My man Q and his man Rizoh have a blog called Street Census (blogroll), that does a whole bunch of lists.  I love the site, largely because I don’t think I’ve read a list that I agree with.  Where would the fun be if I agreed all the time?
The other day, Rizoh did a list on the top 10 Southern emcees.  I’d wanted to do a 25 on that, but I really didn’t have the time to do it and properly address all the more obscure people.  I normally do lists by going through my itunes, but I know there are limitations, and that topic’s too crucial for me to get wrong.
So I’m going to go through ten of them.
10.  Killer Mike.  This is pretty high, considering I haven’t heard his second record, and the first was inconsistent.  Might even be too high.  The inconsistency on Monster was because of beats, though, not him.  Mike’s got something in common with Bun-B–a decidedly Southern tone that’s unquestionably influenced by old school East Coast rap.  Bun’s rhyming idol is KRS-ONE, and I’m inclined to believe that Mike’s is, too.  In fact, Mike’s more of a Kris disciple, to my ear, because he’s more intense than Bun.  The power, the ability to clearly spit every line, and the fearlessness that make Kris the best make Mike so good.  There are very few things I’d want from an emcee that I don’t get from Killer Mike.
9.  Big Gipp/Cee-Lo.  I’m adding Cee-Lo to this because I’m not sure what to do with him.  He can rhyme, best believe.  Can jump on a beat and become a part of it.  The problem?  If you wanna offer smart-guy rap, you gotta be…smart.  What has Cee-Lo really offered than simple-minded stuff that no one could disagree with?  If he wants to make thought-provoking statements, he should be thought-provoking.  And he’s not.  Gipp’s far more interesting to me.  He’s jumped from style to style and made each work, offered intelligent rhymes without making a point of how intelligent he was being, and proven that the most underrated cat on the cool pantheon is the country baller.  I think Cee-Lo’s a more talented rapper than Gipp, but he ain’t quite as interesting.  If I could combine them, that amalgam would be at #9.
8.  Devin the Dude.  I’m torn on this one.  I enjoy him.  A lot.  But you wanna talk about someone without a lot to talk about?  That’s Dev.  But I’ll be damned if he hasn’t consistently found ways to make songs about little more than sex, weed and liquor entertaining.  Seriously, how does he do this?  I should have been bored with him three years ago.  Instead, I love Waitin’ To Inhale.  How in the world has he pulled this off?
7.  Lil’ Wayne.  As born to do this as anyone’s ever been.  Has any other rapper been as good as he was as a child–as far as we think–and become this good as an adult?  He knows how to flip words, has an incredible gift for metaphor, and a confidence on the mic you just can’t teach.  So why only at 7?  I don’t think he’s ever given me anything to think about.  Not a single thing.  Great stuff for enjoying, but little beyond that.
6.  T.I.  Yeah, he’s young.  But he’s given us four straight very good-to-classic records, and he’s done so with a style that pays homage to histor while forging new ground.  He’s as smart as they come and might have the best ear for beats out there.  He knows how to construct an album.  More than anything, he’s created a complex persona that compels me to keep listening to find out where he’s going to end up.
5.  Juvenile.  This was the omission from Rizoh’s list that made me do my own.  He did one of the records that changed the course of hip hop–400 Degreez, which I think is the record that truly began the Southern infusion into the mainstream.  He’s got one of the greatest voices ever, a way with words that’s like no one else, and a thought process that isn’t often heard.  I don’t agree with him, but the idea that people who don’t do whatever they have to do to get out of poverty are too concerned with appearances is something I had to give some consideration to.  It’s one of the most compelling responses to poverty that I recall hearing, even though it’s not rocket science.  And that’s what Juve brings–insight.
4.  Bun-B.  The tricky thing with Bun is that he’s only got one solo record that, in terms of his performance, pales in comparison to everything he did with UGK.  It’s good, but he never let loose in the way that made him legendary.  So creative with rhyme schemes, so confident, such a broad frame of reference, and an incredible ability to jump on any beat and wreck it.  Also–and this is irrelevant to this evaluation–the best interview I ever did.  God bless you if you get the chance to talk about music with Bun, and you’re the king if you can interview him as well as Jon Caramanica did.  Probably my favorite interview ever with a rapper.
3.  Andre 3000.  Name a rapper that’s ever commanded your attention from start to finish more consistently than Dre?  I can’t.  But I can’t put him over the next man on this list…
2.  Big Boi.  Yeah, over Andre.  It’s no longer a debate for me.  Who’s better at his best?  Andre, without question.  He just overpowers tracks in a way that I don’t think anyone has ever been able to be.  But what sets Big Boi over Andre is the fact that he’s the smarter of the pair.  Andre’s got great ways with words and can drop the perfect metaphor at the right time, but Big Boi’s offering more food for thought underneath the prettiness on top.  There’s nothing he can’t talk about.  He’s also the best since Big Pun at rapping about sex, which is a noteworthy point.  It’s not like it’s a breakaway victory for Antwan, but he gets it over Dre.  And I’m not just saying that to be contrarian.
Oh, and he never left us to make an average R&B album.
1.  Scarface.  There wasn’t even a question on this one.  He’s the godfather of the modern storyteller, the man that provided the blueprint for the grittier, unromantic East Coast gangster records of the mid-’90s, and the man with the greatest artistic longevity in the game (LL doesn’t count since he sold out so blatantly).  Three classics as a solo rapper–Mr. Scarface is Back, The Diary, The Fix–one spectacularly underappreciated album–Last of a Dying Breed–and a pioneering track record with the Geto Boys.  And to top it off, there’s probably no rapper more respected by more of his peers than Brad Jordan.  He’s the best from the South and, unquestionably, one of the greatest of all-time.
Missed the cut:  Ludacris, Phonte Coleman, Eightball, MJG (tough one for me), TDD, Bubba Sparxxx, Mystikal (real tough), Chamillionaire (check back in five years), and a few others