man, back in the day it was nothing but rap music for me. all day, every day. there was no other type of music getting listened to..... now.... as i've gotten older and matured, my tastes in music reflect my growth as a listener as well as artist and as a young man. so this list is more of a reflection of my youth.

before i get into my list, let me give you a little background.

i bought the ready to die cassette tape back when it came out within the first month when it was released. that tape got a bunch of play and i thoroughly enjoyed it. suicidal thoughts was probably my favorite joint on it... def a classic album. i bought the life after death cd the day it came out. another dope joint and i thoroughly enjoyed that one as well.

now.

what goes into to an honest "Top MC of all time list"? and how might that list differ from your Personal Favorite MC of all time list? are they exactly the same..? not necessarily in every instance. so i'm going to list my personal favorites with explanations why.

when judging an artist / mc, i guess this is how i rate them:

-style , how much do i feel that shit, flow , content , originality, prolificness

here might be my top few rhymers to get on the mic during their prime. all nicer then Big. and here's why..


-- nas is not my favorite mc nor is he ranked #1 to me. so this list isn't in order. but i'm going to start with nas tho. back when i was young, NAS first album and 2nd albums were my shit. i quit fucking with nas 100% after he dropped that piece of shit 3rd album. never fucked with him again after that or cared to listen to anything else from him. but back to the point. Biggie had 2 albums. and i'll just put Nas first 2 albums against biggies first 2. Nas has to win. ain't too much of a debate. technical flow, delivery, rhyme style, and overall impact to hiphop music at the time the records were released, and as well as historically speaking and looking back, nas is a better mc then Big in every sense of the word. so anybody having Big #1 on the list, even comparing east coast to east coast mc from the same era-- i can't feel you on this.


-- andre 3000 is my favorite rhymer of all time. i could write a thousand word e$$ay why. style. originality. flow. feeling. flavor. deeper words. a whole nother level of consciousness. big couldn't see 3000 in his prime if he wanted to. what i think is really funny is this: a lot of cat's from the mid 90's generation used to hate on "Gangster Rappers" and shit, and were defining real hiphop as like the east coast sound from like '93 - '98, but when you really listen to everything about notorious big- he was a fucking gangster rapper. blunts and broads, sex and minaj-a-trious. like, tell me what was the most poetic or deepest rhyme biggie ever wrote? what verse was his most lyrical verse? see, andre came from a region of the united states - -against all odds- - during an era of rap where if you wasn't from NY or possibly Cali-- you really wasn't getting any real props like that. and he said fuck you thru style and poetry and flavor, and the rest is history. so big ain't even in the same bracket.

--- GURU. i really liked gang starr a lot. i had the cassette tape of Hard to Earn when it came out. that shit got a bunch of play too. so during the Daily Operation / Hard to Earn / Moment of Truth span, on a personal level-- what spoke to me more or what did i personally enjoy more? the 2 Biggie albums, or those 3 gang starr albums? i liked the 3 gang starr albums.... classics. i've always been a laid back beats type of motherfucker, and you know, in the 90's all the beats were hitting on those bpms.. and the way guru was rapping, you know, he was dropping all kinds of knowledge and rhymes and fly shit in his verses; giving you game. biggie was rhyming, but I'm voting Guru over Big here too. i liked guru's style, how he was coming with his flavor, and what he was talking about.

-- Cee-lo specifically and the goodie mob collectively on the first 2 albums. I mean there is no debating, in terms of an Artist, that cee lo is far superior to Big as an artist. rhyming, songwriting, singing... there is no debating that cee-lo is much more poetic, and was busting the deeper content either. cee-lo, i fucked with his whole style way more then big's. 'Lo is the ultimate poet, ultimate writer, and ultimate artist.

-- now we gotta go here: PAC. how i grew up, you had to pic one or the other in about '96... but before '96, you had: Ready to Die. Me Against the World. You had the Poetic Justice movie. You had the JUICE movie. and you had the Above the Rim movie. and on that soundtrack you had the Tupac song "PAIN". So even before you had to pick, I had the Ready to Die cassette tape, the Me Against the World cassette tape, and the Above the Rim cassette tape with the PAIN song on it. Biggie never made one song that I felt as hard as i felt Tupac's PAIN. that beat, the way he spit on that joint, and what i was going thru as a teenager riding around in my car getting high as fuck and drunk as fuck just rolling.... big wasn't the artist that Pac was. Pac was 100% feeling. and nobody in rap music history made more motherfuckers 'feel' him that Pac did. Back to Me Against the World. Classic. Felt the whole shit. Then, did we mention the HIGH TIL I DIE track from (what soundtrack was that shit off of? poetic justice?) plus the shit Pac did with Digital Underground like "I get Around"... And what about that fuckin THUG LIFE album? Straight Ballin, for a long time in my life, was my favorite song ever. Did we mention the MC BREED song "I Gotta Get Mine" featuring Pac? And all the movies Pac was in? the cultural impact he had before he ever released the All Eyez on Me double album? his prolificness as the most prolific rapper ever in the shorest period of time? pac always was an introspective "conscious" rapper too--- just as much as a Common or Chuck D, albeit in an entirely different way. Big was never and will never ever every fuck with PAC and they should never be mentioned in the same sentence as artists even tho they will be. there really is no comparison.

-- black thought. in terms of technical ability, prolificness, style or content... ain't no competition here either. black thought probably deserves to be, historically, possibly the #1 MC of all time as a pure MC. He has the catalog to prove it. like, bar-for-bar, Big ain't ever seeing Black Thought as an MC. 75 Bars. give me one notorious big song that is seeing this song from a raw MC'ing point of view. do you want more?!?! i can keep going...

--- now we all know Ice Cube done fell off a LONG time ago (but folks won't give the man his due respect for Lethal Injection... they want to stop giving him props after his 2nd album, but they should stop after the 3rd one....)... but let's put this in perspective. Big had 2 albums. Now take the first 2 Ice Cube albums. Not too many people are fucking with those 2 records. Cube was young and hungry as fuck, and he was the shit. his voice, style, flow, lyrics, content, topics, cultural impact then, and historic impact now. those beats..... that era. so i'll ask you: whose first 2 albums are better? the first 2 ice cube albums or the 2 Biggie albums? Ice Cube was a LITTLE before my time when those 2 albums came out.... and I bought the 2 biggie albums When they came out. but I got the Lethal Injection album when it came out--- and eventually got those first 2 Cube albums a few years later.... who would i vote had the better 2 albums? are we really not going to give this to Ice Cube? (how is Big in your top 5 all time again? lol)

-- technically , as an mc.... are you saying notorious big is a better rapper then Gift of Gab from Blackalicious? was Big a more poetic rapper? no? was Big deeper then Gab? no? did Big have more style than Gab? no? was Big flowing nicer then Gab? i don't think so man... then how could you put Big over Gab as a rapper? that's like putting Big over Black Thought. you just can't be honest with yourself or know what the fuck you're talking about and do that... now Big's mainstream recognition and cultural impact is definitely superior to Gift of Gab. there is no question about that. but as a rhymer, as a poet, as an artist, or as an mc, gift of gab is the pic.

-- Ghostface Killah is an interesting comparison. style points / flavor points? i mean ghost is one of the most flavorlicious original mc's ever the way he puts the words and stories together. original unique style right there. enjoyability factor is up for debate. mc-wise? this one is a matter of personal preference because you really can't deny either artist's merits here... but would you put Big over Ghostface? i'll let you decide

-- Common from One Day It'll All Make Sense and Like Water For Chocolate . vs. Biggie first 2 albums. I think I'm taking Common here....