If you ask anyone their opinion on something that matters to them, they will give you a strong response and will have a good reason for those beliefs. Everyone has opinions, but everyone is different so that’s why when you have a tough question to ask, it’s always fun to start some dialog.

If you listen to hip hop you probably have been asked or asked yourself, “Who is the greatest rapper of all time?”. I recently took to the halls of Albany High School posing that very question and received some fantastic feedback. I also asked people which rapper has had the biggest influence on the rap game and them personally.

When trying to decide on the greatest rapper of all time you must take into consideration all the different elements of each artist. Of course you have to allow for some bias opinions since people are talking about personal preferences, but everyone interviewed was able to back up their opinions with facts!

I interviewed three fellow students who I know to be avid listeners of the rap genre and asked them each five questions about their favorite rappers. The first question was, “who is your favorite current rapper?” Two of the three said that J. Cole, due to his “lyrical skills”.

The next question I asked is one that a lot of real music fans take to the heart, “which rapper has had the biggest influence on you personally?”. One student, a senior named Joey  said, “Eminem because most of his songs are songs I can relate to. He relates to people around the world that listen to his music.”

Another student, Taylor said that J. Cole has had the biggest influence because, “he produces stories through lyrics leaving the listener feeling uplifted”.

People could argue that old school rappers are better than new school because they paved the way for what hip hop has become today. All the three students I interviewed believe that you either can’t compare old to new school or that they are equal.

Before our discussion of who is the greatest, another discussion point was, “which rapper do you believe has had the biggest influence on the music industry as a whole?” All three students had different answers. Taylor said, “NWA had the biggest influence on rap as they completely flipped the culture upside down as seen in the movie Straight Outta Compton.” Maurice said, “Jay-Z because of all of his consistent record sales and amount of hits he has made”. Joey said, “Eminem because he has been around so long without falling off”.

So when asked, “who, overall do you think is the greatest rapper of all time?”, Taylor said,  “Nas because he stuck to his roots and had a consistent evolution in his music”. Maurice claimed Jay-Z for the same reasons why he has the biggest influence on the music industry and Joey said Biggie because “He was really one of the first to make hip hop mainstream”.

The greatest rapper of all time is one of the hardest answers to come up with, but it’s interesting to see everyone’s different opinions on that subject. It’s safe to say there is no definitive greatest rapper ever, but there are plenty of great candidates for that top spot and that is something all rap fans can agree on.