This is a topic that brings me great joy. I’m not the type of guy that goes around making ridiculous claims like “so and so” is a top 5 rapper or “Blah blah blah” was the greatest rapper ever, so when I hear people making bold claims, it’s in my nature to fire back with facts, theories, and things that people never think about because they have fan boy blinders on.
Here are 5 reasons why you can’t call biggie the best rapper of all time.
#5 He’s not even the best dead rapper with “Big” in his name. Big L, Big Pun …Biggies skill level was nowhere near L or Pun.
#4 Downswing: a lot of faithful biggie fans always say that they like “life after death” better than “Ready to die” which is straight bullshit I’ve never understood the loyalty of Biggie fans, although ii’s commendable there’s no way that you can say that his 3rd album wouldn’t have been trash. “No way out” by Puff Daddy would’ve been Biggies 3rd album if he didn’t die. Puff Daddy became an artist out of necessity due to all of the money he invested in “Bad Boy” Not to mention 97-2000 was definitely some of the worst years in hip-hop so it’s a fair assessment that if Biggie dropped an album in 98 and 2000 they both would’ve been shit And theres no fucking way puffy doesn’t make Mase and Biggie do an album together…? Maybe a Biggie and 112 album ? What a shit shingle that would be?
#3 Greatest sing-a-long rapper of all time: This alway’s bums me out and mystifies me…everyone always talks about the lyrical depth of Biggie. He has had some cool takes of typical street shit and from time to time some decent storytelling….But I can think of a dozen rappers off the top of my head that did the same thing and get absolutely no credit for it. But every time “Juicy” comes on almost everyone in the room knows it, sings along and knows every fucking word. “Rappers Delight” is probably the most Sung-a-long Hip-Hop song of all time, But people don’t say that “Wonder Mic” is the best rapper ever…..?
#2 Big Sexy Poppa: I know that bragging about sex is a Hip-Hop staple and it’s a part of the game. Video ho’s would probably help each other hold his fat roll up so the other one could blow him, just to get a taste of fame. But its tough to listen to a fat Shrek looking dude talk about how much the ladies loved him when you know the only reason why they were around was just because he was a rapper with money?
#1 Body of work: This is where my argument gets butt-hole tight. How much music did he release? 2 albums and one of them is a double so for the sake of argument we’ll say 4 (That’s including the awful album after he died)..then you add probably around 30 tracks for the features he did. His entire body of work can’t be over 130 songs. So lets take 60 of those songs out of the equation right away because they were all basically R&B songs with one verse which leaves us with the meat of the biggie catalog. Probably 25 of those songs are one verse on a colab on someone else’s album. Leaving us with a little over 2 albums worth of good music.
2 albums…..? 2 fucking albums and you’re calling him the greatest of all time? I can list at least 100 rappers that have had 2 good albums. Of course these 2 albums came out during a pivotal time in Hip-hop, but soooo many rappers that deserve to be talked about in the stupid “Greatest rapper of all time” conversation, have done the same thing and are never mentioned. People never say names like Andre 3000 or even Redman who both had 3 classic albums in the 90’s So what is it…? Why are people so obsessed with random rapper that made 2 good albums and died when there are so many alive still doing it that are 10x better?
I’ll never know the answer but until I do your ass that I’ll be setup every March 9th to shoot holes in your tired argument and false praise. Here’s an idea…? why don’t you just enjoy the music for what it is…? Maybe Biggie is your favorite but just because someone is your favorite..doesn’t mean they’re the greatest to ever do it case closed. There’s a music for every mood and situation so in my opinion to say anything is the best is just a ridiculously broad oversight on why music is so “Great” in the first place
-Tonzo-