OPINION Does Every Decade Produce A Handful Of Top 5 Contenders?

[5 Grand]

When I was in high school we used to argue about who were the best MCs. I graduated in 1991. At the time there were a finite number of top 5 contenders. You had,

Melle Mel
Kool Moe Dee
Run/DMC
LL Cool J
Rakim
KRS
Kane
Chuck D
Too Short

And that was about it. Those were pretty much the only MCs in the conversation.

When the 90s decade ended you had

Pac
Big
Jay
Nas
Cube
Common
DMX
Scarface
Lauryn

And that was about it.

When the 00 decade ended you had,

50 Cent
Eminem
Mos Def
Talib Kweli
Lil Wayne
TI

Now, at the end of this decade we have,

J Cole
Drake
Kendrick
Rick Ross
Meek


My point is that when I was in high school, alot of MCs that are top 5 contenders right now hadn't released their first record yet. There were a finite number of rap albums. Now in 2019 it's impossible to count how many rap albums came out in the past year. There are probably more rap albums that came out in the past month than the entire 80s decade.


Also, a 15 year old kid isn't going to have Big Daddy Kane or Rakim in his top 5. He's more likely to have Kendrick or J Cole. But that doesn't take anything away from Kane or Rakim, they were still head and shoulders above everybody else in their era.

Your thoughts?

 

[Goldie]

I was just thinking about something similar to this topic a few days ago.


Pac, Hov, Wayne, Nas ( yea Nas @5th Letter ) were like superheros to me as a kid. These were niggas I grew up listening to and held/hold in a high regard.


Now niggas like Kendrick, Cole and Drake are staking their claim for spots in the top 5/10 discussion. I have no problem ranking em high because these are niggas in my age range, so i was able to listen to them objectively.


So i was thinking, in 10 years from now when there's a new MC in the game killing it, will I objectively be able to rank him properly being that he's a lil nigga to me in regards to age? I question if I will even want to listen to a kid rapping 10 years from now.

 

[Mooney]

Imma still be listening to Hell on Earth in ten years

 

[Mooney]

I agree that each decade had a handful of rappers who had heavy rotation and can be considered top five / ten of that era.

 

[Qawshun]

I'd say yeah but damn did that dry up from like a dozen to like a couple here and there