Originally Posted by anticipation

seriously? the foundation of hip hop was based on bravado, and proving to the community that you were worth listening to by decimating your opponents and bragging about how lyrically gifted you were was the best way to gain a following. have you ever listened to a rapper say he wasn't the best in the world without having a metaphoric or sarcastic meaning behind it? i'm guessing you haven't, because if a lyricist didn't have the utmost confidence in his craft he wouldn't be anywhere in the industry. one of hip hop's key tenets is to be the best you can be lyrically, and all rap is basically a derivation/expansion of fanciful boasting.

some do it better than others, "some" being truly gifted artists, "others" suffer the mainstream mediocrity that seems to infect all top 40 rap artists.