GZA or Lupe...who's the better lyricist?

[Whips-n-Chains]

Put You On Game was a showcase and that was 2007 lol

There was 100% a time when GZA was a better lyricist than the field. It hasn't been that way for a while though.

reading this thread got my head hurting fr rap dialogue is just goofy about to go back to watching the pistons and raptors embarrass each other instead

Overall I’ll take GZA but since lupe became known, he’s 100% been better than what GZA has done in that timeframe

Lupe is far more versatile

 

[The Truest]

Which CHA project is he from? Out west? There’s not really 4CH in south side

He's from the West side. And Harvey.

 

[The Truest]

GZA

Lupe makes dumb people feel smart

That's Nas actually. Lupe makes dumb people feel dumb. That's why they be on thecoli.com mad AF

 

[O.Red]

The worst thing about these threads is there are never parameters. How are we defining 'skilled'?

Here's the etymology -

lyricist (n.)
1832, "one skilled in lyric composition, lyric poet;" from lyric (n.) + -ist. Meaning "one who writes words for music" is from 1908.

lyricist | Etymology of lyricist by etymonline

"one skilled in lyric composition, lyric poet;" from lyric (n.) + -ist. Meaning "one who… See origin and meaning of lyricist.

www.etymonline.com

This

Stan wars disguised as objectivity

 

[datnigDASTARDLY]

Lupe is unfukkwitable, but I've always liked GZA's flow.

 

[Billy Ocean]

God forbid on a HipHop board, hiphop fans prefer the better hiphop MC.

There’s not always an agenda. Smh

GZA could never make music like Lupe. And this coming from the biggest Wu/GZA stan on the board.

This the problem with y'all nerd nikkas. In what universe you living has Lupe made anything REMOTELY as good as Liquid Swords? Get that nerdy, faux intellect nikka's dikk out ya mouth.

 

[Billy Ocean]

GZA

Lupe makes dumb people feel smart

I been saying this.

 

[Westbama Heartthrob]

Which CHA project is he from? Out west? There’s not really 4CH in south side

Madison terrance

And I'm all the way in bama, so I could be wrong him being around the hustlers like that

I feel like he's mentioned them before but I can't think of what song it would've been

 

[Mike Wins]

Stylistically couldn't be more different

GZA the epitome of precision, economy, no wasted bars

Lupe a hyper technical lyrical miracle with super dense bars type

So it come down to preference, what you look for in lyricism and end product

I put Lupe in the same category as dudes like Eminem and Canibus, can't knock the objective talent or technical skills but I'm not connecting with their a lot of their shyt. I ain't sitting here itching to run back Lupe's albums

 

[Billy Ocean]

The problem with Lupe nerds is that they boldly claim their fringe opinions are facts. Just loud and wrong for no reason. There's nikkas in here claiming his trash projects are better than anything GZA put out, including Liquid Swords...an album that is routinely mentioned as the one of the greatest Hip Hop albums of all time. These nikkas stay proving my point. EXACTLY the reason why I made this thread

 

[FrankieLymon757]

Nah Gza or Rakim...

 

[Joe Sixpack]

Why is this even a question though?

It's the Genius

 

[Chip Skylark]

Stylistically couldn't be more different

GZA the epitome of precision, economy, no wasted bars

Lupe a hyper technical lyrical miracle with super dense bars type

So it come down to preference, what you look for in lyricism and end product

I put Lupe in the same category as dudes like Eminem and Canibus, can't knock the objective talent or technical skills but I'm not connecting with their a lot of their shyt. I ain't sitting here itching to run back Lupe's albums

And this is how I differentiate the people who listen to Lu and those that don’t.

Nothing on F&L is hyper technical not super dense. Yes he layers some lines with entendres but it’s nothing far. The cool is literally a straight forward story outside of Dumb It Down. Drogas wave is a straight forward story. F&L2 is straight forward so is drogas light and lasers are damn near pop albums.

Tetsuo is meant to be abstract but you can easily catch the story and DMIZ songs literally reiterate the intro which describes the topics given.

His early mixtape joints are literally entendres of street shyt. There are a few were he purposely goes over peoples heads but there’s nothing too much for people to say this.

What you call dense I call being informative and leaving no stone unturned idk man nobody is taking about lyrics just being dismissive

 

[Mike Wins]

And this is how I differentiate the people who listen to Lu and those that don’t.

Nothing on F&L is hyper technical not super dense. Yes he layers some lines with entendres but it’s nothing far. The cool is literally a straight forward story outside of Dumb It Down. Drogas wave is a straight forward story. F&L2 is straight forward so is drogas light and lasers are damn near pop albums.

Tetsuo is meant to be abstract but you can easily catch the story and DMIZ sings literally reiterate the intro which describes the topics given.

His early mixtape joints are literally entendres of street shyt. There are a few were he purposely goes over peoples heads but there’s nothing too much for people to say this.

What you call dense I call being informative and leaving no stone unturned idk man nobody is taking about lyrics just being dismissive

By dense I mean packed with multis and verbose, not abstract or hard to understand

I get that it's a generalization and don't apply to every track

 

[Insensitive]

Maybe people champion them two specifically because they’re really two of the greatest to ever do it, objectively. Just maybe tho, I could be trippin.

And Wu is super loved in here, much more than Lupe from what I’ve seen. Even the posts in here seem a lot more pro Gza than Lupe, I’m surprised people actually kept it a Buck with the poll…so far

The vast majority of (the hardcore Nas and Lu stans) are pretty much nowhere to be found
discussing any new Hip-Hop, so when people try to make it a "I'm a fan of Hip-Hop and lyricism argument" it falls flat.

It's not about anyone being GOOD or GREAT because this discussion is not about SKILL, it's about who you PERSONALLY LIKE more.

We're not breaking down verses or discussing sample flips etc.
9/10 it's about the rapper that you listened to at a pivotal time in your life, which is fine.


These discussions get weird because it turns into dismissing ALL OF HIP-HOP as being beneath Lupe Fiasco and Nas

Word, these fools are buggin

And not rain like, rain man or rain like rain dance
Or rain like a slight chance of rain when it's raining
Or rein like deer slaves to santa claus sleigh man
But reign like queens that reign over made man
And not queen like queen killer, rhapsody bohemian queen
But queen like white glove wave hand
And not wave hand like it's a heat wave
So you make a fan by waving your hand
I'm talking wave like you saying "hey"
Man, and not hay for horses and hoarse like you almost voiceless

That's the pinnacle of lyricism right there

If J. Cole or Kendrick Lamar spit these very same bars, it would be proof of how much skill
they DON'T have, this "word play" is just bad.

This is what I mean when I say "Technique for the sake of Technique" does not make someone nice.
It's papoose-tier writing.