Is 2Pac the best rapper ever?

[Triton4]

I don't listen to rap much, but some of his songs are real quality and have a soul to them (see: Hit 'em up), unlike all the garbage that is thrusted upon us, on the radio.

[Mr Jones]

Nah, Kool Keith from the Ultramagnetics is about as good as it gets..

[Warrior of the Light]

the best what?

[insert well-known rap-related bash.org quote here]

[swingdjted]

What criteria should I consider when making this decision?

[Razzinno]

I don't generally care much for rap, and yet I can think of at least a dozen rap songs, from old-school through today, that I like better than anything 2Pac did.

It does seem though, that Snoop Dogg has the scene pretty much monopolized. I never liked him much though. I could have done without watching him smoke his stogies on the GGW videos.

[deeder7001]

2Pac is not the best rapper ever. See my sig for the best rapper ever.

[will]

dude deeder i know you love jesus and all that, but i don't think he was much of a rapper.

/oooh the OTHER thing in your sig...

[deeder7001]

I don't think Jesus was much of a rapper either.

[LeadFoot]

Isn't that a bit like "The best case of Dysentery ever"?
(The best crapper ever!)

I can't stand rap, but fortunately, I only hear it at the gas station, where the kids with the 70's impala with the 20" wheels has it loud enough to make my ears bleed. On second thought, that isn't so fortunate, is it?

[skryingbreath]

Everything Tupac says is cool, therefore he is the best at everything including arts and crafts and the guitar.

[ElChevelle]

Even Tupac knew where to put a music-based thread even though he didn't know to wear a bulletproof vest.

[NJK]

any dead rapper is a good rapper since they don't make that shitty "music" anymore

[dlichterman]

What about wierd al?

[swingdjted]

been spendin most our lives livin in the Amish paradise...

[NJK]

we're going to party like it's 1599

[bizzle]

I don't this is the best place to discuss the best rapper since it doesn't seem like most of these people like rap.

Also Triton4, I don't think you have the right to say who the best rapper is since you admit to not being a rap fan.

Imagine I said I wasn't a rock fan but I thought Ashlee Simpson was the best rocker.

Please calm down... I'm not trying to equate Ashlee Simpson with Tupac, and I'm not trying to say that Ashlee Simpson is rock.

I'm trying to make a point: people who know $hit about rap (or whatever musical affiliation you've sided with) shouldn't talk about who they think is the best since they can't properly judge a style of music they don't like.

Peace

[swingdjted]

@ bizzle

I honestly think it is possible to make an opinion about anything, because it's just that - an opinion, to be accepted or ignored by the reader.

Plus, there are things I do not like, yet I can usually give an at least decent assessment of, based on certain criteria.

For example, you could evaluate a rapper based on:

originality/creativity
lyrics/words topics
accompaniment/background beats
record sales
video performance
appearance
stage presance/concert performance

I think with these things in mind, someone who hates rap could still distinguish between what might be 'best' and what is not, while maintaining some degree of credibility.

[Mattress]

you are thinking way too much about this, ted.

And Tupac was good, but the Sugar Hill Gang is obviously the best.

[swingdjted]

Yeah, I over-ANALyze just about everything.

However, most people will go through that process subconsciously without even knowing it when making judgments.

[bizzle]

@ swingdjted... can I just call you ted?

Your right about every being allowed to have an option. But "best" is not an option, "my favourite" is.

I know it may seem petty to be arguing about symantics but I think it's important.

Someone who doesn't know anything about a genre or dislikes it can say they have a favourite. However someone who makes a bold statement about who is the best must have at the very least solid knowledge of the genre during the scope for which they make that statement.

i.e. If I say "KRS-One is the best rapper of all time", I should have a knowledge of all rappers (or at least the major ones) because that statement says I know all of rap. I won't say that because I don't know all of hip hop.

If I say "T.I. is the best rapper today", then I need to know the hip hop put out today.

Also your criteria requires you to know the style. For example how can you judge originality if you can't determine how it's different from everything else?

I don't know you well enough to know if you over-ANALyse everything but for music... if you can't feel it, why anaylse it?

Peace

[swingdjted]

Music is as intellectual as it is emotional.

While many people place one of those two things above the other, it is still true.

As far as semantics are concerned, 'better' would be correct for comparing two, while 'best' compares one against all. Therefore one would need to have a familiarity with all rappers before choosing ‘best’.

While it is true that someone more experienced in rap-listening would have an opinion that carries more weight, even the most avid rap fans wouldn’t know all rappers, so perhaps ‘favorite’ would have to be used for everyone.

Personally (here comes my opinion) I’m not so sure about Tupac. He has messages in some songs that completely contradict messages in other songs. Perhaps it was showing growth and/or maturity over time, glorifying ‘thug life’ and then speaking out against it, I don’t know… He also seems to have too much evidence suggesting he didn’t die when the media told us that he did. It makes me question whether or not it were a marketing scheme. He also often ripped/plagiarized other people’s music by taking direct loops from old songs and rapping over them. I realize this happens all over the industry, but I tend to follow musicians that start from scratch.

That said, he was catchy as a hip-hop artist (California Love, etc.), and interesting as a rapper (Dear Mama, etc.) and some of his lyrics had a “tell a story” feel to them, which can be a plus. He also had a style of his own that a lot of people tried to copy.

I sometimes get rather annoyed when a lot of rappers repeatedly use the stereotypical list of bling bling possessions, bitches & hoes waiting to fuck them, and saying you have to be a criminal to be successful in life… Those things are fine for entertainment purposes once in a while, but to me, that gets rather boring after hearing too many songs with the same basic content. Tupac was better at avoiding this monotony than a lot of rappers, but others were better.

[EDIT] yes, ted is fine, as is theo, theodore, teddy, swingdj, djted, or 'the guy that can't decide on an avatar' [/EDIT]

[bizzle]

Well put ted. But I'm not sure I agree with the ripped/plagiarized thing. Hip-hop is not a medium that is created from scratch... it's created from scratches of old records.

It's not done to rip anyone off. It's done to pay tribute to the stuff they grew up listening to or are listening to today.

This happens in the lyrics too. An MC will quote another rapper because he wants to pay tribute.

It's not meant to be a negative thing but with intelectual property laws it is.

Peace

[Bilbo Baggins]

The best wrapper are the ones that are easy to undo.

[swingdjted]

Originally posted by Bilbo Baggins
The best wrapper are the ones that are easy to undo.

I can certainly agree with that. I once had a wrapper for soup crackers that was so hard to undo that when it finally came open, my arm flung out and hit the soup so hard that it soaked, if not scalded the people at the next table.

You probably meant some other kind of wrapper though...

[Psichmich]

nah, he is weak.
far from been the best.
people just thinks that he great because all the storys around this "man".