One of the most wonderful and terrible things about this world is that the most talented, skilled and diligent people aren’t always the ones that succeed. It’s wonderful because it means people who may not have the above traits but have other things to offer to the world get a chance to shine and place their contribution in whatever field they are. It’s terrible because no matter how much work and resources you put in to develop your skills and become the best at what you do there’s no guarantee of success. In other cases one may have the talent, skill, diligence, business intelligence, charisma, etc but for one reason or another they don’t succeed. This is something which is discussed on a daily basis and rap music is no exception to this rule. Here are 5 rappers who I feel should’ve left a bigger footprint in rap than they had the potential to do.
Jean Grae
Jean is a rare talent. She has the potential to reach millions of people through her music because she’s not scared of touching on subjects that many rappers don’t touch on, especially female rappers. In a sea of female emcees who rely heavily on their sexuality to reach audiences Jean is an anomaly. She’s intelligent and is not afraid to show it in her lyrics. She’s concerned with more than the usual stuff that rappers such as Nicki Minaj, Foxy Brown, Iggy Azealia, Cup Cakke (she needs help…fast), Lil Kim and many others talk about; sex money, being the number 1 female emcee, etc. She talks about poetry, missing loved ones, philosophy, etc. For a minute it seemed like she’d become a huge start but for one reason or another she just never managed to pop off.
I’m of the view that it might be partly due to the fact that she’s not easy to relate to. There’s a certain coldness about her and something that just screams “I’m not interested in you!” or “I’m antisocial.” So the connection with fans is hard to develop. I also think she has made poor production choices. Some of the beats she chooses are just not easy to listen to, and that’s no knock on her producers; the beats just don’t suit her. I think she was also not marketed enough or marketed very well. For some reason females, save for a few exceptions, generally don’t do well in hip hop if they don’t play on their sexuality to some degree, which is a shame because women have a lot they need to say.
Canibus
Canibus had a great start to his career. He was aligned with Wyclef Jean, one of the hottest producers and artists of the time. He had a song which was part of a Hollywood movie soundtrack for the 1998 Academy Award nominated film Bulworth. He was featured on an LL Cool J track with heavyweights such DMX, Redman and Method Man. Unfortunately due to one of his lyrics on that song LL felt that Canibus was dissing him and the whole issue went from zero to a hundred real quick. LL removed Canibus from the song and he (LL) wrote a verse hitting back at Canibus. One of the greatest rap beefs was born due to that situation and Canibus released a milestone beef song titled 2nd Round K.O. and boy was it a knockout. But shortly after that things went south for the promising rapper. He is definitely one of the top lyricists to ever grab a mic. He rapped about science, philosophy, poetry, astrology, astronomy and other topics.
Nower days he’s more known for pulling out a notepad in the middle of a rap battle against Dizaster after forgetting his lyrics. In my opinion although he was a top notch lyricist he was not a good song writer. His production was often not easy on the ears and many of his songs did not have hooks at all. In short he did not know how to properly package his brand of emceeing into something that was easy to digest. Listening to a song from him can get you super excited while at the same time causing your head to hurt profusely due to exhaustion from all the knowledge he condensed into each verse. The LL beef also didn’t help him at all.
The Lady of Rage
When you think of The Lady of Rage the first thing that comes to mind is probably afro puffs. The energetic rapper was setup for success from the jump. She was on Death Row Records, a company which churned out hit after hit from the likes of Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Tupac, Mich’elle, Kurupt and Daz Dillinger. She released her single Afro Puffs in the mid nineties. The Dr. Dre track featured Snoop Dogg and Rage just went in; none of the sexual mumbo jumbo and soft lyrics that were expected from a female. She was intense. The song itself was also catchy and should’ve been a mega hit. For some reason nothing much materialized. Death Row had its internal issues so maybe that played a part. The last time I saw her was at the BET Hip Hop Awards a couple of years back when she was in a cypher with Blind Fury and a couple other rappers.
Cormega
When I first heard Cormega’s music I immediately thought of Nas. Much like Nas, Mega told a lot of hood stories over emotional east coast beats that were also reminiscent of the likes of Mobb Deep. It wasn’t till later that I found out that Mega did have relationships with Nas and Mobb Deep who were all from Queens, New York. Mega was setup for success as he was starting his career in the late nineties. He had a record deal and was chosen to be a part of hip hop supergroup The Firm. He was inexplicably replaced due to a misunderstanding with Nas which resulted in beef songs being released. Mega was dropped from his label and decided to go independent, which as per his explanation was one of the best decisions he ever made. Unfortunately independent artists at that time didn’t have the reach that artists of today have with the likes of YouTube and social media. Had it been available then maybe he’d have reached a much wider audience.
He had a way of telling stories about drugs and violence without glorifying them the way many other rappers do. There’s a certain sadness to a lot of his songs and his voice that is captivating. He had great choice of production. He has worked with the likes of Havoc, Hi-Tek, Large Professor and others. His songs are well-structured with good hooks. The only part I can criticize is that some of his mixes were of poor quality. But at that time studios, production and mix engineers were not as accessible and affordable as they are these days, so such issues might’ve played a part since he was independent after all. Of all the people on this list, Mega is the one I feel had the most potential to be huge but it just never happened.
Honorable mentions include AZ, Jadakiss (massive unrealized potential), Young Chris (from State Property), Black Rob and Nature.
