I am a huge fan of both emcees…
I feel they are both undoubtedly among the all-time greats…
I would trade one of my toes for “Illmatic”…
All of the above were comments I made in reference to Nas (and Jay-Z as it were). Now despite calling myself a huge fan, and calling him one of the greatest emcees ever, I had a small number of people say things like “you are clearly a Nas hater.” To those people all I can really say is this…you are absolute fucking idiots. I mean seriously, why even bother reading something if you are just going to form your own opinion with no regard to what was said? I offer an appendage for 40 minutes of a man’s music, and somehow you conclude that I hate him? Someone please explain this logic to me, and if your elucidation is anything other than ‘I have severe down syndrome,’ then may God have mercy on your soul.
AD LOADING...
So anyhow, last week on the message board a post started about who is over rated and who is under rated, and I just had to speak my piece on these stupid fucking classifications. Obviously hip-hop is objective, but calling someone over or under rated is trying to look objectively at other people looking objectively. Not to mention, it all depends on the classification of the artist. The Hieroglyphics crew always gets called under rated, people will say they should be regarded in the same way the Wu is. So you have 100,000 die hard fans who think that way, but then you have another 100,000 casual fans who think that is being too generous. So those people would call Hiero over rated because of this. So what are they? Both? Or how about 50 Cent, millions of people think he is the best rapper in the world. Clearly, those who know better know that he is not. So he is over rated right? So how about the reactionary group? Because he is so successful he is subject to 100 times more scrutiny and people feel his spot is more deserved to someone with more skill. Sure, I’d definitely rather see Pharoahe Monch selling 8 million records. So these people say 50 Cent is shit, a terrible emcee. He isn’t a great emcee and he has had some really shitty performances, but he is not shit by any means. These people are under rating him. So again, which is it? What if an emcee has only been heard by 10 people, and each of them says he/she is the greatest emcee ever? Is he/she under rated because only 10 people have heard them when their skills are worthy of a bigger audience? Or is he/she over rated because these 10 people are laying these hefty accolades out? I think it is just much easier to just like someone or dislike someone rather than try and speculate on how others rate them. This hip-hop shit is like a science!
A much better argument to make is who is slept on or over looked. Although that can be tricky too cause it depends on how you look at things. Take a group like Atmosphere…they are the biggest indy act in the game but they could definitely be selling millions. So are they slept on? It depends on if you are considering them within their current audience or their potential audience. Louis Logic is really slept on because he could definitely have mass appeal and he is largely overlooked in the underground to boot. Insight is def slept on, “Blast Radius” is one of the year’s finest indy albums (review coming soon), but most underground cats don’t even know him. Masta Ace is definitely one of the most slept emcees ever, cause he is rarely ever mentioned among the all-time greats as he should be. But hey, what can ya do?
Speaking of slept on, can Jean Grae please get the fucking recognition she deserves? Rah Digga got nominated for a BET Award this year and she hasn’t released a fucking album in how many years? Jean is so much better than every current popular female emcee it is ridiculous. Actually, she is better than just about all the men too. What a fucking shame, is it gonna take some titties hanging out and playing second fiddle to a male counterpart? For those who don’t know, her latest album “This Week” is out on the 21st of September. Go out and support a real emcee dammit!
Before I make my exit, I just want to take this time to point out once again what a piece of shit Ja Rule is. The guy rents a house and calls MTV to do a Cribs episode, fronting like it is his. Does it get any cornier than that? What a fucking clown. For real, dude must have some serious self esteem issues to pull a stunt like that. I guess he is just another person who thinks he ain’t shit.
AD LOADING...
Thanks folks, you’ve been great. Don’t forget to sign the guest book.
