Now that I got your attention, let’s talk. Shout to my homey “Mic Jones” “J.R. Bang” and “Savant” They all inspired this with our recent debates, discussions and forums on FB. A great number of hip-hop heads consider Andre 3000 of Outkast to be hands down the best lyricist and the greatest rapper ever. I don’t agree. I believe resume, pedigree and the actual task at hand [which is rapping] is why he can’t be considered the greatest. He can be one of the dopest because he honestly is but THE GREATEST!?!?! Nah Son….NAH!
I’m going to use an analogy that I have not used before but I think it’s time and please feel free to correct me if I’m dead wrong. Let’s compare Rap to The NBA. With that said, I feel Andre 3000 is the Robert Horry of Hip-Hop.
Robert Horry has proven to be a great Team player [Rockets, Lakers, Spurs]
Robert Horry knew his role and purpose [Forward. Doesn’t need to score 30 to be effective]
Robert Horry is a Fearless WINNER on great teams [7 NBA Championships]
Statistically Horry has more clutch game winning shots than todays greatest player LeBron James.
I’m not going to deny the FACT that Outkast is one of the greatest groups of all time. Lyrically and statistically that would be flat out foolish. However, that’s a team accomplishment. The other fact that I can throw out is 100% of the time, when it’s time to RAP…ONLY BIG BOI is showing up consistently. It’s not that Stacks can’t rap, he just doesn’t want to.
Robert Horry has hit the same shot to win the same title on different teams….Stacks International Players Anthem verse sounds a lot like his Deuces Remix Verse. Deal With It. People swear by the Outkast catalog, especially the first 4 albums. Lot of game winning rap shots on those albums.
3 Stacks is as NICE as he wants to be….but he’s not rapping. You do know his first hit solo single was “Hey Ya” right? Then he followed that up with Prototype. Then he followed that up with Roses. All 3 of those songs were on his solo effort titled “The Love Below”. Has Andre 3000 put out 48 Bars in a rap song format and has it charted? Please answer.
Once again. I’m not trying to discredit or disrespect Stacks. I just feel rappers have to rap to be considered great rappers. Any rapper has a chance to be considered great if the criteria is dropping 2 verses in a year. Shoot give me 2 verses a year and I could make a few Top 5 conversations in the Midwest AT LEAST!
To Quote @JRBang “I’m just holding 3K to the same standard The Lox, Mobb Deep, 8Ball and MJG and others where held up to.”
All the above had done numerous times what Andre Benjamin has not done…Dropped 1 or more solo rap albums to solidify how well they can stand on their own. Some projects we loved, some we can forget but the effort was appreciated. When Jadakiss, Method Man and Prodigy were in groups the consensus was “Man! When you dropping the solo joint?” When they did we loved or hated but always appreciated the effort. Andre 3000 has not done that yet and by his moves…he NEVER plans to.
My mans @MikeJonesShow posted a pic and asked Bar for Bar Who’s a better Lyricist
Andre 3000 or Jay-Z . I said Jay-Z because in the aspect of BARS he lapped Stacks with just his body of work till 2004.
My boy Savant did not like that response lol! He took the quality over quantity approach and to paraphrase said
“Over time Jay has fell off but Stacks hasn’t and the quality of stacks bars, Bar for Bar, is just flat out better than Jay’s”
Giving his thoughts some thought…all I could say was the following.
I will never say Jay’s body of work is flawless or impeccable…ever. I don’t believe that…I will say this though…Jay has performed great at an extreme high level dolo for a lot longer than people want to give him credit for…Jay’s not my favorite rapper at all. Possibly not even in my personal Top 5 of favorites…BUT…I’m not going to deny the body of work…For a quick Boxing Analogy…We don’t speak ill of Ali even though most of his L’s came in the Late 70’s…just want to throw that out there
Show me 11 3 Stack verses that are better than the 11 Jay-Z solo albums and then we can talk about who’s better. Until then…to me…No Dice. Once again, the rappers have to rap to be considered great rappers.
You’re never going to say Robert Horry is the greatest Forward to play the game. Why? Because he never was option one on any of his Championship teams that’s why. There is no front man in Outkast. They are literally the most even duo in hip-hop history. They both have the ability to do the same thing rap wise. The division came on Speakerboxxx/The Love Below which was the album that topped the rap and pop charts for different singles and reasons. That’s fact ladies and gentlemen.
No one will ever deny Andre’s talent. From his acting, production, playing instruments, singing, art and poetry it’s obvious that he can do ANYTHING and be very good to great at it. However, none of the above is a pre-requisite for Rapping. AGAIN! You need to be rapping to be considered a great rapper. Now if you want to call him “Hip-Hop’s Greatest Renaissance Man” You will get absolutely no argument from me….Greatest Rapper Though??? C’mon Now…And for all you heads, purist and elitist Andre don’t freestlye either. Ask Big Tigger cause he refused to on Rap City: The Basement…signed that wall while giving his explanation of why he wouldn’t though…
You a bad MF if you can come from another planet, give a chick sight and get her pregnant with in 24 hours….
BehindTheRhyme.com 
This is one the most pathetic articles/ arguments I’ve ever suffered through. And I don’t think Andre is necessarily the goat but I do believe that once you reach that top tier level, GOAT status becomes subjective. Robert Horry? Really? The better argument isn’t 11 bars vs 11bars (3 stacks/ jay z) Hence why horry isn’t better than MJ and Bill Russel isn’t better than mj with 11 rings. Who was the best in their prime, at their best? I fe jay z but his flow and style wasn’t all that original compared to 3 stacks, didn’t change the game, didn’t move the hip hop trophy to ATL where it still remains. Can’t compare a non HOF’Er to 3 stacks. Big boi should be considered up there with Andre, just a 1/4 step below him and a top 20 MC. Andre at his best was better (IMO) than jay z. Better story teller, more unique bars and style/ flow, had more mass appeal when he wanted to. Robert horry? A bench player? Really?
LikeLike
Dude I feel the same way too. I always found it odd why they would say he is the greatest and he hasn’t had many rap verses. The more verses you put out, the more consitency people can see, by how many verses has he out for us to judge. I had never made sense to me. People are just bandwagoning.
LikeLike
SOLO (REPRISE) JUST PROVED YOU TF WRONG!!!!! LOL
LikeLike
….no it didn’t…but thanks for sharing your opinion.
LikeLike
Had to comment on this……
When you talk about all these commercial singles, and solo albums your just talking about commercial success. Fuck that shit! If you put Andre head to Head with Jay Z who is going to write a better verse? 3k all day come on now!
LikeLike
With all due respect, this makes very little sense. Your argument that “he doesn’t rap” automatically negates whatever analogies you want to toss in. Does he rap less than he should, in my opinion? Yes. Do you judge rappers based on what they haven’t done? If you want to be taken seriously, no. André 3000 could very easily be proven the best, especially if you’re going on skill. His rhyme schemes (“Babylon”, “Sixteen”, “Pink Matter”, “Sorry” and etc.), metaphors (“Royal Flush”, “Babylon”, “Sixteen”, “Sorry”) and storytelling abilities (“A Day in the Life of André Benjamin”, “Sixteen”, “Da Art of Storytelling”) and obviously, delivery are all top notch and have only improved with time.
LikeLike
Ugh, no offense, really, but this is bogus from so many angles. “Show me 11 3 Stacks verses better than 11 Jay-Z solo albums.” – what does that even mean? He’s INCREDIBLY skilled. Your arguments that he “doesn’t rap” also don’t make sense. He drops a fair amount of verses on all OutKast records that warrant rapping consistently and 9/10 times he crafts CLASSIC verses with metaphors, dense rhyme schemes and incredible deliveries.
And why does consistency define who the best is? Nas wouldn’t be in the top 20 if that were the case.
LikeLike
Plus for real no disrespect but ur mom prob in college
LikeLike
I’m lost on what this means…
LikeLike
Dre is Bo Jackson… He made things very few people can do look easy consistently (clear but meaningful double meanings in so many verses, difficult timing schemes, etc), but I’m not sure if he really even wanted it and his career was short (really only 4 real rap albums as part of a duo).
LikeLike
I like this analogy. If Bo would have stuck around, he would have broken every record out there. You could just see he was special. Same with 3K.
LikeLike
I don’t think HE thinks he’s the greatest rapper ever and that’s something people don’t talk about enough.
I mean by The Love Below Andre was pretty much tired of rap. He isn’t just a rapper and for that reason I don’t believe he’s the greatest rapper. Since 2003 he hasn’t put out much music period. It’s hardly because he’s uninspired creatively, he just doesn’t seem the spotlight the way other music artists do.
At the same time his guest spots over the past couple of years have been phenomenal. Think of his extended feat on Rick Ross’s ‘Sixteen’ or on Frank Ocean’s ‘Pink Matter’ – both intellectually stimulating, raw flow verses that prove the dude has definitely not lost his tough by any means.
That being said he is pretty much favourite rapper. His work from Southernplaya through to Stankonia is all the way dope except for a hiccup here and there. Between him and big Boi, they came out with four absolute classics in a row and not many artists in any genre have achieved that.
Keep in mind also that from ATLiens on, Dre and Big started taking over more and more production duties from Organized Noise.
He possesses an incredible creative mind and in my opinion is one of the greatest artists hip hop has created. so yeah, wondering whether or not he’s the greatest rapper, in my opinion, is slightly missing the point of what he’s about.
LikeLike
i been saying alot of this for years, and i’m a huge three stacks advocate, since day 1. I differ with you on some points though…the main one being that dre amd big are neck and neck skill level wise. big was fighting just to keep up on most Kast albums…where he really held it down was writing timeless choruses. That was the outkast formula. As far as rapping goes, thats ALL we’ve been hearing Andre do the past 9 yrs really…and each verse was a quotable. Where he falls short for me the most is that he hasn’t dropped a solo rap record to prove he can hold it down on his own. To me thats the only real measurable, everything else somewhat falls in the realm of opinion. I’d take four guest verses from him in 2015 over another Jay-Z album, and probably be better off for it, so it’s really just a matter of taste where thats concerned.
LikeLike
Saying Jay Z is a better rapper then 3000 is equivalent to saying Bill Russell is a better basketball player then Michael Jordan! Jay Z has a strong resume and following but he’s been dominated by his peers several times on songs he’s been featured on as well as songs on his own albums…………..when 3 stacks is on a song with someone else, only his verse is remembered and recited. Most effective and the best are not the same.
LikeLike
A good portion of that is just strong opinion fam. Just say you don’t really like Jay-Z as much as 3 Stacks because that’s your right as a hip-hop fan.
Jay’s not my favorite rapper either..but you absolutely can not say SEVERAL of his peers have “dominated” him on a track. As time progressed, Jay has proven to not have many peers.
Jay can be Bill Russell and Michael Jordan because he has won the most in his era and he has hands down dominated in an era.
LikeLike
Eminem, Ye, Scarface, BIG, etc, etc. Fuckin Beans got Jay on Do It Again. Since when was 3 Stacks outshined by anyone on a track? Hasn’t happened. Much less a crony. Can you imagine 3K getting slapped on a track by Witchdoctor? That’s about the equivalent of Beans slappin Jay. Get the fk outta here.
LikeLike
Most of Jays discog is average at best
LikeLike
This is a good topic for discussion and I’m not even saying you’re wrong, but Southernplayalistic, ATLiens, Aquemini, and Stankonia aren’t even mentioned. I know y’all were talking about solo (which is a flawed argument IMO, considering Andre was in a group up until he was 31 years old), but it’s not like Andre just “doesn’t rap”. If we can’t count the songs/verses from the 4 albums he actually rapped on, then, well, yeah, he’s not better than Jay Z.
LikeLike
It’s not that the Outkast catalog doesn’t count…my particular stance is that per the example it’s not as much work to put in on a group album as it is a solo album.
LikeLike