From being just an inner city music genre for the blacks and the Hispanics after its origination at a birthday party in Bronx in the ’70s, Rap has grown to be a music genre loved by all race and gender worldwide. This worldwide love doesn’t leave out criticism and controversy by critics, it is believed by some that it is a music that promotes crime, drugs, and violence but on the other hand – if you listen to great minds like Tupac Shakur, Nas and the rest you’ll get to see the richness of positivity it preaches.
First of all, what is Rap?
Rapping is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates “rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular”, which is performed or chanted in a variety of ways, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The components of rap include “content”, “flow”, and “delivery”.
Who is a Rapper?
A rapper refers to a performer who “raps”.
Back to the topic!
Top Ten Rappers Of All Time!
Ranking and lists interest Hip Hop fans and music lovers, but this kinda list is a whole different thing. I know you have you have lists of Mrs and Rapper’s who you think will make the list but doesn’t.
We consider the mic skills and writing techniques, hence the names that make it to the list.
10: Kendrick Lamar
Birth name: Kendrick Lamar Duckworth
Height: 1.68m
Birthday: 17 June 1987 (32years old)
Is an American rapper, songwriter and record producer.
Until his music career, the style of Rap didn’t witness much change right from the golden era. But his triple, quadruple time-rhythm, his layered adlibs, and his multiple-personality voices, the Compton rapper is arguably the greatest rap craftsman to emerge this millennium, but his lyrical content never suffered. He may have finished recording his new album “Report“.
Be on the lookout for it.
9: Ice Cube
Birth name: O’Shea Jackson
Height: 1.73 m
Birth day: 15 June 1969 (age 50 years)
Known professionally as Ice Cube, is an American rapper, actor, producer, director and writer. Ice Cube initially gained recognition in 1986 as a member of the hip hop group C.I.A., which gained limited commercial success prior to disbanding around the time N.W.A formed.
His album “Death certificate is a top 3 album of all time”
8: GZA
Birth name: Gary E. Grice
Height: 1.82 m
Birthday: August 22, 1966.
Better known by his stage names GZA and The Genius, is an American rapper and songwriter. A founding member of the hip hop group the Wu-Tang Clan, GZA is the group’s “spiritual head”, being both the oldest and the first in the group to receive a record deal.
GZA added the best lyrical dexterity to a group that included Method Man’s Hollywood appeal, Ghostface Killah’s abstract style, Raekwon’s hustle, RZA’s production, and the late ODB’s outrageous griminess.
7: Lauryn Hill
Birth name: Lauryn Noelle Hill
Height: 1.61 m
Birthday: May 26, 1975
An American singer, songwriter and rapper, known for being a member of Fugees, and for her solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which won many awards and broke several sales records.
At the 1999 Grammy Awards, Hill broke a number of records, becoming the first woman to be nominated in ten categories in a single year, and the first woman to win five trophies in one night: Album of the Year, Best R&B Album, Best R&B Song, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best New Artist.
6: Eminem
Birth name: DescriptionMarshall Bruce Mathers III
Height: 1.73 m
Birthday: 17 October 1972 (age 47 years)
An American rapper, songwriter, record producer, record executive, film producer, and actor. He is consistently cited as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time.
5: Nas
Birth name: Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones
Height: 1.73 m
Birthday: September 14, 1973
Known for his 1994 album titled Illmatic.
A fan wrote;
Nas takes his lyrics to a high level of intelligence so not every one will get it or appreciate his unique lyrics, but his message is alive and real. His collaborations with Damion Marley puts this artist to a new and higher interpretation which stands out! The education is real so don’t throw away the meal.
4: Dr. Dre
Birth name: Andre Romelle Young
Height: 1.85 m
Birthday: February 18, 1965
“He’s the father of the hip-hop industry, not being the first hip-hop artist, but having the biggest impact of any artist. He’s brought us some of the best, and he’s still on top of the game today, working with the best new-school rapper, Kendrick Lamar. No one can take more credit for the history of hip-hop.” – its_Joetime.
3: Rakim
Birth name: William Michael Griffin, Jr.
Height: 5 feet 6 inches(approximate)
Birthday: January 28, 1968.
According to Billboard, The dividing line between old-school and new-school isn’t a year, it’s a person: Rakim. His 1987 debut with Eric B, Paid in Full, was a quantum leap in terms of mic techniques, from its complex internal rhyme schemes to his soft-spoken delivery. The street-conscious tightrope he walked in his lyrics — criminal, intellectual, everyman, god, all at the same time — set a blueprint that rappers from Nas to Kendrick Lamar still follow today.
2: 2pac (June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996)
Birth name: Tupac Amaru Shakur.
Height: 1.76 m
Birthday: June 16, 1971
Cheat Sheet unarguably said “As a self-proclaimed “boss-player,” Tupac was arguably the most complex persona to ever approach the microphone.”
He was a revolutionist, a community guy, a man who is never scared to speak up his mind.
He gained recognition with his 1996 album “All Eyes on Me”.
1: Notorious B. I. G(May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997)
Birth name: Christopher George Latore Wallace.
Height: 1.88 m
Death at a young age can often elevate a rapper from modern-day star to bona fide legend. But Notorious B.I.G. already attained the latter status early on his career. His storytelling rhymes mined straight from his experiences in the Brooklyn streets materialized on 1994’s insta-classic Ready to Die, a wild mosaic of vividly visual rhymes delivered with the expertise of a linguistic master. By the time his group album with Junior M.A.F.I.A. dropped the following year, and his ambitious sophomore double-disc album Life After Death bowed just six days after his passing in March 1997, he’d already earned his title as the greatest rapper of all time. Unlike everyone else on this list, Biggie never dropped a single bad song, or a single errant bar – Billboard
