When Troy Ave mania kicked off earlier this summer a good deal of it revolved around the rapper’s classification of a number of his peers as “weirdos.” Without going into much detail he rattled off a list including Kendrick Lamar (something about shorts above the knee?), Kanye West, Chance the Rapper, Vic Mensa and more as fitting the bill, and it was off to the races from there.
Troy used “weirdo” as a dig, but if you look back through the history of hip-hop you’ll find a wealth of influencers and innovators who dealt with the same claims throughout their careers, many of whom owned their eccentricities and steered the culture because of them. So we got to thinking about who the resident weirdo rappers might’ve been throughout the different epochs of hip-hop history and are proud to present you this list of some of the most colorful personas the game has seen.
Not everyone here is a genius or influencer. Some are just too vibrant to forget. Others are people you love to hate. Others still, people you hate that you love. Feel free to hop into the comments and scrap about who should and shouldn’t be here.
Written by Craig Jenkins. Follow him on Twitter.