The 20 Best Rappers of All Time

I think you missed the live rap concerts a lot, too. I'm sure we'll have that opportunity in 2021. In the meantime, I've compiled a list of what we think are the 20 best rap artists of all time.

20. LAURYN HILL

Best song: 'Doo Wop (That Thing)' (1998)

Lauryn Hill has only one record to her credit, but what a one. With 1998's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, she broke records and cast a shadow over everything that would come after, from Beyoncé to Kendrick Lamar to Kanye West. And don't forget Hill's work at The Fugees: 'Killing Me Softly (With His Song)' and 'Ready or Not' are still alive.

19. MISSY ELLIOTT

Best song: 'Get Ur Freak On' (2001)

Missy Elliott took over from Lauryn Hill as hip hop's leading lady. She and Timbaland made iconic hip hop songs such as 'Get Ur Freak on', 'Work It', 'Lose Control', and 'The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)'. This summer, she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame as the very first female rapper. Noonah Eze put Missy Elliott first.

18. J DILLA

Best song: Slum Village - 'Players' (1997)

“If this was a list of the best hip-hop producers, then J Dilla was probably number one,” said Willem Ardui of the Antwerp hip-hop group Blackwave. J Dilla was a good rapper - see his work at Slum Village - but as a beat baker he was unparalleled. He was terminally ill, made the masterpiece Donuts on his hospital bed, and died at the age of 32.

17. MF DOOM

Best song: Madvillain - 'All Caps' (2004)

The only Briton in a list of Americans. In 1997, Daniel Dumile began wearing a mask and calling himself MF Doom, after the Marvel villain Doctor Doom. He has grown into a true cult figure thanks to his solo work and his many collaborations. MF Doom is Thom Yorke's favorite rapper: "He's not a rapper, he's a poet." Also Willem Ardui from the black wave. has been sold.

16. TYLER, THE CREATOR

Best song: 'Yonkers' (2011)

Tyler, The Creator had a troubled childhood - he never knew his father and went to 12 different schools in 12 years - but found his life purpose in music. He broke through in 2011 with 'Yonkers' and was nominated for a Grammy for his fourth album Flower Boy.

15. EMINEM

Best song: 'Stan' (2000)

Will the real Slim Shady please stand up? At the turn of the century, Eminem was the biggest rapper of the moment with monster hits like 'Lose Yourself', 'My Name Is', 'Without Me', and the wonderful 'Stan'.

14. PUBLIC ENEMY

Best song: Fight the Power (1989)

13. TUPAC SHAKUR

Best Song: 'Keep Ya Head Up' (1993)

Few rappers were as iconic as 2Pac. “I was 8 years old when I first saw you. I cannot describe how I felt. Excited, euphoric, hungry, so many different emotions at the same time. Twenty years later I can express it: I felt inspired, ”wrote Kendrick Lamar in a letter to his idol in 2016, twenty years after Tupac Shakur was shot. 'Changes' and' Keep Ya Head Up 'show 2Pac as the messiah,' California Love 'is his party song, and 'Hit 'Em Up' his legendary diss track.

12. RUN DMC

Best song: 'MC's Sucker' (1983)

No one can be surprised that Run-DMC made it to this top. The New York trio proved that The Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight' was no fluke, and around 1985 delivered world hits such as 'Walk This Way', 'It's Tricky' and 'It's Like That'. Run-DMC was therefore the first hip-hop act to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

11. Gang Starr

Best Song: 'Mass Appeal' (1994)

DJ Premier and rapper Guru were a golden duo like Gang Starr. They didn't seem to be able to do anything wrong in the 90s and ended the decade with a superb collector called Full Clip: A Decade of Gang Starr. Guru, short for Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal, died in 2010. On November 1, a posthumous Gang Starr record that DJ Premier has put together with an urn from Guru will be released in the studio.

10. Q-TIP (A TRIBE CALLED QUEST)

Best song: 'Award Tour' (1993)

While A Tribe Called Quest has become a beacon for alternative rappers, most of the judges put forward one rapper from the collective: Q-Tip. Eppo Janssen placed him on 3, Kurt Overbergh even on 1.

9. WU-TANG CLAN

Best song: 'CREAM' (1994)

The Wu-Tang Clan line-up reads like the cast of The Avengers: RZA, GZA, Method Man, Ol 'Dirty Bastard, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah. All superheroes of hip-hop, but in the 90s they were one collective. Their debut Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is an unadulterated classic.

8. ANDRÉ 3000 (OUTKAST)

Best Song: 'Ms. Jackson '(2000)

In the nineties, there were only two camps: the East Coast, centered around New York, and the West Coast with Los Angeles as the core city. It was André 3000 and Big Boi, two young rappers from southern Atlanta, who opened the door to outsiders. The duo won the hearts of hip-hop fans with the classic records ATLiens and Aquemini and then conquered the world with hits such as' Hey Ya! ',' Roses', 'BOB', and 'Ms. Jackson '.

7. JAY-Z

Best song: '99 Problems' (2004)

Jay-Z has 22 Grammys and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame by Barack Obama as the first rapper. Shawn Corey Carter debuted as Jay-Z in 1996 and literally left an impression on the next generation: Lil Wayne had a stanza of Jay-Z tattooed on his leg. TheColorGrey has put Jay-Z at number one in his personal top 10.

6. BEASTIE BOYS

Best song: 'Shake Your Rump' (1989)

“They have given hip-hop its soul”, an excited DJ 4T4 begins. “That friendship! That accessibility! That boundless energy! That genius! ” Beastie Boys were a punk band until they met producer, Rick Rubin. About their 1986 debut Licensed To Ill, Rolling Stone wrote, "Three idiots make a masterpiece." The record was sold over 9 million times.

5. NWA

Best song: 'Fuk Da Police' (1988)

NWA - Niggaz Wit Attitudes - has made its mark on hip hop twice. The group turned gangsta rap into a genre with their inflammatory debut album Straight Outta Compton and with his beats producer Dr. Dre determined the G-funk sound of the West Coast.

4. KANYE WEST

Best song: 'Runaway' (2010)

Special: Kanye West received a lot of votes in favor, but as the only rapper on the list also a few against. DJ 4T4, for example, called him "a bad rapper, a crappy singer and a silly person". Kanye has been controversial since the very beginning: his breakthrough single 'Jesus Walks' from 2004 was not a tough track about sex and violence, but a spiritual song about his relationship with Jesus.

3. NAS

Best Song: Life's a Bitch (1994)

The early 90s were the golden times for hip hop. Three unparalleled classics were released in less than twelve months: Enter the Wu-Tang by Wu-Tang Clan, Ready to Die by The Notorious BIG, and Illmatic by Nas. Music authority Pitchfork compares Illmatic to Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited: a record that set the benchmark for all rappers who would follow.

2. KENDRICK LAMAR

Best song: 'King Kunta' (2015)

Kendrick Lamar is one of the youngest artists on the list at 32, but the multiple Grammy winner and Pulitzer laureate is a favorite with young and old.

1. THE NOTORIOUS BIG

Best song: 'Juicy' (1994)

The Notorious BIG, also known as Biggie Smalls or The King of New York, had only one record out when, six months after Tupac, he was shot dead in a drive-by shooting in 1997. Two weeks after his death, his second album Life was released. After Death - the title had been fixed for months. BIG didn't need more to claim the hip-hop crown. Rolling Stone named him the greatest rapper of all time and our jury panel agreed wholeheartedly.