The 5 Best Rappers of All Time

If you want the intelligentsia up in arms about aesthetics and the merits of conscious rap, broach the subject over dinner. You want to hear a Harlem barbershop hella vociferous with avowed expertise, mention some list compiled by a music mag. You want to lose the lion’s share of a few nights’ sleep, pay serious consideration to ranking one yourself. That was me over a few days in April as I prepared my list of the five all-time greatest rappers. Rap music was born in the Bronx. Many of its pioneers were former members of crews or gangs and used battling as an alternative to actual violence as well as a way to foster esteem. Rap has remained the most competitive music genre, one whose artists tout themselves as the biggest, best, greatest. The “top five dead or alive.” And that aggressive spirit makes it ripe for ranking. [View in Browser]( [Esquire]( [SHOP]( EXCLUSIVE [SUBSCRIBE]( [The Five Best Rappers of All Time]( [The Five Best Rappers of All Time]( If you want the intelligentsia up in arms about aesthetics and the merits of conscious rap, broach the subject over dinner. You want to hear a Harlem barbershop hella vociferous with avowed expertise, mention some list compiled by a music mag. You want to lose the lion’s share of a few nights’ sleep, pay serious consideration to ranking one yourself. That was me over a few days in April as I prepared my list of the five all-time greatest rappers. Rap music was born in the Bronx. Many of its pioneers were former members of crews or gangs and used battling as an alternative to actual violence as well as a way to foster esteem. Rap has remained the most competitive music genre, one whose artists tout themselves as the biggest, best, greatest. The “top five dead or alive.” And that aggressive spirit makes it ripe for ranking. [Read More](   [The Terrifying—But Irresistible—Power of Oppenheimer]( [The Terrifying—But Irresistible—Power of Oppenheimer]( Nolan's latest film, if not his best, is certainly among his grandest spectacles—one that is immense, assaultive, and full of eye-enveloping abstraction. [Read More]( [The Unbelievable Story of Barbie's Creator, Ruth Handler]( [The Unbelievable Story of Barbie's Creator, Ruth Handler]( With 'Barbie' in theaters, now is the time to meet the woman who started it all. [Read More](     [The Ambivalence of J. Robert Oppenheimer]( [The Ambivalence of J. Robert Oppenheimer]( Thirty-nine years ago come next July, Robert Oppenheimer looked across the New Mexico sands, took the fireball’s measure, and knew that he was the usher who had escorted all the creatures of the earth to the tenebrous dawn of the atomic age. Afterward he would remember—or prefer to believe—that his first conscious thought had been Krishna’s: “I am become death, the shatterer of worlds.” It is unlikely that he himself could say with any assurance whether here was the cry of the stricken sinner or the exultation of the conqueror. His essence was, as always, in the ambiguities of the divided soul and equivocal presence of someone who had come in triumph to a world that would have been safer if he and everyone else who tried had failed. [Read More](   [The 12 Best Camping Chairs for Basking in Nature]( [The 12 Best Camping Chairs for Basking in Nature]( For the campsite, beach, or just your own backyard. [Read More]( [A Sapphire Skeleton Watch and More of This Week's Best Menswear Releases]( [A Sapphire Skeleton Watch and More of This Week's Best Menswear Releases]( Fresh finds to keep you icy despite the heat. [Read More](     [It's Time to Listen to John Boyega. Again.]( [It's Time to Listen to John Boyega. Again.]( It’s taken Boyega a while to be able to comfortably flex. After a youth spent anchoring a stupendously profitable blockbuster franchise, he’s proved himself as a performer who can seemingly do anything, onscreen or off. He made headlines for speaking frankly about how Disney sidelined his Star Wars character. The experience was brutal, but made him want to bring his most unfettered self to his work. These days, he has more control over his career than ever before and considers himself a collaborator with the directors he works with now. He has also actively defied being typecast, most recently starring as a bank-robbing Marine vet in last year’s Breaking and as a nineteenth-century West African monarch in the Viola Davis–led The Woman King. His latest character, Fontaine, is the grounding force in a trippy universe where Black people are being lied to in multiple dimensions. [Read More](   [Weight Loss After 40]( Follow Us [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Notice/Notice at Collection]( esquire.com ©2023 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Magazines, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019