Best Rapper Alive!

[EM1973]

Lol .... Joe Budden is better than Rakim at Pure Raping
(I Leave my opinion of Eminem regardless ... out of the Hip-hop section)
Post Rakims best "Lyrical Best pure Rap track" and ill find 5 Joey songs better

Wow really??Well maybe you are young enough.You laugh about Rakim?Who the hell is Joe Budden?
Rakim was the ultimate teacher and greats like Nas,Jay-Z,Tupac,Biggie,Kool G Rap learned from him and his pure rapping.
And LMAO as about the Pac stans..Their opinion means nothing because Pac was nowhere near to a Hypothetical Top-10 of pure rappers.

[Raids-God]

Lol .... Joe Budden is better than Rakim at Pure Raping
(I Leave my opinion of Eminem regardless ... out of the Hip-hop section)
Post Rakims best "Lyrical Best pure Rap track" and ill find 5 Joey songs better

Wow really??Well maybe you are young enough.You laugh about Rakim?Who the hell is Joe Budden?
Rakim was the ultimate teacher and greats like Nas,Jay-Z,Tupac,Biggie,Kool G Rap learned from him and his pure rapping.
And LMAO as about the Pac stans..Their opinion means nothing because Pac was nowhere near to a Hypothetical Top-10 of pure rappers.

So you Honestly dont know who Joe Budden is ?

[EM1973]

Lol .... Joe Budden is better than Rakim at Pure Raping
(I Leave my opinion of Eminem regardless ... out of the Hip-hop section)
Post Rakims best "Lyrical Best pure Rap track" and ill find 5 Joey songs better

Wow really??Well maybe you are young enough.You laugh about Rakim?Who the hell is Joe Budden?
Rakim was the ultimate teacher and greats like Nas,Jay-Z,Tupac,Biggie,Kool G Rap learned from him and his pure rapping.
And LMAO as about the Pac stans..Their opinion means nothing because Pac was nowhere near to a Hypothetical Top-10 of pure rappers.

So you Honestly dont know who Joe Budden is ?

So you honestly don't know the legacy of Rakim as a pure rapper?The funny thing with you is that you laugh when I said Rakim.WTF?
If I start to put the songs which legends like Eminem,Tupac,Nas,Jay-Z,LL Cool J pays homage to Rakim and his greatness then you will probably stop laughing.
Again who the hell is Joe Budden?

[Artemis]

Lmao Kool G Rap learned from Rakim?

Kool G Rap was his own rapper and inspired all the mafioso content and is father'd Nas's style. Biggie father'd Jay-Z. Your "Rakim-inspired people are bullshit".

[Hiphopdane]

Maybe it would sound a little superficial if you said "best rapper ever". It's like you're actually aiming your bragging at someone when you say "alive". Well, we can only guess.

I hate term as it is usually said by rappers who are not even close to being the best. Deluded hip hop fans seem to believe the rapper when they say it as if it is some kind of a holy fact that can't be questioned.

[EM1973]

Lmao Kool G Rap learned from Rakim?

Kool G Rap was his own rapper and inspired all the mafioso content and is father'd Nas's style. Biggie father'd Jay-Z. Your "Rakim-inspired people are bullshit".

Really??GTFOH.You don't know nothing about rap if you say that.
Rakim was the master.

Tupac Shakur pays homage to Rakim in his song "Old School" he raps, "(Eric B. and) Rakim was, the shit to me".

Eminem has also paid tribute to Rakim's style as an inspiration and references lines from "My Melody"" in his song “I'm Back”. The hook in Eminem's song "The Way I Am" is a homage to the line "I'm the R, the A, to the KIM. If I wasn't then why would I say I am?" from Eric B and Rakim's "As the Rhyme Goes On". Nas made a similar reference in Got Ur Self A...: "I'm the N the A to the S-I-R / and If I wasn't I must've been Escobar".

Jay-Z paid tribute to Rakim in his 2007 hit "Blue Magic," where he states: "Eighty-seven state of mind that I'm in/I'm in my prime so for that time I'm Rakim." Jay also recalls Rakim's line "So easily will I E-M-C-E-E" with "So easily do I W-H-I-P."

Nas' Street's Disciple album has a track titled "U.B.R. (Unauthorized Biography of Rakim)" where he tells a short version of Rakim's musical career and life.

Canibus pays homage to Rakim on his 1000-bar song "Poet Laureate Infinity", most notably with the bars "I been toe to toe with the best, I ‘Know the Ledge’" and "As odd as it may seem, the Microphone Fiend, Is God of the Hip Hop regime"

Kool G Rap learned from Rakim's stylistic influenece..They are both old in the game but Rakim was the master.

[TheGentlePlayer]

Big L is dead?
Tought Soulja was signing him

[xxTrigger1989xx]

Rakim > Budden. I'm sorry, Rakim is a fucking legend and Budden ain't shit compared to him

[Artemis]

Lmao Kool G Rap learned from Rakim?

Kool G Rap was his own rapper and inspired all the mafioso content and is father'd Nas's style. Biggie father'd Jay-Z. Your "Rakim-inspired people are bullshit".

Really??GTFOH.You don't know nothing about rap if you say that.
Rakim was the master.

Tupac Shakur pays homage to Rakim in his song "Old School" he raps, "(Eric B. and) Rakim was, the shit to me".

Eminem has also paid tribute to Rakim's style as an inspiration and references lines from "My Melody"" in his song “I'm Back”. The hook in Eminem's song "The Way I Am" is a homage to the line "I'm the R, the A, to the KIM. If I wasn't then why would I say I am?" from Eric B and Rakim's "As the Rhyme Goes On". Nas made a similar reference in Got Ur Self A...: "I'm the N the A to the S-I-R / and If I wasn't I must've been Escobar".

Jay-Z paid tribute to Rakim in his 2007 hit "Blue Magic," where he states: "Eighty-seven state of mind that I'm in/I'm in my prime so for that time I'm Rakim." Jay also recalls Rakim's line "So easily will I E-M-C-E-E" with "So easily do I W-H-I-P."

Nas' Street's Disciple album has a track titled "U.B.R. (Unauthorized Biography of Rakim)" where he tells a short version of Rakim's musical career and life.

Canibus pays homage to Rakim on his 1000-bar song "Poet Laureate Infinity", most notably with the bars "I been toe to toe with the best, I ‘Know the Ledge’" and "As odd as it may seem, the Microphone Fiend, Is God of the Hip Hop regime"

Kool G Rap learned from Rakim's stylistic influenece..They are both old in the game but Rakim was the master.

Are you fucking dense? Just because those people thought Rakim was good and paid homage to him does not mean they rap like him or modeled their style after is.

You deviated from the argument and just posted a bunch of bullshit that doesn't apply to it. None of those people rap like Rakim. Rakim inspired multies, not styles, and Kool G Rap never rapped any different. He inspired Nas who inspired countless rappers. Jay raps like Biggie and Biggie never rapped like anyone else, even at age 17.

You are daft if you continue to tell me Rakim birthed all of these people's music. He birthed multies but multies alone does not a style make.

[stillmatic]

I love Budden, but yeah Rakim is definietely way better.

Budden is one arrogant motherfucker, but I doubt even he'd say he's better than Rakim. Ever. There's certain artists you just don't say you're better than ever, and Rakim is one of them. There's probably only 3-4 artists like that.

As for the best rapper alive, you have to put things in context. For me it's between Nas and Eminem in terms of it being in the actual literal sense. But for me that term refers to artists in their prime, so for that reason I choose Lupe Fiasco. He represents everything great in Hip Hop.