10- Ludacris
9- Wyclef Jean
8- KRS-one
7- Andre 3000
6- Lauren Hill
5- Rakim
4- Eminem
3- Notorious B.I.G.
2- 2pac
1- Nas

ludacris: not incredibly deep, but funny. I like the type of rappers that have deep, meaningful lyrics that don't talk about partying and bling every other word, but Luda is the one exception because of his comedic style.

wyclef: good, deep lyrics, especially in his fugee days

KRS: one of the first rappers to use his raps to teach and send a positive message, and had the ability to use both rap and reggae styles in the same song. he would be higher on this list though, if it didn't always sound like he was shouting in his songs.

andre: the king of originality in every way, including lyrically. He can be both funny and deep, often at the same time.

lauren hill: the best female MC i've ever heard. good, deep lyrics with messages.

rakim: one of the smoothest-flowing rappers i've ever heard, and had some of the best rhyming skills and patterns i've ever heard. still, he wouldn't be on this list if he didn't use his raps to send a message.

eminem: incredible skills, written and freestyle. vocally, he has probably the best enunciation i've ever heard. lyrically, he has great, occasionally comedic lyrics that he uses to send messages, and great rhyming skills

Biggie: Incredble flows and lyrical wordplay. He usually has a message, but he talks slightly too much about parties and money. If not for his song "Juicy", he wouln't have such a prominent place on this list.

2pac: A great lyricist, and an interesting, dynamic person. Everything he was thinking he put into a song, which almost always contained message-sending lyrics. His death made him truely legendary, and the song "changes" earned him the number 2 spot on this list

Nas: I'd say he's the deepest, most skilled rapper in virtually every way. His lyrics all have deep content that parallel, if not surpass those of 2pac, his wordplay rivals the notorious BIG's, and his flows and rhyming skills are almost identical to that of Rakim. He is a skilled storyteller, a intellectual philosopher, a positive activist, and, when needed, an unbeaten verbal combatent. In "One Mic", he declares that he has no weaknesses, and that has proved to be true. His flawless versatility makes him who I consider to be the greatest MC.

This discussion is interesting thus far but rapp did not begin w/ the east coast/ west coast rappers....dj Run is a great mc....the content of what he rapped about wasn't as thought provoking as KRS ONE but in my opinion the greatest of all times takes into account the significants of the rapper, how well they sold during there time and after and last but not least how many bonafied hits they had..What do I mean by hits...If you are listening to the album you don't skip over the songs, Run DMC HAS MORE THAN 27 BY my last count....ask tu pac or biggie what they thought about that. Ice cube during his angry days was a great raper as well. j-z and eminem came during a different era...further more eminen sells are tainted b/c whites who wouldn't normally listen to rapp buy his music but don't buy other rappers music. Also any white person who enjoys rapp has atleast one Eminem album....they are the majority over here. Now the same can't be said for any black rapper...some would argue that everyone has a tu pac album...hmmmm must ponder on this....Lyrically speaking eminem is outstanding, j-z continually puts out hits and is masterful like ll in wooing us w/ thier glamarous life styles....big daddy kane was tight, dougie fresh and slick rick would have been the greatest duo had they kept going,...dana dane was a great imaginery, salt n peppa was tight too, heavy dee and the boys carried their weight....Rakim was really good too...
1. run-dmc 200. puffy
2. ll coo j 201. mace
3. tu pac 202. shaq
4. biggi
5. rakim
6. ice cube
7. epmd
8. big daddy kane