Top 5 Rappers by Region: East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, and the Dirty South

[RP-29]

MY top 5 rap acts in each region. [I expect no one to agree with it.]

East Coast:
1. Wu-Tang Clan
2. Mobb Deep
3. A Tribe Called Quest
4. Busta Rhymes
5. Jay-Z

West Coast:
1. Too $hort
2. Ice Cube
3. Dr. Dre
4. Snoop Dogg
5. 2Pac

Midwest:
1. Twista
2. Eminem
3. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
4. Do or Die
5. D-12

South:
1. Outkast
2. Nappy Roots
3. The Geto Boys
4. Ludacris
5. 2 Live Crew

 

[RP-29]

It Was Written is arguably the greatest hip-hop album ever released. It's my personal favorite. Illmatic would be in my top 10 hip-hop albums; but nothing will surpass Nas' mafioso raps over Trackmasters, Premier, and Dre beats.

It Was Written is also my favorite Nas album. Liked it a lot better than the universally acclaimed Illmatic. Neither album would hit my top ten favorite east coast rap albums, though.

 

[Omar 382]

MY top 5 rap acts in each region. [I expect no one to agree with it.]

East Coast:
1. Wu-Tang Clan
2. Mobb Deep
3. A Tribe Called Quest
4. Busta Rhymes
5. Jay-Z

West Coast:
1. Too $hort
2. Ice Cube
3. Dr. Dre
4. Snoop Dogg
5. 2Pac

Midwest:
1. Twista
2. Eminem
3. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
4. Do or Die
5. D-12

South:
1. Outkast
2. Nappy Roots
3. The Geto Boys
4. Ludacris
5. 2 Live Crew

Wow. Very interesting list. I had no clue you were a hip-hop guy. I see you're a big fan of hip-hop groups

I think the biggest one people will disagree with is your west coast list. I like Too Short, mind you, but putting him at 1 seems very high to me. And, if we're talking about their work as an MC, Dr. Dre probably hasn't written 5 verses by himself in his career. Of course, I assume you're referring to his overall contribution to hip-hop with his production. I'd be fine with putting him at 3 if that's the criteria; hell, he might be 1 (only half-joking).

 

[RP-29]

Wow. Very interesting list. I had no clue you were a hip-hop guy. I see you're a big fan of hip-hop groups

I think the biggest one people will disagree with is your west coast list. I like Too Short, mind you, but putting him at 1 seems very high to me. And, if we're talking about their work as an MC, Dr. Dre probably hasn't written 5 verses by himself in his career. Of course, I assume you're referring to his overall contribution to hip-hop with his production. I'd be fine with putting him at 3 if that's the criteria; hell, he might be 1 (only half-joking).

My list is based on how they impacted me.

Too $hort's Get In Where You Fit In was the first CD I ever bought when I bought my first Sony Discman with my paper route money. [I had cassette tapes and a Walkman before that.] I played the hell out of that album. Then I played the hell out of Cocktails when that dropped after. Been hooked on $hort ever since.

The thing about west coast rap is it was very ghetto/violence-centric back then. A white kid from a mid-sized upper Midwestern city relates a lot better to sex than he does ghetto struggles. $hort Dog's sex-centric lyrics and easy rhyme flow over funky jazzy beats hit my sweet spot.

 

[Edonidd]

My list is based on how they impacted me.

Too $hort's Get In Where You Fit In was the first CD I ever bought when I bought my first Sony Discman with my paper route money. [I had cassette tapes and a Walkman before that.] I played the hell out of that album. Then I played the hell out of Cocktails when that dropped after. Been hooked on $hort ever since.

The thing about west coast rap is it was very ghetto/violence-centric back then. A white kid from a mid-sized upper Midwestern city relates a lot better to sex than he does ghetto struggles. $hort Dog's sex-centric lyrics and easy rhyme flow over funky jazzy beats hit my sweet spot.

Blowjob Betty was my first "it" song where i just wanted to hear it ver and over all day every day. I think we're nearly the same age and coming from similar backgrounds. Expkains why i agree with a lot of your rankings. But theyre still not perfect.

 

[DragonfromTO]

Wow. Very interesting list. I had no clue you were a hip-hop guy. I see you're a big fan of hip-hop groups

I think the biggest one people will disagree with is your west coast list. I like Too Short, mind you, but putting him at 1 seems very high to me. And, if we're talking about their work as an MC, Dr. Dre probably hasn't written 5 verses by himself in his career. Of course, I assume you're referring to his overall contribution to hip-hop with his production. I'd be fine with putting him at 3 if that's the criteria; hell, he might be 1 (only half-joking).

I like the guy but I actually doubt that number is even greater than zero.

 

[Omar 382]

I like the guy but I actually doubt that number is even greater than zero.

Speaking of Dr. Dre, I was on Genius and saw a video about his protege. Check out the comment on the bottom about Get Rich. LOL, I remember when 50 Cent was still a candy-ass pop star sellout. Mind you, I'm not the hugest 50 guy outside of Get Rich- which is one of my favorite albums of all time- but someone trying to do the whole old man routine with GRODT made me laugh. I can't wait for 15 years from now, when Genius posts an article about Young Thug, and people are calling him the GOAT and deriding the "kids" for not knowing about him.

How 50 Cent’s ‘Get Rich Or Die Tryin’’ Changed Hip-Hop | Genius

 

[Cyder]

@Bloody Brian Burke
@Lions=TeHsUcKs
@StanMarsh51
@broncosmitty
@Brasky
@Edonidd
@SJ76
@Cyder
@CatsTopPac
@DetroitDevil

(if any of you want to be taken off this list, just let me know. I just use it because you guys are the only people I know of on t'Hoop that give a shit about hip-hop).

Pretty simple thread. Give your overall top 5 rappers from the different main regions of America. Here's my list:

East Coast:
1. Nas
2. The Notorious B.I.G.
3. Prodigy
4. AZ
5. Big L

West Coast:
1. The Game
2. Schoolboy Q
3. Kendrick Lamar
4. Snoop Dogg
5. Ice Cube

Midwest:
1. Eminem
2. Lupe Fiasco
3. Kid Cudi
4. Tech N9ne
5. Kanye West

South:
1. T.I.
2. Jeezy
3. Andre 3000
4. Lil Wayne
5. Ludacris

I'm going to have to bow out of this one Omar. I haven't really listened to hip hop much since the Snoop N Dre, NWA, Ice Cube (Solo) and Cypress Hills days. But as far as west coast I'll always be an Ice Cube guy and I'm surprised you didn't throw Tupac in that one.

 

[RP-29]

I had no clue you were a hip-hop guy.

One other note, Omar... I hate pop, punk, country and doo-wop oldies. I strongly dislike most mainstream and 80s hair-band rock. I'm indifferent to most classic rock, grunge and alternative.

For some reason, I've always been attracted to hardcore music that is shunned by mainstream society. ...anti-pop. I listened pretty much exclusively to rap from the early '90s through the early '00s because rap was anti-pop and spoke to my societal rebelliousness.

Then in the '00s rap began morphing into pop - mainstream society began accepting it... and the more mainstream society embraced it, the less I liked it. Through the '00s I gradually migrated from rap to metal as I found acts like System of a Down, Korn, Slipknot, Disturbed and Deftones much more appealing to me. Pretty much any rap act that has come out in the past decade I haven't paid any attention to and the only new rap I've listened to are new songs from old artists I like and even most of that is meh to me now.

I'm open to listening to new hip-hop, but it's gotta have some fuck-society tone to it over some jazzy funky-ass beats. ...Some Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.​

 

[CatsTopPac]

@Bloody Brian Burke
@Lions=TeHsUcKs
@StanMarsh51
@broncosmitty
@Brasky
@Edonidd
@SJ76
@Cyder
@CatsTopPac
@DetroitDevil

(if any of you want to be taken off this list, just let me know. I just use it because you guys are the only people I know of on t'Hoop that give a shit about hip-hop).

Pretty simple thread. Give your overall top 5 rappers from the different main regions of America. Here's my list:

East Coast:
1. Nas
2. The Notorious B.I.G.
3. Prodigy
4. AZ
5. Big L

West Coast:
1. The Game
2. Schoolboy Q
3. Kendrick Lamar
4. Snoop Dogg
5. Ice Cube

Midwest:
1. Eminem
2. Lupe Fiasco
3. Kid Cudi
4. Tech N9ne
5. Kanye West

South:
1. T.I.
2. Jeezy
3. Andre 3000
4. Lil Wayne
5. Ludacris

Thanks for looping me in on this, I'm not on tHoop much anymore, but I'll certainly put my rankings down. I'll put who I think are the best lyricists, but I also have to do it by acts.

East:

1 Black Thought/ Roots
2 Wu Tang
3 Black Star
4 Nas
5 Tribe


Honorable mentions in no particular order are Big L, Big Pun, KRS-One, Busta, Biggie, Mobb Deep, and Gangstarr, Fugees

Midwest:

1 Eminem
2 Bone
3 Do or Die
4 Lupe
5 Common

Honorable mentions in no particular order are Twista, Pre-Kardashian Kanye, Tech N9ne

South:

1 Outkast
2 TI
3 Scarface
4 Geto Boys

And I really can't put much more than that. Not to hate, but it just didn't reach me.

West:

1 Tupac
2 Westside Connection
3 Dogg Pound
4 Hopsin
5 The Game

Honorable Mentions in no particular order are Dre, Snoop, Kendrick Lamar, Xzibit

I know that muddies the waters a bit because some lyricists in groups are better than others, and I put some guys in groups and not in others (e.g., Westside Connection but not NWA, etc.), but that's how I had to put them together. Also, clearly I'm heavy on the east coast and light on the south. The east is hard for me because some burned hot and died, awhile others carried maybe not as quite hot but for a long time. The south, I just couldn't hear the same level of lyricism that I did from the east, or other regions (west, and then midwest). I don't know but that's just the way it hit me.

 

[Omar 382]

Thanks for looping me in on this, I'm not on tHoop much anymore, but I'll certainly put my rankings down. I'll put who I think are the best lyricists, but I also have to do it by acts.

East:

1 Black Thought/ Roots
2 Wu Tang
3 Black Star
4 Nas
5 Tribe


Honorable mentions in no particular order are Big L, Big Pun, KRS-One, Busta, Biggie, Mobb Deep, and Gangstarr, Fugees

Midwest:

1 Eminem
2 Bone
3 Do or Die
4 Lupe
5 Common

Honorable mentions in no particular order are Twista, Pre-Kardashian Kanye, Tech N9ne

South:

1 Outkast
2 TI
3 Scarface
4 Geto Boys

And I really can't put much more than that. Not to hate, but it just didn't reach me.

West:

1 Tupac
2 Westside Connection
3 Dogg Pound
4 Hopsin
5 The Game

Honorable Mentions in no particular order are Dre, Snoop, Kendrick Lamar, Xzibit

I know that muddies the waters a bit because some lyricists in groups are better than others, and I put some guys in groups and not in others (e.g., Westside Connection but not NWA, etc.), but that's how I had to put them together. Also, clearly I'm heavy on the east coast and light on the south. The east is hard for me because some burned hot and died, awhile others carried maybe not as quite hot but for a long time. The south, I just couldn't hear the same level of lyricism that I did from the east, or other regions (west, and then midwest). I don't know but that's just the way it hit me.

Sorry I didn't get back sooner. You put a lot of thought into your lists, and they're all good. I agree with almost all of it, and our lists are actually pretty similar- though I didn't put as much emphasis on groups as you did. Also, I'm not a Common guy at all. I probably like his acting more than his music, lol.

I just recently got into The Roots. I played this song constantly in the days before the NFCCG against the Vikings, and all before the Super Bowl. It's fucking awesome and got me so hype before the games. Check out Black Thought's wordplay around "shot" to begin his verse

Good luck wherever you are, and wherever life takes you man.

 

[CatsTopPac]

Sorry I didn't get back sooner. You put a lot of thought into your lists, and they're all good. I agree with almost all of it, and our lists are actually pretty similar- though I didn't put as much emphasis on groups as you did. Also, I'm not a Common guy at all. I probably like his acting more than his music, lol.

I just recently got into The Roots. I played this song constantly in the days before the NFCCG against the Vikings, and all before the Super Bowl. It's fucking awesome and got me so hype before the games. Check out Black Thought's wordplay around "shot" to begin his verse

Good luck wherever you are, and wherever life takes you man.

Thanks man, no doubt. Same to you for sure. Soak up The Roots too, Black Thought is just in a category of his own. I didn't grow up hearing them as much as some others and still had them around the top five. I'm not a fan of the overwhelming majority of hip hop that came out in the last decade, so I've been going back to see what I've missed and have been back on The Roots for the last couple/few years. And after he did that freestyle on Hot 97, there just wasn't any doubt that he's the best lyricist ever. Hahaha, I paused listening to the Things Fall Apart to listen to that track you posted. It's really fucking good. Shit, he just never disappoints. That Nas song on the same album is fucking amazing too. Hahaha, Lin Manuel Miranda wasn't bad either.

I guess regarding Common, I mostly agree. I had a hart time choosing my #5 because I only like about 10 or so songs from the honorable mentions and Common. I like Common's message most of the time and he's witty which I respect. He definitely doesn't spit like some of the others though. Hahaha, I don't know, I'm not much of a midwest fan other than a few. But did you hear the track on that same Hamilton Mixtape with Black Thought and Common? And this is one of my top 10 or 15 favorite tracks too