OPed.

My Top 3

A decade or more ago…in a land far,far away, the Three Wise Asses would sit around Tewksbury 208…maybe cutting class, maybe not. They would discuss the world of music and sound, and in particular, music and sound in relation to hip-hop. These discussions would invariably drift into a definition of hip-hop itself.

If it isn’t music, then what is it?

Is gangsta rap more essentially hip-hop than whatever the hell P.M.Dawn was trying to do?

If hip-hop was given birth to in the Bronx, which of the remaining four boroughs has proven to be the most suitable adoptive parent? Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, or Staten?

Is the last question relevant? Could it be said that, if Slick Rick was the best all around M.C. of all time to date - that the bloody English ( by way of Jamaica ) are, once again, the rulers of us all?

This manic discourse was a breeze on flame, and would often ignite the tongues of all the great men of Tewksbury. And as the evenings meal sought peace within the agitated belly, great thoughts would rise up and come crashing down upon the feebler of opinions, or misuse of slang… Voices rising as such to twist the knickers of the priestesses and womenfolk gathered in the great hall below…

And then someone from the Ravines (RIP) would knock and ask Mal to make a run to the liquor store. Before departing, he left us this puzzle:

The Weathermen is the new underground/independent hip-hop supergroup, boasting El-P, Aesop Rock,Breeze Bruin,Cage,Tame 1 (Tamer D of Artifakts? dope),Camu Tao, and Yak Ballz as members. All these cats are pretty much ‘names’ in the game. They have an interesting esoteric slant, with the tagline and posse AKA ‘the New Left’, and all the dense wordplay you would expect:

But then we have the Weathermen.

Arguably also hip-hop, at least in sonic inspiration. Definitely underground/independent. Perhaps not so super. That would be down to personal taste.
Yet in their own way, they pull off some shit that is just as apocalyptic, electro-future fetishistic, and worshipful of the name and concept of the Weathermen, who, in real real life, rolled correctly.

Which of these three have kept it most real? I think I know which one has the best rhymes.