'Hottest MCs In The Game': The 2008 Edition Is Coming On Friday, May 16!
Rick Ross says, ' 'Hottest MCs' -- it's the hottest show out'; 50 Cent and Snoop are less pleased. Who will be #1 this time?
By Shaheem Reid
The MTV News Hip-Hop Brain Trusts' standards are as high as a satellite when determining the top 10 "Hottest MCs in the Game." The stars don't have to align for one of your favorite spitters to wind up on the controversial list however, true MCs have to capitalize on their moments with movements.
Impact is principal: Can a performer make a mark on the culture with SoundScan prevalence and ringtone-sales dominance? Does the performer have enough material to keep a club jumping? When you're out in those streets, are people driving by blasting one of that MC's songs out of their vehicles or blissfully bopping to one of their songs on an iPod? Keep in mind, anybody can make noise with a hit song, anybody can become a ringtone darling but a hot MC must have sustaining substance.
You must have the powerful poetics to not only make the world recite your prose in times of glee at the club, but your words also have to grab hearts. Food for thought isn't good enough. A hot MC is expected to chef up a lyrical buffet. Talk about power: If you can sway the minions with not only what you rhyme about, but how stylistically you deliver your bars, then you're speaking volumes.
And what good is a wordsmith without swagger? Your persona has to be as fly as your art. The hottest MCs are also the coolest. They all posses that intangible factor, which means when they step into a room whether draped in a simple white tee or rocking Gucci from head to toe they make everyone else seem to cease to exist.
Last year, thousands and thousands of people were roused and riled by the Brain Trust's list. Heaven knows, everyone was extremely vocal about the 2007 list, in which Lil Wayne was crowned #1. Fans still stop members of the Brain Trust out in public. The e-mails continue to roll in and the artists' reactions are forever time-stamped.
"I remember catching the 'Hottest MCs' show," Rick Ross said. "I was impressed with that old-school cipher feel. Everybody popped off, and everybody did their thing. I think I seen a couple different ones. I appreciate MTV repping that real cipher feel that's that real hip-hop feel, that real New York feel, that real feeling ... I'm still a fan of just good music, on the corner, people doing what they doing right now. 'Hottest MCs' it's the hottest show out."
Not everyone shares Ross' sentiments.
"To the people of 2007 for leaving me off the list: F--- y'all," Snoop Dogg said after an MTV News interview in February. He was joking ... a little bit.
50 Cent, who made the list, was probably the artist most vocally displeased with his placement. "[Wayne's] #1 and I'm #8? And I got a CD going on sale. F--- MTV," 50 said last year during an interview on Sirius Satellite Radio.
"You guys put out a [Hottest MCs list] when my record [Curtis] was coming out," 50 told MTV News a few weeks ago. "Hands down, when you look at the stats and who generates the most interest and who's moving the most CDs, I was supposed to be one of the top guys, if not the top guy. But they was saying he's #1, because we want people to like Lil Wayne, whoever is making the decisions inside the room. Sure, people were feeling him, but those were his performances on someone else's record." (That very issue will be addressed in the new "Hottest MCs.")
Jay-Z went on the radio and told the masses that since he was already crowned Greatest MC of All Time by the Brain Trust (which still stands), he shouldn't be compared to some of the newer flamethrowers such as T.I. and Wayne. Fabolous told us personally he deserved to be in the top 10, not just an honorable mention.
And Lupe Fiasco was so hurt by not even getting an honorable mention that he told us he doesn't even want to be considered for the new list.
"I was looking like, 'Yo, I ain't make the top 10, I could understand that, because I was, like, in between albums," said Fiasco, who admitted that our 2007 top 10 was "dead on." "Then I wasn't on the 'Honorable Mention' list. Then there's was a ['Future Shock Four' below] that list, and I wasn't on that either. Hold on, hold on nothing? F---!
"It's love I still got love, love, 100-, thousand-percent love for MTV," he clarified, "but I want nothing to do with the [2008] list. I don't even care! How about that? I don't even care that I am not on the list! I've been the underdog my whole career. I always been in the shadow of this dude, or I been over here. I've always been underdog."
(Kanye West, Game, Young Jeezy, Jim Jones, DJ Drama, Jermaine Dupri, Timbaland and even Soulja Boy Tell'em gave us their thoughts on the list as well.)
Was anyone completely, 100-percent satisfied with 2007's list? No. Was there any hesitation in bringing the Brain Trust back to do it all over again? Never! As long as people rap, there are going to be people they've entertained, provoked and even inspired enough to talk about them. (And talk and talk ...)
So without any more holdup, chaos has been unleashed: The Brain Trust went back to the round table and figured out who they thought were paramount in moving the game over the past year.
The 2008 version of "Hottest MCs in the Game" airs Friday, May 16, on MTV at 10 p.m and you can also hit MTVNews.com directly once the program is over to read more in depth about the Brain Trust's choices. In advance of the special, we're letting you all have a say. Head over to Newsroom.MTV.com, where you can vote on who you feel is the #1 hottest MC in the game but don't stop there! You can submit your own top-10 list below.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/158...il_wayne.jhtml
It's happening again! They did screw up last time having Jim Jones in the top 10. That's a guarantee that won't happen again though. These would be my top 10 in no particular order.
1. Lil Wayne
Songs: Gossip, I Love Her Like, Lollipop, A Millie
Guest Features: Shawty Lo's Remix of Dey Know, Birdman's 100 Million, Usher's Love In This Club Part II
He is one of those rappers who scored a #1 on the Hot 100 and used the autotuner with Lollipop and A Millie is heating up the streets right now.
2. Young Jeezy
Songs: Louie Bag, Put On featuring Kanye West
Guest Features: Usher's Love In This Club, Mariah Carey's Side Effects, Lupe Fiasco's Superstar Remix
He got to be part of one of the biggest hit singles of the year in "Love In This Club" and surely has a hit with his first single "Put On" with Kanye West off his new album.
3. Kanye West
Songs: Stronger, Good Life, Flashing Lights, Homecoming
Guest Features: Estelle's American Boy, Young Jeezy's Put On, DJ Felli Fel's The Finer Things
Scored a #1 with Stronger. Giving hip hop a new genre fusing Techno and Rap together. Stormed the charts in the US with Good Life and Flashing Lights. And scored a top 10 hit in the UK with Homecoming. Also scored a #1 with Estelle in the UK as well. Used the autotuner in Young Jeezy's "Put On"
4. T.I.
Songs: You Know What It Is, Hurt, No Matter What
Guest Features: Lupe Fiasco's Superstar Remix, Usher's Love In This Club Remix
T.I. came through with T.I. vs T.I.P. with that rap fire that he always brings. Got on some hot remixes laying down perhaps some of his sickest verses ever. And despite his conviction he shows he's still going strong on No Matter What which has gotten very popular all of a sudden even though it's not his first official single.
5. Andre 3000
Song: W/ Big Boi featuring Raekwon - Royal Flush
Guest Feature: DJ Drama's Da Art of Story Telling
Andre has never ever layed out a wack verse throughout his career. And the one he gives on Big Boi's "Royal Flush" makes it seem like an OutKast record because Andre is rapping and rapping with authority giving you bar by bar.
6. Jay-Z
Songs: Blue Magic, Roc Boys, I Know
Guest Features: Mariah Carey's Bye Bye Remix, Usher's The Best Thing
Jay-Z proved that Hov i still one of the best if not the best with American Gangster one of his best albums of his career along with Reasonable Doubt, The Black Album and The Blueprint. The Roc Boys became a huge anthem around the world.
7. Lupe Fiasco
Songs: Superstar, Dumb It Down, Paris Tokyo, Hip Hop Saved My Life
Guest Features: Wyclef's Fast Car Remix, Blake Lewis's Know My Name
Lupe proved with The Cool one of the hottest hip hop albums of 2007 with Graduation that he belongs to be in the top 10 MCs list especially with the top 10 smash Superstar. You also have to love how he payed tribute to A Tribe Called Quest with Paris Tokyo and paid tribute to the south with Hip Hop Saved My Life.
8. Fabolous
Songs: Make Me Better featuring Ne-Yo, Baby Don't Go featuring T-Pain, Gangsta Don't Play featuring Junior Reid, First Time featuring Rihanna
Guest Features: The Dream's Shawty is a 10, DJ Felli Fel's The Finer Things
Came out with hit after hit last year proving that he is absolutely on fire in the rap game. His last album wasn't that bad either. Added much value to The Dream's Shawty Is A Ten
9. The Game
Songs: Why You Hate The Game, N**** Wit An Attitude, Big Dreams, Game's Pain featuring Keyshia Cole, 911 is a Joke
Guest Features: Gucci Mane's I Might Be, Hurricane Chris's Remix of A Bay Bay, Chris Brown's Nice, Ray J's Where You At, Remix of KRS One's Self Construction
No other rapper tears up the mixtape game perhaps better than Lil Wayne than The Game who even appeared on remixes of hits by Ringtone rappers just to be one more songs than Lil Wayne in one year and he might have just achieved that. He's repeating the same formula that Lil Wayne repeated last year. Not to mention Game's Pain is a banger and 911 is a Joke is wickedI Ice Cube wicked!
10. Snoop Dogg
Songs: Sensual Seduction, Life of Da Party, Neva Hafta Worry, Can't Say Goodbye
Guest Features: Lyfe's Old School, Kelly Rowland's Ghetto
Released a pretty decent album in Ego Trippin and had one of the best songs he has ever did in his whole career with Can't Say Goodbye. Very touching song he did there with Charle Wilson. Not to mention Sensual Seduction was a smash being the first of these top 10 rappers to use the autotune effect then Lil Wayne, 50 Cent and Kanye West all followed suit.
That's only my top 10, Flashing Lights, not their's and mine really was in no particular order. But I guess I would assume they would have Lil Wayne at #1 again.
