Two old “Rapper Report Cards” created by Kool Moe Dee in the 1980s and late 1990s became a trending Twitter topic on Monday (January 10). Each artist was ranked from one to 10 on vocabulary, articulation, creativity, originality, versatility, voice, records, stage presence, sticking to themes and innovating rhymes. Whatever the sum total was resulted in the artist’s grade.
Now some of those artists are reacting to their scores decades later. Snoop Dogg appeared happy with his grade, writing on Instagram, “B. Plus. Thanks. @koolmoedeehoe.” Jadakiss popped in the comment section to add a few laughing emojis, while Hip Hop journalist Elliott Wilson made sure to remind everyone the second iteration of the “Rapper Report Card” stemmed from Ego Trip, his former stomping grounds.
Meanwhile, Ras Kass seemed almost surprised he was mentioned. Not long after Kool Moe Dee’s handiwork started making the rounds, he headed to Instagram with, “B+ on the Rap Legend #KoolMoeDee report card. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THESE GRADES?”
As for Ego Trip’s involvement, Elliott Wilson talked about the origins of the idea and significance of lists during a 2014 interview with HipHopDX. On Monday night, Wilson re-shared a clip of the conversation on Twitter and wrote in the caption, “Been doin’ this a long time” and added a goat emoji to establish his pedigree.
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“We did a book called The Book of Rap List, we felt every book about Hip Hop history was like, ‘This is the Bronx’ and then we go here. It was just very straightforward and very scholarly. We was just like, ‘That’s not how rap fans think.’ Rap fans were about like, ‘Do you remember when Nice & Smooth was on MTV? Do you remember when Tribe Called Quest was on David Letterman.
“We have these memories and moments that impacted us, and there was no book that really housed all these feelings of a rap fan and have the debates of who’s the best rapper and who’s the biggest. Like let’s put that in a book. There was a book called The Book of Rock List that had came out and we were like let’s do the Book of Rap List. That to me became an idea that the Hip Hop internet was built off of these lists discussions, these debates. JAY-Z versus Nas. So obviously a lot of the work I did back then was a precursor to a lot of that stuff.”
For the ’90s iteration of the report card, commissioned by Ego Trip, Kool Moe Dee ranked JAY-Z, DMX, Big Pun, Diddy, Snoop Dogg, Nas, Ice Cube and The Roots’ Black Thought at a “B” or “B+.”
Those in the “A” or “A+” category included The Fugees’ Lauryn Hill, Busta Rhymes, Naughty By Nature’s Treach, Method Man, Biggie, 2Pac and Mystikal. The lowest rankings were Too $hort, Master P and Mase who all landed in the “C” category. As for the Beastie Boys, who appeared on the first version with a low score of 70 percent, Kool Moe Dee told the Los Angeles Times he just didn’t like their style.
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Kool Moe Dee's Rapper Report Card Grading Lauryn Hill, JAY-Z, Nas, 2Pac, Biggie, Diddy + More Resurfaces Online
“They’re pretty awful,” he said in the 1987 interview. “I gave them a lot of 6’s. They don’t have any vocabulary and they try to make up for their lack of originality by screaming and yelling. Besides, our tour followed theirs and wherever we went, we couldn’t get into hotels or restaurants ‘cause the Beasties had been there two weeks before and gotten into trouble.”
Watch the full DX interview with Wilson below.
