My son has really got to step his game up.
Reminds me of this kid from Phoenix who would Dj with his dad doing all the scratch tricks and slaying it. Think he was 8 years old. Left so many of my peers angry and confused with how good he was.
1 Like
Mach Hommy
Mos Def
Ka
Roc Marciano
Billy Woods
Honorable mentions to Tha God Fahim and Elcamino who put out far too much material to be consistently good, but they’re great when it hits.
4 Likes
For me there are two that stand out head and shoulders above the rest. Both could rap nothing but the telephone book or a nursery right and still wipe the floor with other rappers.
- DOOM
- Mos Def / Yassin Bey
Sadly neither are active now, though for different reasons.
3 Likes
This event will interest you then. Mos Def has had a big fascination with DOOM even way before his passing. So, this should be a nice tribute.
4 Likes
If anyone else (other than yasiin bey) made this announcement I’d be pretty unaccepting of that concept, but I know just how far back and how deep mos def’s respect for doom runs. I can’t imagine you’ll ever get a better chance to hear doom’s words live again, and it’s a shame all the drama yasiin bey has been thru these last few years.
I wonder if he’s going to wear the mask? One would expect that’s going to be part of the show…
3 Likes
I was tempted to go to this for the reasons you mentioned. But, I can’t justify the time or expense right now. I was in Paris in November last year.
1 Like
I forgot who I put on this list a while back
But the last month I have been on a Kool Keith deep dive and im here to say he’s the goat and would destroy any other rapper alive or dead.
4 Likes
Yeah this is my sentiment too, if any rapper can do his material justice I’d definitely pick Mos… I’m excited to hear his take on it, I actually hope he does wear the mask, after all DOOM and Vic Vaughn are alter egos…
3 Likes
If you haven’t already seen this clip of Mos gettin hyped off Doom lyrics you gotta check it out, this alone tells me that the man can really appreciate the spirit of the work and aside from his own talent and skill as an emcee, it’s really more than just reciting lyrics or mimic’ing a style, it’s knowing that dry humor and why he delivered those lyrics like and how he did. I truly believe Mos def got that and still gets it. In fact, I’d really hope he does it more how Mos def would do Doom, rather than doing it strictly as a mirror reflecting Doom, because if there is an emcee who has been at it long enough and stayed underground so hard as to get where he was coming from, this is probably the man to do it right here.
4 Likes
Yeah mate seen it, it was touching to see the respect he had for another man’s art, let’s face it they’re both legends and you know what they say, real recognise real…
2 Likes
No, I hadn’t seen that, and thanks for posting it! But that said, the last time I paid to see Mos Def in concert he was a last no-show, so I dont see myself splurging out to buy a plane ticket to Paris on his account! 
But I appreciate Mos Def’s art and as many say, he’is a real student of the art form. The other MC that he has said he’s a huge fan of, in addition to DOOM, is Black Thought - there’s video of him out there doing “75 bars”, so that’s the ultimate homage.
3 Likes
This may be blasphemy, but it’d probably be better than seeing the real thing. I saw doom at skribble jam in 2003 and was not into it at all
2 Likes
You know, when operation doomsday came out, I was not at all warmed up to his style. It took until madvillain before I was like oh shit and started to retroactively appreciate the prior work. But yeah, mos def has always been on hit for me, I probably mentioned it in this thread but sound bombing 2 with b boy document (the whole album really) was one of those quintessential songs of my late teens or early 20’s, among other tracks with mos def just shittin on people.
My biggest gripe with him back then was the whole lyricist lounge MTV show which I mean, it was great exposure for him, but it was an awful showing of what hip hop had to offer because mtv neutered the content. And the Lyricist lounge albums had been so influential that it was a real let down.
If that was around 2016-2017 dude was having a whole shitload of problems in south africa where he was sorta camped out trying to live illegally, he apparently missed a bunch of shows because they wouldn’t let him stay but they also wouldn’t let him leave. Finally, he eventually was granted some kind of permission to leave the country but was on a persona non grata list where he was not allowed to legally re-enter the country indefinitely.
So I don’t know if it coincided with those years, and it’s not excusing whatever the circumstances surrounded the setting up of shows he might have known he couldn’t get to, but dude was kinda going through it around that time.
2 Likes
Black Thought all day. This is just nasty if you haven’t seen. Pretty solid use of ten minutes:
8 Likes
Pardon the interruption. Gonna drop my top few and then get back to reading the thread properly.
Top three: Tricky, Roots Manuva, El-P.
Lyrics Born, Gift of Gab, Q-Tip, Slick Rick, Yasiin Bey, Rza, Kool Keith, Missy, DOOM.
5 Likes
Fuck me that’s good, probably the best ten minutes of YouTube I’ve ever watched 
3 Likes
Yes. I forgot to write Flowdan in my earlier post. Plus Space Ape, if “poetry over dubstep” counts as rap.
1 Like
Daveed Diggs
Stic.Man
M1
P.O.S
Boots Riley
Guru
Cecil Otter
KRS-One
Saul Williams
Geologic
Basically all of Wu-Tang
3 Likes
POS is underrated. Super interesting genre blending.
2 Likes
I remember hearing him and Doomtree for the first times and being lie, “is that a Fugazi line? Is that a Refused drum fill?! Wait! That’s a Song of Zarathustra sample!!” And I was hooked. Minneapolis really put out some good shit back in the day.
2 Likes