10. J. Cole
Solo Albums Between 2008-2013: Cole World: The Sideline Story (2011), Born Sinner (2013)
Group Albums Between 2008-2013: N/A
Biggest Hits Between 2008-2013: J. Cole "Work Out" (2011), J. Cole "Lights Please" (2011), J. Cole f/ Miguel "Power Trip" (2013), J. Cole f/ TLC "Crooked Smile" (2013), J. Cole "Trouble" (2013)
Mixtapes: The Warm Up (2009), Friday Night Lights (2010)
Five years ago, Jermaine Cole was a college student, dabbling in rapping and producing, but completely unknown to the public. But even as he's continued to climb up the ranks of the hip-hop world, hitting one career milestone after another, he's retained the air of the perennial underdog. When he released acclaimed mixtapes and began building a national fanbase, he was still but one of many hopefuls on the periphery of the industry. When Jay-Z signed J. Cole to his Roc Nation imprint, anointing him the first rookie MC in the new dynasty from rap's most revered mogul, success still wasn't guaranteed, and Memphis Bleek jokes hovered in the air.
When his first major label album, 2011's Cole World: The Sideline Story, debuted at No. 1 on theBillboard 200, always a rare feat for a new artist, he remained somewhere in the middle tier of hip-hop's new school, ahead of most contemporaries but not quite nipping at the heels of Drake and Nicki, gold but nowhere near platinum. Even the trio of singles that kept Cole World on the radio for over a year didn't quite translate to the arrival of a major artist.
This year, the conversation changed. First "Power Trip," the lead single from his sophomore effort,Born Sinner, caught on like wildfire. Then, J. Cole and his label made the ballsy decision to schedule the album's release date on June 18th, right up against one of Cole's personal heroes, Kanye West. Inevitably, Cole didn't get to notch another No. 1 debut, but Born Sinner put up impressive numbers against Yeezus, coming in second in a star-studded release week that also included Mac Miller.
And then, Born Sinner just kept selling. Cole put up better second week numbers than Kanye, and in week three he rose to No. 1 while pulling ahead in total sales, a lead he's maintained ever since. It's not completely bizarre, given Yeezus's unconventional promotional campaign and lack of radio hits. But still, it's a result that few would've predicted a few months ago. Even in a year packed with heavy hitters, Born Sinner is the second-best-selling rap album released so far in 2013, behind Cole's boss Jay-Z himself.
But what matters most is the sense that J. Cole is still on the rise. Born Sinner is about to surpass Cole World in sales—a feat rarer than you might think. Big Sean, Wiz Khalifa, 2 Chainz, Mac Miller, and even Nicki Minaj have all suffered sophomore slumps to varying degrees recently, while Wale and Tyga released albums this year that sold less than previous efforts.
If Cole does have staying power that outpaces his peers, then it's just a waiting game to see who he wins over next. He could still stand to toughen up his sound. So far, all of his hits have featured R&B hooks, with the exception of the Kanye-sampling pop smash "Work Out" (which Cole has already lamented for disappointing Nas with.) But there are a lot of rappers out there who Nas had no hopes for to begin with, much less those who could prompt him to make a flattering response song. —Al Shipley
9. Kendrick Lamar
Solo Albums Between 2008-2013: Section.80 (2011), good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012)
Group Albums Between 2008-2013: N/A
Biggest Hits Between 2008-2013: Kendrick Lamar "A.D.H.D." (2011), Kendrick Lamar "Swimming Pools" (2012), Kendrick Lamar f/ Jay Rock "Money Trees" (2013), Kendrick Lamar f/ Drake "Poetic Justice" (2013), Kendrick Lamar "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe" (2013)
Mixtapes: C4 (2009), Overly Dedicated (2010)
About a month ago, Kendrick Lamar upended the hip-hop world with his verse on Big Sean's "Control," on which he rattled off a list of ostensible peers, singling them out as competition. It was something of a career-defining moment, since the takeaway for most onlookers was that there wasn't much competition at all, that those other rappers were going to have their work cut out for them in terms of catching up to Kendrick.
However, the more telling guest spot in terms of assessing Kendrick's career might have been in 2011, when he appeared on the interlude "Buried Alive," from Drake's album Take Care. There, Kendrick, a talented rapper on the cusp of a breakthrough, talked mostly about feeling envious of Drake for being more successful at the same age. Drake had had a string of successes, and he was poised to push the sound of radio even further in his direction. In contrast, Kendrick had recently put out the well-regarded independent album Section.80, a solid document of his talent for creating thoughtful, lyrical hip-hop, but hardly a step in the direction of reinventing the genre.
To erase that envy and reach that level of success, Kendrick would have to do more than just be a really good rapper. He would have to do something game-changing. From that point, Kendrick's career could have easily stagnated, like that of so many promising, hyped sensations before him. It could have continued on an acceptably middling upward trajectory, with Kendrick cultivating a fanbase of people looking for a "real hip-hop" throwback act and content to settle for a few poorly conceived crossover radio bids.
Instead, Kendrick did something more ambitious, making an album, Good Kid, m.a.a.d. City, that was aiming, unapologetically, at all-time classic status. And it pretty much worked, insofar as anything can be deemed a classic less than a year since its release. The album appealed to those looking for dense, lyrical hip-hop with a clear tie to the past, but it also felt innovative, with Kendrick's constantly changing flows jerking tracks in unexpected directions and the production's boom-bap bona fides mixing seamlessly with modern touches. It was tough enough and immediate enough that those normally put off by the corniness of lyrically focused rap could appreciate it, its detailed street narratives projecting a clear moral view without becoming preachy. The talent on display in songs like "Backseat Freestyle" and "m.A.A.d. City" was undeniable, technically astounding while also fun to listen to.
The result was a rare trifecta, particularly for a major label debut, of nearly universal acclaim, instant commercial success and extensive radio play. GKmC united critics, rap audiences and casual fans in a way that many of the genre's other huge successes-Drake, Lil Wayne, even Jay-Z-didn't manage to do until after their second or third albums. It went gold in slightly over a month, and it's since gone platinum. Its singles "Swimming Pools (Drank)" and "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe" managed to dominate radio despite being some of the least-conventional songs in rotation. "Poetic Justice" likewise conquered airwaves while making Drake conform to Kendrick's sound, proof that the latter had caught up from the "Buried Alive" days to become equally adept at defining rap's rules.
In many ways, there is no better straight-up rapper right now than Kendrick Lamar. His verses feel like living things, with new, unruly flows spawning from them unexpectedly. He rips words apart, caresses them, piles them on top of each other, makes us forget to care whether they rhyme or not. The complexity of what Kendrick does is almost unparalleled. But in the past two years, Kendrick hasn't just proven that he's a really good rapper—that was already apparent, if not quite as undebatably obvious. He's also shown that he's an actual artist, capable of taking that talent and re-orienting the genre around it. After a period in which hip-hop was trending away from lyricism altogether, Kendrick has made technically astounding rap fun again. Other artists are taking note and, yes, as requested, they're trying to compete. —Kyle Kramer
8. Lil Wayne
Solo Albums Between 2008-2013: Tha Carter III (2008), I Am Not a Human Being (2010),Rebirth (2010), Tha Carter IV (2011), I Am Not a Human Being II (2013)
Group Albums Between 2008-2013: We Are Young Money (2009), Rich Gang (2013)
Biggest Hits Between 2008-2013: Lil Wayne "A Milli" (2008), Lil Wayne "How to Love" (2011), Lil Wayne f/ Bruno Mars "Mirror" (2011), Lil Wayne f/ 2 Chainz "Rich As Fuck" (2013), Lil Wayne f/ Drake & Future "Love Me" (2013)
Mixtapes: Dedication 3 (2008), No Ceilings (2009), Sorry For the Wait (2011), Dedication 4(2012), Dedication 5 (2013)
Tha Carter III, the album that cemented Lil Wayne as a superstar and will forever represent the peak of his dominance of the hip-hop world, is now a little over five years old. And the time since then has been a bumpy ride that's included a 10-month jail term, seizures that put him in the hospital twice, frequent threats to retire, and a critically maligned rock album. In short, he's done practically everything that can, and often has, stalled a hip-hop legend's career.
Yet here we are in 2013 and, by most metrics, Lil Wayne's star has barely faded. The multi-platinum Tha Carter IV retained a respectable percentage of its blockbuster predecessor's sales, three other stop-gap albums went gold (including the rock album, Rebirth), and the ascent of his protégés Drake and Nicki Minaj has made his Young Money imprint an unstoppable commercial juggernaut.
To judge Lil Wayne solely by his post-Carter III output is to tie one hand behind his back, and watch him still outperform all but his toughest competitors. Compared to Snoop Dogg in the five years after Doggystyle, or 50 Cent in the five years after Get Rich Or Die Trying, he's plateaued instead of experiencing a sharp downward trajectory. But compared to, say, Jay-Z in the years initially following Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life, he hasn't been especially consistent or managed to silence murmurs that he's fallen off creatively. If he's in a rut, it's still one of the most prolific and fruitful fallow periods in rap history. "6 Foot 7 Foot" might be an "A Milli" retread, but who else knocks out a smart/dumb gem like "Real G's move in silence like lasagna" after they've supposedly lost their touch?
To be sure, Wayne sometimes takes up space on records that would be better without him ("I'm On One," looking at you right now.) But just as often, he has still frequently made songs pop with standout verses: Keri Hilson's "Turnin' Me On," Drake's "Forever," Juicy J's "Bandz A Make Her Dance," Chris Brown's "Look At Me Now," Ace Hood's "Hustle Hard," to name just a few. He even gets in a great hook now and again, with Young Money's "Every Girl" being one of his best ever. That he never stopped churning out guest verses, even when he could afford to be more selective and consistent, has been a gift and a curse. Nonetheless, it's what enabled Lil Wayne to break Elvis Presley's record for the most Hot 100 hits by any solo artist last year, a number that continues to tick upward in the triple digits.
And even on the rare occasion that a song manages to become a hit without a Lil Wayne verse on it, he usually catches up and tackles the beat on one of his occasional returns to the mixtape circuit. While they may not quite rank among his very finest works, Dedication 4 and No Ceilingsstand as his best loved of the last few years. And his latest studio album, I Am Not A Human Being II, has kept Wayne relevant this year, pairing him up with newer stars like Future, 2 Chainz and Big Sean on yet another string of hit singles. Time will tell if Tha Carter V will be in keeping with the series' hugely successful past entries, or if Wayne will make good on his promises to retire afterwards. But in the meantime, we'll keep playing a few of his tracks to death every year and taking his work ethic for granted. —Al Shipley
7. Gucci Mane
Solo Albums Between 2008-2013: Murder Was the Case (2009), The State vs. Radric Davis(2009), The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted (2010), The Return of Mr. Zone 6 (2011), Trap House III (2013)
Group Albums Between 2008-2013: BAYTL (2011), Ferrari Boyz (2011), Big Money Talk(2013)
Biggest Hits Between 2008-2013: Gucci Mane "Lemonade" (2009), Gucci Mane f/ Plies "Wasted" (2009), Gucci Mane f/ Usher "Spotlight," Gucci Mane f/ Trey Songz "Beat It Up" (2010), Gucci Mane f/ Swizz Beats "Gucci Time" (2010)
Mixtapes: Trap God 2 (2013), Trap God (2012), I'm Up (2012), Trap Back (2012), Burrrprint (2) HD (2010), Burrrprint 3D: (The Movie: Part 3) (2009), The Movie: Part 2 (The Sequel) (2009),Writing on the Wall (2009)
In 2008 and 2009, the bottom fell out of the hip-hop business. It was particularly bad for artists with a grassroots street audience, all of whom now had to compete with "free," as the smaller mixtape trade hit the internet. Suddenly, the market was flush with music, and without the cosign of a major name (see: Drake and Wayne) it was tough to stand out among the chum. Hand in hand with the sales freefall was the fall of the hip-hop superproducer. The industry-dominating beatmakers who defined the sound of the genre-and pop music as a whole-early in the decade were priced beyond all but the most successful rappers. For a rising rapper, the gulf between ignominy and notoriety never seemed larger.
In the worst possibly climate for new hip-hop artists, the most unlikely star of all rose on a wave of grassroots support, street credibility, mixtapes, and manic creativity. A whirlwind personality whose brushes (okay, collisions) with the law kept his name in headlines as much as his music, Gucci Mane was never the conventional rapper. The anti-Drake, his round head sat behind bug-eyed glasses, a cornucopia of glittering chains draped upon his chest. Gucci had a marble-mouthed backwoods flow, a pot belly, and a reckless rap sheet. His colorful appearance was matched only by his intelligence.
When the market expanded to accommodate every single struggle rapper, Gucci resolved to compete with them. Like Lil Wayne before him, he flooded the market with new material. Like Bun B before that, he went on a tear of recording standout guest verses. He'd already thrown out the pen and pad for 2007's No Pad, No Pencil, and by 2008's The Movie mixtape, he had gone into overdrive. He adapted his recording process to compete with the broken faucet pace of the Internet. Each verse was pulled from a growing data cloud, each line a slight flip of a previous one, as if exhausting all possibilities for a punchline before moving onto the next. So one moment he was higher than an owl; the next, higher than an eagle on California reefer. One moment, his car's top was in lost and found; the next, it was an Eazy E drop-top (because you call it "roofless").
Unlike Wayne or Bun, though, Gucci's main priority was releasing as many full-fledged songs as he could craft. In the early '00s, a rapper would clock in, drop his hot 16, and clock out; Pharrell and Chad would take care of the beat, the hook, explain the concept. Gucci brought his producers into the game himself. He crafted the hooks himself. He had the breadth, creating jams "for the ladies," for the strip clubs, for the streets, lyrical acrobatics, and ultimately, a few singles for the pop charts. Certain songs—deep mixtape cuts!—would become radio singles in different areas of the country. So Chicago would have "Beat It Up" in rotation, even as his label tried to push a crossover Swizz Beats track.
Of course, his run-ins with the law would end up sidetracking his career right at the moment when he most needed to be out promoting his album, pushing well past the limits of the received wisdom that for authenticity-chasing gangster rap fans, jail time equals sales. He never achieved the crossover success that at one time seemed promised, while 2 Chainz replicated his pathway to the big time (and with a fraction of the creativity). —David Drake
6. Jay Z
Solo Albums Between 2008-2013: The Blueprint 3 (2009), Magna Carta Holy Grail (2013)
Group Albums Between 2008-2013: Watch the Throne (2011)
Biggest Hits Between 2008-2013: Jay-Z f/ Alicia Keys "Empire State of Mind" (2009), Jay-Z f/ RIhanna "Run This Town" (2009), Jay-Z f/ Justin Timberlake "Holy Grail" (2013), Jay-Z f/ Rick Ross "F*ckwithmeyouknowigotit" (2013), Jay-Z "Picasso Baby" (2013)
Mixtapes: N/A
We might have named Jay Z the best rapper of the '00s, a title virtually impossibly to deny him. But before we get to his slippage on this list, let's go over what he did correctly over the last five years: In 2008, Jay was still post-retirement, and hadn't yet put out an album quite as banging as The Black Album since he'd left the scene and returned. But 2008 was a renaissance for Hov: "Swagga Like Us", "Jockin Jay-Z", and "Brooklyn Go Hard" all came out. Jay became the first rapper to headline Glastonbury, and dissed Oasis in the process. The stage was set for the third installment in the Blueprint trilogy to make up for that second one.
Which is what 2009 was: "Death of Autotune" as a rebuttal to the T-Painful pop radio. "Run This Town" as your summer smash. "Empire State of Mind" as your regional anthem—a song that accomplished the previously unthinkable task of replacing "New York, New York." And then "On To The Next One" as one last airwaves-dominator. Blueprint 3 might not have been the classic followup that many of us thought we might get, but it certainly came through where it counted: By being completely ubiquitous.
2010 was another strong vintage for Jay, but this time in tandem with Kanye West: Watch The Throne was a peak of luxury rap that nobody's going to reach for quite some time, from its gilded Riccardo Ticsi-designed cover to the glamour of the samples (Otis Redding, Curtis Mayfield, et al.) to the bombast of the singles ("Niggas in Paris", "Otis") to the guest appearances (Beyonce and Frank Ocean) to the tour (which involved playing "Paris" upwards of nine times during tour stops in 2011). Not only was the album a demonstration of excess, hubris, and profound meaning that Jay hadn't delivered since The Black Album (if not before then), he was rapping his ass off, too.
But one album with Kanye and Blueprint 3 does not the best rapper of the last five years make. That said, it was hard to get the sense that Jay really cared all that much about the title of Best Rapper Alive like he did earlier in career, either. He was busy buying pieces of basketball teams. He was starting websites. He was traveling. He was getting married, having a kid. He was making certifiable radio hits, for sure, but his rap stopped being so transcendent, so utterly and inescapably and unilaterally on repeat, such as he was during the first half of the '00s. This was, after all, a guy who had very much made it. And was finally, it seemed, enjoying some of the more refined pleasures of that success. Like hanging out with the leader of the free world in the White House.
And the last year or so has been more of that Jay-Z. The one who vacations to Cuba, who's becoming an art collector, who's starting sports agencies. Sure, he can rap like hell about going to Cuba when provoked (as "Open Letter" demonstrated so, so well.) But that's more the exception than the rule. And that rule? Making million-dollar albums like Magna Carta Holy Grail that shimmer with the sheen of expensive production, expensive guest stars, and serious corporate backing, in which Jay is rapping about the kind of absurd wealth no other rapper (let alone 99.99999% of rap fans) can even remotely relate to. Yes, his producer lineup was incredible. Yes, he had the right guest spots. But were Jay's raps good? They were good. They were better than almost everyone else's raps alive right now. But they weren't quite good enough to warrant making "performance art" with Marina Abromovic.
Jay's been steadily approaching a level within rap that's less artist, more statesman. He's a figurehead almost, rap's grand dignitary, a fair ambassador in representing its gritty past and refined present, especially in proportion to his talent and level of crossover success. Jay's now someone more likely to give the blessing than to be blessed, more Don Corleone than Michael Corleone. And that, for him, was always the dream. But that dream comes at the expense of delivering cutting edge rap, which he's having to rely more and more on the collaborators he surrounds himself with to deliver anything remotely resembling. That's the problem with being at the top for so long, though: It's hard to stay hungry, and Jay's been eating better than anyone else who could ever be on this list, for that much longer than them.
In other words: Heavy raps the head who wears the crown. —Foster Kamer
5. Rick Ross
Solo Albums Between 2008-2013: Trilla (2008), Deeper Than Rap (2009), Teflon Don (2010),God Forgives, I Don't (2012)
Group Albums Between 2008-2013: Self Made Vol. 1 (2011), Self Made Vol. 2 (2012), Self Made Vol. 3 (2013), The H: The Lost Album Vol. 1 (2013)
Biggest Hits Between 2008-2013: Rick Ross f/ Wale & Drake "Diced Pineapples" (2012), Rick Ross f/ Drake & French Montana "Stay Schemin'" (2012), Rick Ross f/ Meek Mill "So Sophisticated" (2012), Rick Ross f/ Usher "Touch'N You" (2012), Rick Ross f/ Drake & Chrisette Michele "Aston Martin Music" (2012)
Mixtapes: The Black Bar Mitzvah (2012), Rich Forever (2012), Ashes to Ashes (2010)
No matter how you feel about Rick Ross's music, there's no denying the the greatness of his unlikely success story.
If ever a rapper looked like a flash-in-the-pan, it would be the big giant guy with the big giant voice who rhymed "Atlantic" with "Atlantic" on his first hit—a song, 2006's "Hustlin'," that was made great by the timbre of Ross's voice and the tropical monsoon of a beat created by Floridian production team The Runners. The guy who was steadily making mediocre music while getting into a seemingly suicidal beef with rap's reigning neighborhood bully, 50 Cent. The guy who posed as a cocaine kingpin before, and after, pictures of him at his old job as a correction officer became very famous on the internet.
But somehow, Rick Ross survived. And not only survived, but thrived. Improving his rapping, honing his ear for beats (his extraordinarily acute ear for beats) and his eye for young talent, and building himself a bonafide gangsta rap empire. If there was ever a testiment to the power of belief-in-self, of creating one's own reality, it is Rick Ross.
Never really conquering 50 in rap-beef, but simply perservering in a war of attrition long enough to impress his doubters, Ross's stunning rise started in 2009, with the release of his third album, Deeper than Rap. It was the beats that people noticed first. Lush, luxurious soundscapes like "Mafia Music" and "Maybach Music 2," tracks that sounded like Isaac Hayes and Barry White, and painted the perfect backdrop for the Maimi-Vice tales of druglord excess that Ross was rhymed about.
Then, knowing just how to prime the mainstream by satisfying the streets, Ross bought a couple of drop-dead monsterous beats from a young Atlanta producer named Lex Luger and rapped about pretending to be someone you're not. "MC Hammer" and "B.M.F." were powerful enough to win over the most skeptical doubters (Oh, hello there!) He was using his voice expertly, and crafting songs impeccably, making up for any remaining lyric-writing deficiency with phrasing and great hooks, and ingenius usage of producers and guest rappers. The album that followed was perfectly named—Teflon Don. He had done it. He was untouchable.
And he's pretty much stayed that way since. Some of us are still scratching our heads. —Dave Bry
4. Eminem
Solo Albums Between 2008-2013: Relapse (2009), Recovery (2010), The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013)
Group Albums Between 2008-2013: Hell: The Sequel (2011)
Biggest Hits Between 2008-2013: Eminem f/ Rihanna "Love the Way You Lie" (2010), Eminem "Not Afraid" (2010), Eminem f/ Lil Wayne "No Love" (2010), Eminem "Space Bound" (2010), Eminem "Berzerk" (2013)
Mixtapes: N/A
Roughly two years ago, Tyler, the Creator, tweeted "I Listen To RELAPSE And Notice How Much Of A Good Rapper I'm Not." He followed this with the claim, "Wait, Relapse Is One Of My Favorite Albums. This **** Is Amazing." This was a minority opinion. After all, many critics (and fans) had considered Relapse, which released on May 19, 2009, a sign of the decline of the once-great rapper known as Eminem.
Relapse came four years after Em's previous album. It was met with hesitant review. It was called joyless. Em was, despite continuing to push forth his technical prowess, assailed for failing to seize a moment and (once again) transcend a genre.
Ever resilient, though, he bounced back doing what he does best—reminding core rap fans that he raps about as well as anyone who's ever done it. First, in August of 2009, he out-classed Kanye West and Lil' Wayne on Drake's "Forever." Then, in October, Em channeled his Rawkus-era self and became the talk of the BET Awards in closing his cypher with Mos Def and Black Thought. Both appearances can be viewed, retrospectively, as part of a slow march to renewing relevance and re-establishing elite status.
Recovery, the follow-up to Relapse, hit shelves on June 18, 2010. The album sounded different. While it retread some familiar tropes, the lead single, "Not Afraid" featured Eminem singing, far more melodically than he ever before—and became a radio smash and earned an audience of younger kids that he'd never previously appealed to. The second single, a duet with Rihanna called "Love the Way You Lie," repeated the feat, and would eventually win a Grammy. "No Love," featuring Lil' Wayne, didn't suffer for lack of attention either. When the dust settled, Recovery had sold over 10 million copies globally in 18 months.
Still, fast selling pop singles ("Love the Way You Lie") and robust final numbers aren't immediate signifiers of greatness. However, while Em hasn't dominated conversation over the past five years like he once did, he's mastered the art of sporadically popping out of the darkness and stealing the limelight. Two great examples from 2011: his aligning himself with Chrysler and the BET freestyle. An explicit effort to bring Detroit back from the brink, Em's Chrysler commercial owned the Super Bowl, and, in the end worked in helping to revive Americas auto industry. Later, the BET spot, dubbed the Shady 2.0 cypher, stunned backpackers. (He and his Slaughter House cronies rhymed over East Flatbush Project's "Tried by 12!")
Eminem had effectively proved himself king of two domains. That duality is his trump card. In a genre that champions an authenticity that is often at odds with the material success required of its superstars, Eminem retains a keen sense of competitiveness—as well as an enviable bank account. "Berzerk," Em's current single and the lead to the forthcoming Marshal Mathers LP 2, name-drops only one contemporary MC: Kendrick Lamar. And functions as a radio friendly call-to-arms to get rap back to brass tacks. We're not there yet. Neither is Em. But, even if he's slipped from the top spot during the last half decade, his battle-born approach won't let him slip too far. —Nick Schomberger
3. Nicki Minaj
Solo Albums Between 2008-2013: Pink Friday (2010), Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded – The Re-Up (2012), Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012)
Group Albums Between 2008-2013: We Are Young Money (2009), Rich Gang (2013)
Biggest Hits Between 2008-2013: Nicki Minaj f/ Drake "Moment 4 Life" (2010), Nicki Minaj "Super Bass" (2011), Nicki Minaj "Va Va Voom" (2012), Nicki Minaj "Pound the Alarm" (2012), Nicki Minaj "Starships" (2012)
Mixtapes: Beam Me Up Scotty (2009), Sucka Free (2008)
She's said it herself and it's true: Nicki Minaj raps better than most of her male contemporaries. Oddly, this seems to be something that has hurt her, in terms of getting the respect she deserves, as much as its helped. It makes men feel uncomfortable that there's a woman who raps better than them. Period.
But since her career-making guest verse on Kanye West's "Monster," a verse where she bested all her testosterone-heavy competition, since her second official solo single, "Your Love," made her the first female artist to top the chart unaccompanied since 2002. Since her debut album, Pink Friday sold almost two million copies, and her follow-up Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, cemented her status as a blockbuster, it's been something people have had to deal with: her talent seems to know no bounds. And rapping really, really well, and making pop hits are not mutually exclusive endeavors.
But that's the thing about Nicki: she hasn't had that front-to-back classic rap album yet. She's made some amazing efforts, teetered between rap and pop, and electro and R&B, but there isn't just one concise exhibit of her ability to rhyme at the level that we know she can. If there was, you might see her up at No. 1 or No. 2 on this list.
On 2012's Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded-The Re-Up, Nicki addressed her success, and her consciousness of decision to go mainstream, and how much hate she received for that. "They'll never thank me for opening doors but they ain't even thank Jesus when he died on the cross/Cause your spirit is ungrateful/Bitches is so hateful, I remain a staple" on "Freedom." She's backed it up. In the face of an industry who doubted her lyrical strength because she excelled on pop songs ("Starships") and dabbled in other genres outside of rap, she hasn't spit one guest verse over the past six months that hasn't left fans, male and female, salivating over the prospects of her next album.
Over the past five years, we've watched Nicki grow from mixtape phenon to Wayne's pet project to a world-wide star with three hit albums of rap, pop, R&B, and more. She's never been predicatble. This summer, when rap fans were thinking she went too mainstream, she came with killer verses on Busta Rhymes' "Twerk It" and Ciara's "I'm Out." Maybe The Pinkprint will be more rap-centric, or maybe it won't. In the end, Nicki doesn't have to cater to rap fans. She knows her own power, lyrically and musically. And, as has become very clear, she'll use it however the fuck she wants. —Lauren Nostro
2. Drake
Solo Albums Between 2008-2013: Thank Me Later (2010), Take Care (2011), Nothing Was the Same (2013)
Group Albums Between 2008-2013: We Are Young Money, Young Money Entertainment (2009)
Biggest Hits Between 2008-2013: Drake f/ Kanye West, Eminem, & Lil Wayne "Forever" (2009), Drake f/ Lil Wayne "The Motto" (2011), Drake f/ Rihanna "Take Care" (2012), Drake "Started From the Bottom" (2013), Drake f/ Majid Jordan "Hold On, We're Going Home" (2013)
Mixtapes: So Far Gone (2009)
Five years ago, you'd be hard pressed to find people who could see this coming. After all, in 2008, Aubrey Drake Graham was still that Canadian ex-Degrassi star with the decent-but-nothing-special mixtape Comeback Season, and had managed to get his video on BET a few times. But that was the same year his music made his way to Lil Wayne, who saw something special in the double-threat rapper who sings (or singer who raps), and took him out on tour with him, beginning the anointing of his stardom. It was the beginning of the ignition sequence, sure, but Wayne taking a former teen Canadian soap star on the road with him as the Next Big Thing was weird. What came next was just straight up unreal.
In 2009, Drake released So Far Gone. It's not the fact that everything about it set it apart from everything else in 2009 that makes it great. It's that those things, those creative risks that Drake took, they weren't just opportunities to be different for the sake of being different that were seized upon when the whole world was beginning to watch. It's that they were simply better than almost everything else out there. The cover. The guest spots, which ranged from Bun B to Wayne to Trey Songz and back. The beats, those dark, ominous, sparse productions that opened up to reveal lush soundscapes unlike anything being heard in rap at that moment, by this "40" guy Drake kept calling out (one who music writers would later clamor for interviews with). And the samples, which ranged from Swedish indie darlings like Peter Bjorn & John to Swedish indie songstress Lykke Li, to Santigold, to Jay-Z and even Kanye West. The songs themselves were nothing short of incredible, and even more incredible was the fact that they came together on that tape in a coherent way, weaving a narrative of an introspective kid who seemingly had it all, but didn't, and who questioned his self-worth while always working hard to gas it up (whether or not he deserved it or not). Hell, even the mixtape name, which came from a conversation between Drake and Oliver North about how terribly they treated women? That was different.
But then, there were the raps themselves: Whether it was Drake's hashtag flow, or simple teardowns of himself, there was something equal measures absurd, but sharp, slick, and pointed about what he was doing, all of which was underscored by a self-conscious depth no other rapper even remotely close to his level of frighteningly innate talent had or was exhibiting. He ruled the summer with "Best I Ever Had," an absurdly charming single which made him a ubiquitous rapper who anticipated the ways you would hate him before you could articulate them yourself. By the time you realized it, it was too late. You were hooked. And of course, 2009 was also the year "Forever" was everywhere, a single that more or less minted him into the current crop of top-tier rap artists, if only by his place among the others (Kanye, Em, Wayne).
2010 saw the release of Thank Me Later, Drake's official studio debut record. It was a much, much different Drake than the one on So Far Gone, one who was being poised for a cultural takeover, one who would be accompanied by a star-studded cast of guest players including Alicia Keys, Nikki Minaj, T.I., The-Dream, Jeezy, and Wayne. Thank Me Later was the summer blockbuster to So Far Gone's indie sleeper, and yes, it alienated some core Drake fans. It also won him a world of core rap and rap-pop crossover fans who hadn't yet fallen in line. Four distinct singles ("Over," "Find Your Love," "Miss Me," and "Fancy") made the album inescapable, to say nothing of its deeper cuts ("Up All Night," "Fireworks") that seemed equally planted all over the culture.
In the time between Thank Me Later and his next studio album, Drake started to appear everywhere. On Jay-Z's Blueprint 3. On Ross's Teflon Don. On Rihanna's smash single "What's My Name?" On "I'm On One" and "She Will" and "The Motto" and "It's Good." Odds are, if you were making a rap song or a rap album then, you wanted Drake to be in its orbit. And more often than not, he was, and he was there delivering smash verses, too, absolute, undisputed, show-stealing knockouts. At a certain point, it's almost a running joke, the rap game Catch-22: You can have Drake on your song, if you're lucky, at which point, he will then steal your own song from you.
But then, at the end of 2011: Enter Take Care, an album that begins with a drippy piano line and the words "I thought I killed everybody in the game last year, man/Fuck it, I was on, though." It was hard to argue with him, and even harder as he made his case for the next seventeen (okay, fourteen) songs, each one delivering the various degrees of Drake we'd met along the way. Drake was singing. Drake was rapping about catching bodies. Drake was going in on a Grand Canyon-sized Just Blaze beat with Ross. Drake was throwing down for Toronto. Drake was rapping about relationships, gone good, and gone bad. Drake was rapping about his crew. Drake was having a round of introspection about the women in his life. His mother. His ex-girlfriends. His grandmother. Drake was there alongside a perfect lineup of guest spots: Ross, Rihanna, The Weeknd, Wayne, Nikki, Birdman (in full Birdman soliloquy form), Kendrick Lamar, Andre 3000. Then there were 40's beats, a musical style that seemed to evolve in tandem with Drake's rapping, the kind of sonic evolution that felt missing from the crystalline production of Thank Me Later that finally fell into place. And of course, there was "Marvin's Room," the ultimate synthesizing of the Drake ethos.Take Care earned Drake a Grammy, for very, very good reason: It's an incredibly well composed album, one that delivers on any and all promises Drake has made over the course of his career (maybe a little too much, with its protracted length, but who's arguing with it?).
In 2012 and 2013, in the wake of Take Care, Drake was everywhere, moreso than ever: As his album burned, he kept the fire going by contributing to every and any solid single that he could, intent on stealing the spotlight from whoever was smart (or naive) enough to welcome him onto their track: "Pop That" and "Stay Schemin" and "No Lie" just to name a few. "Poetic Justice" and "Fuckin Problems" and "Amen" to name a few more. But Drake's guest spot output slowed towards the middle of this year, as he started dropping more of his own material, a few songs at a time: "Started from the Bottom," the slow-burn slam-dunk single of the summer. Or "5AM in Toronto," which prominently features Drake absolutely topping himself in terms of sheer rap dynamics. Or "No New Friends," in which he runs away with another DJ Khaled hit. Then there was the "Versace" remix verse, where he rendered Migos all but irrelevant on the Atlanta group's own track (sorry, but it's true). Or "All Me," in which he referred to himself as the "light skinned Keith Sweat," and nobody blinked, as if this were a perfectly normal thing for Drake to say (because by this point, it was). As we started the run-up into fall, Drake started showing a different side of what was to come: "Hold On, We're Going Home" was a straight-up R&B jam with old-school ideas embedded in its sonic fabric. "Wu-Tang Forever," with its absurd title, was an equally absurd proposition of Drake vacillating wildly between rapping and singing in a way that felt, somehow, after all this time, still audacious. And then his album leaked, and it's since destroyed the Internet, when not sendingevery music writer who's had to spend hours pouring over it to a corkscrew or their ex-girlfriend. Drake's new album has probably racked up more billing hours for the psychiatrists of millennials since the week they all graduated college. He fucks people up that badly.
And now, here we are: Yes, Drake is the second-most dominant rap act of the last five years. Five years ago, it seemed implausible. Now, it doesn't seem like it could have gone any other way. He has vanquished what few enemies he's had, if not made them look at the very least foolish. He has made the old men look like geriatrics, and the younger men look like children. He's won the hearts and minds of everyone. You. Your mom. Your grandmother. Whoever. He is capable of being a complete affront to everything some people hold sacred about rap while at the same time epitomizing everything some people love about rap. Or R&B. It barely makes a difference anymore. The only thing Drake can't do yet is produce, and hopefully, he never will (his dedication to having a longtime collaborator in 40 is the kind of Dre/Snoop or Dre/Em or Ye/Jay classic rapper-producer relationship we need more of). If he continues at his current rate, the only thing left for Drake to do, really, is outlast the next guy on this list, and hang on as long as he possibly can. —Foster Kamer
1. Kanye West
Solo Albums Between 2008-2013: 808's & Heartbreak (2008), My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010), Yeezus (2013)
Group Albums Between 2008-2013: Watch the Throne (2011), Cruel Summer (2012)
Biggest Hits Between 2008-2013: Kanye West f/ Rick Ross, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, & Bon Iver "Monster" (2010), Kanye West "Power" (2010), Kanye West f/ Jay-Z "Ni**as in Paris" (2011), Kanye West "All of the Lights" (2011), Kanye West "New God Flow" (2012)
Mixtapes: Can't Tell Me Nothing (2008)
Look, we'll keep this brief, since we already know what some of you are going to say.
Angry Complex Hate-Reader: (in caveman-esque angry commenter voice) Man, fuck Complex, y'all are just a bunch of Kanye dickriders. I'm going to leave a comment! [Leaves comment that reads 'FUK COMPLEX U JUST KANYE DICKRIDEERZ thats yur opinion and its stupid bcuz j cole/wale/mac miller/TDE/ace hood is the best you bitchz.']
We'll stop you right there, and save you the comment:
1. Calling Complex "dickriders of Kanye" or whathaveyou for crowning him the best rapper of the last five years is like calling your math teacher a "dickrider of algebra" when solving for X.
2. No, whatever rapper you put in there is not the best rapper of the last five years. They just aren't. You can argue, but you're wrong.
3. The reason for this is that Kanye has done more to push the musical boundaries of rap than anyone on this list, while still maintaining what is more or less an impossibly high standard.
4. And also, actually, thanks for reading!
Let's review, shall we?
2008: Kanye releases 808s and Heartbreak, an album that takes the autotune trend of the moment to the utmost extreme, and records a heartbreaking record that involves singing, rapping, and a transformation that puts him past the realm of rapper, and singer, and producer.
2009: Kanye flips his shit at Taylor Swift, but also, basically speaks the truth. Destroys Jay-Z on "Run This Town." Crushes it on "Make Her Say" and "Kinda Like a Big Deal" and "Walkin On The Moon" and every other monster guest verse he drops that year.
2010: Kanye drops My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, indisputably one of the greatest rap records of all time, a pop masterpiece that is as vulnerable as it is bombastic, a theatrical production in every sense of the word. The art for the album is done by George Condo. The line of singles released in the lead-up to it are almost alll stunners. His VMA performance makes the actions of a passive-aggressively vengeful Taylor Swift look like those of pop music's borderline-Grand Wizard aspirant.
2011: Kanye raps on and produces Watch The Throne, the long-awaited luxury rap superalbum, featuring himself and Jay-Z, packaged inside a gilded Riccardo Ticsi box. When touring for the album, Jay and Ye would go on to play "Paris" as many as eight times in a row on some stops.
2012: Kanye releases G.O.O.D. Music's first crew album, Cruel Summer. Initially met with critical hesitation, the album eventually yields a few bangers, three of which become the summer's biggest songs ("Mercy," "Clique," and "Cold"). Oh, yeah, and kills it on "Birthday Song."
2013: Kanye releases Yeezus, a ten-track album that is utterly fucking transcendent in that it infuriates rap fans who wanted club-banger Kanye to feed them hits, and instead got Artist Kanye who made a record about telling corporate sponsorships, the government, the rap game, and anyone who wants to box him in to rightly fuck themselves. It is still the best album to come out this year, in any genre of music, let alone rap. Its collaborators range from the hardest pride of Chicago's 2013 rap scene (Chief Keef, King Louie) to his high-note go-to, Justin Vernon, to TNGHT, to Daft Punk, to Rick Rubin, to dancehall artist Assassin, and then some. Kanye first debuted songs from the album during the Met Costume Gala, and then on walls, projected, around the world. He rapped about coming on your Hamptons spouse's blouse on Saturday Night Live. He released his funniest, angriest, most artistically risk-taking and rewarding album to date. And he released it the same week his first child was born.
So where are we in 2013? Well, Jay Z is shilling for Samsung and taking dashes out of his name.Lil Wayne is still rapping about his scat fixation and cashing in on the first two years of the last five. And then there's Drake, who is undoubtedly nipping at Kanye's heels, but still lacks the sheer artistry to pass Kanye, relying on a bevy of brilliant, young, scrappy collaborators to help him do so. And not that Kanye didn't do the same thing with Yeezus, but the difference is in the people, and Drake, Jay, and Wayne don't even need more of them. Consider: Drake's only real feature on his new album is Jay. Jay needs features like Justin Timberlake to attract the attention of the masses, who he pre-purchased a million albums for. And Wayne is still trying to recreate the success of the first half of the last five years, and like Jay, is tapping all the help he can get to do so (while being slightly less discerning about it).
The most popular act to guest on Kanye's new album is Daft Punk, and they're a production credit. He doesn't need Jay. He doesn't need Wayne. He doesn't need Drake. Kanye can simply rely on his own instincts as an artist, and rely on his reputation to be able to tap the help he needs, even if that help isn't always going to get the most prominent look from it. The people Kanye are working with now know the reward isn't in the look so much as it is in the art, in the place in history, which is how he can convince them to do it. Of all of the aforementioned rappers, which of them truly have vision? Which of them have vision and can rap like there's no tomorrow? And which of them have vision, can rap like there's no tomorrow, and continue to turn out bangers?
There's only one. Kanye's the best rapper of the last five years not just because he's done more for transcending the simple and prescribed role of rapper as artist, although that could be enough. But beyond that, quite simply, he's just made better music than anyone else. That's it. That's just all it comes down to. —Foster Kamer
