Who’s the Greatest Bay Area Rapper of All-Time? Posted by Nathan S. on 02/19/14 | Filed under Top Stories, Debates, RH Nation Answers, City Series

After taking a week off to tackle "College Dropout Week", our "City Series" is back and in full effect. After having already determined the greatest emcee in each of what I'll call hip-hop's major markets - New York, L.A., Atlanta and Chicago - it's time to turn our attention to that stronghold of creativity and revolution, the Bay Area. 

As a reminder, here are the guidelines for defining "Greatest From That City": 

Inherent Dopeness: In a vacuum where record sales and influence don't matter, how purely/rawly dope are they? If you could only listen to one rapper from that city until the day you died, who would you pick? If there's a national rap battle, best song wins, who are you picking to represent that city? 

Influence: When they did something, did the rest of their city follow? And by extension, did the rest of the country follow? Have they proven they can have multiple generations of influence? 

City Association: The two above are pretty standard criteria for any RefinedHype debate, but this is the x-factor in the "City Series" - how closely is that rapper linked to his/her city? For example, if I say "Toronto hip-hop" a lot of people's strongest association is going to be with Drake. (It's an example, relax, we'll get to the Toronto-specific debate in due time.) By contrast, while Tupac's roots are Bay Area, he also has some really strong associations with L.A. (Again, we'll get there.) Point it, the greatest rapper from that city has to really embody and represent that city. 

And two additional points for this one:

1) As a former Yay Area resident, I know the lines of what consititutes "Bay Area" can get a little fuzzy; is San Jose the Bay Area? What about Sonoma? It's about more than geography, it's about a shared culture. I don't foresee it being a problem, but if there's some rapper from...Palo Alto...that you feel really needs to be in here, we can allow some geographical flexibility. 
2) Tupac was already named L.A.'s greatest rapper of all-time, and I think that was the right call, but if you really want to get him into the Bay Area finals as well, I won't fight y'all. 

And now, onto the nominees....

E-40: The best case of national disrespect I can think of. To most of America I think E-40 is something bordering on a joke, or at the very least a footnote. But in the Bay Area he's a godfather, someone who's been putting out projects for two decades, has his own incredibly inventive style and has helped multiple generations of new artists come up in their own right. Sprinkle me motherfuckers. 

Mac Dre: Like Biggie or any artist who's tragically killed, Mac Dre's death has made him more than just an artist, he's a symbol. He was also one of the most creative emcees to ever touch the mic. RIP. 

Too $hort: Another artist who's had his impact discounted because he doesn't fit the traditional "east coast legend" mold. I don't think even Short Dawg's biggest supports would call him an incredible emcee (although he can get serious), but the man essentially invented selling CDs out of your trunk. 

Del Tha Funky Homosapien: So far all of these names have been in the more street side of the hip-hop equation - and what for a moment would be called hyphy - but the Bay has a very diverse sound. If I'm going to throw in anyone from the more traditionally underground scene, it had to be Del. Not only is he part of the Hiero crew, he's got at least one classic album under his belt as a solo artist. 

MC Hammer: Relax, kidding. (Although he is the most commercially successful Bay Area rapper of all-time, so on second though he at least deserves a mention.)

A lot more names to bring up - Messy Marv, Gift of Gab, Mistah FAB, Mac Mall, Spice 1, Souls of Mischief and more - but I'm comfortable with those as a top four. And as always, although we're all used to a site posting a definitive, numbered list you're supposed to yell about, this isn't that. It's completely open. If you think I forgot someone, you can add them below yourself. 

Let's have at it people. YAY AREA!!!!!!!!!

Who's the Greatest Bay Area Rapper of All-Time?

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