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Tupac Shakur dissed in Billboard rap rankings

Billboard magazine has created a stir with the online release of its “10 Greatest Rappers of All Time” ranking.

The site‚ known for its charts and tallies‚ released the list and crowned Notorious BIG as the greatest rapper of all time.

Other artists who got the nod were Lil’ Wayne‚ Kendrick Lamar‚ Andre 3000 and Eminem amongst others.

A furore‚ however‚ ensued among industry greats and laymen alike as many found it to have excluded a number of key contributors to Hip Hop music‚ such as J.Cole‚ Drake and Kanye West.

Most notably of these exclusions is deceased‚ legendary New York rapper‚ Tupac Shakur.

While the site pre-emptively tried to quell any fires — by stating that its editorial list had a number of omissions such as Tupac‚ Kanye West‚ Kane‚ KRS and Drake because they were ranking the rappers by looking at them as MC’s with bars rather than looking at them as overall artists — it failed to curb sparking an outrage.

Die-hard hip hop fans took to social media networking site Twitter to express their anger at the omission of the Changes hit-maker from the list.

@iamtarsha tweeted: How do you make a Top 10 greatest rappers of all time list and don’t include Tupac @billboard? Delete your existence please‚ while @iDizzy81 tweeted: Billboard left 2Pac off their top 10 list of greatest rappers in history. Lmao. Whoever helped create the list should be fired.

Legendary rapper‚ Snoop Dogg‚ took to his Instagram account to express his frustration at the exclusion of Tupac on the list saying “This is so disrespectful. Whoever did this lists need a swift kick in the ass. No. Tupac. Come on cuz? Jus my opinion”.

South African artists and industry people‚ however‚ seem to be largely impervious to the list. When asked for comment‚ Cashtime Life’s‚ Thabiso Khati‚ said that he had no interest in speaking on US hip hop culture and that he would rather speak about South African hip hop.

Local hip hop artist Solo says “we’re all allowed an opinion”. He does‚ however‚ maintain that the exclusion of Tupac is not necessarily justified. “I think Tupac should make any and every top 10 rapper list‚ even if you’re not the biggest fan”.

Meanwhile‚ renowned local producer and rapper Buks says “the list seems kinda wrong at first glance. Top 5‚ I can live with but the rest seems odd”.

He adds‚ “Tupac is a great artist... He wasn’t just an MC. He was a social commentator. Drake will go down as one of the greatest artists of our generation and so will Kanye‚ if he hasn’t already. I don’t see how the exclusion is justified at all”.

- This saga comes a week before South Africans gear up to watch MTV Base’s second Hottest MC Debate. The panel‚ which will consist of comedian Loyiso Gola‚ Metro FM DJ T’bo Touch‚ Hype Magazine editor Fred Kayembe and more‚ will debate who deserves the accolade by analysing a wide range of criteria‚ including: style‚ album sales‚ impact and lyrics.

 

 

 

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