It is nearly impossible to get a bunch of passionate hip hop fans to agree on anything. But I tried anyhow, starting with a series of polls on Facebook that aimed to figure out which emcee or group was the best in the game as driven by the letters of the alphabet. No specific rubric or criteria was given; just a simple request for answers to the question, "Who is the best emcee or hip hop group beginning with the letter 'A'?; 'B'?; 'C'?; 'D'?..." and so on. The responses were immediate and spurred some pretty spirited discussions. A general consensus was ultimately reached for each and per the request of Music Editor Leilani Polk, I'm bringing the poll results to Ear Buds. Each week, I'll reveal a letter and its "winning" artist, and then I'll re-open the question for further debate. Once we finish the first 26, we'll start it all over again fresh.
This letter featured a different kind of landslide. Most voters struggled to even name another artist or group to represent the Letter X in the Hip Hop ABCs. Terminator X and X Clan were the only others mentioned aside from the winner, but this wa, by no means, a win by default.
Depending on when you got to know him, Xzibit could be one of many different things. He might be the raspy voiced underground emcee that shined as a member of The Likwit Crew that included the Alkaholiks. He could be the highly energetic spotlight stealer on the "Up In Smoke Tour" that also featured Eminem as well as NWA’s Ice Cube. He could be the aggressively rhyming West Coast artist that went platinum when he teamed up with Dr. Dre to create Restless. Maybe he is the host of MTV’s highly successful Pimp My Ride franchise or just that dude from that one movie who smoked crack with Nicholas Cage. Perhaps he is the guy who made the dopest song ever used in the Madden Football series.
Regardless of how or when you got familiar with him, just know that he when it comes to the Letter X of the Hip Hop ABCs, Xzibit is the only name in the game.
Did we get it right? Who gets your vote for this letter?
Infinite Skillz is a Hip Hop fan and emcee. Click here to find out more about his music.
