S. Samuel
Each week, SOHH asks two entertainment personalities to name their Top 5 rappers of all-time. To make things tricky, we've created a "Hall of Fame" of emcees (see right) who are universally respected and therefore may not be mentioned. After Young Jeezy protege Freddie Gibbs named his top rhyme spitters, Boston's Termanology counters with his own fave five.
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Big Pun. I think with me having a similar style to Pun, there’s traces of Kool G Rap [in my music]. We pretty much got our style from G Rap with the syllables and trying to come up with as many amazing words as you can in a small amount of time that all make sense and still sound crazy. Seeing that we all fall from that same tree, you see it’s the lyrics that really stand out. I feel like a lot of times when it comes to Big Pun, most people didn’t take the time to get what he was saying. They weren’t really breaking it down, they were just like, “This sounds crazy!” It sounds crazy but for me, I done memorized the lines and I’m like, “Whoa! I cannot believe somebody would even say that.” Those were crazy lyrics in Pun’s music. -
Andre 3000. I have to put Andre in there. I just think when it comes back to something like SOHH Underrated, [and thinking of] artists that are really slept on, he really didn’t start getting credit for his music until a few years ago. It was about five years ago when he started getting props. Those early OutKast albums were some of the greatest ever. Lyrically, beat-wise, concepts, all of that. Crazy. Andre 3000 bodies it every time. Hands down.
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Black Thought. From a lyricist standpoint, Black Thought is just crazy. He gets super slept on with his music, so I have to name him in here. He’s a monster. Him and The Roots have the best live show you can see in hip-hop.
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Jadakiss. I’ve got to give it up to him for just being an emcee. Every time you hear him on a track, you love him. He always sounds cool, he’s got a crazy flow, he always has some punch lines in his music. You can put him on a record with anybody. Jadakiss just murders everyone he raps with.
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LL Cool J. I’m giving LL a spot on here for the albums and his consistency. He’s been around since 1985. His albums have gone platinum and he helped create Def Jam. From 1985 up until right now, nobody confronted that dude. He’s got all of those platinum albums, it’s just crazy. LL Cool J.
Big Pun. I think with me having a similar style to Pun, there’s traces of Kool G Rap [in my music]. We pretty much got our style from G Rap with the syllables and trying to come up with as many amazing words as you can in a small amount of time that all make sense and still sound crazy. Seeing that we all fall from that same tree, you see it’s the lyrics that really stand out. I feel like a lot of times when it comes to Big Pun, most people didn’t take the time to get what he was saying. They weren’t really breaking it down, they were just like, “This sounds crazy!” It sounds crazy but for me, I done memorized the lines and I’m like, “Whoa! I cannot believe somebody would even say that.” Those were crazy lyrics in Pun’s music.
Andre 3000. I have to put Andre in there. I just think when it comes back to something like SOHH Underrated, [and thinking of] artists that are really slept on, he really didn’t start getting credit for his music until a few years ago. It was about five years ago when he started getting props. Those early OutKast albums were some of the greatest ever. Lyrically, beat-wise, concepts, all of that. Crazy. Andre 3000 bodies it every time. Hands down.
Black Thought. From a lyricist standpoint, Black Thought is just crazy. He gets super slept on with his music, so I have to name him in here. He’s a monster. Him and The Roots have the best live show you can see in hip-hop.
Jadakiss. I’ve got to give it up to him for just being an emcee. Every time you hear him on a track, you love him. He always sounds cool, he’s got a crazy flow, he always has some punch lines in his music. You can put him on a record with anybody. Jadakiss just murders everyone he raps with.
LL Cool J. I’m giving LL a spot on here for the albums and his consistency. He’s been around since 1985. His albums have gone platinum and he helped create Def Jam. From 1985 up until right now, nobody confronted that dude. He’s got all of those platinum albums, it’s just crazy. LL Cool J.
