The 20 Best Five-year Runs In Rap

Which rapper had the best prime?

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Someone once told me this amazing quote and they attributed it to Jay Z. I don’t actually know if Jay Z said it, but it’s still an amazing quote and a great point nonetheless. It went like this, “You’re more likely to be an all-star in the NBA than you are to have five good years in the rap game.” Think about that. There’s 24 NBA all-stars every year, there’s only 20 people on this list. And honestly, there could hardly even be a 21st person on this list. That’s nuts.

Yet, that’s how the game goes. Some of that has to do with rap being such a young genre. Hip-hop is only about 40 years old, not even old enough to be your grandpa. In recent years, rappers like Jay Z, Nas, and Eminem have found ways to remain relevant and productive in the later years of their careers. Hopefully, they've laid a foundation for future rappers to follow. But beyond rap, consider that even legendary artists like Jimi Hendrix only had about four years of mainstream exposure, and the three albums he released he released that changed rock music forever—1967's Are You Experienced & Axis: Bold as Love and 1968's Electric Ladyland—came out in an 18 month span.

Still, consider that even some of the dopest rappers around could barely string five consecutive quality years together. In 1992 and 1993, Snoop Dogg was the Best Rapper Alive. He was the main voice behind Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, and his album Doggystyle is a certified classic. He killed every song he touched. But by 1996? When he dropped his second album, Doggfather, he hit one of the worst sophomore slumps rap has ever seen. Just like that, it was gone. Thankfully, Snoop later returned to prominence but that doesn’t mean he didn’t stumble along the way.

That’s why five year runs are so important. Just ask The RZA, he built the Wu-Tang empire telling the rest of the crew, "I'm taking us to No. 1. Give me five years, and I promise that I'll get us there." For many of the greatest rappers ever, the large majority of the highlights in their career can be found in that brief window. A rapper’s prime rarely lasts longer than that. So we took a look at some of the Best 5 Year Rapper Runs (and presented them chronologically) to see which rappers really held it down for five summers...

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Rakim: 1986-1990

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Solo Albums: n/a
Group Albums: Paid in Full (1987), Follow the Leader (1988), Let the Rhythm Hit 'Em (1990)
Biggest Hits: "Paid in Full" (1987), "Eric B. Is President" (1987), "I Know You Got Soul" (1987), "Microphone FIend" (1988), "Lyrics of Fury" (1988)

Here is something I wrote last year, on the 25th anniversary of the Eric B. & Rakim's 1987 debut album, Paid in Full. It's called, "Rakim is the most important MC in the history of rap music," and I think it speaks to Rakim's dominance in the first five years of his career.


It's still always weird to me to hear people argue about who's the best MC. This has to do my age, and the way that the things you think at certain points in your life crystalize into something more like objective truth than opinion. I was sixteen years old in 1987, and shortly after Paid In Full came out, there was simply no debating who was the best MC. The answer to that question was Rakim, period, the end. Everyone who listened to rap knew this. At least where I was from, in the suburbs an hour outside of New York City. I have since heard stories about how there was heavy argument and rivalry around that time in the city itself. Was Boogie Down Productions' KRS-One better? Was Big Daddy Kane better? Kool G Rap? Big Daddy Kane and KRS-One and Kool G Rap are phenomenally great rappers. And certainly, lots of people knew more about rap than my friends and I did in 1987 (and more about it than my friends and I do now.) But for us, in the halls of Red Bank Regional High School in New Jersey, it was not up for discussion: Rakim was the best.


My opinion has changed over the years: I now say that Biggie Smalls is the best rapper ever. (While Jay-Z is the "greatest" rapper ever, and Ghostface Killah is my "favorite." I am a nudnik who gets hung up on semantics.) But my first reaction, my reflexive response when anyone asks the question is always still the same: "What do you mean, 'Who's the best MC?' Don't be stupid. Everybody knows it's Rakim."

Listening to Rakim now, and listening to the styles of rapping that came before and after he arrived on the scene, before and after Paid In Full came out, I think I would argue, that while I think Biggie is technically a better rapper—more eloquent, more versatile, more skilled—Rakim remains the most important rapper of all time.

His flow-smooth, monotone, patient, cold-changed the way rappers sounded more than any other rapper before or since. And his vocabulary and his ability to put abstract intellectual concepts into rhyme expanded the rap palate in the same way. He was the first modern rapper. — Dave Bry

Chuck D: 1987-1991

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KRS-One: 1987-1991

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Ice Cube: 1988-1992

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Q-Tip: 1989-1993

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Scarface: 1990-1994

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2Pac: 1992-1996

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Redman: 1992-1996

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Bun B: 1992-1996

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The Notorious B.I.G: 1993-1997

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Andre 3000: 1994-1998

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Ghostface Killah: 1996-2000

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Jay Z: 1997-2001

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Eminem: 1999-2003

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Cam'ron: 2001-2005

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50 Cent: 2002-2006

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T.I.: 2003-2007

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Lil Wayne: 2004-2008

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Kanye West: 2007-2011

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Drake: 2009-2013

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