1. 50 cent (act like you dont already know, no one has more of an impact on hip hop than this man)
2. Kanye (how can he be #1 when 50 is the only reason hes so popular?)
3. Game (single handedly brought the west coast back)
4. Soulja Boy (hate to say it, but it’s a list of HOTTEST mc’s, doesnt matter that hes not good, you ppl still like him)
5. Styles P (year in and year out, bar for bar)
6. Crooked I (what other rapper you know that had the balls to spit over da either beat, plus dude was bringing you the heat every week)
7. Jeezy (brought his own style to the game that is very much copied)
8. Wayne (fell off after he stopped rappin like j and started rappin like wayne)
9. Lupe (just one big hit, but album was classic and full of them)
10. NaS (anticipation alone, and quite possibly on track to being the greatest mc ever)

Honorable Mention -
11. jay z (still talking that same old played out stuff [like how the dealers also get addicted] and biting ppl’s styles and ideas, cant expect anything new from the jigga man, hes been boring for a while now, roc boys? are you serious?! sooo boring!! remember this is a HOT list, boring is not hot)

he had the hottest verses this year fuk mtv

And wheres Nas?

Fuck MTV

^^^^^
bullshit. click my name

There’s a top 3, I think, but besides that upper echelon, who’s really hot?

Mine, which weighs skill and making truly good music way heavy:

1. ‘Ye, who was on another level with his pathos with Graduation and GITD (seriously, a DVD of that show would go plat, and everyone who went would buy it in a half second; so sorry to eskay if he didn’t get to go after all), Donde passing, that Grammys performance, and, shit, did I mention crushing Wayne on Barry Bonds and holding his own on the Lollipop remix? Ain’t fair, the roll this man’s on; he’s got the streets, the clubs, the ‘burbs, and he keeps getting bigger.

2. Hov. American Gangster was the best he’s ever been as a storyteller, and some of his best as a lyricist (Stay out of trouble, Mama said as Mama sighed/Her fear her youngest son be a victim of homicide); that record was a concept album with the lushest stuff producers had, and it STILL got street play. He’s got all his swagger back, even if he sometimes spends it on dumb shit like slaying DeStupid Stevenson and Soulja, and will still eviscerate you on your own shit (Maybach Music, waving bye to Ross) unless you are Eminem circa Renegade, and I’m not sure anyone’s on that level today. So be careful Weezy. Oh, and Heart of the City is Jay’s greatest hits with dollops of showmanship; really good, nowhere near GITD. (Wanna read a metric ton of my thoughts on the tours? http://deadon.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/one-on-one-jay-zs-heart-of-the-city-vs-kanyes-glow-in-the-dark/)

3. Wayne. Dude still has sick flow and metaphor (A Milli’s a beast), and he’s learning how to go MTV for shit like Lollipop, his swag is impeccably hood, and he turned the Lollipop remix into his own shit again with that latex/late text couplet, which I’m still spinning on. And he does more and different shit than anyone else, so he gets something from me for rarely repeating anything but those played out toilet/shit similes.

4. Loop. The Cool was hot shit, lyrically and stylistically, even if it wasn’t the concept album he wanted to make. He’s damn good as the opener on GITD, and he’s rearing (no homo) a stable of artists in GemStones or whatever that goofy dude’s name is and that Santos cat, who can sang. And Superstar is Kick, Push 2008; the remix was hot, but the acoustic is the thermite. Plus, the “high” verse on that N.E.R.D. remix and his total comfort next to Bun on the Swang on Em, and he fits anywhere. Perfect world, he’s the one doing everybody’s guests, not Jeezy.

5. Three Stacks: Hear me out. No one’s calling anything below the four up there lyrical majesty, right? And that’s what you get from Dre on the two verses he did do. Storytellin and Royal Flush are both ridiculous long (RF is like 1:30 and 60 bars of straight lyrical immolation of a track), but not only is there near-flawless lyricism, there’s his political swag, back again, the Grand Don of 2000s conscious rap, He Without Whom There Could Be No Kanye or Lupe (Maybe Even Wayne), that kinda weird dude who makes great music because of his eccentricity, not in spite of it. He could match up with anybody on their own stuff at this point, and he could get even better with a solo disc or with a still underrated Boi on the last OutKast LP. Shit, I think I could put him above Lu with few qualms.

6. Jeezy. I don’t really fuck with him, but I’ve heard some of the stuff off whatever this current album he’s finishing the single cycle from and like it. MTV nailed this, though: He’s the Luda of 2001-03 today with his guesting on everyone’s stuff from Shawty Lo to Ush, except his style’s gonna be the same forever and ever. Gets some points for charisma, but, shit, I wish I could judge him only on lyrics, but I’ll never get past the ad libs and slow flow being more important than them. And I’ll call his “influence” thing a push, ’cause it got us that They Know beat, an absolute banger, but also brought us Rocko.

7. Fif. I do not fuck with Curtis, and haven’t since Get Rich, but I must say it seems like he’s gotten past that period in his career where he was doing the exact same shitty rapping, but I’ma sing the chorus shit that he buried Ja for doing, at least lyrically. He still picks dumb fights for no reason at all and is more of a drama magnet than anyone but Kanye (and Ye’s shut up while on this tour, more or less), so he’s going to be looked at as petty and a pretender to the throne forever if that’s his M.O., but he’s still a Big Ticket, KG-style: Can carry a team and get some respect, but keeps shooting that damn fadeaway instead of smashing skulls like he could and did in earlier times.

8. T-Pain/Akon: Again, hear me out. They’re still sort-of rappers, right, and they’ve got the hook game cornered for sure; you still call one of them for anything you want a killer hook for. And they’ve both been on great runs in the past year(ish), Teddy Penderass on some Midas touch shit with that vocoder. Sure, they’ll never win lyrical awards, but they put their mark on the game with what they do so damn well, and that’s an important part of this, I think. They make other people’s decent into good, and that’s one of the few things saving hip-hop from irrelevancy.

9. Crooked. I know he has no street love and it’s basically just a bunch of us stans on the tubes that think he’s hot, but dude has wicked words and sycamore flow; if he ever gets a single out, or an album, he’ll be like Game crossed with Lupe, ‘Pac but a little less thug and a lot more lyrical. Mad potential ain’t half bad when the alternative is established shit like Soulja Boy.

10. Clipse. I’m a Brothers Thornton stan, but WGI4C3 was magma, and they’ve got lieutenants forever in Liva and Sand. Plus, they do work like Push did on that N.E.R.D. joint, and people will call back. They’re criminally slept on, and I guess that gets them motivated for shit like Re-Up, but if someone gave them half a chance at decent promotion…

Feel free to murder me; I got rhino hide.

Fuck what anyone else is trying to put up and push, I’ll decide what I spend my time listening to.

When’s the last time anyone on television has turned you on to something hot anyways? Or even the radio?