S. Samuel
[Each week, SOHH asks two entertainment personalities to name their Top 5 hip-hop artists 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 Kayla Brianna dished out her fave five, "Love & Hip Hop: New York" cast member Lore'l names her top picks.]
Lil’ Kim. Lil’ Kim is definitely one my top [artists]. She paved the way for so many female artists. She came in the game sexy, and nobody was doing that. She was the only female rolling with Big and them, and I just had a lot of respect for her. She ain’t give a f*ck what nobody thought about her, and she just came out doing her thing. So Kim will always get the utmost respect from me.
Drake. I think Drake is a really dope lyricist, artist, everything. I feel like he just came and he was a breath of fresh air. He was doing something that other artists weren’t doing and I can respect anybody that stays true to their town and tries to make it his way in the game instead of just following what everybody else is doing.
MC Lyte. MC Lyte, she is one of my favorite artists. Her voice [and] everything, she’s like an inspiration to my career.
Missy Elliott. Missy Elliott! She’s obviously amazing. The fact that she can write songs, sing songs, rap songs and make all those hits, she amazing to me.
Kendrick Lamar. I think a real a creative person who I can’t keep his CD out of my car is Kendrick Lamar. I love Kendrick Lamar, I think he’s real dope. Then I’ll say Lil Wayne, and you know what I like about Lil Wayne, he can say anything and it sounds cool. He can say the corniest lines and then you’ll be like, Wait! Then it ends up being hot. So I like that about him. He can pretty much just get away with murder, and we still love him. And he can wear whatever he wants too.
