One Thing That Any Great Rapper Should Have

[MikeNUFC]

Personality.

Seperates the good emcees from the great rappers/artists.

Having a personality in your lyricism, for me, is vital. Every rapper that is considered one of the best has a a recognisable one.

What separates your Lowkeys, Copywrites and Sadistiks from a lot of other 'underground' rappers? A recognable personality and voice (and by voice, I don't mean tone/sound).

That's not to say you can get away with being a shitty emcee if you have a personality. It just elevates artists onto another level for me.

This is why no-one gives a shit about all these gangster clones or the rappers who can spit a 1000 multies per verse but have nothing else recognisable about them. You don't have anything of your individual in your music.

It's the reason that Slaughterhouse as a group will never be mentioned with, say, Wu-Tang. Yeah, great rhymers and punchlines but that's all there is.

[Bistnal]

I definitely agree, without personality, no matter how dope the rapper's ability is, they're really not that enjoyable or great as an artist.That's the ironic thing about Slaughterhouse. I feel that individually, they all have a LOT of personality in their music, but as a group, there isn't that much personality and it brings them down a bit as a group.

[GladHeAteHerr]

I agree mostly with what you're saying, but there are some exceptions where monotone rappers can distinguish themselves..Mostly I'm thinking of Rakim and maybe you can throw Fabolous in there.
I get that you're not talking only about voice, but I don't think either of these rappers do anything particularly exciting or special with their songs, but Ra is mentioned with the greatests and Fab is considered a solid MC by a lot of people..
Just an exception to the rule though, for the most part what you're saying is true.

[Satire]

Slaughterhouse's album honestly just feels like an album. I know that seemingly doesn't make much sense, but I dunno how to explain it. It's hilarious how cookie cutter it seemed to me. The subject matter was fucking predictable and the album as a whole was so generic. It's direction was to just make an album.

I honestly felt like it was a proper introduction though. That's the funny part. It showed their lyrical ability and their potential as a group. It was well received by fans and critics alike. The fact that this was their underground release before getting signed by a major label makes me think if it was any better it would've been pointless tbh.

The first album was "Here we are, you've seen us before, we're a group now", now they need to put the punchlines on fucking hold and make the 2nd album "..and this is who we are". '

Anyways, I agree with what you said about personality. The only time I can listen to Hot 16 tracks is when they have a great beat. It's a big reason why I'll never be that "All mainstream rap sucks, underground is where it's at yo" person. There are plenty of lyricists in the underground with amazing rhyming but not many of them have enough character in their music to keep me interested. I'll even go as far as to say that I enjoy Kanye's album more than alot of underground releases that people deem "classic". There, I said it. Mad?

[MikeNUFC]

It'll be interesting to see how they go under Shady. The problem is Eminem and SH have said, when talking of direction for the future, they'll "keep doing what they're/we're doing" which is 100% wrong. Need a huge shift if they wanna be memorable.

The only time I can listen to Hot 16 tracks is when they have a great beat.

The thing is, you can have personality in a hot 16. You can have personality in bravado bars.

The problem is, there's so many generic rappers that won't try anything new in a hot 16. It's just same old, same old.

[KillahBee]

Agreed 100%

I think the main thing about rappers that lack personality isn't that they can't/don't make good music, its that the music they make has little-no replay value in the long run

Which is why I feel Recovery was so praised at the time it dropped: "OMG Em is rapping about real shit again!!! No more accent, yay!!!" - And I'm not aiming that comment at anybody, but thats how I and most of this forum felt at the time, in the long run though that album has no replay value to me, mainly because I feel there is a HUGE amount of personality and charisma missing from the songwriting and delivery

I'm not trying to turn this into a Recovery/Eminem bashing thread, but thats the most recent example I can give of an album I loved at first, but quickly stopped liking for the reasons I mentioned

[Devil'sAdvocate]

yes i do agree with every rapper has to have a personality.

but Slaughterhouse has a ton of personality,they are 4 MC's that will bite your head off if you fuck with them.

they drop hot as fuck punches,this thing against their subject matter is stupid,they talked abt what the feel abt on "Move On" they did an intro type track like on sound off,talked abt how crazy they are,their lyrical skills like on "Lyrical Murderer's",i look at it like this,their skills and ability more than makes up for their so called lack of subject matter.

if their next album is the same as its first with Em Features,Em Production,id call it a fuckin classic.

their first album is a near-classic.

and the group has 2 GOATS in it,Crooked and Joey are incredible rappers,royce and joell are amazing rappers too.

If i have to say the rapper with the best personality its with out a doubt Eminem,guy merged as the most controversial vulgar rude sharpest rapper ever,and did 4 classic and a solid album,is the most respected MC ever in hip hop,was behind and part of a great rap group D12,just took the world by storm with the words he formed.

[GenePeer]

Agreed.

Personality is really important; it's quite discourage to listen to a song and realize another rapper could have easily made that song. There's nothing unique about their songs that makes them stand out and me want to check out their our songs.

In fact, artists in general should have personality. It's the one thing that's really lacking in pop music. For most of them, you can easily see another pop-singer doing the song. Like seriously, any Justin Bieber-song could have easily been a Jason Derulo-song. I may find one song catchy and like it but I won't be like, "I gotta get this album!!" But even the pop-genre has some artist who stand out like Pink or Lily Allen; they're the ones that I'll listen to regularly.

[yoshi]

This is why I like Talib so much. I think he's got a great personality. Everything about him and his music shows that he means something. Whether it's the love for music and hip hop culture or standing up for the people who need it, he's 100% real and he puts his heart into it. Plus he never forces himself out there. Like there are rappers who just have the urge to be all up in everyone's ass - clothes, movies, energy drinks or whatever - I get that it's all about business, but on the other hand, it's not all about money - it's about making people go literally crazy on concerts, being real and standing up for what you believe in, just like Talib does.

[Hiphopdane]

Tend to agree about the Recovery stuff Killahbee said. If you compare If I Had/Rock Bottom to Going Through Changes, the biggest difference is that you can actually feel that he wrote it when he was in a dark place. IIH isn't as polished and sounds like thoughts he wrote when he was really down. Not that I think GTC is a bad song, it was just a good example, I think, cus you can easily tell it was a song he wrote after he heard the beat.
That's what I kinda like about most of Relapse. It literally feels like he was in some kind of a zone or a bubble when he wrote it. The signature sound, which Recovery lacks, only adds to it.

Another great thing that people seem to forget is mic presence. So many dudes out there can spit a great flow or some great multis but they don't sound confident at all. You can get away with a lot if you just sound like you're rapping like there's no tomorrow. Ice Cube is a master of that, at least in his prime.

I don't know if this was interesting. Just some thoughts.

[Xray]

I feel like a casket, cause everyone nailed me.

I agree.

[Devil'sAdvocate]

I feel like a casket, cause everyone nailed me.

I agree.

[Xray]

I feel like a casket, cause everyone nailed me.

I agree.

post of the month , maybe post of the year lmfao

You know how I do homie.

[GladHeAteHerr]

Another great thing that people seem to forget is mic presence. So many dudes out there can spit a great flow or some great multis but they don't sound confident at all. You can get away with a lot if you just sound like you're rapping like there's no tomorrow. Ice Cube is a master of that, at least in his prime.

I don't know if this was interesting. Just some thoughts.

Totally agree, although they're considered classics, some of the lyrics in Cube's first albums are extremely predictable and repetitive, but because he sounds so confident and badasss, people like it.

[Master Chief]

If you compare If I Had/Rock Bottom to Going Through Changes, the biggest difference is that you can actually feel that he wrote it when he was in a dark place. IIH isn't as polished and sounds like thoughts he wrote when he was really down. Not that I think GTC is a bad song, it was just a good example, I think, cus you can easily tell it was a song he wrote after he heard the beat.

I don't know about you but the whole song seems 100% genuine and heartfelt. And GTC is not a dark song anyway, it's a song about moving on and changing and at the end of the 4th verse it kind of ends on a positive note. With that said, you cannot deny the 4th verse on that song. One of the best since his comeback. But, I do somewhat agree with the whole Recovery argument though.

I also agree with the OP. Personality is what 95% of YouTube rappers are lacking and why they will NEVER make it.