30 Best Rappers of All Time

If there were ever a rapper whose rhymes you’d argue were straight up poetry, it’s Common. He has a great discography that his 2005 effort Be sits atop of for most. Impressively, he signed to G.O.O.D. Music and was a staple of that, standing out amongst rappers like Ye, Pusha T, Big Sean and more.

What Nicki Minaj did for women in Hip-Hop cannot be overstated. Since kicking doors down in the late 2000s, Nicki has defied the odds to become a staple in the culture and open doors for many of your favorite rappers today.

The rise of the South can be largely accredited to T.I., who also helped usher in the trap music era. He doesn’t get nearly enough props for either and perhaps you can attribute that to him going to prison (twice) right at the height of his career. But either way, Tip has stamped himself as one of the greatest of all time.

Jay Electronica’s discography might not be particularly expansive, but it certainly goes deeper than most realise. In not as many verses as most, Jay Electronica has proven himself to be one of the most skilled MCs of all time. ‘Exhibit C’ and ‘Exhibit A’ alone are two of the better Hip-Hop records of the late 2000s era that they came out in and on A Written Testimony, he held his own with Hov.

The Game sometimes get clowned for his antics outside of the booth, but his discography is proof that he has an incredible understanding of what makes bodies of work great from start to finishing and over years.

Those that only know Scarface’s music from the time he was with the Geto Boys are missing out on a plethora of incredible, matured music from one of the sharpest pens out there. Scarface gave a different perspective on the street life when it was needed and safely earned a spot as one of the best rappers of all time.

For what he did with MMG alone, Rick Ross deserves a shout-out as one of the most iconic label heads out there. Of course, Ross has had an incredible career of his own. His rhymes are lauded for the luxury aesthetic that they convey. Even if you’re not as financially stable as Ross – and let’s face it, you’re not – he makes you feel like you are and can be.

It’s easy to get caught up in the bubble of the western world, but take a trip worldwide and you’ll see that 50 Cent’s impact is one of the furthest reaching of any rapper, ever. Everyone talks about Get Rich Or Die Tryinand The Massacre as classic albums, but 50 is on the Mt. Rushmore for mixtapes too.

Many rappers that are connected to more popular artists are forced to stay in their shadow, but Royce 5’9” has done anything but that. The Detroit legend has had a great career that most would dream of and has had his fair share of commercial success while never ever sacrificing the integrity of his art form.

There’s an entire generation that only knows Ice Cube from his acting roles and that’s a shame because he’s easily had one of the best careers of any rapper in the genre’s five decades. Cube wrote not only for himself, but a bunch of other members of NWA and then went on his own run after leaving the group. He also boasts one of the bets diss records of all time in ‘No Vaseline’.

People have been trying to write off Drake’s run and call it over for the better part of a decade now but he keeps on proving that he’s one of the savviest, most talented rappers out there. His star power is out of this world and truthfully, that would probably keep him off of some lists like this, but his record is undeniable. He recently proved that he can do what most want from him on a Rap level with Scary Hours 3 and did it like it was nothing.

Lauryn Hill’s run in the 90s is something to be studied. In 1996, she dropped The Score with Fugees and in 1998, she followed it up with her classic solo debut, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which made her the first Rap artist to win Album of the Year. To date, she’s still one of only two rap artists to do it.

Jadakiss has never put out a bad verse and if you don’t believe us, check out his extensive discography with The LOX, plus all of his solo stuff. Kiss had his moment during the Verzuz against Dipset and it was long overdue.

If DMX had never had the commercial success that he did, he’d still be respected as a legend. But he did. He was the only rapper whose first three albums all debuted at #1 and then he did twice more after that. X’s soul always shined through, even in a troubled life and he put genuine fear in other rapper’s hearts more times than we could count.

J. Cole really came into his own when he became the self-proclaimed middle child of Hip-Hop, someone who was a big brother to the new generation and a younger brother to the older generation. He has bridged that gap beautifully and even for early doubters, has earned a reputation as one of the best feature-killers of all time. He also has his fair share of classics under his belt, if we count mixtapes.

Ghostface Killah is one of the few rappers on this list that have had legendary careers both as part of a group and solo too. Ghostface’s run with Wu-Tang is to be studied. In 1993, the group dropped their classic solo. Then Ironman came out and was followed up by Wu-Tang Forever. Then at the turn of the millennium, Ghostface dropped Supreme Clientele. It’s a mind-blowing run.

At this point, Rakim’s legacy has gone on so long that he might be your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper’s favorite rapper. His footprint in Hip-Hop goes so deep that he’s influenced artists likely without them even knowing it, with his style and early fascination with wordplay and punchlines setting a blueprint for many of the greats.

Formerly known as Mos Def, Yasiin Bey is a bit of a present-day renaissance man, but one of his skills and talents is certainly rapping. He and Talib Kweli have a pair of incredible albums and of course Black on Both Sides is highly regarded. 

The difficulty of having a run of albums like Kanye West did in the 2000s is hard to get across to someone who doesn’t follow Hip-Hop closely. Everything else aside, Ye’s reputation as a musical genius is backed by a bunch of classic albums and his ability to curate these moments earns him a spot here.

3 Stacks has a poetic, meditative element to his rapping that’s hard to replicate. Truthfully, you don’t need a solo Hip-Hop album to have proved yourself as an MC and André is proof of that. OutKast is no worse than a top five Rap duo/group of all time and every time Dré pops up with a new feature, it’s stellar.

You only had to have seen the reaction from his fans when it was announced that he passed away to understand a fraction of the lives that DOOM touched. His style wasn’t for everybody, but his actual skill level was impossible to debate. He also didn’t really make subpar bodies of work.

Pac’s legend status and iconic reputation transcends Hip-Hop and has done for nearly thirty years. The emotion that his words evoke is hard to describe and his words have immortalized him forever.

The Roots’ resident MC got a lot of shine from his crazy Funk Flex freestyle a few years ago and if that’s the first you heard of him, that’s cool, but he’s been blowing people away with his rhymes for a long time. It’s almost hilarious how a guy most of America probably knows from The Tonight Show is one of the best rappers of all time, but that’s the truth.

He wasn’t active for as long as any of us would have liked, but in a short time, Biggie made an impact on the future decades of Hip-Hop that’s hard to even quantify. In his pair of albums, B.I.G. was the voice of an entire generation and will always be one of the greats in the genre.

If we’re talking straight up lyricism and skill with the English language, Lupe Fiasco probably tops off this list. He does things consistently with words that you’ll probably never hear any other rapper do and is ushering in the next generation of that kind of MC with his Society Of Spoken Art guild. When it comes to wordplay, his song ‘Failure’ might be the most intricate and layered out there. When JAY-Z calls someone one of the best writers he’s heard, you listen.

To those that wonder if it’s still too early to put Kendrick this high on a list like this, we ask, how many classics do you need? Since he popped up on most people’s radars in 2011, K. Dot has delivered time after time after time with albums that don’t just live in rotations for a while, but actually shape everything after them and are the best of their era. Kendrick will be given his flowers when he goes away for everything he’s done, so let’s give them to him now.

Eminem gets criticized for being overly rappy at times, but it only speaks to his love for rhyming and obsession over mastering his craft. That love has turned him into one of the best rappers of all time and you only have to ask your favorite rapper who they love, fear and respect the most.

The debate around Lil Wayne actually being one of the best rappers of all time was a contentious debate but as the years have passed, it feels as though more and more people are seeing the light. His versatility is unrivalled and his simile and metaphor game is untouchable. Wayne has been doing it as long as any active rapper today and still sounds fresh in 2023. Ask Kendrick Lamar, Chance The Rapper, Future, Young Thug or any big name from the past fifteen years of Hip-Hop and they’ll tell you they were inspired by Lil Wayne.

Nas was already one of the greatest rappers of all time before his run with Hit-Boy, but their pair of trilogies put him in a new stratosphere. 2024 marks three decades of an iconic career that consists of a bunch of classic albums, great business ventures, hits, lives changed and an infinite number of punchlines causing screw faces.

You can shuffle the top end of this list a few ways and still justify it, but for most, JAY-Z reigns supreme as the best and greatest rapper of all time. For multiple generations of Hip-Hop fans, Hov has been a father figure with his valuable lessons that never came at the expense of wit or brashness. Lyrically, he maintained a level that most only hope to achieve and he did it while keeping a catalogue of some of the best b-sides and hits ever. All of that is to say nothing of his business acumen and the strides he’s made with prison reform.