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 Brooklyn rapper Gliffics dished out his fave five, Mannie Fresh protégé Carmine rolls out his top picks.]
OutKast. I definitely have to say them. That’s gotta be up there. Just the way they came up, their style was completely different for that time and it’s still crazy to listen to all of their music. How were they even doing it? Their style alone? You gotta put them up there.
UGK. If they’re not in the Top 10, I gotta put them in there. For them, their rap was just better. Southern. A lot of people take from their style to this day.
Mannie Fresh. That’s self explanatory. Mannie has been the man for years, check his track record. Plus he found me, somehow I have to indirectly include myself in my own Top 5.
Kanye West. Kanye is the reason I rap. When I first heard “Through The Wire,” that’s what really set me off. It was unlike anything I heard before. I still have my pink polo and Louis Vuitton knock-off backpack.
Snoop Dogg. He’s not the most lyrical, but I’d be foolish not to put him in there. It’s smooth. He’s been smooth since the beginning. I remember hearing stories that in his first video he wouldn’t even make eye contact with the camera because he was super nervous, so he came out of all that like nothing else. Now he’s just the smoothiest motherf*ckers in the rap game today. He can be on “Martha Stewart” one day and then on his YouTube channel with all those [GGN] episodes. He embodies just everything about being smooth.
