Just Blaze picks his: Top 5 dead or alive (rappers)

The D.O.C.

You gotta remember with him,
there really wasn't a West Coast
vibe around his era.
He was from Texas [and] formed a group
with artists who were from the West Coast,
but his album just felt more universal.
I think what we consider these
days as the "West Coast" sound
was more so like the G-Funk era.
Up until that point,
everything that for the most part was
coming out in terms of rap was
still different spins on it.
It was like the East Coast sound
was more rhymes and imitation and
then D.O.C. kind of came out of nowhere,
relatively unknown, from Dallas, Texas
rapping the way he [did].
He's definitely one of the greats.
He put out one album and that one album
still stands the test of time even to this day.



Prodigy

I would have to go with '95 Prodigy.
I loved everything about him back then.
There was a point where he was
the best out, in my opinion.
You think back to how many
great opening lines Prodigy's had in songs.
From "Shook Ones" to
"Survival of the Fittest" to
"Godfather Part III" to
"Quiet Storm",
he was the maestro to the opening line.
So I would definitely put
mid-1990's Prodigy on the list.



Brother J

I've gotta keep it to what
I listened to growing up and so
I have to name Brother J from X-Clan.
If you listen to a lot of
those old X-Clan albums,
they specialized in just jacking
everybody else's beats and rhyming on 'em.
So listening to an X-Clan album
felt almost like you were at a house party.
It sounded like somebody was
just on the mic freestyling.
His rhythm, his flow, his vocal presence,
the knowledge he was kicking,
all those factors are important.
At the time, a lot of people were trying
to kick knowledge but not
too many could do it like him.
Whatever you listen to at 12, 13 years old,
it always sticks with you for the rest of your life.
Even though he was rapping over
everybody else's beats, his rhyme,
his cadence, his flow,
is rhyme patterns and just what
he was saying in general,
it's always stuck to me over the years.
I can still go back to
those first two albums.



Chuck D

My last pick would probably be Chuck D.
Public Enemy's concept and pride in
black nationalism at the time was important.
It was such a movement more so than anything else.
He might not have had the best rhymes or flow,
but his voice and his presence
made you stop and listen.
His voice was one of the few
that actually had the
ability to control the people.

VIA
HipHopDX


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