Who is the greatest rapper of all time?

Who Is The Greatest Rapper Of All Time?

One of the most asked questions is who is the greatest rapper of all time? It's one of the most important things to people, they will back up their claims of who they think is the greatest rapper ever. If you were to ask people that question though you'd get a variety of answers, you have people who will say it's 2pac, others say it's Biggie, and some people will say it is Kanye or Drake. The point is that most people will give you a variety of answers, because there is no consensus answer because people like different artists and dislike others. I'm here to talk about why Lil Wayne is the greatest rapper of all time. 

(Lil Wayne)

2Pac and Biggie v.s. Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne is clearly the greatest rapper of all time. He is arguably the king of rap and hip-hop, dominating it since the late 1990s to even now. 2pac isn't the greatest rapper ever, because he died too young and wasn't able to have a better resume to put him in that category. While the same thing can be said about Biggie as well, they just didn't have enough time to improve their resumes. Lil Wayne on the other hand has been building his rap resume for almost 30 years. In that time he has been able to have top songs on the charts, and be a regular on the radio.

         (Biggie)                                                                                                          (2pac)

Are Kanye or Drake The G.O.A.T. Of Rap?

Kanye and Drake are very accomplished artists and rappers. They have been dominating for quite a while too and are radio regulars as well. The reason Drake is not the greatest rapper ever is because his albums have all gotten significantly worse with each drop, with only one to three songs being songs you will play for a while, which isn't like him and his previous albums. He's drifting away with that title due to his new albums not being up to standard. Kanye is a great rapper and overall producer, all his albums have done great, but the thing holding him back from becoming the greatest rapper ever is just his lack of success in certain albums, they could have done so much better. 

(Drake)                              (Lil Wayne)                (Eminem)                    (Kanye West)

The Greatest Rapper Of All Time

Lil Wayne has dropped huge songs like 6 foot 7 foot, Believe Me, Uproar, Open Letter, Demon, Fireman, Lollipop, and Famous. I could keep on going, because he just has so many songs that are great. Not to mention that all his albums have aged like fine wine, with each time you listen to the albums it gets better. Without a doubt, Lil Wayne is the greatest rapper of all time. He has showcased this with his incredible resume that took 30 years to complete, his amazing albums like The Carter 4 and The Carter 5, and the fact that his really old music is still great and very enjoyable to listen to.

How has the rap genre changed from the 90's to modern day?

 Old Generation Rap Compared To Modern Generation Rap

The 90’s rap game was run by huge names like Andre 3000, Dr. Dre, Eminem, and Ice Cube. Modern Day rap is run by famous rappers like Drake, Future, Kanye, and Kendrick Lamar. If you've ever listened to their music you can tell that it's very different. Overall the beats have evolved, the rapping has changed going from a more slow lyrical flow to more of a mumble to melodical  fast paced flow.

Andre 3000

Dr.Dre

Eminem

Ice Cube

Are 90’s Rappers Still Being Streamed By A Lot of People?

While the artists of the 90’s still post music to this day, most of them have not lived up to the expectations of modern day rap. They are slowly drifting away from the top charts to modern day rappers getting crazy album sales, and monthly listeners.  Drake, one of the biggest rappers today has been dominating the rap game for years like Kanye, Future, and  Kendrick Lamar. Everytime these artists drop, they do crazy numbers. They are certified “Hit Makers,” with every song and feature they do shooting to the top of the charts.

Drake

Kanye West

Future

Kendrick Lamar

Spotify Monthly Listeners For Old and New Gen Rap Music

Drake has an astounding 62,042,293 monthly listeners on Spotify, compared to someone like  Andre 3000 who only has 806,675 monthly listeners on Spotify. Kanye is also doing really well on Spotify having 50,672,772 monthly listeners, as compared to  Ice Cube who has 12,216,102 monthly listeners.  Kendrick Lamar has 36,997,648 monthly listeners, while Dr. Dre has only 17,383,417 monthly listeners. The only outlier who still is pretty big in the rap industry is  Eminem who has over 50,000,00 monthly listeners which is pretty impressive, because he's been popular since the 90’s, and is still doing pretty well in the 2020’s.

The Evolution Of Rap Through 30 Years

The rap genre just isn't what it used to be, now instead of having good lyricism being valued, we valued artists who use autotune and mumble. In the modern era, every rapper is using auto tune and if they don't do it regularly they have at least done it a few times, which is to mumble the lyrics. Popular artists who only mumble are artists like Lil Uzi Vert, PlayBoi Carti, and Yeat. These rappers have built their fame and following from rapping things you can't understand, and have had successful music careers, and are still continuing to get bigger. Overall the rap game has changed having moved from lyricism and slow beats to more uptempo beats and mumble rap. Also the rappers that are big at the time, don't always end up keeping their fame and fortune, popular artists are always flowing in and out of the top charts.

Lil Uzi Vert

PlayBoi Carti

Yeat

What similarities do the biggest modern day rappers have in common?

 Similarities Of Modern Day Rappers

The biggest modern day rappers share a few similarities, one of those being their use of similar producers. Most of the biggest modern day rappers use the same producers as each other, the biggest well known ones being Tay Keith, Murdabeats, Metro Boomin, and 808 Mafia. These producers sell their beats to multiple of these top named artists which results in all of them having similar esque type beats. Another similarity between them is their use of heavy to kinda heavy autotune. The rap industry revolves around auto tune now, with rappers like Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Baby, Travis Scott, and Kid Cudi evolutionizing the rap game and the different types of auto tune levels they use for songs. Someone listening to modern day rap who didn't know anything about it would most likely say that all these top charting songs sound the same. Another similarity between top artists is usually their flow, some of them never change it up which results in each song also sounding the same. A good example of a popular rapper was Da Baby, he declined in popularity due to the fact that he never changed up his flow on his songs. This caused people to stop listening to him due to the fact that every song practically sounded the same. 

Tay Keith

Murdabeats

Metro Boomin

808 Mafia

Differences Of Modern Day Rappers

While some of those similarities are pretty big, there are also different examples of how rappers have their own unique trait about themselves or their music. Lil Baby’s popular trait is being able to rap at an incredible rate, he showed this off in songs like Wants and Needs by Drake, Rags 2 Riches by Rod Wave, and Every Chance I Get off one of DJ Khaled’s projects to name a few of his impressive ones. This gives him his own unique style that most can't copy. Drake is another rapper that has his own unique trait being his ability to be able to be incorporated into any song/beat, as well as his diverse ability to be able to rap and sing a catchy verse. He uses this trait in songs like In My Feelings, Jimmy Cooks, and Life Is Good by Future. He just has such a wide range of ways he can contribute to songs, and make hits. 

                                 (Drake)                                                                  (Lil Baby)

Unique Traits Make You Stay Relevant

While most of the top rappers share a lot of similarities between their music, they also have their own unique traits that they can incorporate to their music, as well as others music as well. These unique characteristics allow these rappers to stay relevant for so long, if you incorporate something unique to your music that people vibe with and like to listen to you will end up staying relevant for quite a while. No one can dominate the rap industry forever since it's always evolving as well as people's taste in certain music, meaning you can only stay relevant for so long.

How has auto tune influenced modern day rap?

 

Autotune In Modern Day Rap

Have you listened to a rap song this year that didn't have any auto tune in the song? The answer was probably no right, because it doesn't matter if it's a lot or a little, all rappers use autotune in their music, it's a staple in modern day rap. (Modern Day Rap Hits)

Famous Rappers Who Use Auto Tune

Famous rappers ranging from Kendrik Lamar to J Cole to Lil Baby to Drake to Kanye West to Travis Scott, you can keep going naming every modern day rapper, all of them use autotune in their music. 

Kendrick Lamar

J Cole

Lil Baby

Drake

Kanye West

Travis Scott

When Did Autotune Become Popular, and Who Popularized It

Some may ask when did the use of autotune in rap songs start, and the answer is the late 2000’s. When artist T-Pain started growing in popularity in the late 2000s, he started incorporating autotune in his songs. This is when the use of autotune started to skyrocket in popularity by rappers. This would consider T-Pain the “God-Father” of autotune, he had such a great influence on other rappers and people to experiment incorporating autotune into their rap music. The crazy thing to think is that auto tune has influenced the rap genre, and stayed relevant for almost 20 years. 

T-Pain

The Popularity Of Heavy Auto Tune In Rap Music

The use of heavy autotune use was incorporated around 2014-2016, that's when the rap game changed up, and a new breed of rappers started dominating the top charts, with their music containing heavy autotune. 

Lil Uzi Vert

Drake

PlayBoi Carti

21 Savage

Future

Has Auto Tune Really Taken Over The Rap Game

While it may seem weird, some people believe that autotune hasn't influenced and been popular in the rap genre. People argue that artists like Pusha T, Jay-Z, and ASAP Rocky have proven that autotune doesn't dominate the rap game, and that they have proven that it's not popular to a large audience. While these rappers are big names, they just don't pull the same numbers as artists like Drake, Lil Uzi Vert, and Lil Baby

Pusha T

Jay-Z

ASAP Rocky

Drake

Lil Uzi Vert

Lil Baby

Importance Of Auto Tune To Rappers

Without a doubt it's obvious to the naked eye that auto tune has been a staple in modern day rap songs. Without autotune, a good majority of these popular artists today wouldn't be as big as they are right now.

 

 About Jason:

My name is Jason Podea, I am a freshman at Arizona State University. I am majoring in computer science, and I was born and raised in Arizona. I've been living in Arizona since I was put into this world, a whole 18 long years of living here. To give some basic information about me, some of my hobbies include going to the gym, playing sports, and playing video games. I try to maintain my hobbies during the school year, but sometimes that can be challenging because of all the homework and studying I have to do. Most of my nights after school include doing homework, or hanging out with friends. I usually hangout with my three best friends, but sadly I can only hangout with two of them since my other friend moved to Montana for college. He went to Montana to study photography, and mostly because he wanted to get out of AZ, and enjoys the cold weather up there, as well as snowboarding. Arizona is actually the opposite, it's no joke to live here, it's always so hot, very dry, and there's a lot of people who live here. My aim for this year is to pass all my classes, and keep passing them every year, until I get my degree. I hope to get a job at a decently big to big business, where I will be able to design/program code into a big project that I will be a part of. The goal is to work for companies like microsoft, or google, maybe a few years down the line I will be able to complete that goal. I will most likely stay in Arizona, due to the fact that my whole life, and family are here, and this is where I grew up, its home for me.