Does Kanye belong on a top 10 best rappers of all time list

Started by Big Dangerous, Mar 18, 2018, in Music Add to Reading List

  1. Big Dangerous
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    Big Dangerous World Heavyweight Champion

    Mar 18, 2018
    Saw this mentioned on Joe's podcast the other day talking about best rappers and totally didn't jack it from a sxn80 status.

    Obv he's a great musician but is known to have ghost writers and subpar lyrics that take a backseat to his music and overall vision

    It makes sense to put him top 10 or so because his catalog is so beloved and he is a 'rapper' but at the same time I can understand not wanting place him that high because the 9 other guys on any given list would be vastly better at the actual aspect of rapping than Kanye almost 100% of the time.
     
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  2. Groovy Tony
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    Groovy Tony Grandma's baby Eddie Kane

    Mar 18, 2018
    He's top 30 for sure considering his catalog. Rhymefest writing most of TCD made me never look at Ye the same again tbh
     
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  3. Big Dangerous
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    Big Dangerous World Heavyweight Champion

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    Like I love Kanye and his catalog but I would feel weird saying 'yea man, Kanye top 10 rappers, right behind Nas'

    Feel like it's a special case
     
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  4. Groovy Tony
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    Groovy Tony Grandma's baby Eddie Kane

    Mar 18, 2018
    Exactly
     
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  5. Boos
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    Boos Nova Nation

    Mar 18, 2018
    Lmao
     
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  6. Lucy
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    Lucy #1

    Mar 18, 2018
    nup, f--- him
     
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  7. SHUDEYE
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    SHUDEYE Kerser is the sickest.

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    His rapping's a little underrated in some parts but he's nowhere near top ten from a purely rapping perspective.
     
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  8. Winter
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    Winter Super Comfy

    Mar 18, 2018
    Not top ten, but he's very underrated as a rapper. He's kept up with, and often outrapped, some of the greats.
     
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  9. Big Dangerous
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    Big Dangerous World Heavyweight Champion

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    Would you be saying this if someone had a discog equivalent to Ye but was a really great lyricist and more of a traditional 'rapper' ?
     
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  10. Winter
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    This is implying that I don't already think Ye is a great lyricist. He's a very skilled rapper, saying he's not top ten isn't a knock on the quality of his rapping, there are just a lot of rappers.
     
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  11. Big Dangerous
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    Big Dangerous World Heavyweight Champion

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    What's ur top5/10, who do u put infront of Ye

    I feel like there will be a space where a better lyricist is put ahead of Ye who may have a way better discog, just innately
     
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  12. Winter
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    Winter Super Comfy

    Mar 18, 2018
    Rough order would be Jay, Big, Ghostface, Andre, Ice Cube, Q-Tip, Snoop, Pac, Nas, Wayne

    Discography doesn't factor into this for me, mainly talking about who can rhyme words the best. My list of top ten rappers and top ten artists would be different.
     
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  13. DKC
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    DKC hank trill

    Mar 18, 2018
    That's a gross exaggeration lol.

    Kanye's top ten for sure. I don't know why the fact that he doesn't always make traditional, straightforward rap disqualifies him from that. Does Electric Circus disqualify common from being considered? Is blackthought disqualified because the roots haven't always made straightforward rap? Are the genre-benders of today going to be in 10 years?

    @Big Dangerous why would it be weird to put Kanye on the same list as Nas?

    I guess for me, whenever I'm talking about the "best rappers of all time" I'm always discussing "who makes the best rap music" and Kanye certainly falls in the realm of a top 10 list if we're talking about that.
     
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  14. DKC
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    DKC hank trill

    Mar 18, 2018
    I also think it's fair criticize Kanye's lyrics on Yeezus and TLOP, but i dunno why people had problems with his lyricism before that. "Lyricism" is broad. For example, Kanye, Jay-Z, Ice Cube, and Ghostface are all great lyricists for vastly different reasons in my book.
     
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  15. Big Dangerous
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    Big Dangerous World Heavyweight Champion

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    Ye is a great artist, but if someone asks me who are my top 10 rappers and I have to include Kanye, I feel he would be a drastically worse lyricist and just not in the same ballpark in aspects of rapping as each of the other 9. That's odd.

    'Rappers' just gives the connotation of who is best at the aspects associating with rapping. This is whats often discussed. And like I said if I put Ye in with 9 of my other top rappers, he would stick out like a sore thumb.
     
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  16. Winter
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    Winter Super Comfy

    Mar 18, 2018
    I take issue with claiming that Ye has ghostwriters ftr. He has help, but people aren't handing completed songs to him or anything. An artist with a ghostwriter is always super obvious, listen to a Dre verse or a Puff Daddy verse or whatever and you can tell immediately who wrote it. A Kanye verse always sounds like a Kanye verse, regardless of era. He has a style, which you don't get with ghostwriting.
     
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  17. Xmipod
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    Mar 18, 2018
    Overall yes he is easily in the top 10. Most rappers and artists always "lack" in 1 department. Lack as in 1 area where they arent anywhere near as good at the rest of their skills.

    If youre looking at it lyrically tho then there is no way hes top 10
     
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  18. Groovy Tony
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    Groovy Tony Grandma's baby Eddie Kane

    Mar 18, 2018
    I can't put a rapper who doesn't write their own lyrics in the top 10 no matter how great their albums are
     
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  19. Big Dangerous
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    Big Dangerous World Heavyweight Champion

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    The thing is when people talk about rappers everything isn't taken into account equally. There are attributes that are inferred when people talk about 'rappers' and the aspects of rapping, and Kanye lacks in that category where say, the other 9 people on my top 10 list would not lack.
     
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  20. Big Dangerous
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    Big Dangerous World Heavyweight Champion

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    From a pure musical enjoyment perspective I don't care if someone has ghost written rhymes.

    But call me old school, when discussing who are the best rappers, that means something. To me and a lot of people, the act of writing your own stuff matters.
     
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