The late legend Biggie Smalls is considered a legend and one of hip-hop’s true lyricists. As a staple of the 1990s, he and Nas ran New York during the early part of the decade. The Brooklyn native (real name Christopher Wallace) got discovered by Diddy after featuring Source magazine’s unsigned hype column, and from there, he exploded.
As the face of Bad Boy Entertainment, his lavish videos and suave raps turned him into somewhat of a sex symbol in the mid-90s, and he enjoyed vast amounts of success while under the now-disgraced Diddy.
As all MCs do, Wallace considered himself the best, which is the default position of all artists. However, he had some rappers that he preferred over others and, unlike some timid rhymers, wasn’t afraid to vocalise who he thought was subpar.
Nowadays, new artists rarely speak out and diss their peers for no reason and would hesitate to call another artist “lame” for fear of being labelled a “hater” or getting roped into an unending, pointless social media spat.
However, in 1995, with the Canadian magazine Peace, the ‘Hypnotise’ emcee was asked to rate some of his hip-hop counterparts, and he had no problems responding and did so with brutal honesty.
The journalist first asked Biggie about his thoughts concerning Redman and demanded he rate him out of ten. Speaking honestly, the Ready To Die Creator explained, “Seven. I can’t diss him cause I know he got skills. He get busy on the lyrics but I can’t feel his new shit, his new cosmic crazy shit. I’m used to the clean-cut blowout fly nigga. When I met the nigga he was a fly nigga, you know what I’m sayin’, but now he on some different shit!”
Wallace rated E-40 a zero, simply stating, “I don’t fuck with dude at all. At all.” He did the same for Spice1, again bluntly admitting, “I don’t like that guy at all.” Biggie went on to rate other rappers.
He expressed love for Too $hort, exclaiming, “That’s my dog right there. I love that nigga. That’s my man. The calibre of shit he got. Cocktails shit, I ain’t got to see that shit yet. I know that shit was hot! I was with him in Atlanta, and we were just kickin’ it and shit. That’s my dog. I love that man.”
However, he controversially concluded by disrespecting the legendary KRS-One, rudely professing, “Naahhh…I don’t like KRS no more ’cause he just think he’s too dope. He let his ego take over his shit, and that’s what brings him down. When he was like that (shouts ‘Blow it to yourself’), when he was like that, then he was a ten, but now, ‘I am Hip-Hop’!!! Eat a dick nigga. Eat a muthaphukkin dick!”
You can see how the Brooklyn musician rated other artists in the video below.
