We always talk about GOAT, but who have been your favorite rapper at any given time in your past? For instance for me its been:

Will Smith starting in like 87.
I think I lightweight felt like it was special Ed in like 89 but then De La as a group became my focus. As much as I love De La though, I didn't think of them as individual artists.

by 94 though Common was my favorite. And he was it for a very long time. Only other artist who threatened that was Mos Def for a few moments in between 99 and 2002.

Then I have to admit Kanye was my guy from about College Dropout to Late Registration.

Then there was moments in time I feel like it was Jay-Z.

I think at the moment, hard to say but maybe its J Cole.

Funny thing, I think Nas is my Favorite of All Time but that's because between all these different artist I named nas would resurface with something to remind me he's the greatest ever.

What's it been for you?

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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

As a kid: LL
High school: Nas
College: Kweli
College: Mos
Post college: Phonte
Once Phonte didn’t rap much: KRIT
Now: Phonte again

Dude could go from Brand Nubian to R&B joints! He was on top of the game by the time 360 dropped. I really thought he was going to be around for a minute. Wasn't there a podcast or interview where someone explained how he fell off?


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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

forget where, but I think it was him not having the drive and chilling too much.

But the list below is pretty close to my tastes around the listed years.

'90 - KRS ONE
'91 - MC Hammer/LL Cool J
'92 - Tribe/Public Enemy
'93 - Snoop
'94 - Method Man
'95 - '99 - BT/Busta Rhymes/2Pac/Camp Lo/Dogg Pound/Mos Def/Tribe/Pharcyde/OutKast/Public Enemy
'00 - OutKast/Common
'03 - Jay Z
'04 - K-Os
'05 - Little Brother
'10 - '12 - Jay Electronica
'12 - Nas/Kendrick
>2012 Kendrick/OC/Oddisee/BT

Kris Kross
Q-Tip
Busta
Mos Def
Common
Black Thought
Biggie
Andre 3000
Phonte
Royce

Middle School: Chuck D
High School: Redman/2Pac
College: 2Pac/DMX
Post-college: Black Thought
Now: Aesop Rock

High school: Common/Andre 3k
College: Common
Immediately post-college: Royce
After that: Phonte/Royce

tldr:
92ish - eazy/snoop/dre
95ish - bone/pac
98ish - cypress (i guess breal)
00ish - eminem/rakim
02ish - gift of gab/slick rick/common/del/3k
04ish - k-os
10ish - pos
15ish - lupe/royce/pos
18ish - one be lo/kota/pos
2020 - skyzoo

i think i lean on the younger side on okp so i was late to many

i think the first rapper i was into was eazy-e, then snoop and dre. this was right around the release of the chronic. for a few years any of them were my favorite then snoop held on to it.

bone thugs took it for a couple years. then i went through my pac years. when he died things changed. i remember there was a lot of talk about the next pac and i wasnt feeling a lot of the new artists being propped up.

i think i filled the hole with cypress until i found an artist i could get behind. eminem had to be the next one. i know we were all into 2001 but i latched on to eminem for his first two albums.

then my cousin put me onto rakim and since then hes my undisputed GOAT. that said he hasnt been my favorite at every given moment.

the gift of gab took it with blazing arrow. j-live and a few others made a good run at it. i got into slick rick around here too and hes held the spot here and there. hes probably my absolute favorite style wise.

i think common took it for a while once i dug into his catalog.

right around then my love for de la started but not favorite yet. i think for a while del had it and he keeps popping back in and out of my favorite spot.

3k had it for a couple of years.

i think the next one was k-os and it only grew with each album until black on blonde.

i think i disconnected a bit from music at this point, just focused on older music. i remember i was listening to a lot of brother ali but not sure hes ever reached my favorite level, he is dope tho.

lupe brought me back in and took that favorite spot for a while until royce decided to stop playing.

through the past 10 years my love for de la has multiplied so pos did take the spot around this time too.

one be lo had been on the cusp since sonogram but his recent output has put him as a fav in the past couple of years.

kota is the newest one that has held it.

skyzoo probably has it this year.

but then his last album kinda had me thinking his style could use some variation.

Royce was kinda my guy from Book of Ryan leading up to the release of his last album. When he dropped Field N*gga and the other pre-releases before the album dropped he was the dude I was most checking for, but that album let me down a little.

I totally forgot to mention Andre3000 who has been my favorite rapper at many points through out the history. I go back and forth between him and nas as my GOAT.

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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

i almost left out 3k but i know he was my fav for a good while.

foto had me on a kota swing for a good while. my time is off, should be 19. i thought it came out in 18 lol. good thing i added the ish. everything is great overall yet i dont like it as much as foto. its kind of weird to hear him say he made it during such a dark period for him. he was purposely looking to make a positive album while he was down. im still very excited to hear what he does next.

i think layers was the album that made realize he could be my favorite. it started with success is certain but he wasnt quite there. layers felt like a shift. he hit it out of the park with book of ryan. he always had the lyrical skill but didnt make the best songs. dude is something else now. i really liked the allegory, a bit of a step back but i think its great still.

between 08 and 14 black milk was that dude for me. he was the one i was the most looking forward to releasing new music and he always delivered, kept getting better. not to say that hes dropped off but he has slowed down and my focus has shifted as described in the original post.

also in this same time frame i got really into the coup. id say around 14 through 18 was peak time for boots being my favorite.

i knew there was more i was into between 04 and 15 lol. i know there was a good amount of kanye in that period too but not sure he was ever on favorite level for me.

Rakim started it all for me

There's a lot of overlap between eras.


Chuck D from like '88-'90.

Ice Cube from when he went solo until like the end of '92.

Redman from like '92/'93 until now.

Ras Kass during the mid 1990s.

Ghostface during the early '00s.

Vast Aire after Cold Vein dropped.

Mr. Lif from like the early '00s on.

Edan during the mid '00s.

Guilty Simpson and Billy Woods starting in like '08 on going on present.

Black Thought casts his shadow over the last 25 years.

>Black Thought casts his shadow over the last 25 years.

Posdnuos and Nas. Those two are basically omnipresent on my top 5 list but never claimed a particular window of time as my far and away, can't stop listening to them favorites. They are both just consistent presences in my hip hop life that I can never get enough of.

Damn, you reminding me how much I love PosDnous. Like probably

in my GOAT top 5. its just hard to talk about guys who have always been in groups in GOAT discussions.


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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

They're both in my top 5, interestingly enough. I guess I prefer quality over quantity lol.

Phonte isn't quite the same as those two: He's had a solo career, but his relatively sparse output is similar in some ways, and he's top 5 or 6 for me too. So there's a theme developing here that I've never really thought about until just now haha.

BIZ > SLICK RICK > POSDNUOS > PUBA > LARGE PRO > NAS

92 - Rakim, saw the video for Don’t Sweat The Technique in the Basketball Hall of Fame gift shop and thought it was the dopest shit I ever heard.

93 - Snoop
94 - Nas
95 - AZ
96 - Black Thought
97 - OC
98 - Andre 3000
99 - Mos Def
00 - Common
01 - Masta Ace
02 - Scarface
03 - T.I.
04 - Kanye
05 - Common
06 - Black Thought
07 - Blu
08 - Q-Tip
09 - Mos Def
10 - Roc Marciano
11 - Black Thought
12 - OC
13 - Aesop Rock
14 - Freddie Gibbs
15 - Lupe
16 - Aesop Rock
17 - Brother Ali
18 - Black Thought
19 - Lupe
20 - Aesop Rock

As a whole...
90s was pretty much Nas, Black Thought, and Andre 3000
00s was pretty much Nas, Common, and Scarface
10s was pretty much Lupe, Aesop, and Black Thought

Honorable mention fo life! - M-E-T-H-O-D MAN!

Edit: obviously my yearly picks pretty much line up with my favorite album of the year because usually when I get stuck on an album and MC, I then start to binge and go back to all their material to either discover or rediscover.

Late 1990's: Canibus
Early 2000's: Nas
Late 2000's Early 2010's: Lil Wayne

Q-Tip
Nas
Wordsworth
Royce
Jean Grae
Kano
Malice
Blu
Lupe
Shad
Charles Hamilton
pizzaboy
Lupe (again)

>pizzaboy

out of fear of exposing my age lol

1999 thru 2003: Eminem (other favs: Jay-Z, OutKast)
As an 11 year old white kid from middle class suburbia in 1999, my obvious first favorite rapper was Eminem. He was *the* guy for me as I got into hip hop and traversed mostly the rap played on the radio/MTV.

2004 thru 2007: Talib Kweli (other favs: Kanye, Black Thought (Roots), Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco)
Eminem led me to The Roots via his Grammy performance, and The Roots led me to OKP and all the associated rappers/popular artists here. Talib was my guy though. Bought Quality after enjoying his verses on Phrenology and The College Dropout and was highly anticipating The Beautiful Struggle. This was the time period that I really started to branch out but Talib was always an instant check when it came to projects and guest spots.

2008 thru 2010: Brother Ali (other favs: Slug, Black Milk, Drake)
Finishing up my trek through the underground before finally coming up for air in the mainstream and catching up on acts I had previously ignored, as well as getting super into So Far Gone era Drake (something I will *not* apologize for)

2011 thru 2015: Kendrick Lamar (other favs: Big K.R.I.T, Kanye West, Oddisee)
I still remember listening to Section.80 for the first time in the parking lot of a train station waiting to pick someone up. And the month before that hearing "HiiiPower" for the first time. The fact that he exceeded the ridiculous expectations I had for gkmc still amazes me. KRIT and Oddisee were untouchable rapper/producers, and Ye had a renaissance with MBDTF and stole the show on WTT)

2016 thru 2018: No definitive #1, one of Lupe Fiasco, ScHoolboy Q, Royce da 5'9", J. Cole

2019 thru 2020: Toss up between Freddie Gibbs and Benny the Butcher (other favs: Conway the Machine, J. Cole, Rapsody, Lupe Fiasco)

dude with a favorite rapper in 1992 talking about being on the "younger" side.

edit: all due respect to my elders, of course.

i definitely know im not young but id wager a good half are 10+ years older than me. i guess im somewhere in the middle.

Ad Rock
Chuck D
Treach
Ice Cube
Snoop
Pac
Kurupt
Scarface
Ghostface
Eminem

Right now I would say my top rappers are

Aesop/Lupe/B.Thought/Freddie Gibbs/Roc Marciano
honorable mention Homeboy Sandman

I honestly don't know if since then I ever had anyone I considered the number one rapper. At least not the way I repped Ice-T as my favorite rapper.

Yes, Buckshot was my fave in 94 with only remixes and b-sides

have all been favorites at different points

97: Ma$e
98-2000: DMX
2001-2003: Jay-Z
2004-2005: Jay-Z/Phonte
2006: Lupe Fiasco
2007: Blu/Jay Electronica
2008-2010: Wale/Illecism


I'll think on that next decade

The run from AmeriKKKa's Most - Kill at Will - Death Certificate he could do no wrong from me