TI: The Greatest Rapper Ever?

TI is still the best rapper in America. Jail or not, he is as talented as Tupac. Tupac was great, I used to listen to him every morning when I was in graduate school. I still love his stuff, and he became great when he got with Dr. Dre (in my opinion). But TI is the stuff that legends are made of. He and Chamillionaire also both possess the ability to understand the complexities of racism, business, politics and social injustice and I predict that they will become more politically involved through time.

Oh that weapons charge on TI? I'm not sure how that's going to turn out. But I honestly think that TI, as sharp as this brother is, will find a way to get out of this one. Not to say that he won't do any time, he has a target on his back and the feds are looking for him to slip up. He probably does slip up at times. But this brother has CEO/Rocket scientist genius, and I know that he is going to bounce back.

I use alot of hip hop with my show, "Boiling Hot with Boyce Watkins". Some people like it, some don't, I personally don't give a damn. Someone once asked me "You are a highly educated brother, and why do you dumb yourself down by connecting yourself with rappers?"

I looked at the stupid &^%$*@ and said "Don't you realize that rappers are smarter than most PhDs I know? It's just a different form of intellect, and you are not smart enough to understand it." People assume that because rappers talk about the street that they are not as sharp as some one-dimensional geek who has spent his whole life inside a physics book.

I beg to differ.

Actually, it takes more intelligence, creativity, discipline, determination, focus, passion and courage to make it in the street than it does to make it on a college campus. If you slip up in college, you go live with your parents. You slip up in the street, you end up dead. There are fewer resources to use, more obstacles to overcome, more traps set out for your demise. When you can dodge all those bullets and still end up on top, you are clearly representing survival of the fittest. Most of my friends at Ivy League schools could never make it in such an environment.

Bottom line: when a rapper has overcome all this and still ends up on top (i.e. TI, 50 Cent, LL Cool J, Eminem) they clearly represent survival of the fittest. This achievement beats out the accomplishmnts of a pampered, overprotected clown like George Bush any day.

Nuff said.

Out of respect for the late Tupac, I included one of my favorite Tupac songs below. This will balance things out, because when you compare two artists this great, nobody loses the contest.