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Is Q-Tip the best rapper of all time?


Jose Jones
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Is Q-Tip the best rapper of all time?  

41 members have voted

  1. 1. Hmm?

    • Probably
    • No, it's Chuck D
    • I'm going for some other dude
    • The Eminem / Jay Z vote
    • Hip hop? More like Shit hop.


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I know he's possibly too young for the mantle of 'best of all time' but Kendrick Lamar takes the fucking biscuit. Yet to see anyone meld songcraft, straight up rap skills, genius multi-layered wordsmithery and such a powerful message quite like he has.

 

Yeah, he's great.To Pimp A Butterfly is a phenomenal album.

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I know he's possibly too young for the mantle of 'best of all time' but Kendrick Lamar takes the fucking biscuit. Yet to see anyone meld songcraft, straight up rap skills, genius multi-layered wordsmithery and such a powerful message quite like he has.

I agree with all of that. However the thing I like most about him is his beats. He genuinely collaborates with producers and musicians to push the sound of his work - and indeed hip hop itself - further out there.

 

I particularly like the stuff he's done with bone fide jazz heads Kamasi Washington and Robert Glasper. In fact it was so influential as a sound on TPAB that you can quite clearly hear its influence in Bowie's final album, Blackstar. And if that isn't a seal of approval I don't know what is.

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Obviously a greatest of all time shout is subjective. For me it's about a combination of lyrical dexterity, vocabulary, tone and flow, but inextricably linked to the music they rap over. So, in no particular order, my favourites are: Q-Tip, Raekwon, MF Doom, Ghostface, Method Man, GZA, Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Chuck D.

 

I certainly like and appreciate Biggie, Big L, Rakim, Nas and the like. However, their tunes aren't consistently my favourites (although all of them have produced truly great tracks) and so I wouldn't choose them as my greatest candidates.

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I think that White liberals like yourself have difficulty understanding that Chuck's views represent the frustrations of the majority of Black youths out there today.

 

I just thought I'd better clarify that I was referencing Fear of a Black Planet in the above post.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj_mZfNVMtM

 

I wouldn't want anyone to think that I was passing off articulate, albeit slightly po-faced views as my own.

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  • 4 months later...

I know he's possibly too young for the mantle of 'best of all time' but Kendrick Lamar takes the fucking biscuit. Yet to see anyone meld songcraft, straight up rap skills, genius multi-layered wordsmithery and such a powerful message quite like he has.

Real enjoying DAMN.

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In terms of pure technique RA the Rugged Man is up there too. Oh, and I too absolutely love the new Tribe album.

RA's breath is fucking ridiculous. I mean he holds it for so long it seems like he cheats with studio editing when you first hear him.
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