Who is the best rapper of all time?

Encyclopedia of Opinion

Question: Who is the best rapper of all time?
Position‹2 of 8›: Notorious B.I.G. is the best rapper
Argument: Biggie was a storyteller

Biggie used stories and semi-autobiographical material in his music, so listeners didn't just enjoy the rhythms but followed along in the narrative journey.

The argument

Biggie 's rap had substance, his songs were filled with relatable material for young African-Americans. He pioneered the storytelling tools that Kendick Lamar would later perfect, using multiple voices and characters to convey an honest and relatable message to his audience. Biggie's lyrics weren’t chosen solely for political or entertainment purposes, they were chosen to be a complex combination of politics, art, and culture--all in the name of storytelling.

Premises

[P1]Biggie's raps had substance, filled with material that was relatable to young African Americans. [P2] He pioneered storytelling techniques — multiple voices and characters — that later artists like Kendrick Lamar perfected. [P3] His lyrics wove together politics, art and culture in the service of honest storytelling. [C] Therefore, because he was a masterful storyteller, Notorious B.I.G. is the best rapper of all time.

Counter-arguments

While Biggie may have pioneered great storytelling in hip-hop, there are more versatile hip-hop artists as far as storytelling is concerned. Some tell incredible stories through both their lyrics and the music videos they create while others us their vocal and lyrical talents to tell stories to a larger audience than Biggie ever did. Rap has come a long way since Biggie's tragic death, and its development has led to even better hip-hop artists coming into the limelight.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Relatability is a claim about audience, and the premise makes it a criterion without defending it. Many rappers with strong claims to the title are relatable to their own audiences, so the property does not distinguish him — and the material is not principally political, being autobiographical narrative about crime, money and mortality, which the third premise then reclassifies. [Rejecting P2] "Pioneered" is too strong. Narrative rap with shifting perspectives and character voices was established before Ready to Die, in the work of Slick Rick, Kool G Rap and Rakim among others, and the distinction is the quality and detail of the execution rather than the invention of the device. Priority is also weak ground for a superlative, since the best practitioner of a technique need not be its originator. [Rejecting P3] The conclusion asks for the best rapper of all time and the premises establish excellence at one thing. Rapping is judged across several dimensions — flow, breath control, rhyme structure, voice, versatility, catalogue depth, longevity — and a career ended after two albums is short on the last two. Storytelling as a criterion also favours later artists on the argument's own reasoning, since it credits Kendrick Lamar with perfecting what it says Biggie began.

Proponents cited

AZ
“I don't care where, what part of the Earth you're from, when you listen to it, the dialogue is slow enough for you to digest it. When you actually tell a story and be descriptive, that takes talent. Big influenced a generation. This whole generation took pieces and bits,. Everybody took a piece out of Big that's on the charts right now. Everybody.”
Angel Diaz
“Big's first album is right up there with Illmatic and Paid in Full for the 'greatest rap album ever created' title. It had storytelling, top-notch production, it was street and commercial at the same time, and offered otherworldly wordplay. He set the tone for what was to come: commercial viability for hip-hop. Tracks like 'Gimme the Loot,' 'Juicy,' and 'One More Chance' stood side-by-side without feeling disjointed. 'Big Poppa' and 'One More Chance (Remix)' shot Big into super stardom...”
Pusha T
“Big delved deep. He was a master painter with words. And his flow was just so effortless. I mean, I think I’m an awesome writer, but my bars still sound like bars. Big had all these intricacies, all these colors, all these witty things – and it didn’t sound like a rap. It was a conversation.When Ready to Die dropped, it was still a competitive race for Big. You could have arguments about who was better with the Wu-Tang fanatics or the Nas fans. But by the summer after that, he left the pack in the marathon. We all said, 'No one’s better than Big.' It was a wrap. And when he brought the double album with Life After Death, it was solidified. Who’s made a better double album? Nobody, still. Until someone does, we have nothing to talk about. Big is the best.”