MTV revealed their Hottest Emcee’s In The Game this month via a round table moderated by Sway. Sway and company picked ten to make the list, all of whom they said dominated Hip Hop over the past 12 months. They were careful to clarify that the list was not so much based on talent, but on buzz, and for the most part, the list is very solid. Topping MTV’s list was Jay-Z, who returned with the Blueprint 3, his 11th number one solo album. Also in the top 5 were Lil’ Wayne, Drake, and Kanye West all of whom can lay claim to the title. But, there wouldn’t be an article if MTV was completely right. MTV says that they picked the list based on an artist’s accomplishments, the relevancy of their raps, their sales, spins, and ability to create buzz. Here we take a look at MTV’s list, find the holes, then plug in the missing pieces.
Originally I was going to post MTV’s list and then evaluate all of their picks, and then provide my own picks for the top 10. Then I was gonna do like an Indie Top 10 or 2nd team, for the more underground cats, but that turned out to be a lot of writing, a lot of reading, and well, just got messy. So, this is the new deal. Below you’ll see my Major 10 and my Underground or Second Team, with some reasoning behind my picks.
Who’s In: MTV got some of it right. I can’t argue with picks such as Jay-Z, Drake, Kanye West, and Lil’ Wayne. They all deserve to be on the list, and earned such spots by producing quotable lyrics, incredible buzz, endorsement deals, and online fodder. Drake went from a Mickey Factz feature to America’s sweetheart, Kanye West dropped an “experimental” album that was actually awesome, while Lil’ Wayne told Katie Couric that he was a gangsta…and she believed him. All these guys upped their ante, and while they were at the top in previous years (except for Drake) they continued to rise and further the distance between themselves and their competitors. Lastly, I’m gonna keep Raekwon in the top 10. Again, if hot is moving a long distance in a short amount of time, the Chef definitely did just that. Raekwon brought his name back to the forefront, worked his a** off, and saw OB4CL2 hit the top of the charts, not bad at all for a wylie veteran.
Who’s Out: You can’t have the ying without the yang, and there were a couple spots where MTV should have gone with someone else. While I’m going to keep the five guys above, there are five guys that I’m going to give the axe to: Fabolous, Rick Ross, Gucci Mane, 50 Cent, Young Jeezy. Now, before you go up in arms cause I nixed one of your favorites, just hear me out. Fab, Loso, whatever you want to call him, he had a solid year but hottest emcee? For real? I feel like Fabolous has had the same standing in Hip Hop for the last decade. He’s solid, but even his album got primarily luke warm reviews. Gucci Mane is a tough one to cut off the list, hot, sure. Hot emcee? I don’t really think so. I mean, people specifically listen to Gucci Mane when they don’t want to hear lyrics. I repeat, they listen to Gucci when they don’t want to hear lyrics. Now, 50 Cent, his last album was pretty forgettable, and while he had some good mixtapes and a beef with Rick Ross, I also don’t think that people were interested in 50 for his actual music. Again, this is a case of someone really popular doing interesting things and getting attention, you could say the same for Kanye, but his actual songs were still hits. His actual output cannot be questioned. So, 50 gets the boot here. I mean if 50 gets in, you might as well add Diddy. Rick Ross, I just really don’t like Rick Ross. Jeezy, he also had a good year, but is he any hotter than last year? I don’t really think so. Plus, the article is more interesting this way.
The New Guys: Here’s the fun part, the guys that should have made the list, but didn’t. T.I., how is T.I. not on this list? Before he went to jail he was everywhere. He put out a dope album, was behind one of the biggest songs of the past year in “Swagger Like Us” had a club hit with “Live Your Life”, and outside of music, he made a real impact with kids throughout the country…We’re also going to add Kid Cudi. Just like Drake, Cudi came out of nowhere to deserve top billing. The only knock I see would be saying that Cudi isn’t an emcee, but, he raps almost as much as Drake, and his debut album was pretty dope. I’m also going to add Mos Def. Every list needs a darkhorse, and here’s mine. Mos Def turned in an outstanding album and was everywhere for a while. His tour was sold out throughout the country, and he returned to form with a vengance. Mos Def most definitely makes the list. The next new addition to the hottest emcee list is going to be Eminem. He came back and demanded attention, also picked up an award at the VMA’s. He flew out of work autoworkers to the Jimmy Kimmel show, made a music video into a Showtime short, and so on and so forth. I know people are gonna hate my last pick for hottest emcee, and I’m almost surprised myself, but I’m going to go with Jim Jones. He had a top position on the blogs, and started rapping over the youngin’s tracks before it was popular. And lastly, why not?
To recap, the top 10 is: Jay-Z, Drake, Kanye West, Lil’ Wayne, Kid Cudi, T.I., Eminem, Mos Def, Rakewon, and Jim Jones (not in particular order)
The Second Team: The big thing you’ll notice is that MTV stuck pretty much to what could be considered the mainstream emcees, and I can’t really argue with it. To be a true hot emcee you need to be a big star, big radio and video play, etc…But, there were many indie or underground emcees that burned college radio charts, put out a ton of material, and really raised their stocks. Here’s the hottest indie emcees, or if we extended the first list to 19, this would be the second team.
*Wale: Wale had a helluva year. He capped it off with being a part of the house band for the VMA’s. His twitter is followed like a motherf**ker, his tour was pretty dope and again, he seriously upped his status.
*Slaughterhouse: Slaughterhouse owned the web this summer. You couldn’t go online at all without seeing Joe Budden and co. at least once a day. Their album got solid reviews, and was one of the most anitcipated of the year.
*The Cool Kids: Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish could make a case for the first list. Everybody wants to f**k with them, and they toured heavy. They are commercially viable, and their mixtape was recieved very well. The knock is that we’re still waiting on the debut album, but you can’t front on their success over the last 12 months.
*Evidence: Evidence is a poster child for the underground, and rightfully so. His DIY attitude works, and his Layover EP wound up on many end of the year lists for Hip Hop Heads. He’ll never get the commercial appeal to garner a hottest emcee list, but, this is my list and specifically for dudes like him.
*Naledge: Naledge spent the last 12 months in Chicago, something he hasn’t done since the first Kidz In The Hall album. He dropped a solo mixtape that played like an album, was named one of the most eligible bachelors in the city, dropped new music on the regular, and became well-versed in the guest verse.
*Nipsey Hussle: Nipsey came in during the last year and answered the call for someone to take the torch from the likes of Snoop, Mack 10 and company. The West Coast representer also shows that he may have what it takes to achieve mainstream success and we’ll see when his album comes out.
*Fashawn: Let’s keep it out West with Fashawn. The kid blew us away with how good he is for his age, and picked up co-signs from heavy hitters like Alchemist and Exile, who both did projects with the Fresno emcee. His debut album is about to drop, and he’s hitting the road with Ghostface.
*Charles Hamilton: Dude definitely killed his own buzz, and is a lesson in how to go from hot to cold in the blink of an eye. But you can’t say he didn’t have the rock for a minute, he ultimately dropped it, kicked it, deflated it, threw over a fence onto a neighbor’s roof, then had it swallowed by dog…but he did have it.
*Ghostface: If Raekwon gets the first team mention, we gotta show his Wu-brother some list action. Ghostface became the Wizard of Poetry and again remained one of the most consistent emcees.