>what was on the PAGE?!?! because for me, all
>that's left of who a rapper IS/WAS lives on the page. that's
>the essence.

To me, this is kind of like evaluating, say, Miles Davis or Jerry Garcia solos simply by reading which notes they played on a page of sheet music. Yeah, the notes (or in your case, the words) are critically important, no doubt, but the WAY THEY'RE PLAYED is absolutely at least as important. Nobody disputes that lyrics are crucial, but to ignore delivery and mic presence and flow and everything else that goes with the art of MCing is asinine.