<div class="quote_poster">Chutney Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I'm still going with Busta Rhymes. He's always been one of my favourites, and even though his new album is a shadow of his former work, he brings something different to the mic than 87.526 % of the mainstream artists out there. Jay-Z's up there too, although he really gets repetitive in terms of his subject mater. Artists like Ludacris, DMX, etc. used to be great but their recent work is unlistenable for me.</div>
Busta Rhymes and Ludacris, while they definitely know what they're doing on the mic and have a lot of flair, don't have the heart and soul that Jigga brings. If rapping didn't exist, they'd probably be stand-up comics.
The real rappers to me are the guys who would be writers or serious filmmakers if there was no hiphop. Guys like Jay-Z, 2Pac, Black Thought, etc. they are coming from a real place with their music - Jay-Z sometimes fools around (big pimpin? give it to me? shudder) but when he sticks to his Marcy roots the man has soul. DMX has some heart, but a lot less of the musicality.
I have to say I think Jay-Z overall is the best rapper since the history of rap! In terms of flow, rhymes, how many phrases he's coined, how many hits he has had, the whole package. and this is coming from somebody who has loved 2Pac, Biggie, Rakim, Black Thought, Ras Kass, EPMD, Tribe, Wu, anyone else you care to name. It is true that he repeats a lot of the same stuff, but that stuff sounds damn good coming out of his mouth and damn annoying out of other cats. he does it much more cleverly than the others. Still to this day. cockiness never sounded so good.