The 10 Greatest Rap Groups Ever

Honorable Mention

The Fugees

Oh, what could have been. The Fugees are a legendary rap group if there ever was one. Their second album, "The Score", was a beautiful piece of music. They used several different melody styles and covered classic songs with ease. All three mc's have a different style of rhyming but they all work so well together, plus Lauren Hill's voice is killer. This was a supremely talented group of people with all three having varying levels of success as solo artists. Unfortunately they just can't get along. "The Score" is still the highest selling record ever for a hip-hop group. It's a shame we may never hear hem as a group again.

#10 De La Soul

De La Soul was art house rap before the likes of The Roots, Outkast and Lupe Fiasco. The group in my opinion has had one great album, "Stakes Is High", and two classic albums, "3 Feet High and Rising" and 1991's "De La Soul Is Dead". I love "De La Soul Is Dead" because it feels like they pretty much just made whatever they felt like making. It was so creative and cool.

#9 A Tribe Called Quest

The rumor is that after a reunion tour in 1996 that the group is working on a new album. That would be nice. This is a great hip-hop group and music needs more alternative groups to shake shit up. In ten years Quest released 6 albums and every other one was sweet. 1991's "The Low End Theory", 1993's "Midnight Marauders" and 1998's "The Love Movement". I wore the song Award Tour from "Midnight Marauders" out in high school. Q-Tip's solo album in 1999, "Amplified", was nice but I need the old crew back together. Let's hope they can pull it off.

# 8 The Pharcyde

This is another alternative rap group in my top ten. I really like rap groups that push the boundaries of hip-hop. The Pharcyde made easily one of the funnest and most creative records of the 90's with "Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde". The monster hit Passing Me By was an amazing song and video. Their follow-up and only other recording with the original four members was in 1995 entitled "Labcabincalifornia" and featured the classic joint Runnin. I would definitely put these guys higher if they would've stayed together and made more great stuff. But, alas they only get an 8th place rank on the strength of two fantastic albums.

#7 Public Enemy

Way back before Flavor Flav became a joke he was the wise ass rhymer in Public Enemy. Flav was the yin to Chuck D's yang. Public Enemy was straight up bad ass! These brothers were just militant. They amount of social unrest and shit these guys started was unbelievable. There never has and may never be a group in any musical form with the nuts of Public Enemy. In a four year period between 1987 and 1991 Public Enemy released "Yo! Bum Rush the Show", "It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back", "Fear of a Black Planet" and finally "Apocolypse 91...The Enemy Strikes Back". Each record got angrier and angrier and politically distributed beat downs on both sides of the aisle. Chuck D was too smart for his own good. I think the group came off as a little cartoonish to folks because of Flav, Terminater X, Professor Griff and Sister Souljah, who at times could be a beating to deal with all their blackness. But, Chuck was the man. He would fit in today's dangerous days very well. Public Enemy was an original and no has even tried to copy them yet.

#6 The Beastie Boys

These guys are technically my favorite group on the list. They are true New York hip-hop when they wanna be. When they wanna be the group version of Beck I think they are impossible to beat. They might be ranked higher if they just stuck with rhymes like they did on their last release, "To The Five Burroughs" in 2004, which was an open letter to the city they hail from NYC. To me The Beasties haven't made a single weak album. From "License To Ill" (ultimate party album) to "Paul's Boutique" (ultimate sample album) to "Check Your Head" (ultimate instrumental album) to "Ill Communication" (ultimate rap-rock album) to "Hello Nasty" (ultimate alternative album) to "Burroughs" (ultimate return to rap album). The Beastie Boys are the only group to ever win an alternative rock and rap Grammy in the same year. That's why to me they're the best. But, not the best on this list.

# 5 The Wu-Tang Clan

Emerging in 1993, when Dr. Dre's G-funk had overtaken the hip-hop world, the Staten Island, NY-based Wu-Tang Clan proved to be the most revolutionary rap group of the mid-'90s - and only partially because of their music. Turning the standard concept of a hip-hop crew inside out, the Wu-Tang Clan were assembled as a loose congregation of nine MCs, almost as a support group. Instead of releasing one album after another, the Clan was designed to overtake the record industry in as profitable a fashion as possible - the idea was to establish the Wu-Tang as a force with their debut album and then spin off into as many side projects as possible. In the process, the members would all become individual stars as well as receive individual royalty checks.

#4 The Roots

Though popular success has largely eluded the Roots, the Philadelphia group showed the way for live rap, building on the "hip-hop band" philosophy of the mid-'80s by focusing on live instrumentation at their concerts and in the studio. Though their album works have been inconsistent affairs, more intent on building grooves than pushing songs, the Roots' live shows are among the best in the business.

#3 Run DMC

Run-D.M.C. took hardcore hip-hop from an underground street sensation to a pop-culture phenomenon. Although earlier artists, such as Grandmaster Flash and the Sugar Hill Gang, made rap's initial strides on the airwaves, it was Run-D.M.C. that introduced hats, gold chains, and untied sneakers to youth culture's most stubborn demographic group: white, male, suburban rock fans. In the process, the trio helped change the course of popular music, paving the way for rap's second generation. 1986's "Raising Hell", might be my favorite record ever.

#2 Outkast

OutKast's blend of gritty Southern soul, fluid raps and the rolling G-funk of their Organized Noize production crew epitomized the Atlanta wing of hip-hop's rising force, the Dirty South, during the late '90s. Along with Goodie Mob, OutKast took Southern hip-hop in bold, innovative new directions: less reliance on aggression, more positivity and melody, thicker arrangements, and intricate lyrics. After Dre and Big Boi hit number one on the rap charts with their first single "Player's Ball," the duo embarked on a run of platinum albums spiked with several hit singles, enjoying numerous critical accolades in addition to their commercial success. "B.O.B." on 2004's Stankonia is the coolest rap song ever.

#1 N.W.A.

This posse permanently changed the face of West Coast rap and that of the hip-hop nation itself. Completely ignoring the poppier aspects of West Coast, N.W.A.'s musical style was slower, heavier and more spare than even East Coast counterpart Public Enemy, and lyrically their hardcore, no-punches-pulled street dramas left nothing to the imagination. Their world of dope deals, 'ho's, 8-balls and violence was tagged "reality rap" by primary lyricist Ice Cube Niggaz With Attitude's nucleus was Dr. Dre (Andre Young) and DJ Yella(Antoine Carraby)--two DJ/producers who'd had success with World Class Wreckin' Cru--joined by rappers MC Ren (Lorenzo Patterson) and Cube. Dre and Cube began writing for Eazy-E (Eric Wright), a former dealer who founded Ruthless Records with drug money. Their initial effort was the anthem "Boyz-N-The Hood," written for a Ruthless artist who rejected it. Eazy decided to rap it himself, and N.W.A. was born. Initially a loose crew of friends (N.W.A. And The Posse), half fell away by the second disc, the landmark "Straight Outta Compton". Even the F.B.I. got bent over "Fuck Tha Police;" a track which secured N.W.A.'s black answer to the defiance and obnoxiousness of punk rock everlasting infamy. Before the next LP, Cube quit, accusing manager Jerry Heller of ripping off his royalties. That albaum was 1991's "EFIL4ZAGGIN", the best rap album ever! Even without Cube. But, then, that was it. N.W.A. fell from critical grace, before the group finally splintered. Besides being gutsy enough to make records so bold, N.W.A was the flagship that launched the substantial solo careers of Dre, Cube and Eazy. Eazy died from AIDS in '95, Dre has become the genre's most significant producer, and Cube continues to be most distinctive and consistent voice in rap. N.W.A. is my second favorite music group, behind Metallica, ever.