If you could travel back in time and save 1 rappers life

[Eazy-GFX]

Eyedea

[Solace]

Ohhh but, hold on, lemme fix my thick frames and take a bite of my coffee beans. Hmm...I'd resurrect Eyedea's father so I could give him a blow job and study the sperm that produced the undeniable GOAT.

Is this really necessary?

[The Asshole]

Tough time choosing between Proof and Pac, probably would choose Pac just to see how his career would have went, but I would love Proof back just so Em wouldnt have gone through those stages he went through in the mid to late 2000s

[yoda you can call me]

but I would love Proof back just so Em wouldnt have gone through those stages he went through in the mid to late 2000s

This is just stupid. He made Encore when Proof was still alive, he would still overdose whether Proof was there or not.

Their lives were getting worse and worse back then, dead friend or not D12 members were still going to go through what they went through after Proof's death.
Only difference is that Proof's death was the nail in the coffin that made them do all those terrible things that eventually woke them up.

People are making it seem bigger than it actually is. I'm sorry to say this, but sometimes something really bad must happen to you to wake you up and get you on the right path (i'm not saying that Proof's death was a must, i'm just speaking in general). Em's relationship with his daughters was going down the crapper but now he's much closer to them than he's ever been.

Agreed, things may of turned out much worse if he lived

[dead prez]

If I can't choose Dilla than I'd still probably pick Big L, yeah he's overrated to an obscene degree & fellated by hip hop necrophiliacs but even that still doesn't stop him from having virtually limitless potential. I mean look at Camron at the time of Lifestylez who woulda thought he would have ended up like his purple haze counterpart, hell even fucking Jigga who gets demolished in Da Graveyard who woulda thought he would have become this hip hop legend he is now? Seriously the ONLY one who was bringing unabashed hardcore rap during that time at that skill level was G rap and he was one of the pioneers of that style (both hardcore and rhyming like that), & no I haven't forgotten about Nas even though he was never hardcore hip hop artist but he immediately went mafioso that year, jay z didn't debut yet, & ghost raekwon maybe but their styles were different and were not as technical as L.




I mean seriously rapping like this at 95 is INSANE



As for his punchlines, yeah his wordplay is kinda sterile now what really made his punchlines gud was his delivery and timing, he had a knack for saying shit at the right time and making it sound fresh as hell. & yeah his shock/horrocore lines were his best ones.

But I'll just quote a few I still think aged well

"This ain't Cali, it's Harlem nigga we do walkbys"

"Cause if Big L got the AIDS every cutie in the city got it"

"I be placin snitches inside lakes and ditches
And if I catch AIDS, then I'mma start rapin bitches"

"This kid that owed me dough, I didn't take his life
Instead I tied him up and made him watch me rape his wife"

He only just needed better beats and needed to channel his talent into making a fully focused album that didn't have glaring fillers or songs forced in by his A&R's (Street Struck, I don't understand it). They just felt awkward and outta place but he was still only like 21 when he made lifestylez and NY needed a rapper like him during the full force othe shny suit era when everyone was hopping so hard on diddy's nuts (jay z, nas, BCC, erryone) that at worst would do shiny suit rap but still have a certain edge to it and make it appealing and at best making an album that's a big fuck you to that type of rap. (And trust me people didn't like it, Mos def and kweli, wu tang, and company flow)...

And yeah it's easy to be negative and say he woulda fell off immediately or this even appliesto biggie or pac and say they coulda went the snoop dogg route and be making subpar albums. But that's just be overly negative, imagine if BT died right after tipping point.I bet NO1 would expect his best album ever right after that and say he was past his prime cause he released two classics and a good album than an alright one, no one would expect him or the roots to do a full 180 turn around and make a top 10 hip hop album, no one. Or to an even lesser extent kanye after 808s how many people expected arguably his best album after that, lottsa people thought he fell off after Late registration ( i never personally liked 808s and heartbreak but that's a different story. & the best example I could offer his if Zev Love X died instead of his brother in the car crash he wouldn't have become this legend that produced madvillainy, vaudeville villain, or Operation Doomsday but mostly remembered as that guy in that rly obscure native tongues group. so yeah just some food for thought...

and no I didn't list eyedea becaus I only listened to BTT

Although Class might h8 big l cause he's the godfather to AOTP type rap except aped up to comical proportions.



love the big l tribute by apathy here

[dead prez]

i dont hate big l i even gave his album an 8.6, i think he's a good rapper but not a goat. he had good quotables but most of lyrics were rly average although he did have one of the best deliveries of his time.

Yeah I was pokin fun and I think Big L is faaaar from a goat, not even a top 30 rapper all time to me. He was extremely skilled for his time I just think that he had virtually limitless potential which is why people fellate him all the time, but the material he released was mostly just kinda gud.

[classthe_king]

ya

after eyedea i would save big because i think he was only getting better and he was already incredible to begin with but i can definitely see him selling out for diddy and making a bunch of mediocre albums at the same time

[dead prez]

it's interesting same with pac (who I also think was getting better nearing his death), the jump as a rapper biggie did was insane if he doesn't let Puffy control him than it's scary to think what he could release. But yeah like I said it's easy to be a cynic and say they all would fall off and go the route to snoop dogg, but like I said if BT died right after tipping point I bet no one would expect him to release his best album ever right after that. Hell most people still think Illadelph and TFA are the peak of the roots, and consider Phrenology and especially Tipping point to be them on the downward slope of their career. Yet lots of fans also love their post Game Theory works more. Same applies to kanye releasing his best album after 808s was unexpected, most people thought he peaked in CD-LR (and some people still think that). so it's interesting, I agree with big pun tho he really didn't spark me as a creative rapper but just a really gud spitter lead by Fat Joe.

[classthe_king]

i think black thought and kanye are exceptions though. Once someone loses it they almost never get it back.

[dead prez]

Trou, not sure I could think of many other rappers who resurrected their career like they did. And even their "fall offs" albums weren't anywhere near bad and some people actually rly love them.

[CrashBand]

masta ace niggas.

[dead prez]

masta ace niggas.

he didn't fall off though did he? lol not that I recall

[classthe_king]

masta ace did kinda resurrect his career tho

good call

[dead prez]

I wonder if wayne will pull it off with the Carta V, and at this point the roots are at a low point mimicking the Phrenology/Tipping Point combo with Undun & this last album (which flat out sucked). I'm a really worried for them now, damn

[dead prez]

Also I'd mention Mos Def because the ecstatic is gr8 but he seriously needs a new album out already.