S. Samuel
Congrats to Jerry Wonda for winning last week's final round. Today in Round 1, it's time to shake up the City of Brotherly Love by pitting Philadelphia's Has-Lo against fellow hometown hero Young Chris. Can Has make Chris become a has been, or will the Young Gun stick him up? Whose list gets the props? You decide!
| HAS-LO’S PICKS | | | YOUNG CHRIS’ PICKS |
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Wu-Tang Clan. You can’t just pick one because when you do, then you’ll think of another reason to pick someone else in there. So you have Raekwon, Ghostface, Masta Killa, Inspectah Deck and Method Man. I love all of them. |
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Myself, Young Chris. My work speaks for itself. I feel like I’m really underrated and once people get to see what I’ve got out there, really, really see what I got out there in just the past five years, they’ll consider me. People will agree. |
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Cormega straight out of Queensbridge, [for] his consistency and rawness. He’s the blueprint of what you loved about Queens hip-hop but he’s one of the only ones that’s still consistency giving you what you want in that capacity. He’s another unstated artist. He’s really lyrical but does not get noticed for how lyrical he really is. |
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Jadakiss. Jada is one of the dudes that really has been on his game even before I got signed. I remember when he was up at [New York City radio station] Hot 97 and Funkmaster Flex took Puff [Daddy], Mase and Jadakiss, the LOX up there to freestyle. I was always a fan of his music and just felt like he never got the respect that he deserved. He gets respect from his peers and everyone in the industry but I just don’t feel like he’s at where he belongs at. |
| MC Lyte. She was one of the first people I heard when I was getting into hip-hop. She was one of the people to inspire me to write my first rhyme. I was in love with her when I was younger, with everything that she did. From the height of her career to all of her albums. |  |
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Lil Wayne. I gotta say, the last five years of hip-hop seems like it belonged to him and Cash Money Records. He and Young Money really kept it together, even when he went to jail [in 2010], dude put on for the game. His [record sales] numbers speak for themselves too. |
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EPMD. These guys were like the second hip-hop tapes I got when I was younger. When Strictly Business came out, EPMD just blew me away. I don’t know what it was about them but they just blew me away with their music. I loved the flow, beats, chemistry and rhymes. I don’t even have any real kind of scientific reason behind it. I just love EPMD. |
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I’m gonna put my man Beanie Sigel in it. He’s one of the best lyricists to me. He’s a lyrical beast, man. I’ve been around Beanie my whole career and that’s one of the guys I had to go in the booth after. You can imagine what I was going through over at “The Roc”. |
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Mos Def. Mos was someone that was dropping a lot of jewels. He was one of the first people that sort of gave it to me that and [made it] digestible. It wasn’t from a high place, he was the guy that was standing next to you. [He’s] someone you could picture yourself having a relationship with and being friends with. Someone you could really speak to. It really influenced the way I rap today by being able to say something without being on a soapbox and to be able to be witty, funny and knowledgable all at the same time. |
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I’m gonna give Kanye West the last slot. I’m not gonna name any names but I remember when people inside the [Roc-A-Fella] circle didn’t want dude around and now look. That changed everybody’s opinion. Look at Kanye’s numbers. I just chose him overall because of the way he makes records and how he produces. He’s just a star overall. |
