Biggie vs Ice Cube vs Rakim
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Who is better?
Biggie vs Ice Cube vs Rakim 48 votes
Notorious BIG
37%
18 votes
Ice Cube
39%
19 votes
Rakim
22%
11 votes
Comments
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Ice Cubeeasy
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Notorious BIGAlthough it's sacrilege for somebody in my generation to vote against Rakim, I've been listening to a lot of Biggie lately. Big made better music than Rakim.
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Notorious BIGBig
Rakim
Cube -
Notorious BIGYou too old to be making these threads with no structure.
Better in which way? Lyrically? Message? Flow?
Biggie obviously got the best flow and is the most lyrical out of of the 3.
But Cube is one of the best to ever do it.
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No objective answer for this one, depends on taste and personal preferences.
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Ice CubeCube for me but neither he nor BIG would exist w/o Rakim right?
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Notorious BIGBusta Carmichael wrote: »You too old to be making these threads with no structure.
Better in which way? Lyrically? Message? Flow?
Biggie obviously got the best flow and is the most lyrical out of of the 3.
But Cube is one of the best to ever do it.
They're all one of the best to ever do it -
Notorious BIGCube for me but neither he nor BIG would exist w/o Rakim right?
Not really. Rakim was the GOAT inspirational/spiritual rapper in his day. He was positive, intellectual and thought provoking. Also, he didn't try to cross over, he made boom bap Hip Hop for the true heads. But rap took a turn around 92 and people stopped rapping like that. People started rapping about getting high and naming the names of liquor brands in their lyrics.
By 95 every rapper was either,
1. A West Coast G cruising in a 64 Impala
2. A Columbian Drug Lord
3. An Italian Mobster
^^^^And if you didn't follow that blueprint your records weren't selling -
Rakimonly one vote for Rakim so far, damn.
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Can we get some context to this?
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RakimOverall goes to Rakim. He's still a top notch lyricist, not sure about Cube.
Prime to prime, I'm going with Cube though. -
Notorious BIG5th Letter wrote: »Can we get some context to this?
bet·ter 1 (bĕt′ər)
adj. Comparative of good.
1. Greater in excellence or higher in quality.
2. More useful, suitable, or desirable: found a better way to go; a suit with a better fit than that one.
3. More highly skilled or adept: I am better at math than English.
4. Greater or larger: argued for the better part of an hour.
5. More advantageous or favorable; improved: a better chance of success.
6. Healthier or more fit than before: The patient is better today. -
Ice CubeSteady mobbin
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Ice CubeIt's blasphemy to put Biggie in the conversation with these two GOATS with multiple classics to their names
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Notorious BIGIt's blasphemy to put Biggie in the conversation with these two GOATS with multiple classics to their names
Big made better music than both of them.
But yeah, Rakim and Ice Cube have more material. -
Notorious BIGCube has the best catalog
But Biggie was the best at rapping -
Ice Cube
thats incorrect...maybe he made better music than rakim (both are overrated)...but neither are on ice cube's level with classic material, i'd still rather listen rakim than big though -
5th Letter wrote: »Can we get some context to this?
bet·ter 1 (bĕt′ər)
adj. Comparative of good.
1. Greater in excellence or higher in quality.
2. More useful, suitable, or desirable: found a better way to go; a suit with a better fit than that one.
3. More highly skilled or adept: I am better at math than English.
4. Greater or larger: argued for the better part of an hour.
5. More advantageous or favorable; improved: a better chance of success.
6. Healthier or more fit than before: The patient is better today.
Can we get some context to this please? -
Notorious BIG5th Letter wrote: »5th Letter wrote: »Can we get some context to this?
bet·ter 1 (bĕt′ər)
adj. Comparative of good.
1. Greater in excellence or higher in quality.
2. More useful, suitable, or desirable: found a better way to go; a suit with a better fit than that one.
3. More highly skilled or adept: I am better at math than English.
4. Greater or larger: argued for the better part of an hour.
5. More advantageous or favorable; improved: a better chance of success.
6. Healthier or more fit than before: The patient is better today.
Can we get some context to this please?
How much more context do you need? -
5th Letter wrote: »5th Letter wrote: »Can we get some context to this?
bet·ter 1 (bĕt′ər)
adj. Comparative of good.
1. Greater in excellence or higher in quality.
2. More useful, suitable, or desirable: found a better way to go; a suit with a better fit than that one.
3. More highly skilled or adept: I am better at math than English.
4. Greater or larger: argued for the better part of an hour.
5. More advantageous or favorable; improved: a better chance of success.
6. Healthier or more fit than before: The patient is better today.
Can we get some context to this please?
How much more context do you need?
What is this based on? Is it albums(subjective), lyrical ability (non subjective) or overall career? Saying just who is better is vague? -
Notorious BIGEverybody judges MCs by different criteria.
However YOU judge MCs, whether it be by discography, stage presence, longevity, originality, influence, etc.
I don't want you to answer the question by MY criteria, I want you to answer the question by YOUR criteria. -
I don't want to get into a drawn out debate about this because it's not that serious. I ask for context because if it's based on overall career I'd vote Cube due to his longevity. If it's lyrical ability I'd lean towards Rakim. If it's albums I'd lean towards Big and even that is subjective.
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I don't agree at all, man. Rappers have always talked about getting high & brands of liquor. It's funny that you chose the year of 1992 as the "death" of Rakim's career, considering it's when Dr. Dre's The Chronic dropped....Hmmmm, I hope your anti-Dre bias is not taking over again...lol.Not really. Rakim was the GOAT inspirational/spiritual rapper in his day. He was positive, intellectual and thought provoking. Also, he didn't try to cross over, he made boom bap Hip Hop for the true heads. But rap took a turn around 92 and people stopped rapping like that. People started rapping about getting high and naming the names of liquor brands in their lyrics.
By 95 every rapper was either,
1. A West Coast G cruising in a 64 Impala
2. A Columbian Drug Lord
3. An Italian Mobster
^^^^And if you didn't follow that blueprint your records weren't selling
Here are just a few non-"West Coast G cruising in a 64 Impala, Columbian Drug lord, Italian Mobster" top selling albums starting in '92............
1992
-Das EFX 'Dead Serious'
-Kris Kross 'Totally Crossed Out'
-Arrested Development '3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of...'
-Gangstarr 'Daily Operation'
1993
-Onyx 'Bacdafucup'
-A Tribe called Quest 'Midnight Marauders'
-KRS 1 'Return of the Boom Bap'
-Wu-Tang Clan 'Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)'
1994
-Nas 'Illmatic'
-OutKast 'Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik'
-Common 'Resurrection'
-Heavy d & the Boyz 'Nuttin' But Love'
1995
-GZA 'Liquid Swords'
-The Roots 'Do You Want More'
-Old ? Bastard 'Return to the 36 Chambers: The ? Version'
-LL Cool J 'Mr. Smith' -
Notorious BIGIf you re-read my post I said "If you didn't follow that blueprint your records weren't selling".
As far as Rakim goes, his 4th album, Don't Sweat the Technique came out in 1992. Then he took a 5 year hiatus and didn't release another record until late 1997.
I don't know if you were around back then or if your just being argumentative but Hip Hop most definitely took a turn in a different direction around 1992, around the time The Chronic came out. First of all, due to the Biz Markie v. Gilbert O'Sullivan case the sampling laws changed dramatically. After that case you had to clear every sample, even if it was just a scratch or a bassline. As a result you started to hear less scratching in records.
In the late 80s you could watch MTV and they'd play NWA, 2 Live Crew, De La Soul, The Beastie Boys, Big Daddy Kane and Too $hort all in a row. There were different styles and everybody had their own lane.
Perhaps one of the major factors in the shift in Hip Hop was soundscan. Prior to soundscan retail stores and record labels essentially had to guess what was selling. The RIAA would certify something gold or platinum based on how many units were shipped to retail stores. If a record label was able to ship 500,000 units to record stores the record was certified gold, even if 6 months later half of those records were still sitting on the shelf unsold.
When soundscan came around there was a scientific, computerized way of calculating record sales and in the first week of soundscan's existence NWA's Niggaz4life LP was the number one selling album. Prior to that people assumed that rap was just a street thing or a fad that teenagers listened to and people thought that crossover artists like Michael Jackson, Madonna and Whitney Houston were the biggest selling artists. So when soundscan came into the picture, people realized that rap (especially gangsta rap) was the number one selling form of music. People also realized that Heavy Metal and Country sold a lot more than they had previously thought.
I don't know if you were around at that time but the face of rap switched from NWA, 2 Live Crew, De La Soul, The Beastie Boys, Big Daddy Kane and Too $hort to Hi-C, Compton's Most Wanted, Warren G, Dr Dre and Snoop, Ant Banks, Spice 1. West Coast rap was outselling East Coast rap for a couple of years until Big brought the East back.
By the mid 90s, this is who was poppin on the East Coast
Capone and Noreaga
Tradgedy Khadafi
Nas Escobar
Raekwon A/K/A Lex Diamonds
Ghostface A/K/A/ Tony Starks
Frank White
and of course,
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Your post didn't make sense, boss.
I just posted 16 rap albums that were not "West Coast G cruising in a 64 Impala, Columbian Drug lord, Italian Mobster", but were huge selling hits. I could have posted even more..........
