Who is the greatest rapper of all time?

Who do you believe to be the greatest rapper of all time? Most sources online say Eminem. He is the best selling rapper of all time, but is he truly #1? Who do you think is number one?

WU-TANG

@fabulousness17:

Some would say NAS: http://rap.about.com/od/toppicks/tp/10-Reasons-Nas-is-the-Greatest-Rapper-Ever.htm

But it is definitly one of them: http://uk.complex.com/music/2016/01/the-best-rapper-alive-every-year-since-1979

And it ain't even close.

@leo-343: Both lyrically, and statistically, Eminem is the greatest.

Eminem is a beast that no one even wanted to mess with.

@leo-343: As mentioned above, Eminem has the most sales of any rapper ever, he has the top two played songs on YouTube by a rapper (excluding Fast and Furious soundtrack), he won all of his feuds he was in, and he has absolutely no filter in his songs. He's a beast. Nas is awesome but not quite on Eminems level.

Been done before but I'd say Jay-Z is a solid choice.

Tupac

@leo-343:

1. I didn't say sales was a sole representation of how good a rapper it; however, it does weigh the most as being the most deciding factor.

2. Credible, well respected rappers didn't have the b*lls to try Eminem. However, the people who did try him, got destroyed. Nas's greatest dis tracks are nothing compared to what Eminem puts out on his normal tracks.

3. This debate isn't about the greatest album of all time. Besides, the rest of Nas's albums are complete jokes. In fact, none of his last 5 albums broke the 1 million mark. His last album couldn't even get 300,000 sales. Eminem's last album, sold about 800k albums in the first week. So please, don't talk about single albums.

4. Jay-z is an outstanding rapper, and a better producer, but he isn't a beast in the slightest when it comes to beefs/battles. Nas winning a battle with Jay is no surprise.

Nas literally has nothing in his corner saying he is a better rapper than Eminem.

Soulja Boy

Lil Wayne

This one is tough.

Toss up between Rakim Allah, Notorious B.I.G., and Kool G Rap.

An easy case can be made for Eminem though.

Probably this Guy

@betarayz8317: Illmatic, It Was Written, The Lost Tapes, Stillmatic.

All Time: Tupac or Bigggie

Modern: Kendrick Lamar or Fetty (Fetty's energy in music reminds a lot of Tupac.)

@leo-343: Not saying who is the best but one could name Canibus as a credible artist Em beat in a feud. The same Canibus that many say won his feud with LL Cool J. I have already stated my opinion on the other thread regarding the Nas and Jay Z beef.

Its between Big L, Nas, Mf doom. Sales don't squat to me because some rappers are really underground lowkey bout there stuff. Doom would destroy emniem any one of these guys would

Wow, people are overrating Pac like a mug. His impact and influence on the genre is huge. But his skills as a rapper are above average at best. Where he excelled was versatility in subject matter, concepts (Me & My Girlfriend is about a gun), and his presence on the mic.

There are dozens of people who could rap circles around Tupac.

PaRappa the Rapper

Kanye or Eminem. And as always, people rap opinions are terrible.

Also, wrong forum.

Not sure why you tagged me with these albums. Illmatic was great; the rest, not nearly so much. Em tops Nas in just about every area, including freestyles, beefs, and diss tracks.

Nelly

SupaHotFire hands down. The rest are clowns.

@betarayz8317: Eminem isn't even a contender. He's not consistent. He's he's either:

1. Serious (At his best)
2. The Gimmicky rapper to appeal to the "suburban" kids
3. The Matricidal maniac with anger issues
4. The "Reflective" rapper trying to "change his ways"
5. Talking about how he's came back like 80 times.

Nas got Cormega's style though.

I'll still say Nas is the G.O.A.T ...so far

@revan2424: Well, statistically, Eminem is more than just a contender.

As far as your points go, 90% of rappers who have been around for more than 20 years have all, at some point, made some minor adjustments to their songs. It would be impossible to find a rapper who hasn't produced songs where he was angry, where he was the crazy guy, and where he reflected on his not so perfect life. So, these points mean nothing.

@betarayz8317: Please stop bringing up sale. They mean little. And as I said. The gimmicky part of him is what's gotten his sales

Me. This belongs in Off-Topic.

This is a pretty subjective question, so as such i,m going with My all time top 3 which consist of Jay-Z, Nas and Eminem.

Rap bear

@betarayz8317: said: As mentioned above, Eminem has the most sales of any rapper ever, he has the top two played songs on YouTube by a rapper (excluding Fast and Furious soundtrack), he won all of his feuds he was in, and he has absolutely no filter in his songs. He's a beast. Nas is awesome but not quite on Eminems level

Don't get me wrong, i think Em is a genius but he is not better than Nas. Your entitled to have your own opinion and i respect that but consider this...

1) If you listen to Eminem's first album called "Infinite" (which came out several years before The Slim Shady LP) Em was rapping like Nas and Az after he was inspired by "Illmatic". Em himself even admitted this.

2)As skilled as Eminem is, he's only as popular as he is because he's White. Eminem also even admitted this on the song "White America" where he says: "If i was Black i wouldn't have sold half, i didn't have to graduate from Lincoln High School to know that". Furthermore, as a White man Eminem was allowed to get away with a LOT MORE stuff that a Black or non-White man couldn't. Freedom of speech only goes so far but because of Em's ethnicity he was able to push the envolope way further than anyone else could have.

3) Flo Rida has 100s of millions of Youtube views. Does that make him a good rapper? Hell no. Em's worst songs have the most views. Most of them are from his "Recovery" album which sucked. Leo-343 was right, Em hasn't made a good album since "The Eminem Show" way back in 2002.

I personally think the best rapper is Jay-Z. His first album is even better than Nas' Illmatic to my opinion and i hold Illmatic to a very high regard.

@revan2424:

Not as large as that homicidal maniac

Eminem has always been the homicidal maniac. This is around his norm. Eminem hasn't ventured more out from his 'norm', than what normal rappers have done outside of their own 'norm'.

Yeah most rappers aren't the "Crazy guy" And the dude is a matricidal maniac. I've never ever seen a rapper like that. Look up matricide to get what I mean.

The majority of long-standing rappers have at least one song where they let loose. Some, to an extent, even talk about what/who made them they way they are. Eminem does this with his mom. She is the reason he is so messed up, so he blasts her in his songs. He goes a little farther, though, well, because he is Eminem—the guy who pioneered this type of rap. However, this is who he has always been, so to say this is inconsistent is just silly.

Like I have said from the beginning, lyrically and statistically, Eminem is the best.

Eazy-E , he is better than Eminem.

@betarayz8317: said: Having an influence on Eminem means nothing. Common, Mase and Timerland have influenced Kanye, Are they better than him? Ice Cube, Birdman and Scarface have influenced Lil Wayne. Are they better than him? Of course not. Em ended up doing his own thing, in a manner where it made him the most successful rapper of all time. Based on numbers, I would say that Eminem's style of rap is the most well known in the world.

First of all, Eminem rapped about everything under the sun. Him throwing something out about him being white means nothing here. I mean, come on, do you really believe everything Eminem says in his rhymes? I hope not. Also, there were plenty of more white rappers who didn't have half of the popularity Eminim has had. Second of all, even if he did only sell half of his albums, he would still be in the top five best selling artists of all time.

I'd personally rather listen to Common and Ma$e than Kanye personally. Though i will admit that Kanye is a great producer. And Em's famous and "trademarked" crazy rap style is a rip off...he stole his style of clownin himself from another White rapper named Cage. Again, Eminem even admitted this too on the song "Role Model". Your right, Em's skin color wasn't the sole reason he became so famous...it was also his skills and his connection to Dr. Dre. As great as Eminem was he was nothing without Dre. Record labels overlooked him all day until he got signed to Aftermath because Dre was the only one with the vision to see Em's massive potential. Eminem even lost the Rap Olympics in 97' (he should've won though) even with his vast skills. Records sales mean nothing though. 200 years from now "Recovery" and "The Marshall Mathers 2 LP" will be long forgotten but "Illmatic" and "Resonable Doubt" will be the equiviant of Shakespeare's poetry

this is exactly what i expected when i read the topic name

"greatest" is a subjective term especially when it goes over a long span of time like in this case 36+(?) years

some people argue for popularity, some people argue for lyrics, some people argue for changing the industry and yes there is something right with all of them but again they are subjective

everyone has a connection to the stuff he listened to when they grew up and that will always influence the decision

for me personally it was Eminem, Nas, Snoop Dog, Xzibit, Biggie i love a lot of earlier stuff but i never listened to Tupac for example and cant get into it now same for the stuff that comes out now and im sad i cant get into it but mostly any rap from the last couple of years does nothing for me and it makes me cringe to hear Lamar or West being praised as best rappers :D

the worst argument yet is youtube views with population growing and connectivity in the world the views will be going up every year for new songs and the old ones get views when people search them after hearing them on a tv show or something :D someone who was 20 in the 80' is now 56 years old how many of them stack up youtube views ?

eminem,without a doubt

Depends on what you mean by greatest?

I mean in terms of influence you could argue Dr. Dre is your guy, in part as a member of the NWA (which gave the world 'westcoast rap') and later as a producer of some of the most successful rap artists like Eminem and Snoop Dogg. (in this case it's not just about personal skill, but about influence on the genre)

On the other hand you could also argue Tupac and Notorious BIG are your guys considering their deaths have turned them into rap-martyrs whose work has been enshrined as better than everyone elses.

Big L RIP

Eminem or Nas. Nas has even stated that Eminem may have surpassed him long ago, but as famously quoted in 'Till I collapse' Eminem outright states who he considers above himself Nas included.

Just wanted to share these though, not really the 'greatest' by any means just worth a listen IMO

Gorillas in suits
Holy war, the spiritual troops
Fighting over the mythical truth
Whilst drowning in the political soup
They shoot, Missiles and Nukes
Taking out such a pivotal group
The body count is the physical proof
And they thought drugs were killing the youth

Dwayne Carter - President Carter, The Carter 4

If this too deep for the intro I'll find another use
But just in case it's perfect let me introduce
It's Cole, I had a dream and so I made a move
A Ill ass ninja who just so happened to stay in school
Still rap for hustlers and mothersuckers that hated school
Said that's for busters that heard myshot and I made it cool
This ain't to say that I'm gifted as if I'm Christmas shopping
I got gangsta ninjas lining up in that missions office
And possibly cause all the hoes a ninja scrape
A lot of shit up on my plate so you know a ninja late to my first class
I'd much rather sit up in first class
Should I admit that a slutty bite was my first smash?

J cole - 2 deep for the intro, Friday night lights. <-- This guy is possibly a life-changer, the original dream chaser

Well, I got trouble on my mind but no emotions on my sleeve
I heard that love'll get you killed, so who gone show some love for me?
Fcking never need it, push against the grain until my fingers bleeding
Smoking weed and tweaking trying to figure out a deeper meaning
Dog, I'm sick of this bullsht, and being broke'll
Make a ninja empty a full clip, when your back against the
Wall, you only think about hood sht, they trying to box you
In a cell in front of that pulpit
Ashamed what they give us, fill the corners with mad swishers and liquor
And can't seem to figure why ninjas seeking schemes to get richer
They'd pull heat out frustration, blow off steam on a ninja
Just for the love of fcking green, I'm praying Jesus forgive us
I hope the Lord has mercy and Karma ain't much a btch
I hope the truth is settled, corners, they compensate what we miss
Hope they cut you out the circle, you got the heart of a btch
All I fcking got is hope, it's like love just doesn't exist

Domo genesis - Troublesome 2013

Thiers quite honestly hundreds more but that censoring........new school lyricists get slept on often. They most certainly still do exist though just not as much in abundance.

Nas or dare I say Kendrick who is a slowly becoming a younger version of Nas

Sid Vicious.