From Kanye to Drake, Debating Hip-Hop’s Most Valuable Rapper Posted by Nathan S. on 03/31/12 | Filed under Features

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Every year I watch people lose their minds on their fantasy drafts, and every year I dream of figuring out a way to do a hip-hop fantasy draft. Suggestions welcome, but I've spent a lot of time thinking about how to make a rap fantasy league work and it's just too complicated - but the underlying premise still makes for a hell of a debate; namely, Who's Hip-Hop's Most Valuable Rapper?

That's a much different conversation than who hip-hop's "best" rapper is - but first let's lay down the premise and ground rules for our fantasy debate:

The Premise: You're a multi-billionaire who's decided to finally realize his life-long dream of running a record label - Rich as Fuck Records. You're willing to spend any amount of money to sign any rapper in the world, even if that means buying them out from existing contracts.

In other words, you can sign any rapper alive without any problem. They all want the unlimited budget and complete creative control offered by Rich as Fuck Records, and even the biggest labels will let their star artists go for the infinite buy out checks you're willing to write.

The Criteria: As the owner of Rich as Fuck Records you want three things from your artists:

1) CREAM: You didn't get this rich running a charity and you're not about to start now. The amount of money the rapper would bring in matters.
2) RESPECT: But you're not just all about the cash. Being a respected label, winning Grammys, leaving a lasting legacy etc. matters too.
3) HYPE: Both CREAM and RESPECT are driven in part by how much the world talks about your rapper.

The Specifics: You're not signing these artists to 360 deals, you'll only make money off their individual and music-related enterprises. For example, if you signed Diddy you wouldn't also get a piece of Sean John and Bad Boy, if you signed Jay-Z you wouldn't get a piece of Rocawear and Roc Nation, etc. We're only talking music sales, touring, merchandise, etc.

Also, every rapper you sign will be to a ten-year contract.

Your Job: Come up with the Top 5 rappers you'd sign to Rich As Fuck Records, in order.

It really changes the way you think about rappers and success. For example, Eminem's undoubtedly one of the most respected and best selling rappers alive, but how much more solo work does he really have in him over the next ten years? Would you be better off signing a younger guy like Drake over him? Maybe, maybe not.

Nas is one of the best rappers alive, but does he even make the top 10 under these criteria? Top 20? Maybe, maybe not.

Would it be worth rolling the dice to sign Andre 3K; if you can get him to drop an album you'll earn instant and huge RESPECT, but that's a big if. Maybe, maybe not.

Would it be worth taking a hit on the RESPECT front for the undoubted CREAM that Nicki Minaj would bring in? Maybe, maybe not.

Alright RefinedHype Nation, your top 5 lists in the comments below. Have at it.