S. Samuel
In Round 2, Mo Dangerfield's Hasan Salaam reigned supreme over reggae artist Matisyahu with a 72% win, but the face-off between him & Round 1 winner $hamrock could become a reality check. Do Hasan's faves go for the righteous kill, or does $hamrock's list have the lucky charms? Who takes the Top 5 Dead Or Alive: FINAL ROUND crown? You Decide!
| $HAMROCK’S PICKS | | | HASAN SALAAM’S PICKS |
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Jadakiss for sure. Jadakiss is just so f*cking ill. The punchlines, the way he tells stories, I love it. He touches on a lot of real topics. |
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Redman is probably the greatest character ever on the microphone. His character, his delivery, his punchlines to me is unrivaled throughout all these years. And he’s New Jersey reppin’ like a motherf*cker. |
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Put Common up there. Common can rap about anything but what I really am passionate about with him is that he made being positive and uplifting cool. He’s just so talented with the wordplay and his rhymes. It’s almost effortless with him. Plus he’s got a positive message in most of his music and it gets lost in there with other artists. |
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I think Andre 3000 is incredibly creative with his flows and delivery, but it’s also about his insight. His insight on life and the way he puts it into his bars is very conversational. It’s some sh*t you could just be like, “word”, with. I just love the way he delivers his sh*t and he’s also probably one of the most creative people musically. |
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Let me get Andre 3000. Andre 3000 is a creative genius. I don’t know if anybody can approach the story with his perspective. He’s Southern but very introspective. He’s very ahead of his time. He made a lot of classic music that defined our city. |
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Lauryn Hill. I don’t even think I should have to explain why I put Lauryn Hill up there. Lauryn is a beast. When she’s actually rhyming? D*mn. She represents womanhood so well on the microphone, and in such an intellectual way that she’s just unrivaled. And it’s not because she’s just a woman or she’s the greatest female emcee. She’s one of the best emcees period. |
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This is a killer a** question. I think my boy’s gonna go down so let me put Fabolous up there. Fab has been very commercially successful and kind of came right after the whole “bling-bling” era, that money, h*es and clothes era. But even though he makes popular music, the punchlines and the way he rhymes? They’re so ill. Most rappers will rap the last word but he’ll rhyme like the last eight words of a rhyme and just do it for a whole 16. He just makes really dope songs. He’ll make a radio hit without sacrificing what he’s about. |
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Big Pun. His patterns are unrivaled to me. Even on records you could consider like a party joint like, “100 Percent” or something like that, Pun was just completely relentless. He was a f*cking monster. If he was around during all those battles, Pun would battle with anybody. I don’t think anybody would step to him on the microphone. “Beware” to me is probably [one of the] the Top 10 hip-hop songs ever. |
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I want to end this with Ludacris. Ludacris’ versatility is almost untouchable. I don’t think there’s anybody that can match his punchlines, metaphors, jokes, roasts, telling stories, making songs about coming up and all that. Ludacris always delivers on his tracks…Many people reach out to him. He’s not a pop rapper, he’s a true rapper. |
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Busta Rhymes. He’s always had a flow. Flow-wise, the only person that can kinda come close to Busta when it comes to flowing over a beat is Jay-Z. Busta can be on anything. He’ll body it. He’ll think of some creative sh*t. The way he approaches beats is incredible to me. The way he raps to beats? It’s like on some improv sh*t. It’s amazing. The way he raps is incredible to me. Also, live performance-wise, nobody is better than Busta. |
