The top ten most overlook emcee of all time

Greetings:

    I hope this blog finds you in good health and spirits.  I am glad you are here with us at Hip Hop Critic, another mission of Serchlite MultiMedia.  I have seen the growth and the discussion on many of my blogs from you all who love this culture and still are fascinated to talk about it like we were on the corner, beer and blunt in hand, arguing the finer points of this music that we carry into the grave.  Who is the best of all time, what albums are the best of all time, which groups and so on.  This blog will definitely bring to focus a lot of music, no doubt, new and old.  Young and established.  We have some very dedicated lovers of this music who are here to pick apart the songs we know, and want to know.  Hold them up for inspection, before we burn them and play them in our cars and take them to our hearts.

I wanted my first installment in Hip Hop critic to be one that is overlooked most of the time.  The great emcee's that captured our hearts for a split second, or a year, and then faded away. Then as if our of the sky we hear a record they did and wonder why more people are not up on him/her?  We call friends and ask, "Yo, do you remember so-and-so" and the conversation begins.  I want to start with a list that we should not only want to discuss and argus, but one that should bring us some great memories and fond moments in our coming up in this culture, be it hip hop or pop, and have us fiend for some examples

This is my list, and again this is my personal opinion and not fact, who I believe are the most slept on, overlooked emcee's of all time

1-Grand Puba Maxwell-Brand Nubians: many don't remember but few will when Grand Puba on arrival singing songs for survival, made his first impact in hip hop as early as 1986 with his first group, Masters of Ceremony.  Puba, Dr. Who and Don Barron had some great records and some very memorable line in New York back in the day, I mean if a burnout like me can still remember lyrics from an M.O.C. song like "Cracked Out" then you know that it must have been the business. The group disbanded and then Puba showed up again, this time with Sadat and Lord Jamal as Brand Nubian and put oout the classic "One for All".  His then went solo, moving units of records and tommy Hilfiger gear along the way, making stops on records by Mary J Blige and Heavy D.  He was on the cusp and then fell off. Many believe that his fall is due to his very ladi back attitude which came across as indignant.  There are stories of him holding studios up for three days waiting for him to drop a vers and costing the label and his crew thousands of dollars while he was uptown pushing a Range.  Grand Puba has some of the freshest lines of all time, and if you don't know you need to find out

2-O.C.-Solo Artists, originally down with Organized Konfusion- Omar Cradle, know to many as O.C, came to the game as a guest on the hip hop classic "Fudge Pudge" by Organied Konfusion.  When O.C's verse came on the whole record changed.  As strong as Prince Po and Pharoh Monch were, O.C took their shine on their own record and make a pledge to the hip hop world that he was here to make a play for the crown. A humble dude who played point guard and went to plumbing school, OC made his first album "Word...Life" on Wild Pitch in 1994.  his first record off that album was called "Time's UP" a full frontal attack on any emcee who thought that they had a lane.  his first few lines are still goose bumpers to those in the know today: "You lack the minerals and vitamins/Iron and the Niacin/Fuck who that I offend/rapper sit down Imma to begin about/the foul stuff you talk/never ever walked the walk/more,less destined to be tested/never been arrested.  Every song on Word...Life is a classic. From "Born to Live" to "No main Topic".  Do this day, if you really want to set off an old school party (Shout out to tony Touch and Mister Cee) you put on "time's up". It's the record that makes you go "OOOOOOOHHHHHHHH" when the first beat drops and you wait to hear O.C's dark and musty voice.  My true regrt in this game is not being the executive I needed to be to make this record and his career the classic it should have been.  The only thing I can do now is make you aware today.

3-Big L-(RIP) This uptown emcee hit the street hard with a tongue that resembled a cross between Lord Finesse and Showbiz and A.G.  His "Ebonics record" is one of those songs that is so simple you wish you wrote it, but so complex you know you could not.  He early demise stopped him from being Harlem true king.  

4-Lord Finesse-this Bronx emcee was one of, if not the first, to really rhyme the last two words or every line, as most emcee's just were able to rhyme the last word.  His flow was buttery smooth and his album is a true gem if you cop it.  You can see the influence he had on rappers like Pig Pun, Fat Joe, and Biggie

5-Big Boi-OutKast- I gotta give T.I. a shout on this one, for he really won me over in an argument we had about this very topic.  Ass much as the focus has been on Andre 3000, Big always had that verse and that line that stuck with you.  When an Outkast record went way left like "Bomb's over Bagdad" Big BOi kept in street and put you on a level of understanding.  Even in his very pop record "I Like the way you move" he kept it so real right from the jump: Never relaxing, OutKast is everlastin/not clashing/not at all/see my ni%%a went to do a little actin/that's for anyone askin....He keeps it real and we keep him under wraps.  He should be mentioned in many peoples top ten emcee's of all time

6-Ill Bill-Non-Phixion-BIlly Bronstien from Brooklyn is a big dude, with the lyrics to match.  Just before then was an eminem, this dude was killing clubs in the BK with lyrics that made most people want to hide their kids.  he was aggravated, disgruntled, honest, with killer delivery and flow.  His record "I shot Reagan" or his work with his group Non-Phixion whether it is "Black Helicopters" is the reason that the underground is what it is.  He is no nonsense, unapologetic, and so bitten that he arms have teeth marks.  There are so many emcee's that have taken task to his raps that he should have publishing on a lot of music right now.  Thank G-d for the net so you can find out for yourself.

7-Large Professor-Main Source: Many do not front on his production skills, but the dude could write a song.  LP really had the most simple and straight forward way of rapping that it sounded like he was merely stating the fact over tracks, but he was spitting nothing but gems.  His last foray on a major label "I just wanna Chill" was so looked forward to that there was no way it could have lived up to the hype surrounding that album and I think that plagued Extra P.  If you have not heard "Watch Roger Do His Thing" or "A Friendly Game of baseball" you are missing out on some of the most creative Hip Hop ever written

8-Pharaoh Monch-His last album has so many jewels on it that Debeers should accuse his him of grand theft.  Everything that this dude says is so brilliant and smart and hard hitting that we forget that even in his breathed controlled flows, that he fight for air with an extreme case of Asthma.  Maybe that is why I give him so much props and I wish that other would as well

9-Kool G Rap: Is it just me or does this guys get overlooked more than any other emcee to come out of the Juice Crew?  G rap invented Gangsta Rap, period.  Everything the dude says is well thought out and connects to your central nervous system giving you that explosion of lyrical enjoyment that you crave form this music.  Even his last record released last year, is a lyrical gem laid over some iffy tracks

10-I will let you decide.... Lets start the conversation

Serch