Hip Hop Double Troubles/Triple Threats

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Been thinking about hip hop artists who can and have done more than one thing, i.e. produce, rhyme, DJ, etc.

Who do you think gets the highest composite score for all that he does? For example, Mr. X may be a really good rapper but only a mediocre MC, while Mr. Z is pretty good at both, giving him the advantage. (Just made this sound way more academic than anything related to music should)

Although I'm tempted to give the award to Edan (produces, emcees, and deejays) his track record (no pun intended) isn't that long.
Thus, I think I'll go w/RZA. Not the greatest lyricist ever, but his production skills make up for it.

― oops (Oops), Monday, 24 February 2003 23:11 (twenty-two years ago)

MC Hawking

― Savin All My Love 4 u (Savin 4ll my (heart) 4u), Monday, 24 February 2003 23:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Prince Paul.
DJ Premier.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 00:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, after hearing Fantastic Dam-- NO STOP LET ME GO WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME?

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 00:07 (twenty-two years ago)

mf doom. diamond d. j-zone. the biz. i even liked alchamist's verse on "different worlds" (i think the name was) with that cat from mobb deep.

madlib is an average mc, dj, but a great producer. same with dre, and really diamond d too.

i've heard that q-tip is a good dj, any confirmation? and alpini b. fly is supposidly a good dj as well.

also, I saw j-live perform braggin' writes at the justice league and he was juggling on the tables and rapping at the same time. pretty fuckin' impressive.

― S>C>, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 00:18 (twenty-two years ago)

ooh! Definitely the B-I-Z!!

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 00:20 (twenty-two years ago)

and Large Pro!

― S>C>, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 00:24 (twenty-two years ago)

mobb deep!! didn't they both produce, or was it just one of em?

― brains (cerybut), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 01:56 (twenty-two years ago)

large pro has moments of pure rhyming horror

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 02:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Kanye West's voice is growing on me

― Al (sitcom), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 03:34 (twenty-two years ago)

mobb deep!! didn't they both produce, or was it just one of em?
-- brains (Jacob.Becke...), February 25th, 2003.

Actually the only one of them who produces is Havoc...

― sonic, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 03:45 (twenty-two years ago)

A few are pretty good double/triple threats
Missy Elliot (good songwriter/o.k. singer/good rapper)
Wyclef Jean (o.k. guitarist/good songwirter/ok reggae singer/ok rapper)
Lauryn Hill (excellent singer/excellent rapper/good songwriter)
Latifah (good rapper/ good actress)
Dr. Dre (dope producer/ok rapper/ok songwriter (apparently jay-z ghoswrites for him))
A few of them suck
Will Smith (bad rapper/ok actor)
I would have to vote for Lauryn hill all around

― sonic, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 03:56 (twenty-two years ago)

pharrell from the neptunes is a total hip hop threat

great producer (duh)
decent rapper/singer
good showman (he does the pdiddy thing better than pdiddy himself,allthough him being in every godddamnd video he produces the track for does get old)
good songwriter (he wrote teddy riley's verse for wreckx-n-effect's hit "rumpshaker" nuf said")
he might or might not dj,who knows.

more people might consider him straight pop,but whatever.

― juiceboxxx (juiceboxxx), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 04:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Basehead.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 04:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Can you really count "songwriter" in that criteria? I just kinda assumed. And I thought about including missy because she (co)produces some of her own tracks, but the tracks she produces seem weaker, in my opinion.

Oh yeah, Thes One from People Under the Stairs. He picks some nice samples, but his mc'ing is...not your best. And ?uestlove! Drumming, dj'ing, and producing. and i was really impressed with the production on the new d-styles. if anyone has heard this, it's really a step forward in the whole turntabalist genre (more musical without sacrificing the technical skills) and was one of the more inventive albums I heard from last year.

And Mark, Large Pro isn't a great MC, but he has some decent moments! I'd put him and pharell on the same level.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Em, although I guess that he just tags his name to his production team's work (which isn't a far cry from what dre does these days). The same is probably true with Nas. I liked "Get Down" though. The same kinda deal with Pete Rock; I've heard that most of his verses are ghostwritten.

And yeah, kanye isn't that bad either. i enjoy him more than a lot of other roc mc's.

― s>c>, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 04:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I like Em's production a whole lot (Renegades and Lose Yourself for ex.).

Q-Tip also has some nice tracks (umm, Illmatic anyone?).

?uestlove is a great drummer, an occasionally good producer, a good DJ from what I've heard, and an awful but hilariously so MC.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 05:10 (twenty-two years ago)

"large pro has moments of pure rhyming horror"

hahahah so true ...

"Don't talk about how you can break Rambo/
That's just a bunch of mamba-ja-hambo"

― brains (cerybut), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 09:32 (twenty-two years ago)

*Divine Styler: one of the best rappers nowadays, and a great producer as well. Admittedly, I've only heard "Wordpower 2", but that was enough to get me hooked. His production is very original (if a bit one-sided), and his beats are superb.

*Mike Ladd: excellent producer, and an original rapper as well. Just got the new Majeticons album, which has made Mr. Ladd my current favourite.

*Dead Prez: I think they both produce and rap, at least on their first album. Apparently they can sing too, but that isn't exactly their forté.

― Tuomas, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 10:20 (twenty-two years ago)

If you mention Thes One, you should also give credit to his partner Double K. He rhymes(decently), DJ's(pretty well), and has been producing more of the tracks(I think his beatmaking skills are improving, but I'd still be happy w/an entire album of Thes One beats)

― oops (Oops), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 16:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Cee-Lo...though not as evident in his Goodie Mobb career (most of the time he only rapped, albeit damned amazingly!...although Goodie Mobb also appeared in, um, the first Austin Powers movie?), is very talented in many ways...he composed and produced nearly all of the music on Cee-Lo Green and his Perfect Imperfections (a fantastic album, if you haven't heard it), not to mention is a phenomenal singer as well as absudrly tight rapper.

And, uh, shame on y'all for not mentioning Mos Def yet, a very talented rapper, writer, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and actor! Shit, Mos 0wnZ this thread!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 20:26 (twenty-two years ago)

And, btw, I seem to be one of the only folks who consider Rza one of the tightest lyricists in the Wu Clan, what with all that 5% Nation talk and his liberal use of conspiracy theorist mumbo jumbo.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 20:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, and I know how she's hated on, but it must be noted that Princess Superstar also sings (not especially well) as well as co-produces all of her tracks (with her homie Curtis Curtis).

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 20:31 (twenty-two years ago)

My friend J. (a DJ) says that Rakim was actually behind a lot of the beats AND the scratches on their records, and that Eric B. was just for (live) appearances. If this be so, then let's throw Rak in there.

And Scoob-Lover, a member of Big Daddy Kane's posse, was a great dancer and a great rapper too. "I got the um hiccups excuse me sorry / Score a hundred Gs every time I play Atari."

― Neudonym, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 21:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Weren't the Goodie Mob in that Ben Stiller tour de force Mystery Men?

― JS Williams (js williams), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 21:27 (twenty-two years ago)

"Rakim was actually behind a lot of the beats AND the scratches on their records, and that Eric B. was just for (live) appearances. If this be so, then let's throw Rak in there."

i've always heard that this was pete rock and marly marl. i think maybe rakim claims it was him?

― S>C>, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 21:28 (twenty-two years ago)

And by the way:

LORD FINESSE!

― JS Williams (js williams), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 21:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Weren't the Goodie Mob in that Ben Stiller tour de force Mystery Men?

Ah yes, certainly! (This is what I got confused with the first Austin Powers movie, for some horrible reason.)

Oh my god, Mystery Men had Goodie Mobb and Tom Waits! It's an Yngwie J. Malmstein away from the Musician Cameo Trifecta!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 21:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I seem to be one of the only folks who consider Rza one of the tightest lyricists in the Wu Clan

Me Too! I think I like his delivery more than anything he actually says (his relaxed, blunted delivery, not the crazed Gravedigga style he had for a while)

I also heard it was Marly Marl who produced most of Paid in Full

Yes, Lord Finesse is worthy of a mention. My friend told me that he freestyles almost all his recorded verses. Can anybody verify?

― oops (Oops), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 21:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Latifah is also a good singer.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 21:50 (twenty-two years ago)

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