Aug 31, 2020 Overall for me, it's a three way tie between Kanye, Andre 3000, and Pharrell Williams. Their talent and creativity is very high and they literally helped shifted the whole genre into being more progressive and forward thinking and have all effortlessly dabbled into other genres of music on top of rap. They were dressing like hipsters, skaters, crossdressing, and singing before it became more cliche and in vogue in rap. And their music ages very well relative to the average rapper. They're so ahead of their time that it's not even funny. But, as far as straight rapping and lyricism goes, I have to give it to Lupe Fiasco. I know many people have Nas, Em, Jay, K-Dot and Pac high up there as rappers/lyricists and rightfully so but Lupe is an alien from another planet when he really gets in his element. His usage of entendres, metaphors, wordplay, obscure references, multis, and diversity of flows is just insane and I feel he doesn't get the proper credit for being this masterful when it comes to rapping.
Aug 31, 2020 Kendrick, MF Doom, Andre 3000, Nas and maybe Em from a technical stand point in flow. Maybe replace Kendrick with Bun B for flow. Lyric wise: El-P, Lupe, Jay Electronica, Jay-Z, and Nas. Concepts: Clipping, Aesop Rock, Open Mike Eagle, The Roots, and Kendrick.
Aug 31, 2020 Agreed, nobody even comes close to Lupe when he’s in his bag. See: Failure, Form Follows Function, Mural, Cripple, SLR 1 (and those are just the trendy joints..)
Aug 31, 2020 amen brother. the most complex, technicalest, downright umpeccable emcee out there. he's got what it takes to make the REAL, big boss music like Twopac intended. all these Eminems & Logics could take a note or two.
Sep 1, 2020 It was Mac Miller. The guy's discography was sooo versatile. If you listen to his first mixtape/album and go ahead and listen to swimming or circles you wouldn't even think its the same guy. He was an amazing songwriter, could actually play numerous instruments and mastered producing by the age of like 21/22. Mac had so much more to give to the game, Its a shame he was never fully appreciated.
