

Nice post pbftxrs316. If people put their prejudices aside and base it purely on the abilities of the rapper then Eminem is in no way crappy. The fact that we're talking about rappers who arent in this selected time era on this poll just shows how the topic gone way off.

A common thing I hear is how ****ty Encore is. Encore is no worse than Kingdom Come IMO.

[res]

hello res, maybe you didn't read correctly, as i put at the timewhen eminem was on top, not in the 80s, when eminem wasn't mainstream then. i know what hammer did, just like i know what a tribe called quest, and leaders of the new school did, and nwa, and vanilla ice, etc did. i was referring to a specific timeframe when i made my point, yet, once again, you must have disregarded it, like you seem to always do.

Well PBFTXRS i was basing this on the fact that you said that Eminem was a revolutionary figure in Hip Hop. To me a revolutionary figure is someone that introduces something new (atleast as far as the feild of art is concerned). You said that he was a revolutionary figure at a time when everyone was talking about guns violence and blunts....the implication is clear.

[Phunky Villian]

Well PBFTXRS i was basing this on the fact that you said that Eminem was a revolutionary figure in Hip Hop. To me a revolutionary figure is someone that introduces something new (atleast as far as the feild of art is concerned). You said that he was a revolutionary figure at a time when everyone was talking about guns violence and blunts....the implication is clear.

does it not depend on the way you look at it?, because..... people have different prospectives on different matters.

[pbftxrs316]

Well PBFTXRS i was basing this on the fact that you said that Eminem was a revolutionary figure in Hip Hop. To me a revolutionary figure is someone that introduces something new (atleast as far as the feild of art is concerned). You said that he was a revolutionary figure at a time when everyone was talking about guns violence and blunts....the implication is clear.

okay, and where are you going with this? how was he not revolutionary? was stan not revolutionary when it came to music videos and creativity? was em's controversial videos and over the top songs not revolutionary? so revolutionary to you means someone introducing something new in hip hop right? so, did eminem not introduce new things in hip hop? was there another blonde hair rapper or any rapper period that bagged on their mother, wife, pop stars, and other celebrities and was successful in doing so? not that i'm aware of? did eminem not make being goofy at the same time controversy popular? i think he did. did he not lead a movement in hip hop with his music? yes he did. was he the 1st rapper to lead a movement in rap? no, but he was the 1st white solo rapper to be respected as a lyricist in mainstream hiphop. that's revolutionary in itself imo, but like someone else explained, it all depends on your view of revolutionary. to me, revolutionary is bringing something new as well but also changing the way something or someone is viewed. let me explain a little more in depth.

here's an example, the wrestler stone cold steve austin revolutionzied the wwf/e with his tough man persona and here's how. during the time he was rising up the ranks in the wwf, the definition of a face was a hulk hogan like character who always smiled at the fans and gave them compliments, and was a positive role model to the kids. you had the same thing with bret hart, the ultimate warrior, and other superhero like characters. then comes a guy named steve austin who was the complete oppisite of a positive character. he cussed, drank beer, beat up the good guys and bad guys(something new at the time), gave foul finger gestures, and more negative influential things, but in turn became very popular. he did heelish things, but eventually got cheered heavily over it. he changed the way a face(good guy) and a heel(bad guy) was viewed with his character which was an extension of his personality, and he became next to hulk hogan, the biggest draw in united states history in regards to professional wrestling. but, i think you get my point, i compare steve austin a lot to eminem, because of their controversial messages to kids, but they were both very popular in what they did. em revolutionized rap with his charcters and austin revolutionized rap with his character, and they both are the biggest money makers for their respected businesses. em's the all time album seller, and austin in the wwf/e is the all time merchandise seller and draw. so, that's what i meant when i explained revolutionary. but, i do understand what you mean though, and it was a fair assessment on your part, i wasn't trying to downtype your argument, just trying to shed some light on what i meant, that's all.