Best Rapper Alive Tournament

Vibe Magazine has come up with a brilliant idea to have a tournament with some of today's hottest rappers in the game. And of course people are buzzing about it. I was extremly hesitate when I filled my bracket out. I do realize that people will probably fill their bracket out and be biased and pick their favorite rapper but I guess everyone does not think logically. I was very disappointed in how they came up with some of the first round match ups. Here are some of the match ups that I had a problem with.

Mos Def. Vs Talib Kweli
Scarface Vs. 8Ball
Big Boi Vs. Killer Mike
Common Vs. Black Thought
Jadakiss Vs. Beanie Sigel
Ghostface Vs. Raekwon
and the worst of them all
Nas Vs. Joe Buddens.

The only other problem that I had with this list is that they left out Phonte

For a first round match up...all of these artist should meet in the later rounds not right off the bat. Nas and Joe Buddens are way to nice to be going against each other in the first round. And for those of you would like to know who would like to know the outcome of those match ups....Just know that I based my criteria off of who I thought
1) was the better lyricist
2) who was more relevant
3) who will stand the test of time
and if I couldn't choose between the two then I would decided based off of
4) who would win in a battle

Mos Def
Scarface
Big Boi
Black Thought (In a battle I thought Black would murder Common)
Jada
Ghostface
Nas

All of the Number 1 Seeds made it past the first round that is obvious. Now in my Sweet 16 things got very interesting. I had some match up where I struggled with making a decision.

Sweet 16
Lupe Vs. Mos Def
Wayne Vs. Scarface
Ludacris Vs. TI
Eminem Vs. Ghostface
Big Boi Vs. Nas
3000 Vs. Black Thought
Busta Vs. Ice Cube
Jay-Z vs. Fab

The toughest one to call is Andre 3000 against Black Thought. I love both of them and not too many people are aware of Black Thought skills, I think he can go with anybody. Andre 3000 gets on a song its an event, the whole world will stop and listen and he puts he words together so unorthodox that its cool and witty, so 3000 got the nod. TI and Luda: Now I now that a lot of people like TI and I am one of them. However, I think he somewhat overrated as a rapper. So to me this match up came down to who would win in a battle...and we all heard Young Buck's "Stomp". Luda won that joint hands down. So in what would be a surprise to many...Luda moves into the final 8. And for some odd reason I don't know why but I had Lil Wayne beating Scarface....don't ask why. I am trying to not be biased, and I was basing the winner off of the match up..but I thought to myself if Lil Wayne and Scarface got into a battle...Wayne would win.

Elite 8
Jay-Z Vs. Lupe
Wayne Vs. Ludacris
Eminem Vs. Nas
3000 Vs. Busta


Okay so the easiest one to call were Jay-Z and 3000. As I was filling this joint out I was still wondering how Ludacris made it this far. But he had favorable match ups in the other rounds. Now remember my criteria. I think that Wayne is more relevant however, I think Ludacris has way better lyrics. So who would win in a battle? Lil Wayne is cool but he is not as witty as Ludacris. I think in a battle Luda would be quick on his feet and kill Wayne with punchlines....

Eminem and Nas is very interesting. Both of them are great at what they do, but both have different styles. Both of these talented rappers are dope with the lyrics and are still relevant right now. So who would win in a battle? We all know what Nas can do (ether) but we also know what Em can do.....So I came to my conclusion like this. I am a big Nas fan but I also Em as well. and while I was going back and forth with my decision I just kept thinkin about Em's verse on Jay-Z "Renegade" (Eminem murdered you on your shit-Nas) Because of that one verse I gave the nod to Slim Shady.

Final 4
Jay-Z vs. Luda
Eminem Vs. Andre 3000

The Jay call was easy (and No i was not being biased)
Eminem Vs. Andre 3000....how do you pick between these two dope emcees.

and so I was stuck....and I wasnt sure who to go with...So who would you chose to match up against Jay-Z in the greatest rapper alive Tournament. Andre 300 or Eninem. and Who would win overall.

If you would like to view the bracket and fill one out for yourself just click HERE

Hip-Hop Mis Haps

So as we all know, no one can be perfect and for some reason I just thought...all of my favorite Hip-Hop artist has at least one Album that just didn't cut it. I wasn't bias...even my favorite artist made the list...so lets start of with my man Jay-Z.

Jay-Z:

The Blueprint did have it’s highlights, don’t get me wrong, but there are a lot of songs on the album that were just not Jay-Z material. For example, “Gunz and Roses”. Jay-Z and Lenny kravitz together just didn’t cut it for me. The chemistry on that track just wasn’t there. Other tracks that were lack luster “The Watcher”, “What They Gonna Do”, and “Some People Hate”. Truth be told Nas murdered Jay on either and he needed to put something out to feel like he won. This would have been a great album, if he would have condensed it to one disc instead of two. Some of you may argue that “Kingdome Come” belongs on this list…but I disagree, the world just was not ready for his message at the time.

Nas-

Like Blueprint 2…this album was rushed. This came out the same year (I believe) as “I Am” and he just wanted to keep the momentum moving but even the lead single wasn’t worth the time of day. “God Loves Us”, “Big Girl Now” and “Some Of Us Have Angles” are all songs that were not up to par with Nas’ other hits.

Diddy-

Okay you are probably thinking why is Diddy on this list, but Puff makes great albums except for this one. Diddy tried to hard to showcase his lyrical skills, but he doesn’t write his own rhymes so that just makes it worst. Who can forget the imfamous “PE 2000”. “Pain” was weak and so was “Angels with Dirty Faces” with Bizzy Bone. He enlisted all of these top artists to help him but it was wack as hell.

LL Cool J-
This album was released right after SWAT and this is when LL took a down hill spiral. All of the songs on this album were about women, and if did attempt to talk about streets, I found it hard to believe because he is 40, and far removed from the streets.


Common-
Man where do you start with this album? After Common dropped “Like Water for Choclate” he follows up with this, what a disappointment. “Come Close” with Mary J. Blige which was the lead single was dope, but his whole direction went so far left field he wasn’t ready for it. Now there are few dope songs on this album like “I Got The Right Ta” and “I Am Music” but other than that he wasted his time with this album. I promise I bought this album the day it dropped and sold it right back the next day. HATED IT!!!!!

Ice Cube-.
Okay this is when Ice Cube rap career took a step down. “Pusihn’ Weight” was okay but it wasn’t we were use to from Ice Cube. This album was over produced and his lyrics were mediocre. He tired to remake his classic “One Upon In the Projects” with part 2 but it just wasn’t the same. Lets revisit the original version.

Snoop Dogg-
The biggest problem with most of Snoop’s albums is that there are way too many features on the album. I can understand putting yo people on but damn, every damn song had a special guest. I believe this was his last album on No Limit and this was by far his worst album ever. You know what lets revisit an old school Snoop joint…now some of you may not remember this joint but if you are from the west coast then you know every word to this song….


TI-
Do you want to know what a rush album sounds like? Just listen to this alubm. TI was high off of the success of “The King” and he wanted to keep his buzz going. I can respect that but he has to come better then this. What I said about Jay’s “Blueprint 2” can also be said for this album. Yeah I know that there were some dope tracks on this album but this was trash to compare to the other albums he dropped.

ATCQ-
You would think that the last album would be one of their best works but it wasn’t. In fact this was one of the most disappointing rap albums ever. “Find My Way” is my joint still, but that song alone could not hold the rest of the album. “4 Moms” “Hot 4 U” and “Give Me” were all too commercial for me, and if you are a true Tribe fan then that is not what you would be accustom to. I would to hear a reunion album.

Lets see who remembers this joint.



I was trying to find a Roots album that I thought was wack, but I was unsuccessful in that journey. That saying a lot.

DMX-The Great Depression. Lately all of his albums have been kinda wack, but this was the start of all that. “Who We Be” was a banger, but the album lacked that DMX sound that we were use to. The phrase “If it ain’t broke then don’t try to fix it” is so accurate but DMX thought otherwise. He stopped working with Swizz and lost his luster. There is not even a song on this album worth mentioning.

Just missed the cut….Outkast “Stankonia”. Beanie Sigel “B. Coming”. Gang Star “Hard to Earn”. 50 Cent “Curtis” 2 Pac-Every album that was released after he died and the same for Big.