You might as well ask me to explain astrophysics. It only takes about 2 minutes for people that talk with me about hip hop to ask the dreaded question…”So, who’s your favorite artist?” I guess if there were only 4 amazing hip hop artists, this question would be a lot easier to answer. Grow up in the era of music that brought us 2Pac, Jay-Z, Eminem, Scarface, T.I., Nelly and Snoop Dogg, just to name a few, and this answer becomes extremely difficult. Some people lean towards one area over another. I’m a fan of good music. I don’t care if its east coast, west coast, Midwest or the dirty south. Because of this, my answer to “who’s your favorite artist” is normally….it depends. With the number of styles of hip hop, my favorite really depends on what we’re talking about, and even that is very difficult to narrow down. There are so many good lyrists. The type of mood I’m in will usually determine who I’m listening to. Looking for some awe inspiring dis tracks? You can catch me with 2Pac, Eminem, Canibus and an occasional Queen Latifah. If you haven’t heard their dis tracks, go check them out. Canibus can murder a rhyme, as far as I’m concerned. If I’m in the mood for some good ol’ fashioned storytelling, Scarface, 2Pac, Eminem and Too $hort. Time to get hype? DMX, M.O.P. and Busta lead the top of my list. Sometimes, I’m looking for that down south flava. Poison Clan, Ludacris, Trick Daddy and Trina. Poison Clan has that gritty Miami flavor along with Trick and Trina. Really takes me back to growing up. One of my favorite styles is twistin’. I spent some time in Cleveland after college so I really got exposed to more of this during that time there. You can’t mention twistin’ without mentioning Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Twista and Tech N9ne but there are some newer artists that have emerged showing they can flip it with the next. Vin Jay falls into that category for me. MGK is another that has shown he can flip as well. After seeing what it takes to put that kind of technique together on a track, I have nothing but respect for someone who can do it. It’s not just about rhyming at that point. You have to figure out how to put all of those syllables in a specific number of bars. That takes skill and technique. When you are extremely diverse in your music library, it’s almost impossible to pick one to be your all time favorite. My favorite, I guess, is good music.