Hip-Hop Knock out Cup
 

I feel a lot of people on this forum turn their noses up to hip-hop and therefore are missing out on a lot of great music.

Therefore I have come up with a idea which will allow us to contrast and compare hip-hop artists whilst opening peoples eyes to MC's whom we may not all be familiar with. There'll be a mix of old and new MC's so many different styles are represented.

Basically 80 MC's randomly drawn to compete against one another, the winner of each tie (the one with most votes, you can only vote once per tie) advances to the next round in a straight knock-out formula.

It's not just a case of voting, it's a case of trying to persuade others that your favoured MC is indeed better than the other.

The first random tie will take place tomorrow.

Here's the list of MC's


J.Cole
Jay Electronica
Jay-Z
Kanye West
Nas
Notorious BIG
2Pac
Kendrick Lemar
Ab-Soul
El-P
Killer Mike
Aesop Rock
Big Pun
Fat Joe
Big L
Tyler the Creator
Big KRIT
Big Boi
Andre 3000
Talib Kweli
Mos Def
Black Thought
Ice Cube
Common
Del The Funkee Homesapian
Dr Dre
MF Doom
Masta Ace
Slick Rick
AZ
Busta Rhymes
TI
Big Shug
Rakim
Blu
Danny Brown
Jean Grae
Lil Kim
Mac Dre
Grandmaster Flash
Diabolic
Eminem
Atmosphere
Eydea
Sage Francis
Brother Ali
LL Cool J
Chuck D
Heavy D
Missy Elliott
Ghostface Killah
Raekwon
GZA
RZA
Method Man
Redman
Inspectah Deck
Masta Killa
Papoose
Kool Moe Dee
Earl Sweatshirt
Will Smith
Snoop Dogg
ASAP Rocky
Q-Tip
Kool G Rap
Big Daddy Kane
Kool Keith
B-Real
Prodigy
Aceyalone
Kurupt
Foxy Brown
Guru
Ice-T
Pharaohe Monch
Xzibit
Scarface
KRS-One
Lauryn Hill

Obviously I couldn't include every MC ever to spit a beat, and unless I have made some glaring omissions this is the list going forward. Let me know if you think I have.

Everyone's free to participate so hopefully this works out well.

RSVP'd.

Great idea. Obviously a few missing, but it's good enough for me.

Probably not gonna work. Everyone votes on their favorite for a reason. You're not going to convince others to change their mind. I really don't envision anyone having an "ah-ha" moment and being like "you know what, my opinion was weak and ill-informed, so I concede my personal point of view." In the end majority will rule either way, but since the goal seems to be to encourage discussion and open peoples' eyes to artists that they may me unfamiliar with, then you can count me in as well.

I always love these kinds of things, but I think it needs more. If we're going to do a throwdown like it's the be-all of throwdowns on the topic here at MB, we should do it right from the start or we can't expect true involvement or enjoyment or proper results. It doesn't need to be every rapper to spit a beat, but it won't get off right if we get feelings and statements like "Pshh you got Will Smith up there but you don't have Poor Righteous Teachers or The Goats or Souls of Mischief, or Freestyle Fellowship, or any of their members" Or "You got Blu, but none of the Living Legends or Hieroglyphics or Oldominion" Or "You got Snoop Dogg you might as well throw up the Kottonmouth Kings" and truth be, why not?

We should take a few days or a week or so and PM or list any ADDITIONS to the list that you feel need to be on the list. Perhaps to help we could include years of activity (f. ex. Eligh of Living Legends 1991-present)[just looked at wikipedia but that's good enough].

I really can see myself getting excited about a bracket, but we should iron out details besides who alls in it. Are we doing it be decade or style/subgenre or both? What other things should we consider?

Oh and I don't mean to hijack anything, just adding lots of ideas. But I do need to add quite a few artists to your list to be able to enjoy myself on it.

Appreciate your input D00d.
A couple of things though, you mentioned the inclusion of groups such as The Goats and Poor Righteous Teachers. I didn't want to include groups because then what do you do about units such as Wu-Tang and NWA where members have went on to have successful solo careers, surely it's unfair to have a whole group battle GZA or alternatively the whole of the Wu-Tang battling someone like Biggie.

As I said before if there are any glaring omissions, individual MC's whose impact has been so great that they might go onto win the tournament that I have missed out I am more than happy to include them, but I feel if we spent time tinkering the list to pander to each members personal favourites we'd never get this under way.

I think the best way to do it is just MC vs MC, I think dividing into subcategories such as style, popularity and period of prominence would serve only to complicate matters and turn people away from participating.

I've made a few ammendments to the list that I've spotted myself but on the whole I'm pretty satisfied with it and I don't plan on increasing the number over 80, just as 80 is a divisible into 40, 20, 10 and then the final 5 without dragging the tourney out too long.

Hell, if this is a success, I'm sure we can expand on this a year from now and include more groups, MC's and delve into obscurity if it calls for, but for now I want to see how things go with this list.

First tie begins in 6 hours.

Diabolic: A talented underground rapper many consider to be the right hand man of Immortal Technique, Diabolic has only released one studio album 2010's Liar & Theif which was awarded the 2010 HHUG Best Album of the Year award and featured guess spots by the likes of Kool G. Rap and Canibus.

Personally I enjoyed this album which was a politically and emotionally charged effort showcasing the range of Diabolics clever lyrics and angry delivery.

He has also released a handful of mixtapes with a seconded album expected to be released later this year.
Diabolic first shot to prominence after delivering the last 2 and a bit minutes of Immortal Techniques cult classic 'Dance With The Devil'



Here's some of the material off his first full length.





Aceyalone: I was first introduced to 90's west coast rapper Aceyalone by fellow forum member Goofle11 in an album swap thread.
I knew right away after hearing the album 'All Balls Don't Bounce' this guy was extremely good.
One of the most versatile rappers I've heard with a great; delivery, flow and clever lyricism.
He is a member of the group Freestyle Fellowship, here's the man freestyling here:



As a solo artist Aceyalone has released 10 albums as well 5 as part of Freestyle Fellowship, 2 as part of group Haiku D'Etat and 2 as part of The A-Team so it's apparent the guy gets around showcasing his versatility.

Here's a selection of his music.

So what are we supposed to do here? Pick one of the artists you mentioned?

I assume, and he goes through to the next round I would think.

Acey, next round punk.

yeah guys, cast your votes for one of the participants.
Whoever has most votes progresses to the next round.

Anticipation has made it
Aceyalone 1-0 Diabolic

Yeah, Aceyalone a clear winner for me.

Looks like the luck of the draw wasn't too kind on Diabolic, I do like him.
He conveys a real passion in his music and his diss track on Tyler The Creator was brilliant



But he's got a long way to go to match up with a veteran like Aceyalone.

Aceyalone 3
Diabolic 0

I'm the odd man out here as my pick is Diabolic. Both are great MC's, but Diabolic clearly goes harder. Completely different styles and lyrical content, but Diabolic is more of my scene right now.

Aceyalone - 4
Diabolic - 1





I've followed Acey for a few years, and I love his styles. His many styles. Listening to his albums in order, you see the creativity brewing and the skills getting better. Plus, I smoked with him after his show.

P.S. We gotta at least bring it to 100, but honestly, I think it should've been a little more encompassing, otherwise why include artists like Will Smith? At least go to 100; you should add Immortal Technique, The Grouch, Myka 9, Eligh, Sunspot Jonz, The Gift of Gab, E-40, Mac Dre, MC Paul Barman, Zumbi of Zion I, Doseone, Tech N9ne, Pharoahe Monch, Illogic, Apathy, Masta Ace, MURS, Abstract Rude, Busdriver, Cage.

Hold up, what?
Care to expand on that. What was he like?

I think we could make it an even 128 for bracketology's sake. (128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1). Gotta add Canibus, Chino XL, R.A. The Rugged Man, DMX, Lil Wayne, The Game, Ill Bill, Saigon to your list, amongst others.

Another vote for Aceyalone here. I need to listen to more of this guy.

Aceyalone - 5
Diabolic - 1

Additional vote for Ace.
Diabolic sounds like he should be in the Demigodz, which isn't so bad, but I'm less inclined to that whole style than I am with the more rooty hip hop with thought-provoking lyrics and styles.

Aceyalone - 6
Diabolic - 1

I would say none of those rappers would be worth adding, considering most if not all of them would immediately be eliminated in the first tie. They would be horrible additions for this forum as well because the majority of us know and appreciate good hip hop fairly well. My suggestions would be One Be Lo, Proof, Phonte, Elzhi, Murs, Books (Skoob) and/or Dray, Posdnuos, any of the Hiero crew, etc.

Saw Aceyalone, Abstract Rude, and Myka 9 playing a show in San Francisco. Pretty small joint. About 100 people total. Smoking out back behind the club, Myka and Acey come out. We started up a smoking circle with about 10 people besides Acey and Myka. I'm way more of a Myka fan but Myka was swamped in conversation. Acey and I got to talking where nobody else was really payin attention and he asked me what *I* felt like he should do next, or if I had any ideas... What a question... I had to do a "Well, everything you put out is dope, and you obviously know how to not get stuck in one style... you know how to switch it up, so just keep doing you bro" /fist pound /pass blunt

If you feel like they need to be up there, I figure it could be considered...I'm sure.

I hit Murs already but yeah, yeah

Hiero Crew: best contenders could be Opio, Tajai, Casual, A-Plus

I see 119...

hmm...

MC Frontalot, Scroobius Pip, The (guy from the) Streets, Mac Lethal, Warren G, Keak Da Sneak, Vast Aire, Fatlip of The Pharcyde, and... Dälek

booooooooo

Don't be an a$$hole. Hip-hop has room for everybody's tastes. Don't just say that I "don't appreciate good hip hop fairly well" like the rest of you just because we have differing opinions on artists. Isn't the whole point of this thread to open up new avenues of hip-hop to other members and discuss our points of view on why we like Artist A over Artist B? Don't be so dismissive and rude. We're all here for the same reason. And I would gladly replace a few from the original list of 80 with the ones I just suggested.

^

**** it, 128 artists, you guys submit your PM's to me of artists you think I've overlooked, I'll add another 48 and we'll get this going then.

Won't be drawing another tie tonight as I'm only stopping by whilst my tea's cooking before getting back on it.

The draws for the first 80 have already been done, send me another 48 names (MC's not groups) and I'll add them to the draws. Please read the list first, no repeat suggestions!!

With that number of competitors we may be finished this by 2015 :laughing:

Aceyalone - 7
Diabolic - 1

maackycant, you got good intentions but see everyone is whining already. The thing is that Hip Hop has always been overlooked. I mean there is still good rap music. It is not like hip hop is dead. It is not but sadly the whacky rappers have been getting too much attention and the very good rappers don't get any resepct. I remember when I used to be a huge hip hop addict, I saw just constant great records. I think Hip Hop is better than Rock music.

I wanna see Franco spit some bars.

I am not a rapper but rap music is so unique. I think someone who really got hip hop skills to spit some rhymes.

Okay then, record yourself doing a cover of Die Like a Rock Star by Danny Brown.

I think Danny Brown would take that round :laughing:

Aceyalone advances to the next round.
The next tie is upon us, beware I'm about to double or possibly triple post.

GHOSTFACE KILLAH

ICE-T

Ghostface Killah: One of the original Wu-tang members, Ghostface went on to have considerable success as part of the group and also as a solo artist with critically acclaimed albums such as Supreme Clientele and Fishscale.
Killah makes many guest spots across the board and is revered for his unique style of flow and lyricism which covey both humour and sincerity in equal doses.
He has been hailed for his ability to tell stories in his rhymes which can be evidenced here;



but believe me, Ghostface ain't the kind to get all sentimental, he's more than capable of making a hard track.



here he is as part of Wu-tang, his is the fifth verse;



Personally, I think Ghostface was the best MC in Wu-Tang Clan which is some accolade even if someone like me issued it.

Ice-T: In 1982, Ice T released his first single 'Cold Wind Madness' to considerable underground success.
The former gangster and US army soldier was an instrumental figure in early hip-hop making a name for himself in open mic competitions.
Throughout the 80's Ice T gained notoriety for being one of the first people on the 'gangster' rap scene releasing his debut album 'rhyme pays' in 87.
After paving the way to a whole host of similar rappers, Ice-T also formed a heavy metal band 'Body Count'
Here's some of his material.

Ghostface!

And Ghostface advances to the next round.

Ghostface by a mile.

I cast my vote for Ghostface as well, he's one of the most creative, unique and frankly talented MC's and is in my all time Top 10.
Ice-T on the other hand is in my opinion just a boring gimmick.

Ghostface 4
Ice-T 0

Ghostface probably has one of the Top 5 Hip Hop discographies.