In no particular order, I present to you my ten favorite rhyme spitters of all time. No, they may not necessarily have created the best songs or albums (some have but that is irrelevant to this discussion). These are just the MC's who, verse-for-verse, I have enjoyed listening to most from a purely lyrical/flow-wise/delivery-wise perspective. Think the Vince Carters of MC'ing. And with all that considered, next up is...
Once upon a time, an intern for the Lost Boyz (or office manager or something or other, who knows) was asked to spit a verse on one of their songs. And within those 30 seconds of unadulterated lyrical wizardry, a monster was born.
From then on, Canibus was being heralded as hip hop's savior from the Shiny Suit era. He would return hip hop to its essence, where lyrics mattered more than the size of your diamonds or the price tag on your champagne. Every time I heard 'Bis spit on a Clue mixtape or drop a guest verse on a track, I ate it up and was feenin' for the next one. It's not even that his metaphors were that amazing. It's that he spit them with such unabashed ferocity that he made you believe words could kill. And oh, the number of MC's he left in his wake. There was even a story circulating that on some legendary night, he battled each of the Wu-Tang MC's and took them out one by one.
Unfortunately, fate did not (or has it ever) looked too kindly upon the Battle MC. After harmlessly (and rather creatively) mentioning LL's tattoo on a posse track, Mr. Mama Said Knock You Out was on a mission of vengeance (Eminem was right, that is possibly the dumbest reason to start a battle ever). But let's be honest. LL didn't knock Canibus out. And despite the bold proclamation of knocking out a legendaryr rapper (still one of the best diss tracks ever), Canibus knocked himself the f**k out. By letting Wyclef produce his debut.
After the debacle that was his first album (which I still think is overcriticized), he was banished to the abyss of the underground, where only backpackers dare to tread. The scientific metaphors and vocabulary came line after line until he had scared off almost every hip hop fan, leaving only the cultists standing in the aftermath (and no, they don't understand a damn thing he's saying either).
The demise of Canibus' once promising career stands as one of my personal, biggest, hip-hop-related disappoinments ever. Back then, when someone was proclaimed to be the next one, it meant something. And as materialistic hip hop began to run rampant at the time, I just wanted someone to bring that true school hip hop back. Canibus was supposed to be it. Who would've thought that from the Class of '98, Canibus truly would be "the difference Harvard and DeVry"? Just not on the side of his own metaphor that he expected.
The Evidence.
"Beasts From the East". "F**k y'all/You don't impress me/And no one can test me/An MC so ill I got AIDS scared to catch me..."
"4,3,2,1". "Who's the God of rap you saying is nice/I beat a n***a to death and a dead n***a to life..."
"Music Makes Me High" Remix. "Rhymes ricochet off the inner walls of my lungs/And go past the tongue faster than bullets come out of guns..."
"Desperados". "At a thousand degrees celsius/I make MC's melt/F**k a record label/I appear courtesy of myself..."
Funkmaster Flex Freestyle. "For all you n***as saying my s**t is sick/Just imagine the 90 percent of my brain that I ain't even used yet..."
Tony Touch Freestyle. "I'm the greatest scientifically inclined mind since Einstein..."
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