Credit: Alamy

Ice Cube is one of the greatest West Coast rappers of all time.

The 56-year-old is behind classic albums such as NWA’s Straight Outta Compton and solo efforts like AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, Death Certificate, and The Predator. As one of the most qualified from that side of the US, Cube knows better than most who ranks among the best MCs.

Cube has spent almost 40 years rapping and soaking up hip-hop culture, being inspired by some of the best around. He’s beefed with everyone from Common to Mack to Cypress Hill, as well as his former group, NWA. That type of resumé has made him well-equipped when it comes to lyricism.

The ‘No Vaseline’ artist once shared his favourite rappers from the West Coast, going for a list of 11 MCs. Why not a round number like 10, you ask? Because he’s Cube and does what he wants. One of his first picks was Bay Area legend Too $hort, with whom he formed a supergroup in 2020 alongside Snoop Dogg and E-40. That alone shows how highly he rates him.

“Too $hort is simply great,” he told Complex. “He still got one of of the purest rap styles of early rap. And he still uses it to this day and it still works. I used to trip off how he can rhyme the same words and make it sound better and different. He can make a simple rhyme sound complex. And he can be rapping like that and not bore you. Anybody else rapping like that, you’d be like, ‘Man get the fuck outta here.'”

Cube remembered the first time the two men met: “When I first met him, I thought he was a real pimp. I met him in ’86 or ’87, he had all them girls in Oakland always doing everything he say. It was a trip to meet this dude and come to find out he’s hustling albums outta his car. Born to Mack is still one of the best West Coast rap albums ever.”

Taking things down to Los Angeles, Tha Dogg Pound’s own Kurupt made Cube’s cut for his prolific lyricism that took inspiration from the East Coast. “His style is complicated and hard, like razor blade hard,” he said. “His shit is a jigsaw puzzle. To me, his wordplay is some of the best in the business.

“He takes Rakim’s style [and mixes] gangsta shit in perfect. [I first heard him] on The Chronic. I always thought he had a perfect delivery, flow, voice, and he just kept getting better and better. Definitely one of my favourites. We would hang out on tour, he always come off real humble. I got a lot a love for him.”

Whether he’s worked with them or admired from afar, Cube has carefully studied a whole range of rappers for decades upon decades. If anyone has the right to select the best in the business, it’s him.

Ice Cube’s favourite West Coast MCs:

• Snoop Dogg
• Too $hort
• The Game
• Ice-T
• E-40
• Kurupt
• King Tee
• Ras Kass
• DJ Quik
• Tupac Shakur
• The D.O.C.