5 Current Rappers To Watch (And 5 To Forget)

1. It's Time To Forget: Kanye West

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBAtAM7vtgc You did it to yourself, Yeezy. We loved you, man, we really did. But you loved yourself more. Kanye West, the only rapper alive who would like to feature on his own tracks, supplies us with an endless supply of imbecilic quotes reminding us again and again that we're dealing with a man teetering precariously on the edge of absolute delusion. By now we've all heard examples of his more inane ramblings, but some of this stuff is so good it's worth hearing twice. "The longer your 'gevity is, the more confidence you build. The idea of Kanye and vanity are like, synonymous", brags Kayne in a New York Times interview. "It's only led me to complete awesomeness at all times. It's only led me to awesome truth and awesomeness. Beauty, truth, awesomeness. That's all it is". Calling himself a "minimalist in a rapper's body" is typically nonsensical for this once great superstar, and it calls to mind one of his lines in the Watch The Throne track Primetime, asking "I mean, who say's sh*t like that, and doesn't laugh?". You, Yeezy, that's who. But being madly in love with yourself is not reason enough to appear on this list. Kayne is here because he's apparently forgotten how to give a damn about rap. His last album Yeezus was sonically astounding - discordant, distorted future-beats, a fizzing, scathing attack on what we expect from hip hop music - but the rhymes were pitiful throughout. We know that West scrapped entire verses at the last minute and was still rushing his way through some of the tracks almost literally as the CDs were being pressed. Like a hip hop version of someone panicking to finish an exam before the bell goes, the results were much the same: insipid metaphors and grade school rhyming couplets which didn't do justice to the music which accompanied them. Lil Wayne, when biting a Yeezy line for his track Dr.Carter, justified the grand theft autotune by reminding us that it's not stealing, it's recycling, "...besides, Dr. Kanye West is one of the brightest". That was true once, Kayne, for all his boasting and self glorification, was behind some of the most memorable rap lines ever scribbled on a diner napkin. And that's why he needs to be forgotten. Not because we don't love him anymore, but because we want to love him again. Perhaps if this conceited, pompous prima donna is suddenly without an audience, there's a chance of a return to glory. But as long as we indulge his tantrums, he won't be compelled to try. Before Kanye West became the inside joke that he is now, at the end of his track We Major he asks his listeners, "Can I talk my sh*t again?". We need to answer him now, and say "Yes Kanye, you can. But put some bloody effort into it, would you?". Which rappers do you think deserve more attention, and who would you take it away from? Let us know in the comments!