It is nearly impossible to get a bunch of passionate hip-hop fans to agree on anything. But I tried anyhow, starting with a series of polls on Facebook that aimed to figure out which emcee or group was the best in the game as driven by the letters of the alphabet. No specific rubric or criteria was given; just a simple request for answers to the question, "Who is the best emcee or hip-hop group beginning with the letter 'A'?; 'B'?; 'C'?; 'D'?..." and so on. The responses were immediate and spurred some pretty spirited discussions. A general consensus was ultimately reached for each and per the request of Music Editor Leilani Polk, I'm bringing the poll results to Ear Buds. Each week, I'll reveal a letter and its "winning" artist, and then I'll re-open the question for further debate. Once we finish the first 26, we'll start it all over again fresh.
The obvious choice for the letter I is Infinite Skillz. Sure, everyone reading this will cry foul play, since I’m the one writing the articles and conducting the polls, and claim the entire list is bogus because I understandably decided to play favorites to myself. I get all that, but let’s be honest here. When you remove all that perceived bias and actually look at my resume, you’ll realize that just maybe you are Late To The Party on Infinite Skillz.
Still reading? Ok good, because that was 99% sarcasm (I give myself the other 1% for my self-confidence.) I did not win the letter "I" nor did Ice T. Inspectah Deck gave us one of the single greatest rap verses of all time, but that was only good enough for fifth place. Which emcee or group put the "I" in the Hip Hop ABCs?
Given the underground leaning early on in this quest to find the tip-top hip hop representative for each letter, Immortal Technique would have been a good guess. The rapper-slash-activist may have been able to Dance With The Devil and survive, but it is always a good day to be Ice Cube as the poll proved with his win.
Ice Cube, born O’Shea Jackson, has had so much success as a TV and film producer/actor, some hip-hop fans may forget that his empire’s foundation is gangsta rap. If you don’t know his music (shame on you), listen to this or this.
Actually, just watch this.
Whether writing lyrics for Dr. Dre or the now deceased Eazy-E as a member of N.W.A., or penning lines to destroy them, "No Vaseline" off of Cube’s Death Certificate album was one of the best diss tracks ever, the perfect blend of harsh personal attacks and hilarity. This West Coast hip-hop king is certainly no joke and well deserving of the letter "I" crown.
Infinite Skillz is a Hip Hop fan and emcee. Click here to find out more about his music or here to get free tickets to his A2BAY concert on March 29th.