The five best Boston rappers of all time
Ask someone to recite the most important hip hop cities of the world, and the results will tend towards the predictable: New York, LA, Atlanta, and maybe Chicago, Houston or Detroit at a stretch. Not many people are throwing Boston a mention.
But the truth is that Boston has produced some great hip hop, and it’s been part of the culture’s history from its early days. Having emerged in New York, hip hop duly started to spread to other states across the US. Among the early adopters were New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, with capital city Boston serving as that state’s epicentre.
Boston-born producer Arthur Baker was a pivotal figure within hip hop’s early development, working with the likes of Afrika Bambaataa in New York. Baker’s contributions were important in the culture’s early evolution, and he wasn’t alone. Plenty of rappers soon began to emerge from Boston, albeit with many moving to New York in pursuit of success.
It’s probably fair to suggest that Boston hasn’t produced very many out-and-out hip hop legends, with the possible exception of one rapper on this list. But in general, the artists who have come from that city have been as skilled as those from any other place. Here’s a look at some of the greatest.
The five best Boston rappers
5. Akrobatik
Akrobatik comes from Boston’s Dorchester, and he’s been known on the rap scene since the release of his first single, ‘Ruff Enough’, in 1998. He released that on the Boston label Detonator Records, before putting out the songs ‘Internet MCs’ and ‘Say Yes Say Word’. He later moved to a Brooklyn-based label called Fat Beat Records, where he released a well-received album called Absolute Value in 2008. The album Built To Last followed in 2014, which came after he suffered a serious health scare that required emergency heart surgery.
Akrobatik isn’t exactly a household name in a broad sense, but he is well-respected among hip hop specialists and Boston rap fans. His music has appeared on popular TV shows, films and video games, including The Wire, Date Movie and Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Akrobatik is also a member of the rap collective The Perceptionists.
4. Big Shug
Big Shug’s rap career has seen lots of ups and downs. It started well, as he was an original member of Gang Starr, the group made famous as a duo consisting of rapper Guru and producer DJ Premier. Shug was a member before Preemo ever showed up, but his time with the group was disrupted by a stint in prison. When he got out, he hooked up with Guru once again, and he started contributing to the new Preemo-driven Gang Starr’s efforts.
Shug appeared on several Gang Starr songs, while he also worked with Preemo on a solo album called Who’s Hard, which came out in 2005. Preemo produced half the tracks on it, but the album didn’t set the world alight, and the same is true of his subsequent releases. As a solo artist, Big Shug has never managed to truly take off, but as a contributor to Gang Starr, he’s established a place for himself in rap history. There’s nothing wrong with that.
3. Mr Lif
Boston-born Mr Lif is unashamedly a conscious rapper, tackling, through his music, the grubby business of social inequality and capitalist excess. He’s been that way since the very beginning of his career, with his first album, 2002’s I Phantom, being a concept album exploring the realities of life as a working-class Black American. Produced largely by Run the Jewels’ El-P, the album was well-received upon release.
Explaining the album’s concept to Albumism in 2017, Lif spoke of how we live in a “capitalism-driven society”, where “at the end of the day, when it really comes down to it, you are a social security number, and that’s what you are as an individual”. The system reduces people to being cogs in a machine, and Mr Lif’s album, and much of his music thereafter, sought to get to grips with that.
2. Ed OG
Edward Anderson was born into the working-class Boston neighbourhood of Roxbury, growing up with a deep interest in music. He started rapping at the age of just 15, performing first as Ed Rock in a collective called Fresh To Impress. He later formed his own group, Ed OG and Da Bulldogs, and released an album in 1991 called Life of a Kid in the Ghetto, which brought him some attention.
Ed went on to release several more albums and EPs, while he has worked with some of hip hop’s biggest names. RZA, DJ Premier, KRS-One, Pete Rock, and Common are just a selection of his collaborators through the years. He isn’t the most famous rapper in the world by any means, but he does have a reputation in Boston; he was arguably the first local rapper to make it in rap music.
1. Guru
Guru is arguably Boston’s only true rap legend, having made Gang Starr one of the most influential hip hop groups ever alongside his partner, DJ Premier. While Preemo was from Houston, Guru was from Boston, and Gang Starr itself was born in the city. Before Preemo ever joined, it was Guru, Big Shug, and their fellow Boston native DJ Suave D. It was only after Shug was thrown in jail that the group began to cycle through members before landing on the classic line-up of Guru and Preemo.
Guru is recognised as one of rap’s great MCs, with Gang Starr itself being considered as one of the best rap duos of all time. They were pioneers of their day, helping to establish jazz rap as a subgenre and otherwise contributing to the overall sound of hip hop’s golden age. As much as any New Yorker, Guru was central to hip hop’s heyday.