Jay-Z vs. Nas

Surell · 12-04-2012, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rjinn

I don't know about flow. Biggie was a lot smoother than Jay-Z, but I can see what you mean by the syncopated rhymes. They did work firm on a light tone. As for slick... hmmm, well there are way too many rap artists who had a slick tongue, so narrowing it down to those two doesn't really say much. Otherwise, in terms of sound opposed to style, they really don't seem similar.

Biggie is probably the most overrated rap artist I'd say, by the way.

Biggie was smooth, but they both still have something slightly off-kilter in their delivery, Jay having it more so in his earlier days.

I find that they were especially slick, with one liners/punchlines that hit especially hard, either by a good build up or by being accentuated by their strange rhyme schemes.

Personally, I think Biggie is pretty untouchable, an artist that no one can really sound like (hence my argument for Jay). He was a better rapper than 2pac, his only competition back in his day, and his only fault in their comparison was his lack of topical/persona range that Pac had. But there aren't many rappers that have the idiosyncrasy in delivery, rhyming, flow, etc. nor with the same amount of lyrical power that BIG had - he could tell a killer story, had great punchlines, and all those other things i already said.

But don't take my word for it, I haven't dug enough through the "Golden Age" rappers and still haven't given L or Pun a good listen yet.