Ice Cube Disses Billboard Over Top 50 Greatest Rappers List: '[They] Ain't Hip Hop'

Ice Cube has taken issue with Billboard’s Top 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time list, and said that his placement on the list proves the publication “ain’t Hip Hop.”

TMZ Hip Hop caught up with the West Coast rap legend while he was leaving Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) this week, and Cube at first didn’t seem to be phased by his ranking as the 18th greatest rapper of all time.

“Who?” he asked rhetorically when the reporter mentioned Billboard‘s list. “I don’t fuck with Billboard or the editor. Billboard ain’t Hip Hop so their opinion don’t matter. So who gives a fuck?”

Cube added that his Mount Westmore contemporary Too $hort not being included on the list was definitely an undeserved snub.

“It’s an irrelevant list,” he continued. “It’s like assholes: everybody got one and they all stink.”

Ice Cube isn’t the only rapper who’s not a fan of Billboard’s list, which ranked JAY-Z as the greatest rapper of all time.

Ja Rule wasn’t included on the list at all and took to Twitter on Thursday (February 9) to complain about his omission.

“There ain’t 50 rappers dead, alive or waiting to be born better than me… #ICONN #Vibes,” he tweeted. “@billboard congrats to everyone on the list well deserved but check my resume… #ICONN #Vibes.”

Billboard‘s top 10 rappers also icluded Kendrick Lamar, Nas, 2Pac, Eminem, The Notorious B.I.G., Lil Wayne, Drake, Snoop Dogg and Nicki Minaj, in that order.

Further down the list, Kanye West came in at No. 11, followed by André 3000, Rakim, LL COOL J, J. Cole, Scarface, 50 Cent, Ice Cube, Missy Elliott and Big Daddy Kane to round out the top 20.

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Ice Cube may put little stock in Billboard‘s list, but he isn’t above Hip Hop debates entirely. The Predator MC recently appeared on Talib Kweli’s People’s Party podcast alongside his Mount Westmore brethren E-40 and Too $hort, where they shared their picks for a Mount Rushmore-style East Coast supergroup.

Cube said his dream lineup comprised of JAY-Z, Nas and Busta Rhymes and LL COOL J, while Rakim, KRS-One, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Ghostface Killah, Redman, Fat Joe and Treach from Naughty By Nature’s names were also put forward.

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 last summer. The streaming version included additional tracks not featured in the previous release.

“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.”