Hot 97’s Peter Rosenberg prides himself on being a Hip-Hop nerd. So much of a nerd that he put together a point system to actually rank the greatest emcees in Hip-Hop all-time. This all started because of Rosenberg proclaiming that Kendrick Lamar is the greatest rapper of all-time.
We know this conversation is always subjective and it depends on who you ask. Even this created point system is subject and even Rosenberg admits that. Here’s basically how it works. Rosenberg starts in the year of 1987 and ranks the top 3 emcees of each calendar year. The number 1 emcee gets 5 points, the number 2 emcee gets 4 points, and the number 3 emcee gets 3 points. Sounds simple enough but what gets subjective is what criteria are we basing this on?
Are we basing this on who took over that year or who was the best pure lyricist of that year? We also have to acknowledge that some eras are stronger than others and you have people getting points on one year that they may not have received in other years. Here’s how things turned out.
