No. 1: Posdnuos

Few emcees are as unassuming, as understated, as un-rap-star-like, as Kelvin Mercer is.

But no emcee is better.

As the driving verbal force behind the greatest hip-hop group ever assembled, Posdnuos has surpassed all of his peers by simply managing to do what none of the others could...

He never once fell off.

Okay, so it's not THAT simple — but in a game of inches, consistency definitely played a part in inching Plug One past the likes of Nas, Eminem and Rakim.

This isn't a case of the tortoise beating the hare by playing not to lose, though — Pos and De La Soul served up some of the most groundbreaking hip-hop music ever made, and Mercer's verses were a lot more potent than he's given credit for.

Pos was just 19 years old when De La Soul's classic debut, 3 Feet High And Rising, dropped in 1989. The record was unlike anything else that was around back then — with the rest of the East Coast caught up in the early stages of the New Jack Swing era and the "gangsta" rhymers rising to prominence out west, De La was a breath of fresh air, a perfect blend of upbeat party music and consciousness. "Me, Myself & I" somehow remains the group's signature song, but tracks like "Say No Go" and "Buddy" are far superior. 3 Feet High And Rising was added to the Library of Congress in 2010 — and it's not even De La Soul's best album.

Second to none.

That came two years later, when De La Soul Is Dead was released. The album spends the bulk of its time bemoaning hip-hop's gradual trend toward the mainstream (shit, if they thought it was bad in 1991, then what about now?!?), but there was space reserved for even more serious material. "Millie Pulled A Pistol On Santa" is a stunningly dark departure from anything De La had ever attempted previously, but it worked thanks largely to the ability of Posdnuos (and, to a lesser extent, Dave) to tell such a disturbing story in such a detached, third-party tone. Their complete dismissal of Millie's allegations is a perfect picture of how society reacts in so many abuse cases.

Just ask the people of State College.

The "traditional" De La Soul sound is still there in abundance, though, with the obligatory sex track ("Let, Let Me In"), a masterful set of skits (something the group pioneered and did better than anyone else in the history of music) — and even a fast-food rap battle ("Bitties In The BK Lounge").

In short, there aren't five hip-hop albums better than De La Soul Is Dead. Ever.

On the group's third album, Buhloone Mindstate, De La experiments a little bit with a more "alternative" sound — and to be honest, I never really warmed to it. Buhloone is, for me, the group's lowest point, but it still didn't suck (I still love "Breakadawn"). Besides, it offered up a pretty honest self-assessment from Pos:


Fuck being hard, Posdnuos is complicated...

Sure enough, he continued to go against the grain on Stakes Is High in 1996. While the rest of hip-hop was trending toward the Scarface-style street tales of Biggie, Mobb Deep, Nas and a young Jay-Z, De La kept doing their own thing, dissing the establishment on the album's title cut. Pos even takes a not-so-veiled shot at Biggie on "Long Island Degrees":

I got questions 'bout your life if you're so ready to die...

The album provided the stage for the debut of Mos Def, and Pos humbly credits Mos with helping him step his game up lyrically. But that's just Pos being his humble self. Lyrics were never a problem...but he is correct in the sense that he continued to get stronger with time.

After the turn of the century, when most of the rest of hip-hop had vanished into the land of radio bullshit, De La kept chugging along with the two (original plans called for three) AOI albums. Posdnuos was at his best on the latter, Bionix — and any argument that his greatness is distorted because he uses a group as a crutch is put to rest on the masterful "Held Down," which is chock full of lyrical nuggets throughout but ends with perhaps my favorite Pos line of all:

...and when I'm watching the news and my daughter walks in and choose to ask:
"Why were all those people on the floor, sleeping covered in red?"/I told her
That they were looking for god but found religion instead...

Instead of the third AOI LP, De La Soul came back with The Grind Date in 2004, and it only turned out to be arguably the best record of the entire decade. Vintage De La through and through, the album again showcases Pos' underrated skills on the mic. He keeps dropping his usual to-the-point, everyman consciousness...

Black man, go put a book in your face...

...and he shows off some heretofore unseen verbal gymnastics on "Rock Co. Kane Flow," following the beat as it changes pace through the last few bars of each of his verses. The last one adds a nice autobiographical note to boot:

They say the good die young/so I added some/badass to my flavor to prolong my life over the drum
Everyone cools off from being hot/it's about if you can handle being cold or not
And we was told to hop/on no one's dick without Prince Paul/we've stayed original ever since, y'all
First to do a lot of things in the game but the last to say it/no need to place it on the scale to weigh it...

Well, I've weighed and measured all of it, Kelvin. Every hit, every miss, every quotable. And when it's all said and done, Workmatic stands alone at the top.

As I've said before, this list is fluid, and Pos could easily lose the top spot one day with a slip-up of some sort. But he hasn't really had one yet, folks — and there's no indication that he's about to.

Recognize.