The Treach and rappers for Trump has me thinking about the concept of street knowledge so I had this rap nerd idea of plotting artist by two factors, Streetness and Knowledge/Wisdom.

So let's say streetness was ranked from 1 (kid from suburbs with no street credibility) and 10 (from the streets, did and is doing street shit) on the X axis. Maybe Drake or Lil Dickey would be a 1 and Conway or Beanie Seagals is like a 9 or 10 (I am not a street dude so please feel free to question my rankings on that end of the spectrum).

and the Y axis you have knowledgable/wisdom ranked from 1 (a complete dumbass with dumb content) to 10 (dropping real knowledge and wisdom). So as a 1 on the knowledge scale you have, IDK, riff raff? and a 10 you would have, IDK Chuck D or Common or RZA (I can see this end of the spectrum getting controversial. And artist can be street smart versus academic smart or an artist can be smart in his music but dumb in his real life). Anyway, I think you get the idea.

I think so our all time favorite rappers would rank high on both scales like Tupac or Nipsey, Wu-Tang, Nas or Jay-Z. But I am curious to see how people rank artist on these two factors.

I would do this as a poll and average results if I can figure out how to do online.

Anyway, I will list the artist, and you rank by the two factors. Feel Free to add Artist as well.

(BTW, yes this is some rap nerd shit but this is the best election day distraction I could think of. )


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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 give him a solid 5 or 6 on Street (Grew Up Hood Adjacent, been in a street fight, but never did real street stuff like sell drugs).

And an 8 on Knowledge.


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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 could be a little off, but I seem to recall him being a definite 7-9.

I give him an 8 on street (grew up in the projects, was definitely around friends and associates doing street shit, but wasn't heavy in it).

On Knowledge I give him a solid 7 (Street smart, a bit given to hotep conspiracies, but seems to have a good head on his shoulder and wisdom to convey.)
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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 give him a 5 on street based on his early persona. Looks like he grew up around it, was never heavy into it.

I give him a 9 on knowledge. (Not a scholar but dude always dropping Gems and Dude has never said anything where I was like, "what kind of dumb shit are you talking about?")


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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 think this one started this idea.

I give Mos easily a 9 if not 10 in Knowledge. Wise, learned, and it shows up in his rhymes.

On Street I give him 7 or 8. Grew up in the projects but I think he was more of a stoop kid kept on a short leash by his mom. I think the difference between him and a Nas is that I feel like Nas was hanging with the real street dudes as he got older and I think Mos was probably off to arts high school (is that right?).


**********
"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 would give him an 8 on street (I should have graded on a curve because I do think he is higher than Nas)

I give him an 8 on knowledge. Always came across as a street smart dude. Now his politics and enlightenment seems to have caught up with his street smartness.

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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"

10 - father killed when he was a baby, mother who was addicted to drugs killed when he was a teenager, dabbled in drugs but didn't get big, however family intervention kept him from going a certain way, but becoming an orphan in that way and making it is as street as street gets. He seems to be spitting more about it on a personal level in the past several years.

10 - no comment needed.

Perhaps why he is the perfect MC.

I suspect you got the idea for this from my other
post, where I made the point about Mos Def


The problem with this is that "streetness" is incorrectly
associated with crime in hip-hop and that's sort of a shame,
and is what changed rap into a minstrel show

Black Thought might be the most "street" rapper ever, if
we're being honest. He's not less "street" than Beanie,
for example.

>
>I suspect you got the idea for this from my other
>post, where I made the point about Mos Def
>
>
>The problem with this is that "streetness" is incorrectly
>associated with crime in hip-hop and that's sort of a shame,
>and is what changed rap into a minstrel show
>
>Black Thought might be the most "street" rapper ever, if
>we're being honest. He's not less "street" than Beanie,
>for example.

they had a rap group together prior to the Roots forming, it may be well known on these parts.

and...post 6.

I do think a part of a certain type of rappers' appeal is how far from the bottom they have come up while maintaining their integrity or authenticness AND exhibit the wisdom of highly educated person.

My favorite type of "conscious rappers" were the type who actually came through from the hood or all types of fucked up background AND still ended up wise and dropping knowledge.

TBH, its kind of why Talib and Mos hit differently.




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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"

If you want to talk about the issue, just talk about it.

But the way that "streetness" has manifested in rap
is a toxic thing that has put people in the grave

Better to not have a cutesy conversation about this

Because already people are like "yooo person X's parents
were murdered!!! They are number 1!!!'

I don't think that's cool, at all.

Let's just build about the interesting and unknown roots
of certain artists. But gamifying it is wack.