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 Underachievers just released their first album and Uncle Luke is best known as the frontman for 2 Live Crew during their late 1980s to early '90s heyday. They both received votes but neither the newcomers from New York nor the nasty as they want to be notables have the honor of representing the Letter U in our Hip Hop ABCs list. That distinction belongs to this royal duo.
Bun B and Pimp C combined to form UGK back in 1987 but today we are officially crowning them kings of the Hip Hop ABCs Letter U.
Casual rap fans didn’t get familiar with the Underground Kingz until Jay-Z came calling and did Big Pimpin with them, but UGK was already three albums deep at that point. Riding Dirty was a Top 20 album when it came out in 1996. The deaths of Tupac and Biggie were certainly tragic but hip hop was also robbed of untold riches with the passing of Pimp C.
Both artists released solo projects during their time together and Bun B is still active. It would have been very interesting to see how these Underground Kings of the South would have navigated a market dominated by southern music. I’m guessing we would have had a lot more of this.
Did we get it right? Who gets your vote for this letter?
Infinite Skillz is a Hip Hop fan and emcee. Click here to find out more about his music.