Notorious BIG rates his favorite rappers on a 1-10
There was a time where artists weren’t afraid of speaking their minds or how they truly felt about another persons music. Its not so today because theres alot of wack rappers that are getting cosigned left and right because another artist is afraid of being looked upon as a “hater”. Well before Hip Hop became so politically correct. The game around the mid 90s was very unapologetic, the rules were in tact and you were able to speak your mind without worrying about being blackballed.
Hence this classic interview from the late Notorious B.I.G. Biggie did this interview a year before he died and it pissed alot alot of people(Mainly E-40 who had Biggie set up and checked out in Cali) But you have to give Biggie his respect for speaking his mind about who he really felt was wack and who he felt was dope. Enjoy the article!
This was a question answer session Biggie did with the audience askin’
questions. It was in a free magazine called Peace! This is how he rated
the rappers asked.
Redman: The new Redman!?! Seven. I can’t diss him cuase I know he got
skills. He get busy on the lyrics but I can’t feel his new shyt, his new
cosmic crazy shyt. I’m used to the clean cut blowout fly nikka. When I met
the nikka he was a fly nikka, you know what I’m sayin’, now he on some
different shyt I really don’t like when a rapper come out and they blow
up the way they are and they come out again on some changed up shyt. To
me, that’s like getting some good coke from poppy and then getting some
money and then be like,’fukk that! I’m getting some more 45ths, some brown
shyt and then bag that up.’ Why would you change your plan? That’s what he
did to me.
E-40: No rating! Zero! I don’t fukk with duke at all. At all.
Too $hort: Ten. That’s my dog right there. I love that nikka. That’s my
man. The calibre of shyt he got. Cocktails shyt, I ain’t got to see that
shyt yet. I know that shyt was hot! I was with him in Atlanta and we were
just kickin’ it and shyt. That’s my dog. I love that man.
Spice 1: Zero. I don’t like that guy at all.
Craig Mack: I don’t really like him too much either, dog. I can’t give him
a zero though ’cause he got some hot shyt but like five…four, since he
on some different shyt, some shyt I can’t relate to. I’m from the hood, he
from the suburbs so it’s completely different shyt. I don’t really like
the music too much. I like the beats but that (scats) it’s not rhymes for
me, it’s just some prety kid shyt.
Eiht: I like Eiht’s shyt. I give Eiht like an eight. He got some hard
shyt, some real shyt.
DJ Quick: I like the shyt on the soundtrack. That’s shyt is hot. I give
him a seven…six.
Snoop Doggy Dogg: Snoopy??? I like Snoop. I give him like an eight. I like
his shyt.
He sits and reflects on what we have asked and offers, “I’m into fly pimp,
straight flat shyt. I don’t like no nikka that I have to decipher but some
shyt that I don dicipher I give a ten…Nas, I give Jeru a ten, I give
ummmmm?….
(Someone shouts out KRS-One.)
KRS-One: KRS-One?? Naahhh…I don’t like KRS no more ’cause he just think
he’s too dope. He let his ego take over his shyt and that’s what brings
him down. When he was like that (shouts “Blow it to yourself”), when he was
like that, then he was a ten but now, ‘I am Hip Hop’!!! Eat a dikk nikka.
Eat a muthaphukkin dikk!
Guru: Premier??? Umm…who else I give a ten too? I like Keith. Keith’s
shyt is hot.
Outkast: I like them too…six…seven.
Big Mike: Six…Seven
Scarface: Seven…eight. He got some hard shyt. Face got some hard shyt.
R.A. The Rugged One: The white boy??!! The one that I did the jam with???
That’s who you talkin’ about? Two…might be a three, I did the song, they
paid me a lot of money, that’s why I did it. The beat was knockin’.
Dr.Dre & Ed Lover: Those are my boys. I just like them nikkas, know what
I’m sayin’. You don’t rate nikkas. I just like them nikkas. They just friends.
Cypress Hill: I used to like them. The first, shyt, that first “How i can
just kill a man” joint, I was liking that but that new age smoke out
shyt…fukk it!
New Kingdom: Who? Never heard of them.
Da Brat: I like Da Brat. I like her ****. I give her a nice six. She ain’t
the dopest female MC but I like her single. I like how she comin’.
The topic of females MC’s arrives and Biggie Speaks. “The dopest female MC
that has a record deal that’s out right now is Rage, but my Mc that’s
coming out,
Little Kim, is the dopest female MC that’s coming out ever. Ever.
She gets busy like a nikka that’s why I like her style. Hard shyt! She
speaks on suckin dikks…,shooting nikkas, real shyt that real bytches do
that they are just scared to talk about, just how I came out, on some real
shyt.”
Naughty By Nature: I like all of ‘em. I got a relationship with Treach. I
got a relationship with Vinnie and I got a relationship with K, but you
know what I’m sayin’, the music itself it seems that they just wanna make
that one hit. Once they got that one hit everything else don’t count.
That’s why I can’t dig that. I want a nikka that’s gonna be like, ‘Yo, I
heard an album that’s like nine joints I like three, I like maybe the
single, the remix. I don’t want no album like that.
Coolio: I like that new joint, “Mama I’m In love with a Gangsta”. I like
that joint. I just like them hard nikkas, them nikkas that just be leveled
out.
Ice Cube: The old one or the new one? Kickiyaya???? It’s not the same
shyt. It’s like nikka is changing too much for me and I can’t keep the
love. I respect the nikka because I know back in the day he used to do
his thing so I can’t dis him but the new shyt right now is…
The topic of quitting before the game gets up on you is put on the table.
“I quit before it get on me like that dog!! I know my nikkas keep it real.
My nikkas be like,’Big, you are sleeping. That shyt right there ain’t no
Ready to Die type shyt’. I take my nikkas word. If shyt ain’t right, it
ain’t right. I ain’t putting it out. I quit before a nikka say Big was
wack. fukk that!! I produce, get a label, do something. fukk that!
Tupac: Pac get busy. People can’t take nothing from him. On the lyrics he
get busy, straight up. That nikka got some hard shyt dog for real, and
it’s like the sad thing about it. When he started working on his new album
he’s got now, Out on Bail, (retitled and released as Me Against The World)
he had so many raw east coast producers and shyt. The shyt was sounding
real tight ’cause everybody always says Pac had lyrics but his beats was
back. He was up in New York when he was working on Above the Rim shyt and
he was working on his album at the same time. I put him on to Mo Bee. I
put him on to L.G. He has Action, Special Ed’s DJ, he had some hard shyt.
(HE) went back to the west and just started getting back into that other ****.
Dr. Dre: Beats? Incredible!
The topic of producers arrives and names are fired out for Biggie to rate.
“Who do I think every beat they make is just ridiculous??!!…
Ant Banks: I like Banks. I like that whole shyt though. Ant BAnks shyt,
the whole Dangerous crew shyt.”
Who is a ten producer?
“Ain’t nobody perfect dog. Everybody got their little faults and shyt but
the only one I seen that’s been hitting hard with their shyt is Premier.
Every joint that he be putting out right now is just ridiculous, from
Jeru’s shyt, to the new group he got, the Group Home shyt, to the shyt he
did with me. The shytis hard, yo! The beats is crazy.”
Sir Mix-a-lot: Nothing! I love his coats. I would love to be in the game
like how that nikka get in the game. I wanna be just as large as those
fools but get busy, cut the bullshyt fukk saying…I got millions but
God damn that nikka get on the mic it’s just something terrible dog. I
just wanna get busy on the mic more than anything. The little bytch game
the niggs play with the girls, man! A nikka just throw some bytches in
they shyt and they just sit there, like from the “Tootsie Roll” shyt to
the “Whoot! There it is!” It’s the same shyt. You get trapped up
with these hoes. That shyt ain’t got nothing to do with hip hop. Nothing!
The topic of wack lyrics arises and Biggie states:
“I don’t wanna be a nikka paying so much attention to the fukkiing
networking and all that other shyt and I’m not paying’ no attention to
these rhymes. That’s what made me get to where I’m at so I gotta make sure
the lyrics is hard.”
K-Dee: “The greatest MC in the world”?? I like that track. He don’t
really be saying nothing to me, you know, like lyrically he don’t be
saying nothing to me. What make it so bad is when they come out with some
shyt that’s like half ass and like you wonder like, “I wonder how the
video will be.” And then they got a video with this nikka spinning this
bottle and I’m like OK, what’s gonna happen when the bottle stops and the
bottle is spinning for like three fukking minutes and then it stops and
everybody laughs like ha, and he spins again!!! Who directed this? Cube,
it had to be. It’s just that funny style shyt that I can’t fukk with. I
like flat on the table shyt, like my shyt. They try to stick me for my shyt I shot ‘em. Period. There’s no helicopter scenes with me talkin to
somebody like , ‘Well, how’s the record doing?’ There’s no shyt on there
that you could be like why is that shyt in there. That’s how I like the
shyt, just regular shyt.
Easy-E: (before his untimely death)-I like Easy-E. Easy-E is a real ill
nikka. He’s sharp as a tack on top but rhymin’ even he knows. He took a
group from the hood and just put them on and two million. Bing! He know
how to do that shyt. Same thing with Luke and all the rest of them nikkas.
Man, I just think they take another turn. I can let you hear some Easy-E
shyt on some old NWA shyt and nikkas would think Easy was nice, you know
what I’m saying, so he know.
MC Breed: He ain’t come out with nothing too wrong for me. I gotta hear
some shyt. I know once when I was in L.A. I saw Breed at Fattburger and
that nikka just took me into the room and just got me smoked out. He had
me listening to some ill beats and shyt that he work on production too and
I didn’t know that. That’s a plus for MC’s. If you can make your own beats
you got props because producing is better than being an artist.
Warren G: That’s my man. nikka came to Brooklyn, he came to check me. He
just came to hood and shyt, pulled up in a little Crysler, jumped out and
Warren G was on the ave. drinking Crazyhorse and shyt, you know what I’m
saying”cause I ain’t gonna lie, I ain’t going to his hood, staight up!
Wu-Tang Clan/Method Man: Wu-Tang is hot! I like their shyt. I love that
shyt. I like their shyt because they have a real I don’t give a fukk
attitude. ‘We in this game to blow thefukk up! We don’t give a fukk what
happens. All of us is gonna do our thing and we just gonna do it.’ And
they just did it. You can hear punches, you hear so much shyt in that
album you know damn these guys is not giving a fukk. At the beginning of
CREAM, when that shyt start!! Voila! Oh my God, this is some rushed shyt
but I dig it.
The Roots: The Roots album. The Roots album is hot! On the strength, they
rock the whole album for a whole hour. I was definetly in dibelief. I like
the single, I really did but other people were like, ‘Single was hot but I
wasn’t paying attention to the album at all.’
Bonous Questions:
Did you dis The Roots on the remix for “Flavour in your ear”?
“I stepped to them about that. They heard about it but they knew I said
Gooch (a character on the Gary Coleman, Todd Bridges, Dano Plato series
Different Strokes) so that’s all they cared about. As long as they knew I
wasn’t trying to dis them. It’s over.”
Are you really the crew who will take it to that other level if someone
steps to you?
“For real! For real! We be banging! We be banging! We’re definatly the
crew that just go out of the world. We take it to the extra extra limit. I
mean that shyt from the bottom of my fukkiin’ heart. Cold blow your head
off. fukk the rap. fukk Puff, fukk Arista, Clive, BMG!!! I don’t give a
fukk. It’s over!!! Anything happen to me it’s over!! They just throw the
whole shyt in the toilet. I don’t give a fukk, we banging now! Everything
is switched over for real man. A nikka ain’t gonna dis me. nikkas is not
dissing me, man!!!!
maybe he got involved in some shyt out in the bay and picked sides 