And it don't stop...

Prop2

This is not about popularity or the people we believe meant something to the art. This does not have the most talented nor does it have anything to do with the age-old debate hip-hop versus commercialized rap. The names on this list are the people that have affected hip-hop culture as it stands today. The credit/blame hangs on the heads of these people:

Grandmaster Flash
Flash turned the turntables into an instrument. He understood the party and his records ready made for the “Park Jam,” His sole purpose, to get you to move your feet. Thus the sometimes overwhelming need and desire to party in hip-hop. Doesn't matter who did it better, doesn't matter who did it worse; He did it First!

Rakim: “I can take a phrase that’s rarely heard; flip it, now it’s a daily word.” The R is the type of MC everyone before him wanted to be, and what everyone after him trys to live up to. Too bad he set the standard to high and you know how niggas feel about high standards.

BDP: “The Bridge is Over, The Bridge is Over. Biddy Bye Bye!”
They are the only crew that can make song calling out a whole borough and have that same borough bouncing to it. On their first album they recorded two songs going at the hottest group in the game at the time, the Juice Crew. All the "gangsters" in the game got their moniker from KRS-One and Scott La Rock New York City's first Bad Guys.

Salt-n-Pepa “Sexy, Smart, Independent and your moms would love’em”
I really had to think about this one. If you ask around some may put MC Lyte as being the first female lyricist or Queen L-A-T-I-F-A-H because of her, I am woman hear me roar style. However, Cheryl James and Sandy Denton did not need to justify themselves as MCs by adopting a tomboyish look; they did not need to scream to the crowed they are women so respect them, nor did they need to validate their womanhood, it was already understood. Lauryn Hill tried to revive that image; however, her efforts were over come by the Queen Bitches, Ill Na Na, Baddest Bitches and Pit bulls in skirts.

Brand Nubian
1 of the distinguishing parts hip-hop, New York hip-hop in particular, was the dress code. Flash and Bambataa adopted the rock attire, leather and metal. After that Run DMC, LL Cool J, and BDP introduced everyday clothes scene only in the Five Boroughs. The early nineties ushered a group of young men from New Rochelle who understood New York style, original. In addition, their sound laced with Five-Percent ideology was easy on the ears. The nature cats/backpack crew had to re-think their strategy, style of music and their style of dress. Hey, just because you scream fight the power doesn’t mean you have to look like a refugee.

OutKast "We movin up like elevators.."
To any person or group that has dreams of making it in the rap game, follow Andre 3000 and Big Boi. They originally spoke exclusively to a southern audience, then to the nature cats/backpackers, and finally to the world. They did this all by sticking to there own style of music; no one else can do what they do. They adopted their own style in a hip-hop world of fitted baseball caps, oversized jerseys,and scarface worship. (Say Thank you Mr. West)

Redman
The class clown of hip-hop. Any track he has rhymed on, more than once, he forced the listener to rewind the track and ask, “What the hell did he just say?” One of the few MCs whose sound resembles the lost art of true freestyle, hard lyrics with humor, spawned MCs like Ludacris and Eminem.

LL Cool J: The first male sex symbol in hip-hop. For all of you rappers out there that has ever made a love song, or a ghetto love song, taken of a shirt for the ladies while performing, while holding on to his “street credibility" i.e. Ja Rule, 50, Nelly, say “Thank you Mr. Smith.” Indirectly, he made it okay to were pink. How? Cool J took off his shirt and made love songs the same reason most of you dudes wear pink, because the chicks like it. Still don’t think LL has credibility? Over 20 years in the game has yet to lose a battle and and still gets respect.

The Mixtape
Before the days of the Freestyle Friday, Smack DVDs, and The Morning show “Roll-call”, there were mixtape shows that aired late, late, late night on 98.7 (I think). In a world where hip-hop was nothing more than a fad, the mixtape (show) was the platform for MCs to stay sharp. If you didn’t, there was always someone ready to take the top spot. The mixtape show forced MCs to revamp, remix, re-think their rhymes before anyone heard them. So you had to WRITE your rhymes and READ them. However, very few of you do that now thanks to…

Jay-Z
Yep! Young Hova, Shawn Cater. Had the potential to be one of the best to touch a mic. However, his abuse of his skill to memorize his rhymes and public declaration of dumbing down his lyrics so the people could understand him inspired a generation of MCs not to write; this marked the death of the MC