Lyricist of the Year

10. Kendrick Lamar

No Mr. Lamar really didn’t do shit this year but you all were impressed and that BET cypher had me going so here you are the 10 spot.

Notable Releases:

A bunch of features.  Most notable “Control” and a BET Cypher that went very… very hard.

I don’t smoke crack mutha fucka I sell it

A Little Sample:

Tell Flex to drop a bomb on this shit
So many bombs, ring the alarm like Vietnam on this shit
So many bombs, make Farrakhan think that Saddam in this bitch
One at a time, I line them up
And bomb on they mom while she watching the kids
I’m in a destruction mode if the gold exists
I’m important like the Pope, I’m a Muslim on pork
I’m Makaveli’s offspring, I’m the king of New York
King of the Coast, one hand, I juggle them both
The juggernaut’s all in your jugular, you take me for jokes
Live in the basement, church pews and funeral faces
Cartier bracelets for my women friends, I’m in Vegas
Who the fuck y’all thought it’s supposed to be?
If Phil Jackson came back, still no coachin’ me
I’m uncoachable, I’m unsociable, fuck y’all clubs
Fuck y’all pictures, your Instagram can gobble these nuts
Gobble dick up til you hiccup, my big homie Kurupt
This the same flow that put the rap game on a crutch
I’ve seen niggas transform like villain Decepticons
Mollies’ll prolly turn these niggas to fucking Lindsay Lohan
A bunch of rich ass white girls looking for parties
Playing with Barbies, wreck the Porsche before you give them the car key
Judgment to the monarchy, blessings to Paul McCartney
You called me a black Beatle, I’m either that or a Marley
(I don’t smoke crack, motherfucker, I sell it)
I’m dressed in all black, this is not for the fan of Elvis
I’m aiming straight for your pelvis, you can’t stomach me
You plan on stumpin’ me? Bitch I’ve been jumped before you put a gun on me
Bitch I put one on yours, I’m Sean Connery
James Bonding with none of you niggas, climbing 100 mil in front of me
And I’m gonna get it even if you’re in the way
And if you’re in it, better run for Pete’s sake
I heard the barbershops be in great debates all the time
Bout who’s the best MC? Kendrick, Jigga and Nas
Eminem, Andre 3000, the rest of y’all
New niggas just new niggas, don’t get involved
And I ain’t rocking no more designer shit
White T’s and Nike Cortez, this red Corvettes anonymous
I’m usually homeboys with the same niggas I’m rhymin’ with
But this is hip-hop and them niggas should know what time it is
And that goes for Jermaine Cole, Big KRIT, Wale
Pusha T, Meek Millz, A$AP Rocky, Drake
Big Sean, Jay Electron’, Tyler, Mac Miller
I got love for you all but I’m tryna murder you niggas
Trying to make sure your core fans never heard of you niggas
They don’t wanna hear not one more noun or verb from you niggas
What is competition? I’m trying to raise the bar high
Who tryna jump and get it? You’re better off trying to skydive
Out the exit window of 5 G5’s with 5 grand
With your granddad as the pilot he drunk as fuck trying land
With the hand full of arthritis and popping prosthetic leg
Bumpin Pac in the cockpit so the shit that pops in his head
Is an option of violence, someone heard the stewardess said
That your parachute is a latex condom hooked to a dread
West Coast

9. Danny Brown

Old may not have been the modern classic that XXX was but Brown but in some sick verses and of course didn’t disappoint on any features

Notable Releases:

Old

A Little Sample:

Remember one time, dawg, this fiend owed the boss
Put Peanut Butter on her pussy, let his pits lick it off
Back when I was living on Flanders
Seen another dope fiend beat another with a hammer
Remember at the park, seen a nigga at the payphone
Got rocked in his dome, momma picked me up and ran home
Was like fucking seven years old
When I first seen a fiend try to light a rock off the stove
Damn near burned his top lip off, so my mind ticked off
Desensitized to a lot of things, mind would drift off
Wish it was what I seen on TV, I snapped outta that
Unc beating on my auntie
Gunshots outside was sorta like fireworks
We know they ain’t fireworks; it’s December 21^st
Cold winter with a kerosene heater
On the couch so cold can’t take off your sneakers

8. Add-2

Chicago native is still annoyingly absent from the popular rap cannon.  Maybe he can change your mind.

Notable Release:

More Missed Calls

A Little Sample:

This verse even had me going “Jesus… woo!”.

I say now guess who’s back, guess who’s that
It’s Add-2 yeah you know I rap
Ease I’ma kill the niggas run that back
Better run and hide when I’m on that track,
It’s they warning, they don’t want it
Took a lot of bull when I’m big game huntin
Way I kick it to them like an in game puntin
And the girls wanna ball like pacman woman
Good Lord I’ll be that gold, took your heartbeat and steal your soul
Chop a sample headphones is on
And I spit on you like you shoot my song nigga
Get right cuz you fucking with the wrong nigga
Got songs like Saul nigga
Run the kid can’t we all get along nigga,
Brotha mayne ain’t tell you my reign like a storm  nigga
A beast off the leash, I feed off the beats
And you can seesaw the piece off the (?)
If you try to sneak a piece of the feast then you need to cease
Nigga please get up off that, fall back, you ain’t even gonna call back
Make hits like a nigga with a ball bat,
Wanna play a game Ima tell you where the salt at
If he dies he dies I’m like Ivan Drago
This my creed no need Apollo
Pick ya bottles
Fuck ya models
She might suck if the bitch don’t swallow
En guarde ya say stay on guard I’m so hard to play
On god your squad better walk away
So ungodly that we hardly pray (but you should)
I mean really you really should
What they want me to do with these niggas out here?
Like show me what competition look like I wanna know
Like I be out here half assin it and I can still woop niggas man
Lappin moterf*cker, I laugh at y’all this is funny
Like I hear that shit, that shit was cute
That’s all

7. Earl Sweatshirt

He came back… strong.

Notable Releases:

Doris

A Little Sample:

It’s probably been twelve years since my father left, left me fatherless
And I just used to say I hate him in dishonest jest
When honestly I miss this nigga, like when I was six
And every time I got the chance to say it I would swallow it
Sixteen, I’m hollow, intolerant, skip shots
I storm that whole bottle, I’ll show you a role model
I’m drunk, pissy, pissing on somebody front lawn
Trying to figure out how and when the fuck I missed moderate
Momma often was offering peace offerings
Think, wheeze cough, scoffing and he’s off again
Searching for a big brother, Tyler was that
And plus he liked how I rap, the blunted mice in the trap
Too black for the white kids, and too white for the blacks
From honor roll to cracking locks up off them bicycle racks
I’m indecisive, I’m scatterbrained, and I’m frightened, it’s evident
And them eyes where he hiding all them icicles at

6. Killer Mike

I’m really very happy about this Run the Jewels thing, R.A.P. Music was so good.

Notable Releases:

Run the Jewels

A Little Sample:

Killer Mike and El-P
Fuck boys know the combination ain’t healthy
Tell me if you smell the
Marijuana hanging off my breath
Blowing smoke and I’m coughing like I’m damn near death
If I died right now I would be so fresh to death
They would have to say “That fat motherfucker coffin fresh
God damn fat bastard, where that motherfucker’s casket?”
But naw baby you gon’ get this here vertical
Every word murderful
Surgical, painful, purposeful
And I’m taking left off your fuck list personal
Woo, they done let that fuckin’ Mike out
It’s like Tyson in the ’80s, nigga snap and punch your lights out
It’s like Tyson in the ’90s, if I’m losing take a bite out
I’m so motherfuckin’ grimy
So mutherfuckin’ greedy, gritty
Mama said she couldn’t breast feed cause I was bitin’ at the titty

5. Meech

Flatbush Zombies golden boy is quickly becoming NYC’s best rapper and may soon surpass your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper, and that is saying a lot.

Notable Releases:

BetterOffDEAD

A Little Sample:

It’s that Brooklyn phenom
Psychedelic zeon, suspended in animation
While lookin down at you peons
Defying the laws of physics, while hitting gravity bongs
After she hit the spliff, her voice get raspier than T-Boz
If you don’t like the way i live my life, why dont you take it
In all my past lives i’ve laughed in my killers faces
I’m into blood, beef, human mutilation
Extended clips squeeze, let it disintegrate em
I’m from a place where hell is considered a safe haven
Since its the root of all evil, we thank satan for this paper
I don’t give a fuck about who pregnant or who rich
I dont give about his ice or his whips
Money blemishes, you can’t spit the way you used to spit
Sometimes a artist become bigger then the art that he presents
Fuck the spectacle they put these fuck boys on the pedestal
I’m feeling skeptical, cause ignorance is bliss
I’m with my ignorantest chick
And ignorantest ain’t a word, but I’m so ignorant it is
This the flow that send em shiv – ers
From every verse, from every curse
I am cursed with this curse to outdo my last verse
To outshine my last word, never decline
No backwards

4. Daveed Diggs

Clipping will get shunned it is the way of the general public but I ain’t mad at lead MC Daveed Diggs, I ain’t mad at him at all.

Notable Releases:

Midcity

A Little Sample:

It ain’t no fun
If it ain’t cocaine in the system cuddy
But I ain’t got none
To do it the way OG’s banging
Bitch wanna get sprayed to run
And getting away with it anyway
Anybody can get it
Get it?
Got it
God damn it
Can’t believe today was a good day
When it seem like every other day is a hood day
Do you see the irony?
He don’t know nothing about it
This murder ain’t bout nothing but
Murdering snitches and burning bridges with all the bitches who used to swing on the dick like it’s good
for physical fitness
You fitting to, but no bullshitting
Well better start hitting switches in that
Low, low
Drop it until it about to hit the floor, floor
Can’t nobody stop it when it go, go
Gadget on a ratchet like a hatchet
How she chop and screw the dick up licking after all the wood
The been blowed good
And blowed up
Get thowed and running up in the guts and busting
Come get it

3. KA

Cool, calm, collected, and quit witted, the New York MC is too good to be flying under the radar.

Notable Releases:

The Night’s Gambit

A Little Sample:

Pardon leech, I’m hard to reach by design
The streets of crime, defined treats in my mind
Ate crumbs from the great slums, now it’s feast when I dine
Unless it’s pork on my fork, never breaching the swine
On naked tracks, state the facts and feats of my prime
Hood divine, never put a nine to meek or to kind
Mind at rest, times I’m blessed, sleep on my spine
This wizardry, delivered me the flyest flute
What I summon have ’em dumbin’ like a cauldron of some eye of newt
Was a young esquire in bum attire, jum supplier
Hunger made me gun for hire
Funny how they used to run from me, now they come admire
A man now, stand down, sick of bleeding I’m into reading
Enough point work, joints hurt, and my shit’s receding
Off main strip, not soft same clip
Was quick to treason, now equipped with reason
Envisioned cages not stages, when I had nickels squeezing
Was miffed and grieving, lost much, thoughts touched
Now pray for the gift of breathing

2. Billy Woods

Well you know how I feel about this DC native.

Notable Releases:

Dour Candy

Half Measures

Race Music

A Little Sample:

It came in two pieces
No arm no breakdown
Still felt like gifts from Jesus
Water in a drought
If you scared/go in the house
Married to the game
Abusing my spouse
Bout it like Viktor Bout
Mums the word
Idiots open they mouth remove all doubt
I’m in the park when it’s dark out
Twist the bark/hands of a surgeon
Never went the shark route
Eggs from a sturgeon/sour candy from an urchin
Ask not for whom The Raven’s perching
It caws for you
Tower of London when I punch in
For him/they built a supermax under the dungeon
Panopticon octagon within an octagon
Rapped my way out like word is bond
My 10 percent was militant
Knowledge of self/nigger rich/negro recidivist
Lonely hearts club
Apparently I’m the only rapper that didn’t fuck your bitch
Yet
In lieu of respect I’m now accepting certified checks
Wade through the crowd/swiper in hand
Shorties unconvinced when I say I’m with the band

1. Blu

Could number one really have been anyone else?  No not really.  The hardest working MC outside of Jet Life does it again… and again…

and again.

Notable Releases:

The Buzz

The Burgundy

Gods in the Spirit

York

A Little Sample:

Ayo, the radio, the TV yo, and even the press
It was the reason for the stress that they pile on your chest
But I said “Fuck that!”. Make sure the system in my truck stacked
I’m sick of cruising around the town off this bus pass
I used to bust back when ya’ll was watching Rugrats
5’10” pimp, growing out that little moustache
Watching sluts pass, wishing I could touch that
Pose on the scope on that all black chuck hat
They brought the Chucks back, but who the G’s above that?
Had them all whites like, “I dare somebody scuff that”
They know the drama, but it ain’t no need to talk that
Feel bad cause I never brought my poppa’s gun back
Run niggas when I never used to run track
Shit I used to get a young snatch off of one rap
I was a Slick Rick since I was a young cat – Yuppp
When I got that BDP poster I hung that uppp
Can’t believe my teacher put me in a dunce hat once – Say what!?