Rapper report cards (Back to the forum)

In 1987, Kool Moe Dee famously graded the rappers of his generation in ten different categories — vocabulary, articulation, creativity, originality, versatility, voice, records, stage presence, sticking to themes, and innovating rhythms. Here’s how it looked then:

In 1998, he did the same thing with that year’s crop of artists. I don’t have time to scan it in right now, but for reference, Lauryn Hill scored highest with a 97, then Biggie with 95, then Busta and Tupac with 93, and so on

So I was wondering: given the same high standards Moe Dee applied (i.e. no perfect 10’s across the board — Biggie, for example, only got a 9 in “originality”), how would today’s newer rappers rank, in each category and overall? How would you grade Kendrick? Tyler? ASAP Rocky? Danny Brown? Anyone down to put together their own report card? I’m curious to hear your replies!

• SameOldShawn

First off, Kool Moe Dee is an egomaniac. The dude gave himself an A+ as opposed to Rakim’s A. I figured I’d get that out of the way.
I think if we were doing this now, things would have to be a little different. Hip-hop was still young when the criteria was determined, so progression was occurring rapidly. 25 years later, nothing is really original. Even seemingly original dudes like Danny Brown could be written off as Kool Keith rip-offs.
Other than that, there’d be a lot of C+ rappers right now. A lot of dudes would suffer in the vocabulary and articulation department.

^ Danny Brown a Kool Keith rip-off? lol

It’s a lot harder to be original now than it was back in the day.

When will hip hop fans learn. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE
Is a Kool Keith rip-off. There is no getting around it.

Im just sayin doe, you act like there was no Hip Hop till Kool Keith came along (1985)

Kool Moe Dee gave himself that score on purpose, just for the giggles of wiggles for it

There was hip hop before Kool Keith?

Not only are rappers these days not original, but they aren’t versatile either. They use the same flows, same punchlines, etc over and over. Now I think we have more unique voices (i.e. Danny Brown) and some put on a hell of a show (OF)

lol at the Beastie Boys being a 70

I’d love a card.

I think this is Sean’s first thread.

Maybe because he wants to be a battle rap judge?

@SlimKnowledge: LOL. I’m a little disappointed that thus far no one has attempted to grade anybody. Who wants to be the first?

Report Card

Vocabulary

/10

Articulation

/10

Creativity

/10

Originality

/10

Versatility

/10

Voice

/10

Records

/10

Stage Presence

/10

Sticking To Themes

/10

Innovating Rhythms

/10

Shouldn’t creativity and originality be combined?

who gives a fuck.

@Gary this was prior to Pauls Boutique. They only had LTI under their belt back then. PE was only one album deep as well

@Quetzacoatl,

I would certainly make a case that creativity and originality are two separate entities. I’ll take a step outside the music realm to show an example that I hope will better illustrates this point.

Let’s take a look at the advertising industry. Think about Geico Car Insurance and how many hours of your life you’ve spent watching and listening to their gecko mascot. The gecko advertising campaign has been around since 1999. Thats 13 years old (Hell, that’s scary to think that the Geico gecko is older than some of the users on this site). Certainly advertising featuring that company’s mascot are no longer original, since people see the same mascot and similar content over and over again. HOWEVER, the people at the ad agency have to consistently come up with now ways to be CREATIVE about presenting the gecko and their ads.

Excrement’s idea of formatting:

Bold everything

FYI, the 1998 version:

I wanted to make a report card, but I barely listen to new school rap, I finished writing people down I heard enough of to grade, and I finished with 9 people from who had success in ‘10 till now, with the only really important ones being Nitty Scott MC, Jon Connor, Shawn Chrystopher & Big K.R.I.T….

^ lol at “Most Def”

Btw, on the ‘98 card, who is that between Lil Kim & Sticky Fingazz?

Mack 10 from Westside Connection

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_10

Oh nice, Mack 10 is my shit

You should do this shit for the Battle Rap.

Damn the ‘98 one was harsh lol

Just don’t compare us to the guys on that list.

@MaddDogg: Not a bad idea! Any of the movers and shakers in the rap battle, what do you think about that? Should the judges use these categories to decide the winners, as a sort of nod to rap history?

Oh wait — scratch that. At least two of the categories — “records” and “stage presence” would be n/a.

Put Flow & Delivery instead of those

@MaddDogg
That sounds like a cool idea. You guys should run this idea by the judges.

@Rayne,

Yes, the mascot ceased to be original, but their methods of portraying him and getting their message across could still be original (creative), right? To me, those terms are so closely related that they can, and should be, combined.

Working on a big board with my a couple of my homies today. Some of the new guys, some of the heavy hitters. Will upload the chart once we’ve finished deliberating.

^ Let the bitching begin

Lol at Keith Murray and Mystikal getting better grades than Nas.

Okay, here’s my report card for Hopsin based on my interpretation of each category:
Report Card
Vocabulary: 7/10

Articulation: 10/10

Creativity: 6/10

Originality: 5/10

Versatility: 7/10

Voice: 8/10

Records: 9/10

Stage Presence: 9/10

Sticking To Themes: 9/10

Innovating Rhythms: 7/10

Correct my math if it’s wrong, but I think that puts him at a 77 C. I’m surprised, I like Hop, I thought my score for him would end up higher. But still, he’s still got a lot of time left in the game, for what he’s done so far, a 77 is solid I think.

9/10 for Hopsin in records??? Never in a trillion years. That dude can rap his ass off, but he doesn’t know how to write a song. 5/10.

5/10? Harsh lol. His hooks mostly suck, but in most cases, it doesn’t ruin the overall enjoyment of his records for me. If I were to revise, maaaybe I would give him a 7 at lowest.

@TheJoker True shit brah

Here’s my Lupe, it might be way off from what everyone else thinks but here’s what I got:

Vocabulary: 10/10

Articulation: 9/10

Creativity: 8/10

Originality: 8/10

Versatility: 8/10

Voice: 8/10

Records: 9/10

Stage Presence: 7/10

Sticking To Themes: 8/10

Innovating Rhythms: 7/10

That’s a 82….B

When I think records I think someone like Kanye West, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne — the people who can write hooks that stay in your head for days, that do things with their flow that are extremely pleasing aesthetically. The lyrical ability of the rapper is completely beside the point in that category. Hopsin’s songs don’t make any impression on me. I listened to Raw five or six times and I don’t remember anything, except that I think “Nocturnal Rainbows” is the best record on it, and it’s not even that great. I don’t actually know how it goes. There’s no way someone like that could get above a 5 for me in that category.

9/10 in records…I’ll put this in perspective. I knew EVERY WORD to “BMF” within three times hearing it. It’s just THAT much of a monster that it leaves an impression like that. THAT’s a 9/10 record for me.

Hopsin can’t write a song? thefuckamireading/10

Pusha T

Vocabulary
8/10
Articulation
9/10
Creativity
8/10
Originality
7/10
Versatility
10/10
Voice
10/10
Records
8/10
Stage Presence
10/10
Sticking To Themes
10/10
Innovating Rhythms
7/10

In my book, Pusha gets an 87, or a B+.

I think “articulation” is a kind of old-school, outdated category for evaluation. A lot of the charm for some rappers comes from their slurring, mumbling quality.

Here’s mine for Danny Brown. He’s someone that seems to fly slightly under the radar around here, and really the only reason he’s on my mind enough to write this is because his Freshman Cypher verse has been stuck in my head all day. Here goes:

Vocabulary: 6/10

Articulation: 8/10

Creativity: 8/10

Originality: 10/10

Versatility: 8/10

Voice: 10/10

Records: 9/10

Stage presence: 9/10

Sticking to Themes: 7/10

Innovating Rhythms: 7/10

Final Score: 82, B.

Let me know what you think. Some of those numbers I was on the fence.

@JW That’s fair, but why don’t you think lyricism counts in crafting an overall enjoyable record. I totally agree that memorability is a large component as well, and everything Hop makes is not memorable, but in my opinion, you can’t have a good record without a lil sumthin sumthin by way of lyrics.

But I cosign on the articulation thing. That’s a weird category that I don’t weight heavily when considering the quality of a rapper. Unless their lack articulation becomes distracting.

I’d think lupe’s voice would be a 10/10

Articulation should be replaced with a “Delivery” category

Lips Fiasco

Vocabulary-10
Articulation-10
Creativity-9
Originality-7
Versatility-10
Voice-10
Records-8 just because of lasers. And that wasn’t even his fault.
Stage presence-8
Sticking to themes-9
Innovating Rythms-8
An 89 for probably my favorite rapper. Would’ve thought it to be higher but eh, still pretty good.