Competition Breeds Greatness

https://www.complex.com/music/best-rappers-in-their-20s-2018/

Within any craft, there is always debate on who the greatest is at any given moment, especially a craft as popularly recognized as rap. The frequent “who’s best” conversation is a huge motivator for rappers to improve their product, along with the other obvious motivator, more money. It’s also important to note that the “greatest” is not necessarily the same as the most successful. There are many aspects one can specialize in and strive towards in the rap game because at the end of the day, music will always ultimately be subjective.

Among these various aspects are things such as commercial success, overall flow, rhyme schemes, consistency, quantity, party “bangers”, etc, so to holistically rank rappers without a specified niche, is in my opinion, wrong. The complex article attached is an example of this. Firstly the article gives no real justifications for its ordering and seems to pander to it’s projected demographic. Tyler the Creator is labeled the best rapper in their 20’s right now and this is very arguable. His last album displayed his progress as an artist but it also branched away from the rap genre, and is completely different then his previous works which disapointed a lot of die-hard fans who were a fan of his original sound. Now this isn’t to say he isn’t an incredibly talented artist but he hasn’t done nearly enough this year to merit this ranking especially compared to other artists who made the list. His album came out last year and all he’s released since then were some singles and previously used instrumentals, which were good, but were shadowed by other artist’s work. The article also lacks any type of explanation on what they think makes an artist the best. Is it influence? Is it purely music quality? Is it success? Reception by fans? Based off the artists and “explanations” listed it could go any which way.

Overall, the article seems out of touch with who is currently really the best. For example, from last year’s list to this year’s list Chance the rapper’s postion has increased yet he has done nothing noteworthy this year aside from releasing 4 singles, which had maybe one that was well received, and announced his new album with Kanye which still doesn’t have a release date. His latest album was a commercial success but was perceived as “okay” by fans especially in relation to his album before that “Acid Rap” which has a cult following and has basically what got Chance the Rapper into most people’s playlists. The article argues he is a household name now but what does that have to do with rapping. Also, i would be willing to bet that if you asked someone who doesn’t follow rap if they knew who he is, You’ll likely get less then 50% knowing of him, nevermind having listened to his music.

While I think general rankings are useless, I hold the belief that there should definitely be rankings at any given time in order to motivate rappers to strive towards their best art. If rappers, and in a more general sense, artists were not compared and contrasted then they would have no reason to strive towards greater goals. Art is best when it is made out of necessity, and for some rappers there is nothing more necessary then upholding their pride within the rap game. “Falling off” is also a great fear of rappers which motivates them to continue producing quality material as they do not want to seem like they lost what they have had.

Competition within anything does have it’s pitfalls however. Any type of competition can breed pressure and in some cases it may be extreme and will hinder an artists body of work. This occurs often when rappers have highly anticipated albums. High anticipation can make or break an album. “Astroworld” is likely the most commercially successful album of the year even after having 2 years of built-up hype, and then you have an album like “Carter 5” that came out today which ,while early to say definitely, has not lived up to the expectations surrounding it. While pressure should not be a reason that prevents competition, it should be accounted for when considering an album as a whole.

Competition has many facets to it that must be accounted for and is an essential component of hip-hop. Without the more intense and monitored competition within early hip-hip, the genre would not have been able to grow and evolve to the music form that it is today. Due to music’s growth there is some form of hip-hop that can fit anyone’s taste if they search deep enough.