shaz619
Test Star
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2010
- Runs
- 36,101
- Post of the Week
- 7
Good points [MENTION=46929]shaz619[/MENTION].. Not agreeing fully though.. Eminem is still one of the top 5 GOAT..
I too used to think about Eminem as THE GOAT back when I thought Rap was just post-2000 songs.. I just hit up on the pre 1999 (Eminem era) material only much later..
Nas's N.Y. State of Mind , PAC's California love(featuring DRE) and Biggie's Juicy give Loose yourself a good run for its money in every metric of judging a RAP song. So are great pioneering numbers by N.W.A (Straight outta Compton & "FK the Police") .. or Ice T ("You played yourself") or Wu-Tang Clan.
Missy Elliot (" Get your Freak On") surely deserves mention too..
Regarding 2PAC and Biggie, neither lived long enough for us to see any appreciable decline/change in their output to judge them as Artists.
If you look at it, they died at their Peaks or to the end of it (in Biggie's case). And their death added a level of romanticism regarding their work.. They could easily have gone eminem's or Nas's way, unable to replicate their initial success. Let's see how Eminem launches a comeback to relevance, rather than piggybacking on Rihanna to bail out his songs..
Great Rappers like Ice Cube ("It was a good day", "You can Do it") , refused to adapt their music to changing times and faded away. So have good rappers like 50 Cent (not great but had GOAT hits like "In Da Club").
Snoop Dogg and Jay Z are strange cases too .. They have a long body of work but the really memorable songs MAYBE fewer. Snoop had some great FEAT numbers with many great artists..
Rap has changed far too much in the modern times.. It had to adapt . For the level of criticism Kanye Gets, he actually does a lot of innovation in his work and to an extend has made rap still relevant in modern music. I love "heartless" and "Homecoming"..
That is a big misconception, it's like saying John Cena is better then Stone Cold because Austins prime was short or due to a lack of longevity; what Pac and Biggie achieved in a short amount of time is unprecedented and cements their legacy's and are already regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time across all genre's not just hip hop by many publications and expert peer reviews. This romanticism with their work due to their death belittles their achievements and the power of their music, it's nothing to do with nostalgia or martyrdom I on a personal level like many others thoroughly enjoy Pac's work and continue to listen to it because I love it in comparison to any other rapper and can listen to him for hours, the replay value of his records is astonishing. I don't find myself going back to another artist as much as Pac given how insightful he was or just great at making you feel good when you're a bit down.
It's also worth pointing out that during Pac's peak he shuffled outside the norm of his era and remained successful, many rappers during that time were narrative driven but they didn't cover social issues, politics, institutional discrimination, inner city hardship and motivations/positivity in times of hardships as much as him. If he was able to display such creativity/versatility in a short amount of time just imagine what he'd have been capable of had he lived longer, Ice Cube is great but he doesn't command the stage presence or aura of Tupac; also he didn't adopt but it was also due to him going to hollywood more then anything, he pretty much retired his own career; he didn't put as much effort into music, gangster rap made me do it was very well received critically it came out in 08 but times had changed.
Often they say how'd have Pac done in these times but we've seen more then enough evidence to suggest he'd be a success but how'd have the prominent names you mention survived during Pac's prime when you couldn't get away with piggybacking on Rihanna or rely on excellent beat production; you see the likes of Pac and Biggie were so skilled when it came to their art that adopting to 2000's would be an absolute walk in the park because it's just so non-sensical isn't it.
Yes, Heartless is my favourite Kanye song and Eminem is probably the best from the 2000's. I'd definitely put him in my top 5