the greatest guest mc of all time
I was scouring through the XXL site and found this article from a couple days ago about the greatest guest mc’s of all time. I don’t disagree with any of the candidates they have mentioned being amongst the best, but there is a glaring oversight in the lack of a mention for Eminem. The article crowns Busta as the G.O.A.T guest MC, which I think is a fair argument strictly for the fact that he’s been killing guest spots consistently for longer than anyone else. For me when considering favourites I’ve tried to take into account versatility, as far as some dudes have done their best work on solo R&B guest spots. Some dudes straight kill it on tracks with other MC’s. With that criteria in mind, my personal top 3 are as follows:
(1) Jay-Z – All round brilliance, too many mindblowing guest spots to list and they’re across the board. “Crazy In Love” is top 3 R&B guest spots, plus he fucks up other rappers on the regular. Peep lesser known joints like Miss Jade’s “Count it off” and Sigel’s “Think it’s a game” and try and front on the god. Slick needs to do his post bout Hov guest spots to school everyone.
(2) Eminem – The best at guesting on hip hop songs ever IMO, but his lack of R&B game knocks him to #2 status for me. Until T.I – “Touchdown” I don’t think Eminem had EVER had a bad guest verse/not fucked up who ever else he was on the track with. Biggie’s “Dead Wrong”, 50 – “Patiently Waiting”, Jay-Z “Renegade”, Obie Trice’s “Girls”, “Forgot about Dre” the list goes on and on.
(3) Ludacris – Luda invents flows. For my money he’s the best ever on R&B guest spots, just for the way he’ll come up with some pattern or flow that steals the show. His verse on Ciara’s “Oh” was damn near religious for me, even that Usher “Dat girl jangling” verse was insane. He also does the damage on other cunts too see the “I’m So Hood Remix” and Twista’s “Higher” on the lesser known tip.
What say you folk, where your top 3′s at ? Some best verse suggestions would be good too.
August 1st, 2008 at 4:09 pm
1, Talib Kweli, mainly a respect thing he just kills it.
2, Nas, he could almost go top 3 just from untitled but so much history (could be number one)
3, Mos Def/Common, can’t really decide both dece.
Best verse would be the first verse in Gimme the Loot by Biggie
August 1st, 2008 at 4:10 pm
meant to say number one not top 3 for nas
August 1st, 2008 at 4:11 pm
I agree, although that Eminem verse on Akon’s Smack That was probably the first time I was like….ehhhh? when I heard Em.
August 1st, 2008 at 4:13 pm
hahaha what a dumb cunt i didn’t even read guest!
August 1st, 2008 at 5:32 pm
I’ve always been a fan of Q-Tip’s guest raps & production work. I’m with you on the Eminem thing for sure, they made a big oversight there.
August 1st, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Busta is the godfather of this category. He laid the blueprint for a guest mc or remix verse with his early work on Tribe’s Scenario and the Flava in Ya Ear Remix.
And over 15 years of features has him firmly in the top 3. I will admit he’s become a little ‘quantity over quality’ in recent years though.
Co-sign Jay, Luda and Em for stealing the show everytime (well, almost everytime for Jay).
And I pretty much exclusively like Eminem on other peoples songs. I’d rather not listen to his own joints.
August 1st, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Ludas verse on Oh is easily the most legit verse.
August 2nd, 2008 at 9:55 am
1/2 Jayz/Eminem -equal in my books
3 Weezy
4 Juelz
5 Lupe
Gotta agree with the article about the two so i just added the next top 3 aha…as for best verse maybe weezys – “i am” appearance or jayzs “maybach music” but realyl you cant really pinpoint the best verse because therese billions of awsome verses and not really one best one but good verses are in a decline these days i think..shame
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I’ve always thought Jadakiss killed guest spots and then never holds shit down on his own tracks… pisses me off to no end.
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Busta laid the blueprint for sure, but I dont know if his catalogue is fuckin with Em, Jay and Luda. Scenario is one of the greats, but he often gets outshined by another guest on the track, eg Biggie > Busta on ‘Flava In Ya Ear rmx’.
Ima chuck that Jay-Z guest verse post up tonight.
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:58 pm
True story @ Question. Jada is good for a 16, but the fact he only has that 1 “new york, mixtape rapper” flow hinders him hard.
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
question, we like to call that ‘big noyd syndrome’ who imo has the best guest verse of all time, you know the one… mike mo, stop acting like a bitch….talib mos and common, jesus christ
August 2nd, 2008 at 7:28 pm
I remember Em killing his first verse on Jay-Z’s “Renegade”
August 2nd, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I think Em didn’t get mentioned cos he doesn’t do guest spots as regularly or work with as many artists as say Busta or Luda. He straight murders everybody tho, “Welcome to D Block”, “Renegades”, “Love Me”, “Welcome To Detroit City”, “Whats The Beat”, “Patiently Waiting”, “Warrior Pt 2″ and ofcourse “Forgot About Dre”… Dam waiting on that “King Mathers” album
August 4th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Aside from maybe a few exceptions, guestspots don’t really interest me. I’d much rather hear someone sharing mic time with their homies eh.
I mean all these dudes roll in massive crews, and yet they just wanna milk whoever is hot right now (there is no way I wanna here the game on Cuban Linx 2, and yet rae is saying he made the cut) …
August 5th, 2008 at 10:17 am
KOOL G RAP!!!!!!!!! kills every rapper he’s ever appeared with
August 5th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Canibus killled guest verses & fucked up his own albums.
Still my favourite though.
August 5th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Haha i was waiting for someone to chime in with the Canibus call. Some of the best guest spots ever. Especially on “Beast from the East”
August 5th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
and the firm song ‘desperados’ was it? ‘ till i hear it snap or crack or the ref says chill black’
August 5th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
^ flip yeah that Desperados verse was the one
August 14th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Biggie was the best rapper of all time next to Tupac. I won’t lie and say that Eminem wasn’t good but… Well anyway Biggie was one of the best that ever lived thats my opinion go listen to this track Biggie Smalls ft Tupac Runnin
September 23rd, 2008 at 6:02 pm
never been a huge fan of eminem but he kills shit on ‘ill hurt you’ with busta. flow is siick