Cut from the same cloth as traditional rap superstars like 50 Cent and Ludacris, who combined powerful vocal deliveries with oversize personalities, DaBaby emerged as a fully formed artist, armed with cartoonish catchphrases, witty songwriting, and a reputation for wildly entertaining music videos. The rap community welcomed this long-missed hardcore approach to the music with open arms, but DMX was more than a contrarian alternative to the popular hip-hop of time. CREDENTIALS: Run-DMC. Old foes bowed to him. Instead, Untitled Unmastered, a rough collection of apparent studio leftovers, felt of a piece with the storm of jazz and American turmoil that produced Butterfly.
He rose up from his rabble-rousing grassroots, flooding the market without over-saturating it, releasing a handful of mixtapes that are now considered classics, including Writings on the Wall and Burrrprint: The Movie 3D, while his singles "Wasted" and "Lemonade" had considerable chart traction. Illmatic's anointment as a "classic" came as the mag reached maturity as an editorial product and ubiquity as a publication. But only one of them said it the slickest. His 1988 album, Long Live the Kane, included the smash single "Ain't No Half Steppin', " and that same year he killed his verse on Marley's legendary posse cut "The Symphony. " After a varied series of guest appearances, on March 23, 2017 we finally got our answer via "The Heart Part IV, " on which Kendrick addressed his doubtful, slick-talking peers, comforted his worried fans, and staked his claim as the king. The boundaries of the genre were pushed to their logical breaking point. He not only kicked first-rate rhymes but pushed an image of a rapper more akin to Kanye than 50 Cent. Drake's fall from grace was so embarrassing that it seems like, just a few weeks ago, he was still trying to gather intel on Push. Kendrick had all of that, and more. And of course, lest her lines were not enough to convince you that her value as a rapper had gone up, she had numbers for you, as she upped her "50K for a verse" on "Monster" to "$250, 000 for a verse" on the remix to YG's "My N***a. As we all know by now, though, Lil Uzi Vert is anything but an ordinary rapper.
"I drive up the Ave with my windows closed, and my bass is so loud it could rip your clothes. " At the time, Jeezy was especially invested in obtaining the single; his appeal had been grounded in distinctive ad-libs and a searing vocal style, one that seemed more concerned with blunt, overwhelming force, rather than the dexterity or diversity of previous Atlanta stars like T. More to the point, he didn't have a certified hit. But Pink Friday was not a "mixtape Nicki" album, some one-note exercise in rappity-rap that could silence those who questioned her right to exist alongside her Cash Money brethren. And the "The Story of O. J. "
Assuming Hank would look out for him somewhere down the road, Caz let him study a book of his rhymes before the recording session—indeed, you can hear Hank say "I'm the C-A-S-A-N-O-V-A and the rest is F-L-Y" in the first verse of the record. Still, when Ready to Die dropped, despite its unimpeachable quality and ability to connect far beyond Illmatic's Tri-state acclaim, it did not catapult Big, lyrically, to the front of the pack. It sold modestly at first, but in time it has become recognized as a Southern hip-hop classic. When the year began, teenagers at SoundCloud rap shows were still yelling "Fuck J. Cole" and making memes about his laundry rhymes. In the process, he's emerged as one of the savviest music industry players in an unstable environment.
His presence was like an insurance policy for any record. Also slowing things down, and daring to tread on the dark side, was Redman, who stomped ruggedly through 1994 making it abundantly clear that his blunted funk still made sense in a post-Chronic, post-36 Chambers world. HONORABLE MENTIONS: Rick Ross, Jay Z, Kanye West. One lyric sums up his thoughts on the competition: "You got a little flow, that's cool with none of y'all motherfuckers can fool with me. Double L's was the most urgent and authentic voice in hip-hop that year. HONORABLE MENTIONS: Drake, Danny Brown, 2 Chainz. He also had two top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 (including one chart-topper), five gold records, and two platinum records.
And that's without mentioning the rap beef that completely dominated the culture for a week and a half last summer and served as the centerpiece for quite possibly the biggest year of his career. But it did position him to jockey for the top spot the following year. Having said all of that, though, one cannot discount the importance of The Source on Nas' ascendancy. Call him old school if you must, but Melle Mel was still handling his business in '83. The songs gave Cam national exposure, helped score him a platinum plaque for Come Home With Me, and jump started the Dipset movement. Hard Knock Life, releasing singles "Money Cash Hoes" and "Nigga What, Nigga Who" from that album. HONORABLE MENTIONS: T. I., Pusha T, Lupe Fiasco. Despite releasing two stellar albums in 2004 and 2005, he was seen as a great producer and great songmaker but never a great MC. To most, Kendrick's third full-length was the moment in which he bucked the mainstream and decided to follow his vision to create an abrasive, yet important, piece of art that spoke viscerally about the issues he believed to be afflicting the group of people with which he most closely identified. "Do It Again (Put Ya Hands Up)" was a brash declaration, with statements that added up to: "I'm still here and I'm still better than you. "
There's a certain arrogance to the way Drizzy effortlessly bequeathed bangers to 2 Chainz, A$AP Rocky, and French Montana as if he had an endless stash of hits to give (who knows, maybe he does? His third album is on the way and songs like "Started From the Bottom" and "5 AM in Toronto" show that he can still turn it on like a light switch whenever he fancies.