Recently, Billboard decided to compile their top ten emcee list.
Honestly, it went as well as any Hip Hop head would expect, that is terribly. As someone who thinks top ten lists in the genre are useless, I felt like Ed Lover muttering a “C’mon son” after every single name on the list. Before I body Billboard, an introduction as to why these lists are pointless is certainly needed.
Emceeing as a craft is multi-faceted. A rapper can completely excel at one aspect while fail at another, without losing any prestige as an artist. Internal Rhyming, for example is an ability sought after by many an emcee. Cats like Big Pun and Eminem made it the main course of their meal, giving their flows an amplified cohesiveness. On the other hand you had dudes like the legendary KRS One, who is argued by many as the best to ever touch a mic. His bars were more barebones when it came to rhyme schemes, but he still was an incredible wordsmith. How so? Take a listen through “Sound of Da Police”, KRS takes the word ‘overseer’ and connects it to ‘officer’ in attempts to shed light on racist cops.
The overseer rode around the plantation
The officer is off patroling all the nation
Perhaps the analysis isn’t lyrically tricky, but it works words like an MC Escher painting and so proves the skill of the emcee. So the question that remains is what rubric of emceeing would you choose to judge who goes in the top ten? Is it rhyme schemes? Concepts? Live shows? Let’s remember Rakim, who actually is on Billboard’s list, has said that MC means, “move the crowd”. There are so many paths an emcee can choose to be great that judging travelers across those paths is just foolish.
Onto Billboard, with whom my biggest gripe might be the fact they threw in Lauryn Hill to hit a quota. It’s clear Billboard felt they would receive backlash if women were absent from the list, but it’s sad they tacked on a female who’s known more for her singing than anything else. Ms. Hill is undoubtedly dope, but is not a top ten emcee. In fact there may not be any women in the top ten and that’s okay. Hip Hop has been dominated by males for a long time, women haven’t been given the chance to throw down a body of work as sizable as someone like Big L. The number of female emcees has been notably smaller and as such their chances of having someone to sit in the top ten list is not as large. Personally I can see Rapsody breaking that barrier, she’s on the right path, but it’s too early in her career to make that decision.
Their list is really weak as a whole. I think Billboard was losing the attention of Hip Hop fans everywhere and needed to get us clicking on their site. They’ve never done something for the good of the genre, so why would this list fall under that category? Everyone’s top ten is going to be unique, because we fall in love with emcees based on our own experiences. Of course I want Skyzoo on that list, he’s penned my life as a kid in NYC, while some Detroit head probably wants the list to be 100% born and bred in the D. Who’s to say either of us would be wrong? The top ten emcees are whoever you think they are.
art by your homie Arthur Banach
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