So I’ve decided to compile a list my most overrated musicians of all time. Usually, I’d put something like this in our High Fidelity category and just do a Top 5 or Top 10. But I’ve decided to do this on an artist-by-artist basis and post them as they come to me.

I know these posts are going to piss a lot of people off. Most of you will disagree with me, think me crazy, a fool and boycott sexy gypsy for ever. I don’t care. I’m not saying that these artists are without talent, but only that they are overrated. You got problems? Leave a comment.

Anyways, on to Part 1 of The Most Overrated Musicians of All Time:

It’s the most enduring question in hip hop—Who was the greatest MC of all time, Tupac or Biggie? In the mid-90s this question split the hip hop community in two. It created the, real or imagined, East Coast/West Coast feud that ultimately saw both men die.

And honestly, the whole discussion is/was/always will be ridiculous. Maybe it’s because I’m from the East Coast and my formative years were spent bumping Ready to Die. But, to me, Biggie is hands down, the superior artist.

While Pac was busy building street cred, catching cases for the sake of gangsterism, and stoking the fires of hate with personal attacks and diss records, Big was making hip hop classics. While Pac was making movies, Big was making moves.

I’m not trying to discredit Pac’s contribution to the hip hop movement. He was obviously an influential voice. He helped bring hip hop mainstream and was a poet in the truest sense of the word. But he was not the greatest of all time.

Biggie put out two albums in his lifetime—Ready to Die and Life After Death. Every single track on both albums are completely flawless. His flow—perfection; his vocabulary and word play—unmatched.

2 Pac released five albums. None of which, I would consider perfect albums, though All Eyez on Me and The Don Killuminati came close. He had some bangers, but a lot of tracks on his albums were skits and throwaway songs. The argument is often made that because Pac had such a large catalog of songs, he is better than Big. I disagree. Just look at the dozens of posthumous releases Pac has had, can you honestly say that they’re even average? They’re sure as shit not classics. For someone who is supposed to be one of the greatest of all time, I expect more.

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