Buffalo_Tongue

This is tough...

In no particular order:

Pac
DOOM
GZA
Del
Ghostface Killah
Slick Rick
Black Thought
Too Poetic
Scarface
RZA

Captain Awesome

I'm not narrow minded, I think you've misunderstood what lyrical ability is

Lyrical ability is absed entirely around the techniques you use and how effectively you use them. Techniques such as;

alliteration, multiple syllable rhyming, assonance rhyming, inner rhyming, syncopation, metaphors, similies, wordplay, double entendres etc etc

Eminem is without a doubt one of the greatest lyricists of all time (in my opinion, the greatest).

As for him recycling topics, name me a rapper who doesn't. Every rapper has a certain topic they like to cover repeatedly. I bet every rapper in your top ten recycles topics, if they don't then they clearly haven't released any more than one album. It comes with their overall style.

I find his hooks/chorus to be incredibly catchy and effective.

Eminems lyrical ability(which surpasses almost every other rapper mentioned in this thread) combined with his flow, his outstanding delivery(which again surpasses every other rapper named in this thread), his complex rhyme schemes, his ability to connect with his audience, his ability to carry the same concept from one album to another, and his variety (yes, variety!) of topics and subjects that he raps about. This is what makes him one of the greatest of all time.


Note that anything he amde after 2003/4 is complete garbage. I'm talking about em in his prime not the **** you hear today.

__________________

"If we're all merely players in a play on this great stage,
the problem is the script writers ain't on the same page,
I echo through the mountain when I'm singing in the air,
from my lab a lad with lavish lyrics living in his lair."


"Wake up and listen, hear what's not for the public's ears
Pinocchio poets played by profiting puppeteers"

Jester

Tonedeff is the most stylistically advanced rapper.




First and third verse.







Myka 9 is definitely up there, too. One of the most important innovators of hip hop history.

This is, BY FAR, the most advanced verse of all-time.

channel_islands_surf

Pac
BIG
Nas
Eazy
Big L
Cube
Snoop
Jay-Z
Method Man
Dre

Bane of your existence

Doubletimedoubletimedoubletime.
Gets a little tired.
I'm not saying dude isn't good, but if I want to bump some hard ass **** I'm not going to Tonedeff for it.

Jester

I don't really see what you're trying to convey.

B More Melo

No order... (excluding groups of course)
2pac
Rakim
Dre Dog
Big L
Ras Kass
Brotha Lynch Hung
Mr. Cheeks
Mac Dre
Large Prof.
Treach

So many left out.. Notables:
C.L. Smooth
Fat Lip from the Pharcyde
Chuck D
Pharaohe Monch

__________________
Chill Out

Sparky

I can appreciate Tonedeff, but i don't really enjoy listening to his music.

Bane of your existence

That his music bores me.
And Grimey Styles is worse. I just don't like that nerdcore ****. Pedantry has no place in hip-hop imo.

Jester

I don't really like listening to him that often either.

An emphasis on technicality can bore people, I can see that. But Tonedeff is more than just that; the songs where he's really working it are pretty amazing. His cheesy R&B type of songs are pretty bad, though.

LOL? Myka 9 isn't nerdcore, for one. Secondly, Grimey Styles isn't really pedantic, and thirdly, there's no reason pedantry "has no place in hip hop." Don't close the doors, man.