In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop, many media outlets are doing feature series about the genre. This inevitably leads to a variety of listicles about various scenes, subgenres, and demographics. But few pieces have gotten people as heated as the "50 Best New York Rappers of All Time" list published by Complex on August 11.
The includes a top ten of (in order) Jay-Z, Biggie, Nas, Rakim, LL Cool J, Fif, Nicki, DMX, Busta Rhymes, and KRS-One. It's a top ten that people may have some slight objections to but is mostly sound. However, the scope and scene knowledge of the team behind the article quickly becomes apparently the further you read. Or don't read, because the article counts up from #50.
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Complex Sure Made Some Choices
A lot of recency bias is present in the Complex article, especially lower down the list. Ice Spice has had a meteoric rise over the past year. However, she makes the list at #50 despite her limited body of work. Meanwhile, Diddy sits at #48, 23 places below Cardi B. The article feels very...vibes driven. Ice Spice gets a spot because she's hot right now. Cardi anchors the midpoint because most people like Cardi B. Meanwhile, French Montana does not make an appearance on the list. Argue all you want about his heritage but saying he's not a New York rapper is pretty insulting to the contributions the man made to the city's scene in the early 2000s.
Perhaps it's the ranking aspect that makes the article so egregious in the eyes of so many people. While an unranked list, or something more akin to a Hall of Fame list, would still garner debate, it's the numerical ranking that stuck in the people's craw. Ice Spice could become an all-timer for NYC. But to have her start a list of the greatest New York rapper of the last 50 years is a wild decision. At the end of the day, it almost feels like ragebait content - a purposefully inflammatory list designed to stoke engagement.
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What do you think of the list? Let us know in the comments.
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