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Should you refresh your Top 5 Rappers list often?

I know Top 3 (not 1 or 2) will always be on my list and should be on everybody else's
 
Music doesn't change as much and rap aint as innovative anymore to be changing top 5s often.

If anything, switch up who you're listening to. But everyone's top 5s are what they are for a reason.
 
Melle Mel should be in everybody's top 5. Even if you don't remember (or if you weren't alive) when he was at his peak, you gotta understand how important he is to Hip Hop in the grand scheme of things.


According to those who were there, in the Bronx in the mid/late 70s, MCs would just talk trash over a beat, like the way mixtape DJs would talk over a song without actually rapping. There's a handful old school MCs (Kool Moe Dee, Lil Rodney C from Funky 4+1, Busy B to name a few) that say Melle Mel was the first person they ever saw say an actual rhyme over a beat. Not poetry, or talking trash, or using reverb, but an actual 16 bar rhyme with wordplay and punchlines.

Of course Melle Mel would go on to record with Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5. We're all familiar with The Message and White Lines. And if you've seen Beat Street he appears at the grand finale and that last verse on Beat Street still sends chills down my spine.

When it's all said and done, Melle Mel doesn't really have any classic albums because during his reign (77-84) Hip Hop was really a singles game. A hot rapper/rap group would drop a 12" single, and then 6 months later drop another single. Sometimes there was a song on both sides.

So Melle Mel has been in my top 5 since when rap first started and I doubt he'll ever get replaced because for all intents and purposes, he's the first rapper.


Here's some Melle Mel songs you should check out

1. Superrapin - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
2. Freedom - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
3. It's Nasty - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
4. The Message - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
5. Step Off - Melle Mel, Scorpio & Rahiem
6. The Truth - Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious 5
7. White Lines - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
8. Jesse - Grandmaster Melle Mel
9. The Mayor - Grandmaster Melle Mel
10. Hustler's Convention - Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious 5
11. Survival - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
12. New York, New York - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
13. The Beach - Melle Mel, Ice T, Bronx Style Bob, Afrika Islam
14. Cars - Melle Mel, Ice T, Bronx Style Bob, Afrika Islam
15. Susie (Live version) - Emanon feat Melle Mel
16. Gold - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
17. Fly Girl - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
18. The King - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5.
19. Live Convention Freestyle 1981 - Melle Mel & Grandmaster Flash
20. I Feel For You - Chaka Khan feat Melle Mel
21. Back On The Block - Quincy Jones


Those songs all came out between 1979-1989. Of course they sound dated, but they all bang imo. If you listen to what Melle Mel was rapping about back then, and how he was rapping, you can't compare him to anybody else that was out during his era. That's why Melle Mel is in my top 5 and he's not going to be replaced. No matter how much success Jay and Nas have, or Lil Wayne, or Common, or Black Thought, or Conway, there's something about the fact that Melle Mel pretty much laid down the blueprint for what Hip Hop is and what it later became.








 
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My top 3 been the same for atleast 15 years

Top 5 can change. Its between AZ, Cormega,Havoc, Raekwon, Kool G, Styles P, Ghostface,Scarface
 
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5 Grand said:
Melle Mel should be in everybody's top 5. Even if you don't remember (or if you weren't alive) when he was at his peak, you gotta understand how important he is to Hip Hop in the grand scheme of things.


According to those who were there, in the Bronx in the mid/late 70s, MCs would just talk trash over a beat, like the way mixtape DJs with talk over a song without actually rapping. There's a handful old school MCs (Kool Moe Dee, Lil Rodney C from Funky 4+1, Busy B to name a few) that say Melle Mel was the first person they ever saw say an actual rhyme over a beat. Not poetry, or talking trash, or using reverb, but an actual 16 bar rhyme with wordplay and punchlines.

Of course Melle Mel would go on to record with Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5. We're all familiar with The Message and White Lines. And if you've seen Beat Street he appears at the grand finale and that last verse on Beat Street still sends chills down my spine.

When it's all said and done, Melle Mel doesn't really have any classic albums because during his reign (77-84) Hip Hop was really a singles game. A hot rapper/rap group would drop a 12" single, and then 6 months later drop another single. Sometimes there was a song on both sides.

So Melle Mel has been in my top 5 since when rap first started and I doubt he'll ever get replaced because for all intents and purposes, he's the first rapper.


Here's some Melle Mel songs you should check out

1. Superrapin - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
2. Freedom - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
3. It's Nasty - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
4. The Message - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
5. Step Off - Melle Mel, Scorpio & Rahiem
6. The Truth - Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious 5
7. White Lines - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
8. Jesse - Grandmaster Melle Mel
9. The Mayor - Grandmaster Melle Mel
10. The Message - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
11. Survival - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
12. New York, New York - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
13. The Beach - Melle Mel, Ice T, Bronx Style Bob, Afrika Islam
14. Cars - Melle Mel, Ice T, Bronx Style Bob, Afrika Islam
15. Susie (Live version) - Emanon feat Melle Mel
16. Gold - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
17. Fly Girl - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
18. The King - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5.
19. Live Convention Freestyle 1981 - Melle Mel & Grandmaster Flash
20. I Feel For You - Chaka Khan feat Melle Mel
21. Back On The Block - Quincy Jones


Those songs all came out between 1979-1989. Of course they sound dated, but they all bang imo. If you listen to what Melle Mel was rapping about back then, and how he was rapping, you can't compare him to anybody else that was out during his era. That's why Melle Mel is in my top 5 and he's not going to be replaced. No matter how much success Jay and Nas have, or Lil Wayne, or Common, or Black Thought, or Conway, there's something about the fact that Melle Mel pretty much laid down the blueprint for what Hip Hop is and what it later became.





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5 Grand said:
Melle Mel should be in everybody's top 5. Even if you don't remember (or if you weren't alive) when he was at his peak, you gotta understand how important he is to Hip Hop in the grand scheme of things.


According to those who were there, in the Bronx in the mid/late 70s, MCs would just talk trash over a beat, like the way mixtape DJs with talk over a song without actually rapping. There's a handful old school MCs (Kool Moe Dee, Lil Rodney C from Funky 4+1, Busy B to name a few) that say Melle Mel was the first person they ever saw say an actual rhyme over a beat. Not poetry, or talking trash, or using reverb, but an actual 16 bar rhyme with wordplay and punchlines.

Of course Melle Mel would go on to record with Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5. We're all familiar with The Message and White Lines. And if you've seen Beat Street he appears at the grand finale and that last verse on Beat Street still sends chills down my spine.

When it's all said and done, Melle Mel doesn't really have any classic albums because during his reign (77-84) Hip Hop was really a singles game. A hot rapper/rap group would drop a 12" single, and then 6 months later drop another single. Sometimes there was a song on both sides.

So Melle Mel has been in my top 5 since when rap first started and I doubt he'll ever get replaced because for all intents and purposes, he's the first rapper.


Here's some Melle Mel songs you should check out

1. Superrapin - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
2. Freedom - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
3. It's Nasty - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
4. The Message - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
5. Step Off - Melle Mel, Scorpio & Rahiem
6. The Truth - Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious 5
7. White Lines - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
8. Jesse - Grandmaster Melle Mel
9. The Mayor - Grandmaster Melle Mel
10. The Message - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
11. Survival - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
12. New York, New York - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
13. The Beach - Melle Mel, Ice T, Bronx Style Bob, Afrika Islam
14. Cars - Melle Mel, Ice T, Bronx Style Bob, Afrika Islam
15. Susie (Live version) - Emanon feat Melle Mel
16. Gold - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
17. Fly Girl - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
18. The King - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5.
19. Live Convention Freestyle 1981 - Melle Mel & Grandmaster Flash
20. I Feel For You - Chaka Khan feat Melle Mel
21. Back On The Block - Quincy Jones


Those songs all came out between 1979-1989. Of course they sound dated, but they all bang imo. If you listen to what Melle Mel was rapping about back then, and how he was rapping, you can't compare him to anybody else that was out during his era. That's why Melle Mel is in my top 5 and he's not going to be replaced. No matter how much success Jay and Nas have, or Lil Wayne, or Common, or Black Thought, or Conway, there's something about the fact that Melle Mel pretty much laid down the blueprint for what Hip Hop is and what it later became.





Click to expand...

I respect this
 
5 Grand said:
Melle Mel should be in everybody's top 5. Even if you don't remember (or if you weren't alive) when he was at his peak, you gotta understand how important he is to Hip Hop in the grand scheme of things.


According to those who were there, in the Bronx in the mid/late 70s, MCs would just talk trash over a beat, like the way mixtape DJs would talk over a song without actually rapping. There's a handful old school MCs (Kool Moe Dee, Lil Rodney C from Funky 4+1, Busy B to name a few) that say Melle Mel was the first person they ever saw say an actual rhyme over a beat. Not poetry, or talking trash, or using reverb, but an actual 16 bar rhyme with wordplay and punchlines.

Of course Melle Mel would go on to record with Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5. We're all familiar with The Message and White Lines. And if you've seen Beat Street he appears at the grand finale and that last verse on Beat Street still sends chills down my spine.

When it's all said and done, Melle Mel doesn't really have any classic albums because during his reign (77-84) Hip Hop was really a singles game. A hot rapper/rap group would drop a 12" single, and then 6 months later drop another single. Sometimes there was a song on both sides.

So Melle Mel has been in my top 5 since when rap first started and I doubt he'll ever get replaced because for all intents and purposes, he's the first rapper.


Here's some Melle Mel songs you should check out

1. Superrapin - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
2. Freedom - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
3. It's Nasty - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
4. The Message - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
5. Step Off - Melle Mel, Scorpio & Rahiem
6. The Truth - Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious 5
7. White Lines - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
8. Jesse - Grandmaster Melle Mel
9. The Mayor - Grandmaster Melle Mel
10. Hustler's Convention - Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious 5
11. Survival - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
12. New York, New York - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
13. The Beach - Melle Mel, Ice T, Bronx Style Bob, Afrika Islam
14. Cars - Melle Mel, Ice T, Bronx Style Bob, Afrika Islam
15. Susie (Live version) - Emanon feat Melle Mel
16. Gold - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
17. Fly Girl - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
18. The King - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5.
19. Live Convention Freestyle 1981 - Melle Mel & Grandmaster Flash
20. I Feel For You - Chaka Khan feat Melle Mel
21. Back On The Block - Quincy Jones


Those songs all came out between 1979-1989. Of course they sound dated, but they all bang imo. If you listen to what Melle Mel was rapping about back then, and how he was rapping, you can't compare him to anybody else that was out during his era. That's why Melle Mel is in my top 5 and he's not going to be replaced. No matter how much success Jay and Nas have, or Lil Wayne, or Common, or Black Thought, or Conway, there's something about the fact that Melle Mel pretty much laid down the blueprint for what Hip Hop is and what it later became.








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Having said all that, my top 5 is probably

1. Melle Mel
2. Biggie
3. Nas
4. Jay
5. Pac

When I was in high school LL Cool J, Rakim and KRS were the top 3 MCs. And I guess Ice Cube.

But for as great as Rakim and KRS were, they didn't have much success in popular culture. I mean, if you were into Hip Hop they were The GOATs, but if you weren't into Hip Hop you might not know who Rakim and KRS were. But everybody knew about LL Cool J and everybody knew about Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5. And Run DMC. MC Hammer was big when I was in high school but in hindsight he couldn't rap and only had one album worth mentioning.


Most people's taste is developed from the time you start to notice music (5 or 6 years old) until your teens and early 20s. Music that was popular when you were a teenager resonates more than when you were a child, or as you grow up into adulthood. The reason I say this is because the mode age of CD sales when CDs were selling was 17 years old. So when I was 17 (1990/91) my favorite MCs were LL, Rakim, KRS, and a few other people. Now that I'm in my late 40s, I still listen to new stuff occasionally (i.e. Griselda freestyles on Youtube) but I must concede that Hip Hop probably reached it's peak in the mid 90s before the internet and before you could make records at home on a computer. Nowadays anybody can make a song at home and upload it to Youtube or Soundcloud which is why there's so much garbage out there. Back in the 80s and 90s you had to go to a real studio and hire an engineer to record and mix the song. So making a record wasn't something you could do on the fly. You really had to take it serious.

To answer the question of the thread topic; Should you refresh your Top 5 rappers list often? As you get older (into your 40s) The years seem to run together and since there's so much out there, alot of it comes and goes. Like I remember when No Limit was really big and they released all of those albums circa 1997/98. Then they fell off the map a few years later. The older you get you see rappers come and go. Some rappers have 2 or 3 good albums and they're done. Some rappers only have 1 good song and you never hear from them again (remember This Is Why I'm Hot by Mims?)

Anyway, I can remember somebody asking me to name my top 5 in high school and it was

Melle Mel
KRS
Rakim
LL Cool J
Brother J from X Clan

But X Clan only had two albums so Brother J fell off my list

KRS and Rakim were elite lyricist when I was in high school, but as time went on they didn't make much of an impression on pop culture. Not like 2Pac and Biggie anyway.


Anyway, to sum it up. In the 80s there were ill MCs, but they didn't have a big impact on popular culture like they did in the 90s and beyond.

Its hard to say KRS is better than Jay Z, even if you like him better personally, you can't deny that Jay Z is a good rapper and he made a way bigger impact on popular culture than KRS.

However, you can't really say that Jay Z (or 2Pac and Biggie for that matter) made a bigger impact on popular culture than Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5. So that's why Melle Mel stays in my top 5 and the other 4 MCs can change.
 
I have no problem adding newer artist to my top list. Kendrick has the credentials, flow, material and numbers. I do think it will be harder, going forward, to find generational talent to put on the list.
 
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