Best MC: Detroit

Motown.  This city is so slept on, it's ridiculous.  Eminem is not the only dope MC from Detroit.  He may be the only one that has gotten much shine, but they are finally starting to get some of the credit they deserve.  Big Sean is in the limelight right now.  J. Dilla is starting to reach that legend status since his untimely death.  Slum Village has been around for a long time and they are very under appreciated.  Black Milk is a dope producer who is coming into his own as a lyricist.  Danny Brown is anything but ordinary, unlike his name.  For me though, this becomes a three way battle ultimately comes down to longevity vs. ability.  Eminem, Royce da 5'9", and Elzhi are the three dopest from Detroit, but in what order?  Eminem has the fame and the talent.  So does Royce.  And so does Elzhi.  This became such a hard decision because it's hard to argue with what Eminem has accomplished.  I respect what he has done and I will always give him props, but for me, he's number three.  I have to ignore his longevity for the purpose of this discussion because one of these men has a shocking placement in my hierarchy of MCs.  Royce is a cold MC.  I've always liked him, but he had some things that held him back as far as reaching the masses.  Now that he's back with Eminem, he has been putting out his best work ever.  Unfortunately it's not enough to surpass my favorite young gunner for the past few years.  Elzhi.  Look him up.  He's just better than them.  There is no other way to say it.  He hasn't been around as long, but he is just better.  And that's saying something.  Hip Hop is competitive and Detroit is very tight knit as far as working together.  So there have been opportunities to hear most of these MCs together.  To me, more often than not, Elzhi wins.  Royce and Em are the kings of one liners, but Elzhi puts together whole verses. Detroit MCs have an amazing ability to fit huge words in to tiny spaces, none better that Elzhi.  There's a reason why he's called the syllable scientist.  It's hard to explain my affinity for him.  He came from out of nowhere.  I remember him from Slum Village after J. Dilla left.  He stole the show on the songs, "Tainted" and "Selfish" which also introduced to John Legend.  Good job.  After that I checked him out and he continued to shine.  Then he showed up on "Hiding Place" with Little Brother.  "Don't compare to me to jokes..."  After he said that it was over with.  Even another of my favorites, Phonte, couldn't keep up.  He's really my hope for the future of Hip Hop.  He has no clue how important he will become because so many people haven't heard of him.  This is my chance to give him some much needed shine.  Listen to The Preface.  Almost every song is unique and sounds like nothing out now.  He has potential to change the game if given the chance.  Check him out.  The Motown sound has changed forever.

Best MC: Chicago

There is plenty of talent to consider in Chicago.  Chief Keef seems to be the new hot name now.  I won't waste any time talking about him though.  People continue to sleep on Kidz in the Hall, myself included.  But I will continue to get on to their music.  But to me this is a four horse race.  It boils down to Lupe Fiasco, Twista, Kanye West and Common.  Twista has been around a long time and it's always cool to listen to how fast he raps, but I don't have one of his CD's in my collection.  So that pretty much knocks him out of the running for me.  Lupe Fiasco is dope.  He's made some of my favorites songs that I keep as my ringtone on my phone.  He's one of those people that I hope will carry the torch from the true lyricists and won't let hip hop die.  Unfortunately he has The Machine behind him, which led to that garbage album that he was basically forced to put out for his so called third album.  I haven't lost faith in him, but I can't give him that title yet.  Maybe one day.  He's just not ready for that title yet.  I'm watching to see what his next move is.  So it all comes down to Kanye vs. Common.  Little brother vs. big brother.  Student vs. teacher.  You get the picture.  This decision is a bit harder than I thought it was going to be.  Before I started typing, I knew he I was going to pick.  Then I started to think more in depth about it.  It's not as simple as I first thought.  Sure Common has been doing it longer that Kanye, but does that automatically give him the victory?  If so, I have to go back and change my first entry to Rakim because he gave birth to Nas' style.  That's absolutely not going to happen so I'll continue with my explanation.  Kanye is a genius.  Some of the ideas and music that he comes up with are amazing.  He's easily one of the most versatile artists in the game right now.  Lyrically he's a bit underrated, because people seem to give him so much credit for his beats that they ignore his rhymes.  I've always liked his style and his wordplay.  But when I say MC, I'm talking about lyrics.  If I said artist, then I would have to go with Kanye.  But in this situation, I have to go with Common.  He's in my top 5, while Kanye is in my top 10.  Similar to Nas, Common's fans have seen him go through phases that were hard to stick with.  But he always brought it lyrically.  He's a versatile MC that can do anything in the booth.  His longevity helps him in this argument.  He won't be featured in guest appearances as much as Kanye, but he has more to say.  Kanye could very much pass Common in the very near future.  But as I type this, I declare Common the best MC in Chicago.  Can you figure out who Common's favorite MC is?

Best MC: New York

I'm a hip hop head.  So I figured I would do something different here.  I was listening to some music last night and I started to notice that different cities have different sounds.  With that, the mc's have different individual sounds.  So I decided to speak on my favorites from the major cities in hip hop.  Of course I have to start with the birthplace of hip hop.  New York has plenty of names that have to be put up for consideration.  Kool G. Rap, Rakim, KRS-1 and so many other old school mc's can be on the list, but I come a little bit after that era so my list will start with people who came after them.  There are still quite a few names that can be listed here from Jay-Z, Jadakiss, Ghostface, so forth and so on.  But my list begins and ends with Nas.  To me, Nas is the dopest mc ever.  From the moment I heard him, there was something different about him.  I was only about eleven so I really wasn't supposed to be listening to music like his.  I still remember my brother buying Illmatic and me and him sneaking around to listen to it.  That was the first true hip hop album that we bought.  That opened the floodgates.  The first song that I ever heard from him was "It ain't hard to tell."  He was a breath of fresh air from what was coming out at the time.  In a sense there was so much of what I would call clown rap or comedy rap.  Then Nas came and brought back lyricism.  Everything about him was fresh.  His voice, vocabulary, and storytelling were excellent.  You could close your eyes and see exactly what he was saying.  Illmatic is probably the best hip hop album ever.  After that the expectations were sky high for him.  There are some, including my brother, who have soured on him because of his beat selection.  I admit that some of his choices have been poor, but it doesn't take away from what he says on the songs.  He's far and away the best lyricist, even though he doesn't show his best quality of storytelling as much as he once did.  Every album he has ever put out has a moment of awe in it somewhere.  Even the ones that some see as subpar have one.  I think he can do whatever he wants to in that booth.  He has been mentioned by some of the best mc's as their favorite mc.  His influence can be heard in almost ever mc doing it now.  He will never get the credit he deserves because his albums no longer make any attempts at selling high numbers.  He is beyond that and I think that the infamous battle with Jay-Z awakened Nas.  Since then he has been on fire.  So for me Nas is the G.O.A.T.  

Why I Do This

I'm not sure how many times I have stopped updating my blog.  But I always come back to it.  It's not something that I've even told more than ten people about.  I went to school for management so  I know how to get my work out there.  I really don't have much interest in doing that.  This has become a huge reason for me keeping my insanity.  I say so many things here that I don't say out loud.  Well that's not totally true, because I'm rather opinionated.  Most people don't hear my opinions because they're too busy wasting my time telling me theirs.  There is this myth that I'm quiet.  It's not true.  I just don't think that people want to hear what I have to say all the time.  I keep thoughts in my head.  Maybe that's why I don't sleep much.  There is just too much going on there to keep everything straight.  This really all started back in college for me.  I had a professor tell me  that I could be a good writer if I focused.  From that point on, I started writing any chance I got.  I started writing somewhat of a journal because I didn't have anyone that I wanted to bounce my thoughts off of.  Eventually I started writing my book.  That turned out to be another one of those situations where it was off and on.  I had time to write, but I just didn't put the effort into it.  Once I got serious about it, I had to have some way to sharpen my skills.  So I started doing this.  I didn't care how many people read or how popular it became.  I just wanted to get my thoughts out there.  Some people might not agree with some things that I'm saying, but this is my space to say what I want.  So to put it plainly, this is my practice space.  I get to take risks here and it only helps me write better.  So that is why I do this.  I do this for selfish reasons.  But in the end, hopefully anyone who reads my work will reap the benefits.

Visit

I'm starting a campaign of my own.   My state is always neglected.  There aren't many concerts, no professional teams, no tourist attractions.  I'm among those that wish that would change.  His first four years in office, The President never visited this state.  I understand the reason why he didn't.  It was strictly political.  He knew there was no chance he would ever carry this state in the election, so why spend any time there?  But there are so many reasons to visit to visit.  The main reason is that it wouldn't hurt anything.  There are plenty of people who supported him here.  I saw plenty of shirts with his face on them, licenses plate with his name on them, and Obama Biden stickers in the back window of plenty of cars.  We have a history of segregation here with The Little Rock Nine.  He could make an event out of visiting the museum.  The fact that this is the home state of both of the Clintons that helped him out immensely in getting reelected.  Being the first African American President is such an inspirational thing, he should be showing his face everywhere.  There are so many people that look up to him.  The First Lady did come down here to promote active lifestyles for kids.  That's fine, but we want to see the President.  He's the one that matters most to us.  Just show your face, that's all we want.  So I need help.  Here's a link to reach to the President: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments 

The Sky is Falling

So the election came and went.  There was elation all over the world, and honestly I couldn't get that smile off my face when I got home from work to find out that President Obama had been reelected.  The flip side of that is that there were quite a few people who were furious about the results.  Some were idiots like Donald Trump.  Others were more respectful like Mitt Romney himself.  The phrase that I heard from some was that "the sky was falling."  It find it funny that there was this bleak picture painted by some of the richest people in the country.  They won't feel any effect from this election.  They will still be rich.  But I really don't want to get into that too much.  Truthfully I don't enjoy talking about politics.  Talking politics is the only thing that can make me dislike someone.  It becomes so personal.  So I won't go that route.  That negative attitude is so unnecessary right now though.  People are out here struggling and some act like things were supposed to change in four years.  They forget that it took eight years to dig that hole.  It's unrealistic to expect things to be fixed in four.  Never mind the collapse of the economy that happened when The President first got into office.  That stabilized, but people were so unwilling to work with him that he didn't really get anything else done.  I've always been cynical about the government, but voting is something that I have to do.  I hear my own father say the reason that he votes is because so many people died just for that right.  To make it even worse, the first black president won't even visit the state.  I'll touch on that at a later date.  I stayed up until 2A.M. waiting for him to make his victory speech.  We all had high hopes for him, realistic or not.  He was given a second chance to prove that he wasn't just empty promises four years ago.  He was fired up delivering his speech.  I hope realizes what's truly at stake here.  The sky isn't falling though.