well here's how it goes:
Big L is the best/most talented there has ever been or will ever be
though the Wu-Tang Clan are definitely my favorite hip-hop
If we are talking about "greatness", it's Rakim followed by fellas like Nas and KRS-One

Real rap isn't gangsta nonsense. It's political messages spoken with cadence.

Sad thing is there's a generation of youth who think that all rap stands for is guns, sex, and drugs.

Represent!

lol nice term "real rap"

Not all rap was meant to have political messages....you may think that and that's fine but it's not true. rap to me is used to speak about anything that the artist wants usually in a poetic form but not all rappers are that good to use metaphors, alliterations, symbolism and all those other poetry terms.

I agree that rap can be about any message. Still, riseagainstrocks has a good point. It's nice when the lyrics are about something meaningful, deep, or useful rather than trash.

That's part of what I liked about Grand Master Flash ... The Message, Survival, New York New York, etc.

Even so, good music is good music even if the message is pathetic or a bad influence on the young and ignorant.

You are all omitting The Beastie Boys, they have great flow and even Chuck D said that the dirtiest secret in hip-hop in the late 80's and early 90's was that the Beastie Boys had all of the best beats

yea agree Talib is really good.
The list up top is wack, 2 live crew they was always over the top and degrading to me. Kid Rock... ahh nuff said.

These folks are pretty good
Lupe Fiasco
Wu tang
Nas
Tupac
Mos def
Rakim
Run dmc
common
Biggie

NWA
Nas
2PAC
BIG

I think the best are snoop dogg, jay-z, eminem, beastie boys and i think T.I is on his way to becoming a legend

others
 

Public Enemy, LL CoolJay, Slick Rick, Run DMC, and The Tribe called quest are probably my favorites.