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Nas Names His Top 10 Lyricists For Rolling Stone Magazine


bigted

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I think Nas is great but I just don't get how he could put Rick Ross, Lil' Wayne, and Lil' Kim on the same level as Slick Rick, Rakim, and Ice Cube, there's no logic there...


Nas creates a playlist of some of Hip Hop's finest lyricist for a Rolling Stone's feature

The new issue of RollingStone features themed playlists from 50 different artists. Among those are Cee-Lo with a selection of the best of the Dirty South, Drake provides a Jimi Hendrix list and Nas provides his list of "Hip-Hop's Best Lyricists." Below is what Nas had to say.

"When I said 'hip-hop is dead' a few years ago, I felt we'd gotten away from the great wordplay and storytelling," says Nas. "There's a place for the party **** and a place for the gangster ****. I focus on the guys that are always pushing themselves forward."

1. "My Downfall" - Notorious B.I.G., 1997

The lyrics are about how he's acing the shadows of death, despite all of his success, and he's giving it to you in a way that makes it seem so real.

2. "If My Homie Calls" - 2pac, 1991

He's just saying to his boys that he's going to be a friend no matter how big he gets.

3. "Road To The Riches" - Kool G. Rap & DJ Polo, 1989

The way we're rhyming now? He was already doing it then .

4. "A Bird In The Hand" - Ice Cube, 1991

5. "Paid In Full" - Eric B. & Rakim, 1987

6. "I'm Single" - Lil Wayne, 2010

I'm recently divorced, so I feel what he's saying.

7. "Tears of Joy" - Rick Ross, 2010

Ross is at the pulpit here.

8 "The Moment I Feared" - Slick Rick, 1988

It's cinematic. He's at a hip-hop show and ices this girl who played him, then he's in prison getting violated by some dude. This was unheard of.

9. "Empire State of Mind" - Jay-Z, 2009

This song is huge. It sounds like Broadway. It's New York's modern anthem.

10. "Queen Bitch" - Lil' Kim, 1996

At the time, females rappers didn't appeal to the street, but Kim came with the vulgarity, sexuality and gangster ****.

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If Nas wanted to stay current he could've mentioned something from mcs like Rhymefest, Lupe, and Jean Grae, now those are modern day lyricists that keep hip hop alive, there's still lyricists out there but they ain't popular as they should be, maybe if they were given more props they would get more notice, I find it amusing how people could think Rick Ross is a lyricist and MC Hammer ain't...

Edited by bigted
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He probably respects those artists that I mentioned more than Rick Ross but he might've just thought of Rick Ross at the time he was interviewed, since looking back at the top 50 hip-hop/R&B list that I tried coming up with I now realise didn't mention artists like The Fugees and Montell Jordan who made impact in the last 25 years

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I'm gonna post a couple songs that got great lyrical themes which should be mentioned more often:
Montell Jordan "It's Over", I know he's an R&B artist but this song got a hip hop vibe to it and whenever I seem to be going through a rough time with a girl I like listening to this, he's rapping something on most of that "This Is How We Do It" album and it came out better than some of these so called mcs, yesterday I heard he's retiring from music to be a pastor but hopefully he still does recording like Rev. Run and Al Green do as pastors, Montell's one of the real brothers in the game:



I actually like this version of "Black President" by Rhymefest, Wale, Christina K, and Royce Da 5'9 better than Nas' version, a lot of real talk here, rappers should get together to make real music beyond just an election if they want to improve hip hop:
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i get the feeling a lot of the time when i see these lists that artists are just trying to reach out to the popular artists fanbase but they really don't like those popular artists deep down

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10. "Queen Bitch" - Lil' Kim, 1996

At the time, females rappers didn't appeal to the street, but Kim came with the vulgarity, sexuality and gangster ****.

That right there is an absolute joke! That killed hip-hop..it didn't help it..

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I was reading an article last night on Rolling Stone Mag's website and they named Nicki Minaj the new queen of hip hop, she's just straight trash compared to the real queens like Queen Latifah and Salt-N-Pepa, that magazine also gave "Lost and Found" 2 stars too so their opinion on hip hop holds no weight to me.... If people put Rick Ross and Lil' Wayne in their top 10 mcs list of all time then that's why I don't hesitate to put more consistant mcs like Will and Hammer there all day, people need to get their facts straight and give credit where credit's due....

Edited by bigted
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Nicki used to be able to spit Turntable. I did some research and found some really good songs from her. But recently she has joined the group of rappers that with the help of the sound systems think they can sing, and she is nothing more than a pop artist these days. By the way, her new album, sucks! I cannot believe my wife wasted that money on that.

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Some of Nicki's mixtape stuff is all right but not spectacular, Lil' Kim sounds like Rakim compared to her and y'all know how I don't like Lil' Kim much either, lol....

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