Lupe Fiasco seems to have a pretty specific criterion for what makes a great rapper. It certainly differs from most other hip-hop fans. One moment, Kendrick Lamar is overhyped. Now, Nas isn’t even as great as we think he is, according to Fiasco.
In an interview with Justin Hunte on Culture United, the Chicago MC argued that, based on pure lyricism, Nas doesn’t rank that high. If he was judged purely on his rapping a cappella, he might not rank as highly on Lupe Fiasco’s all-time artists.
“For me, remove the beat, remove everything else and you just go with the words and you throw Nas and you created a list of people who just rap, which is a big list, it’s hundreds and thousands of rappers, he wouldn’t rank high. I wouldn’t rank him high,” Lupe Fiasco said. “That doesn’t mean we’re not lyricists in our space, but when you isolate it to that, a lot of people don’t rank high.”
Eventually, Lupe would clarify that this doesn’t denote any of Nas‘ impact as a rapper. It doesn’t even mean that he doesn’t view him as a highly skilled MC. Instead, he chooses to isolate lyrics on their own and judge them accordingly.
Lupe Fiasco Says Nas Ranks Lower on His List of Favorite Lyricists
This echoes a similar sentiment Fiasco has shared about Kendrick Lamar over the years. In an interview with former battle rapper Breezy Nice, he argued that K. Dot may have the edge in his music. But when judging the craft of rapping by itself, Compton’s own doesn’t measure up with the all-time greats.
“I’m not talking about being an artist,” Lupe Fiasco argued. “All the things that I’ve said all these years: He’s a better artist than me, he makes better albums, he has a better team, he has better beat selection, he has better production, right? He has all these better things, right? When it comes down to lyricism, when it comes down to these lyrics and putting these bar-for-bar-for-bar? No. Everything else? For sure. 100 percent.”
Lupe Fiasco took it a step further by suggesting that he could name “hundreds” of rappers before he even considered Kendrick in the rapper discussion. “I’ll name ’em, and we could list them,” he added. “We gonna just start listing n***as and then let’s see how long that list get before we start naming one n***a with a record deal? As the better rapper? Stop.”
The post Lupe Fiasco Adds Nas to the List of Rappers He Thinks Are a Little Overrated: ‘I Wouldn’t Rank High’ appeared first on VICE.
