Top 5 Alive - Rappers

A list of hip-hop's current scions.

1- Jay-Z

There is so little that still needs to be said about Jay-Z.  He has demonstrated throughout his career that he can literally do, both musically and otherwise, whatever he wants.  Singles?  Check.  Upstage the greats?  Check.  Slaughter MC's on diss tracks and win beef outright?  Check.  Oscillate between radio-friendly hip-pop and displays of flow and lyricism that put BIG to shame?  Check.  He's done it all while getting the hottest chick in the game to wear his chain.  Through your diamond signs up.

2 - NaS

His magnum opus, Illmatic, is the greatest hip-hop album of all time which, by itself, secures him a spot in the top two.  He loses to Jigga because he has dropped too much weak shit over the course of his career.  A large part of this is beat selection and aligning himself with unworthy partners in rhyme.  Having said all that, his late career work has been better than Jay's, making up for inflammatory album titles with solid tracks.  Without Illmatic he's barely on this list but that album was so integral, so defining, that his position amongst rap's greats has been secure since 18.

3 - Saigon

At some point in the middle of this decade, Q-Tip went on New York radio and proclaimed an effectively unknown Saigon one the 5 greatest living rappers under the weight of a few mixtapes.  The host thought he was crazy but it turns out he was right.  After dropping a modern classic and a slew of brilliant mixtapes I am willing to anoint Saigon as the NEXT ONE.  His ability to brag about street activities in one breath and tell the youth to avoid these pitfalls in the next is astonishing insofar as he doesn't come across like a preachy jerk-off.

4 - Pusha T

Pusha single-handedly reestablished coke rap as a viable and legitimate hip-hop subgenre while overcoming a disgusting amount of label drama.  He isn't the greatest in any single area of hip-hop but he does it all well and, like Clipse, there is something about this dude that is irrefutable.  He floated through Fear of God and still dropped what will probably be the mixtape of the year.  Having this follow his being the driving force behind one the best hip-hop albums and one of the best mixtapes of the last decade secure his position amongst rap's elite.

5 - Phonte

As a member of the best hip-hop group of the last decade and a half (two classics), he proved himself a more than capable MC.  Phonte followed Little Brother with some crossover work and a slew of excellent guest appearances.  He retains his credibility (at least in my eyes) in spite of (or because of) singing on a DJ Shadow track and working as Foreign Exchange.  Also there is no one better with homonyms which are an endlessly entertaining device in hip-hop.

Honourable Mentions:
- MF Doom (disappeared for too long)
- Pharoahe Monch (too inconsistent)
- Raekwon (same as DOOM)
- Ghostface Killah (hasn't been the same since Bulletproof Wallets)
- Papoose (drop a fucking album already)
- Andre 3000 (if the next Outkast album sees him spitting like he did on Art of Storytellin' 4 he's moving right to the third spot)
- Redman (has sucked for too long)
- Slug (his recent work has been sub par at best)