Who is the G.R.O.A.T (Greatest Rapper of All Time)?

Tupac Shakur

We all know that never-ending debate of trying to decipher who is ultimately the greatest rapper, dead or alive. In this discussion between my roommates and me, we attempted to figure out who would hold the throne as the greatest rapper to ever live. The factors that we included in our debates were lyrical content, flow, wordplay, performance, and album sales. All of my roommates, which consisted of Ryan Bromwell, Hayden Wilkerson, and Phillip Croddick all took the time to join the debate to try to figure out who they think is the greatest rapper of all time.

The debate started with m asking the obvious question of interest “Who do you guys think is the greatest rapper of all time?” There was a moment of silence for a while and it was apparent that they were pondering the question. Then Phil finally answered, “Tupac”. He went on to say “it all comes down to the delivery that you perform your raps with”. When it comes to that, he had the best delivery of all of the rappers. He made sure you listened to his content, whether you liked it or not.”

Notorious B.I.G

Hayden then replied by saying “aren’t people supposed to like the content though, especially if we’re debating who the greatest rapper of all time is?” He thought that The Notorious B.I.G had an edge over Tupac. “I think that people understood Biggy’s songs more than Tupac’s. Don’t get me wrong. I think Tupac is dope, but as far as delivery I think Biggy got that on lock. I also think that people could relate to his songs more.” Phil interrupted by rhetorically asking “You said people can relate more to Biggy’s songs than Tupac?” I took Phil’s side in as far as who related more to the general people. Tupac rapped more so about everyday life issues, such as gang violence, drugs and poverty. Notorious B.I.G did the same thing, however he rapped about how he rose from that to the lavish lifestyle he lived until his unfortunate death in 1997.

Nas

I then kindly interrupted by asking “What about you Ryan?” He then said “I think Nas got it. He didn’t have as many radio hits as Big and Tupac, but he is the best lyricist that I’ve heard.” He added that Nas doesn’t really have the commercial success that the other two have, but said that “he keeps it real”. I then said in return “we are factoring commercial success in too. Both Tupac and Nototious B.I.G had commercial success and still had those ‘real records’”. We even played a sample of each of the artists’ music to prove our point.

After about 45 minutes of back and forth banter, I asked if we are in a new golden age of hip-hop. Everybody concluded that we are inching closer to that kind of musical era. Phil reminded us about the verse that Kendrick Lamar did on Big Sean’s verse control, which he essentially called out all of the present-day rappers of notice, and basically said he wants to be the best of all of them. We each agreed that the verse alone catapulted hip-hop today to a whole new level and one day there might be an argument for whether Kendrick Lamar might be the greatest rapper of all time.

Kendrick Lamar