nicest pen in rap?
 

past or present.

i woulda said nas if asked years back

now not so certain. still might be...

ab souls high calibre at times, but inconsistent

iont like his music much, but royce is clean, though he dont be saying shit

lupe, though iunno, his shit dense, but the stuff i dont catch could just be garbage, but im lowkey just thinkin its fire

scarface pen game underated, not lyrical miracle shit, but man stay droppin jewels. iunno, i mightve bumped the fix abit too much lately

couple others, i have to let sit & think overtime...jay elec, mick jenkins, conway

lowkey though i made this thread just mostly to say

daylyts pen is stupid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z62c9adCal4

& why am i askin this to a bunch of niggas who still think Eminem is nice

shittt

Nas is my dude.
Thought right up there to.

Nas is the reason i became a lyricist. So imma rock with the god. Songs like this are the reason why..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlyZAoQ9-Hc

az
lupe
willie the kid
aesop rock
pharoah monch

tupac
jay z
redman
big pun
nas

Fracture

@Blue Bayou

Very solid list my man

Eminem.

The fuck is this thread.

black thought would eat your favorite rapper if he went at their neck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prmQgSpV3fA&t=16s


His schemes are intricate but palatable sonically, even for a casual listener. Dope voice. He's intelligent, and has solid subject matter, yet still makes sure to go the fuck off enough that nobody ever says his name wrong. lol. Nasty boy.

i love em, jay, nasir, etc. Some of the best albums ever in hiphop, and my 3 favorites if im honest.... but if they lyrically went at thought, from a skill standpoint, my money is on Thought.

Yes sir

Thought and Royce would probably murder any duo, thinking abut it

Jay flows better >

Even Royce knows he's not better than Em.

It's not even close to me. Em spits some corny, old ass punchlines sometimes, sure... But on a technical scale (multi's, syllable counts, etc.) he does things within these parameters better than most artists I've heard can do outside of them. It's like he handicaps himself to perfection. He sticks to his 'every syllable must rhyme' ideology and works within it, rarely breaking it to make a bar work.

There's no debate here.

you're wrong.

every time em has rhymed with thought he came up short if i recall. yah yah song. bet cypher... as an emcee... u write to the beat. to the vibe. your cadence structure and energy comes from how u write. Em is probably my fave rapper.. and in his bag he's a fantastic story teller and he outshines most people most times. Not with Mr. Trotter

Em is the most famous rapper to do what he does. He's fantastic. IMO his pen game is NOW defined by the technical levels of excellence, but what made him special was his story telling, and emotional evocation. Period. Stan. Cleaning Out My Closet. 97 Bonnie and Clyde. Ty Soldiers. Lose Yourself. Brain Damage. And his ability to use satire, sarcasm, and comedy. His spectrum ws unique on that large of a scale. He's a great writer, but versus Trotter, its hard to take the track, because he also integrates ridiculous schemes, and a polished, aggressive, yet smooth delivery. Bro... Its hard for him to sound the best against that.

I feel your points, especially about Em's storytelling and emotional connection to his audience. And don't get me wrong, I love Black Thought; His memorized pre-written on Flex was astounding. But I'm talking intricate rhyme schemes here man, punchlines that have set ups within set ups that are relevant AND rhyme to the punch, on a multi-syllable level. I listen for this shit - Em does stuff that I don't catch until years later on... like having connections within the SPELLING of two words (final letter to first letter) that you wouldn't pick out unless you really listen to him enunciate.

I'm just saying he's the best I've ever heard, in that respect.

Em is garb and his old shit aged terribly imo

yea i was gonna say black thought but loot covered it

i thought tobe nwigwe was gonna be the truth but he has j cole syndrome in the sense he says the same thing just a little differently on every song he makes.

jay electronica is also the most impressive lyricist to me without being overly complex though. his schemes and patterns aren't intricate but i'm the correct level of dumb to find shit he says as profound

Can’t really argue with this.