No. 48: O.C.

Over the course of this countdown, there will be a few slept-on emcees sprinkled in that will make most casual rap fans wonder what the hell I'm thinking. O.C. is certainly one of those. You might not have even heard of him. Hell, I'm guilty of not being quite as familiar with his stuff as I should be. But that doesn't detract from his dopeness one bit.

Treatin' emcees like government cheese.

Omar Credle made his presence known from day one on the mic, stealing the show from Organized Konfusion with a strong cleanup verse on the 1991 banger  "Fudge Pudge." He followed with a few other notable guest appearances before releasing his debut LP, Word...Life, in 1994. That critically acclaimed joint included the single "Time's Up" — younger fans will likely recognize the beat as the one that Eminem blanked out over at the beginning of 8 Mile.

Since then, O.C. has released five more solo albums and more than held his own on several other posse cuts, including "Return Of The Crooklyn Dodgers." He has further solidified his rep on the underground level as part of the D.I.T.C. crew, a hip-hop supergroup that includes a few other top-50 emcees.

He may not rank in the top thousand in terms of mainstream notoriety or record sales, but in terms of pure skill, there aren't too many better than O.C. If anything, I'll probably end up regretting not ranking him higher than this.