I’m with Betha, Cliff gotta defeat Rozay to stand a chance
Mase is half right and half wrong because neither Tip nor Fif could beat Ross in a Versuz. In "hits", sure, if it was strictly about commercial popularity. Talent as an artist and quality of work, Ross shyts on both of them combined, he playing in a different space than either one of them...
A ton of 50's legacy is tied to the mixtape run that led up to Get Rich. I do personally recognize him as one of the original mixtape gods. So he has Tip there. He has Tip in peak run. He has Tip in popularity. I see the argument for 50, I'm not downplaying him...
I'm about to refamilarize myself with his work and come back later. My long held belief is I think Fif's story and explosion in popularity and The Machine are why we call Get Rich a classic, without the unbelievable level of press he was getting I'm not sure we'd have thought of it the same, but I'm not tripping when people call it a classic. But I've always said that was his only arguable classic...
I remember Massacre being good. I though Curtis was weak, and to be honest I dont think I ever listened to Before I Self Destruct. But I got Get Rich on now, I'm gonna replay his 00s resume and come back here later...
Musically Tip was more relevant in the 10s...
Overall I'll keep saying to both sides, both these nikkas in the same tier on All-Time boards, all this talk about one being way ahead of the other is misplaced. For they primary era, the 00s, both are hella relevant and neither are legit GOATs, but we can say the both in that Top 5 range of they era. This downplaying of TI as midtier in the 00s is dishonest, nikkas just gotta admit they wasnt fans and leave it at that. He was easily one of the five biggest names in the game for about a half-decade in the mid-00s, that's not "midtier nikka" shyt...