This blog is a collection of really cool things. At least, they will seem really cool if you're me. Or, quite possibly, if you're someone who is less cool than me. If you're more cool than me (likely), these things may not get you all that excited, I suppose. You know what... just forget it. Huh? What's that? You don't know if you're cooler than me? Um. I guess just read the things to the left and evaluate how cool you find them to be. Do they seem cool to you? Yes? You sure? Then I guess you're just not as cool as me. Sorry. Look... it's not that big of a deal, okay? No... please. Don't cry. Look, I do lame stuff also. Sometimes. Really not that much, but I mean it does happen... from time to time. I'm not really helping, am I? I think maybe I'll just leave. Take as much time as you need to recover.

I can be reached at mylastnamemyfirstname@hotmail.com

Tue Apr 29

Best Rapper Alive

As someone who has always been somewhat interested in hip hop (and occasionally really enjoyed it) and intensely interested in the battle for the title of “best rapper alive,” the possibility of a full Kanye West remix of Lil Wayne’s Lollipop has me pretty excited.

I’ll back up for people who don’t follow hip hop as closely as me (which isn’t that close at all, so you all should feel ashamed for yourselves or something… I probably should as well). Lil Wayne released a single called Lollipop. The song went on to be a pretty big hit and somehow intrigued me to the point where I was listening to it 5 or 10 times a day (and still at least once a day). I became interested in the life and career of Lil Wayne.

Lil Wayne seems to have a pretty legitimate claim to the title of “best rapper alive.” His list of accolades is lengthy: In 2007, an MTV poll selected Lil Wayne as “Hottest MC in the Game.” In 2008, he was named “Best Rock Star Alive” by Blender Magazine and the “Best MC” in Rolling Stone’s Best of Rock 2008 issue. (Wikipedia)

Then I saw this video of Kanye West playing Connect Four against Jonah Hill (Superbad). In the middle of the game, Kanye gets inspired and goes over to the stereo to crank up a Lollipop verse that he seems to be working on. Here’s the audio isolated. Clearly, it sounds pretty damn good. Quite possibly, if/when Kanye releases his own version, it will be better than the original.

I have long been in favor of some kind of rap Olympics that would objectively determine the true best rapper alive. Kanye directly challenging Lil Wayne’s claim to the throne by remixing his song (and even going as far as claiming to be the greatest in his verse – “you’re now fucking with the best in the world” are his exact words) is something that I feel could be an important step towards such an Olympics. It could mark the beginning of a standardized system of competition in the rap world. If we continue down this road, we may soon know for sure just who really is the real “best rapper alive.”

I’m not really a Jay-Z fan, but I hope he is currently working on his own remix of Lollipop, along with Ludacris and all the other giants of rap. I look forward a day when I can compare each version of the song and come to a consensus with the rest of the world regarding who truly is the “best rapper alive.”

As an added note, a Google Image search of the phrase “best rapper alive” brings up not ony pictures of Kanye and Lil Wayne, but also The Ultimate Warrior.