Melle Mel’s recent appearance on The Art Of Dialogue, where he critiques Billboard’s 50 Greatest Rappers Of All Time List has the entire hip hop community in disarray.
After previously claiming Eminem only entered the list at No. 5 due to his skin color, the 61-year old also had words for Lil Wayne, who believes he should have been the No. 1 rated rapper on the list and not the seventh. According to Mel, Tunechi cannot be the greatest rapper ever because he uses autotune and no one knows what his real voice sounds like.
“You don’t even know his real voice, how could you know. Melle said. “If his voice is on autotune, was something wrong with his voice for them to put the autotune on his voice? Or was it just something that they did in the studio just to give it that rawness? But how could you know?”
“If The Message came out in autotune, like if it came out in a talkbox. Do you think that would have been a big record? No it would not! It would have made the record sound a little more cheesier… He’s entitled to his opinion but I guarantee if you had five capable so called great rappers on the panel, I guarantee you, Little Wayne wouldn’t be number one. He wouldn’t be. You’ll probably come out with more of Jay-Z being number one,” he argued.
During the interview, Melle Mel additionally had smoke for Nicki Minaj. The Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five rapper called “bullshit” to Billboard placing Onika at No. 10 with Rakim at No. 13.
“You know that’s some bullshit,” Melle Mel said. “Come on now … And I actually like Nicki Minaj, but you know that’s some bullshit.”
“I’m coming from how the game changed and how the culture changed,” he explained. “I’m not coming from who I like rapping because I don’t like the way nobody rap … I don’t got nobody in my head like that except the Most High. Nick Minaj being [above Rakim], that’s blasphemy. And I don’t got nothing wrong with Nicki. I actually like Nicki Minaj,” he stated. “She can write. Decent looking chick. But even if she was better than Rakim, you don’t put her over no goddamn Rakim. What kind of shit is that?”
The rap vet also didn’t think Kendrick Lamar deserved his spot at No. 2. “I don’t know what records he made like that,” Mel said. “I might know one or two of them, but I don’t think you even hear Kendrick in the club like that.”
He further argued “Nobody wants to rap like Kendrick Lamar. Nobody wants to rap like Eminem. A lot of people wanted to rap, like ‘Pac and Biggie.”
What do you think about Unk’s opinions? You can watch his AOD episode below.
