No. 6: Ras Kass

The top six on this list are a pretty clear cut above the rest for me, and I at least toyed with the idea of each of them as my No. 1 at some point.

John Austin IV, known to the hip-hop world as Ras Kass, might be the best pure lyricist of all time. He's not necessarily an all-time great in terms of making the best music — like Chino XL or Canibus, much of Ras Kass' work is borderline unlistenable unless you care about the content — but his verses rank right up there with anyone's.

An underground phenom, Ras' first song, "Remain Anonymous," earned a Hip-Hop Quotable back when The Source was used for something other than low-grade toilet tissue. He made early guest appearances with Chino XL ("Riiiot!") and Ahmad & Saafir ("Come Widdit") that only further bolstered his credibility as one of the elite lyricists not only on the west coast, but worldwide.

Still shoving an Ampex 499 up your rectum...

In 1996, Ras Kass dropped his debut LP, Soul On Ice, named after the Eldridge Cleaver book. Though slept on by the masses, the album was a verbal masterpiece, with Ras showing an acidic sense of humor ("Drama"), a pensive side ("The Evil That Men Do") and a knack for delivering elite punchlines ("Sonset"):

Psychologically I masturbate with the hands of fate and bust nuts on Mother Nature...


Takin' off my lambskin Marc Buchanan/'cause I'm a make U-C-L-A like Ed O'Bannon...

The album's crown jewel, though, is "Nature Of The Threat," nearly eight minutes of heavy lifting (and listening) where Ras runs through the evil history of the white man, attacking everything from ancient Greece to Christianity. His only real flaw — fittingly, just like Cleaver — is a stubborn adherence to the played-out practice of homophobia (but what rapper isn't guilty of that to some degree, right?). Beyond that, the track is pure genius and one of the most important in hip-hop history.

His second album, Rasassination, was well-received by critics despite its effort (albeit only a slight one) to cater to a more mainstream audience. Songs like "Conceited Bastard" showed that his roots remained strong.

Though a couple of internet leaks forced Ras to abort official releases for Van Gogh and Goldyn Child in the early 2000s, he has kept his reputation intact on the underground scene thanks to collaborations with the likes of RZA, GZA, Immortal Technique, Canibus and Jedi Mind Tricks.

He doesn't have nearly the same mainstream profile as any of the emcees listed above him, and his body of work is somewhat scattershot when compared with the rest of the all-time greats, but there's no questioning the prodigious lyrical talent of Ras Kass.

Line for line, he still matches up with the best of them.