Ice Cube, E-40 and Too $hort have discussed what a potential Mount Rushmore of East Coast rappers would look like, and their conversation turned into a debate.
During their visit to The People’s Party With Talib Kweli, three-quarters of the supergroup Mount Westmore, which also includes Snoop Dogg, revealed their picks for a four-headed East Coast collective.
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The topic came up after one of the podcast’s co-hosts said she would love to see JAY-Z in a supergroup. Cube agreed and added Nas to the hypothetical lineup, while E-40 vouched for Busta Rhymes’ inclusion, highlighting the different dynamic he’d bring to the group.
Too $hort, on the other hand, said his East Coast Mount Rushmore picks would be different every time someone asked him, but added that he would always mention Naughty By Nature. E-40 then took the lead and began listing off names for a Mount Eastmore.
With JAY-Z, Nas and Busta already occupying the first three spots, LL COOL J, Redman, any member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Fat Joe, DMX and others were put forward for the fourth and final slot. E-40 complicated the debate further when he argued the need for categories when mentioning rappers from the ’80s, such as Rakim, KRS-One, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane and more.
Talib Kweli made it a point to say Hip Hop was created on the East Coast, so picking people for a group wouldn’t be an easy task since so many great artists from the area were bubbling in every generation. On the West Coast, meanwhile, each generation had its one main star.
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“I haven’t seen not one person argue about us being Mount Westmore,” E-40 said. “Young or old, you can’t.”
$hort added that although people won’t argue over the lineup of their group, there are other artists who could’ve been a part of Mount Westmore, such as Warren G, DJ Quik, Cypress Hill and will.i.am.
Mount Westmore dropped their debut album Snoop, Cube, 40, $hort on December 9 after initially making the project available exclusively via blockchain under the title Bad MFs over the summer. The streaming version included additional tracks not featured in the previous release.
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“You know what it is,” Cube said at the time of Bad MFs‘ release. “Mount Westmore — you got the four pillars of West Coast Hip Hop. We are down with Gala Music. We are coming out with that Mount Westmore Bad MFs album. There is going to be new music, new experiences, shows, everything that the Westmore got, baby, you gonna get it.”