Em's 4th in Complex's Greatests Rappers of the Last 5 Years

[*ShadyHouse*]

Em should have been #3, the top 2 are spot on though.

[Emadyville]

gtfo

[4Corners]

If we're talking greatest rappers, there's no way in hell you could place Kanye or Drake ahead of Em....

Even Eminem on Relapse, Recovery, HTS, not peak at all, is still 50x the emcee either of those guys are.

Kanye is the most overrated rapper of all time. He gets co signed by greats, has won a trillion awards, gets critical praise even on terrible albums like 808.......and aside from production he's average at his best.

I prefer J Cole and Kendrick to Kanye. Cole's debut was iffy, still had some good records, but Born Sinner was dope. Kanye, his whole thing lately is rapping about how he's being held down even today, and how he's had everything so hard.....guy was raised in a middle class background with a college professor as a mom, has a beautiful woman, has all the money in the world, and is part of the corporate world he's bitching about all the time it seems.....so who the hell is holding him down still???

Kanye is the worst emcee ever that actually gets praise on a regular basis from people and/or greats.

[Adishor91]

Nikki is on top of Em, if you know what I'm saying Maybe that was Ems plan all those years







Joking.

[Adishor91]

If we're talking greatest rappers, there's no way in hell you could place Kanye or Drake ahead of Em....

Even Eminem on Relapse, Recovery, HTS, not peak at all, is still 50x the emcee either of those guys are.

Kanye is the most overrated rapper of all time. He gets co signed by greats, has won a trillion awards, gets critical praise even on terrible albums like 808.......and aside from production he's average at his best.

I prefer J Cole and Kendrick to Kanye. Cole's debut was iffy, still had some good records, but Born Sinner was dope. Kanye, his whole thing lately is rapping about how he's being held down even today, and how he's had everything so hard.....guy was raised in a middle class background with a college professor as a mom, has a beautiful woman, has all the money in the world, and is part of the corporate world he's bitching about all the time it seems.....so who the hell is holding him down still???

Kanye is the worst emcee ever that actually gets praise on a regular basis from people and/or greats.

LOL. Now I will never listen to Kanye the same way, thanks to you.

[EminemBase]

"2010: Kanye drops My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, indisputably one of the greatest rap records of all time"

No, it's not even top 10.

One of the best albums of the past 5 years? Sure. But Beyonce had one of the best videos of all-time.

[CrashBand]

A case can be made for it being top 10 hip-hop albums, lol.

What's your top 10?

[Trimss]

I think both Kanye and Kendrick should be higher than Eminem. Then you could debate whether to give the third place to Eminem or to Drake.

[mdemaz]

[4Corners]

I think Nas should be higher than Em though. Untitled and Life Is Good were both real good and solid albums.

Kanye.....no way. In the last 5 years he put out MBDTF, which got amazing reviews and everything....but still Kanye lyrically is average on his best day. Great producer, average or sub par lyricist at best. And in the last 5 years he's also released Watch the Throne, which was garbage, but still loved by critics, because anything Kanye touches seems to get loved by critics for whatever reason. And Yeezus, which is a sad attempt at him bitching about the corporate world and white man holding him down still, nevermind that the brother had it better than a lot of people before he was ever even famous and rich.

I could see Kendrick being higher than Em. I really feel Good Kid Maad City will be seen as his classic down the line.

Those are the only two I could tolerate being above Em.

Eminem and Nas are still the best rappers alive.

[Shuttle Destroyer]

People keep talking about how great a producer Kanye is but what the hell has he procuced by himself after graduation? He doesn't even make beats anymore, so he's overrated in that category too if you consider the last 5 years

[Raul]

People keep talking about how great a producer Kanye is but what the hell has he procuced by himself after graduation? He doesn't even make beats anymore, so he's overrated in that category too if you consider the last 5 years

He wasn't too participative only on Yeezus, but on 808 and MBDTF he was really active on the prod process. 808 is pretty much self-produced, tbh.

[4Corners]

1. Kendrick (Overly dedicated, section .80, GKMC)

Kendrick dropped a dope tape, a great album in section .80, and what will be his classic probably in GKMC.

2. Nas (Untitled and Life Is Good)
Dropped two real good albums and kept it dope and lyrical as always. I prefer these two to Relapse and Recovery, which is why he's higher the last 5 years for me.

3. Eminem

[4Corners]

Forgot about Distant Relatives....


I love Relapse and the BME EP. Though I'm not a big fan of Recovery as an album, there are still some really great songs on there. Then of course we have all the freestyles, verses, and songs that aren't on his albums.

Nas is dope, but I find him rather boring these days. Even with putting a political twist on Untitled and Distant Relatives, and then making his most mature work with Life Is Good, I find it all to be sort of bland. It's good music, but it isn't exciting or anything that has playback value to me.

I bought both Untitled and Life Is Good, and only listened to them for 2 months at most. Haven't listened to them again.... and I never feel the urge to.

Loco-Motive was amazing. Nas kept that shit 90's. I'm glad we'll hear hopefully at least one Em track with No ID. I wish Em would work with Salaam Remi, who also works a lot with Nas. He's a dope producer.

I think it depends. You're probably just a bigger fan of Em than Nas, so you feel the urge to listen to him more. I listen to both about equal.

Actually, since Berzerk has come out, I've been rotating my 80's shit in the 300 lately too. Cool J, Eric B and Rakim, Run DMC, KRS, Kane, PE, Beasties, etc. Don't Sweat the Technique, to this day, still my favorite Rakim song to listen to. That beat just gets me moving man, I can't explain it.

I just think Nas has been more consistent than Em lately, and Kendrick dropped a classic in my opinion, on top of 2 other great projects.

I wish Cole would get some love. He's solid, put out several dope tapes, and though his debut faltered a bit (I still enjoyed half the album), Born Sinner was DOPE.