Bloggystyle -- The Greatest

8 years ago today, the Notorious BIG was killed in a drive by in Los Angeles. For any ignoramuses, that's the occasion Bol was talking about.

Of course, days like March 9 and September 13 are apt to bring out the "great debate," or at least the debate over who's the greatest. Bol's post favorably compares Biggie to a few of the MCs that are considered some of the greatest in stating that Biggie was the greatest of all time.

Of course, not everybody thinks Biggie is the greatest. And I'm in the not everybody crowd. Here's the Johnny Whitewater food chain.

Tupac Shakur > Notorious BIG

The debate almost always centers over these two, probably because they had the infamous beef. Here's what I say to people when responding.

"Biggie was the better MC. Pac was the better rapper."

I think there's a difference between an MC and a rapper. When we're talking about MC skills, we're talking about flow, wordplay and delivery. Flow being the way you string along your rhymes, wordplay obviously being how clever your shit is, and delivery in terms of the emotion and voice during the rhymes. I don't think anyone would argue that Biggie's flow and wordplay is better (unless you're a Pac dickryder). At the same time, I think it's obvious that Pac's delivery was better.

So why would I take Pac over Biggie? Because, as so many have proved before, you can be a perfect MC and still make shitty music. Whether it's something like Jigga's "Justify My Thug" or Nastradamus's "You Owe Me," being a tight MC doesn't make you a good rapper.

In addition to the fact that Biggie put out about enough material to make 3.5-4.5 good CDs, I think Pac's discography (at least before he died + Makaveli) is better. Me Against The World is deeper than any Biggie album. All Eyez On Me was more epic and more rounded than Life After Death. The Makaveli album was on an entirely different level. Biggie's MC skills on Me And My Bitch does not make the song better than Me And My Girlfriend. Pac had enough material for about 20 bootleg albums from his 10 or so months at Death Row, much of it being great. Not only was Pac's music deeper and more rounded, but the guy was about 5 times as prolific as Biggie in making good music by numbers alone.

While I think a majority of people who care would name Pac the greatest rapper of all time, I actually think Pac's MC skills are generally underrated. But that's an entirely different post.

A lot of people like to discuss the gulliness of the individual rappers, as if that has anything to do with their music. The simple truth is that almost every successful rapper does not leave the studio and start bucking. Some people over at BC dot C note Pac was a backup dancer for Digital Underground. Nobody's calling that "gangsta," but Pac also sold drugs, shot a few cops in 93 and got shot 9 times. That's a strong resume in any G contest.

I won't get as specific for the rest, but I'll take Pac's music over the old schoolers, notably KRS-1's and Rakim's for most of the same reasons I just listed above. Pac didn't peak with his first album and subsequently make a Volume 2 or Nastradamus either.

If you're interested in rap music only to hear the skills of the MC, there's a good chance you'll be hearing a lot of bullshit about Chanel and Gucci. If you want to hear good tracks about various aspects of life ranging from death, friendship, partying, religion, the hood, women, bitches, gangs etc. then Pac will have something you'll like.

# posted by Jay Dub @ 4:50 PM