Meccapolis ranks “Kings Of New York” from 1985 to 2024

[DrHackenbush]

Where the fukk is Roc Marci on these lists?

 

[Piff Perkins]

An honest accounting of the KONY would admit the crown was vacated for years after 50's run, followed by Jay returning a few times around the BP3/WTT/MCHG years, followed by another vacated period. There hasn't been a KONY since at least 2013 (Jay). Pop Smoke was on the path but never reached the throne. Nobody else matters because the city doesn't matter.

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

An honest accounting of the KONY would admit the crown was vacated for years after 50's run, followed by Jay returning a few times around the BP3/WTT/MCHG years, followed by another vacated period. There hasn't been a KONY since at least 2013 (Jay). Pop Smoke was on the path but never reached the throne. Nobody else matters because the city doesn't matter.

Nicki needs that credit. Can’t deny her

 

[ISO]

Nobody else matters because the city doesn't matter.

NY hating ass nikka

 

[Shadow King]

This is the issue on here all the time. A lot people speaking on NYC, that aren't even from NYC or were here when these things happened.

'98 was NY's last real golden era in pushing the culture forward. The labels were making so much bread, so they were able to sign acts and have them out quickly and doing numbers. People were giving rappers label deals left and right, so you saw a lot rappers signing other rappers. Like Busta with Flipmode, and Onyx with X-1 and All-City, Jay with Beans, etc. Everyone was winning, and the city was getting away from the Bad Boy aesthetic and back to more gritty Hip Hop. The budgets were still crazy, so even the underground rappers were signing for mad money and shooting wild expensive videos. People like Redman were going platinum for the first time and Def Jam was able to bring in a lot of new fans for X and even LL, who was outselling all of his older work, 16 years into his career. I worked in A&R at Def Jam and Sony back then, and we had the biggest budgets for literally everything. Labels wouldn't even think to put those in place today.

Dudes who used to be indie acts, became stars, like Nore, Fat Joe, Mos Def, etc. It was the last time that the city was really united, but also the last time that the labels catered to NYC, and would invest in developing new talent, and also didn't penny pinch on building careers for the next generation of greats. All of this vanished after '99. The city got more divided and the sound shifted to following, instead of leading. The OG's also started leaving NY and moved to other states, so the newer acts didn't have mentorship or the guidance that used to be normal back in the golden era.

I knew you was a salt and peppered ass niqqa with all these stories

 

[Shadow King]

Nas not even getting the potential adjustment in 02 is crazy...

Somebody from Jersey would have more claim to this list than someone from Buffalo

I wouldn't say more, but being left out of contention altogether while Buffalo/Rochester gets 2 full-blown selections is egregious.

 

[Awesome Wells]

I knew you was a salt and peppered ass niqqa with all these stories

Don’t be dating a bro! I was a high school kid back then. HAHA!

I'm definitely Young OG status though.

 

[Shadow King]

Don’t be dating a bro! I was a high school kid back then. HAHA!

I'm definitely Young OG status though.

I'm like I know these Once Upon a Times ain't coming from nobody my age. My age starts with a 3 now so it's all good.

 

[Hostile]

Only came here to see if they got 2006 right.
They did

 

[Canon]

2008 is when it happened

 

[JQ Legend]

Complete list with notes

There wasn’t many people who was a bigger Cam fan than me in 02 :

Been a fan since COF in real time, was blasting SDE along with the Takeover and Lyrical Exercise freestyles in late 01/early 02.

Had the OG Dipset mixtape that dropped before CHWM. Was literally rapping along to CHWM when it finally leaked because I had just about everything Cam dropped on the mixtape scene

Said all that to say Nas was KONY in 2002. Cam def in the top 3 but 2002 Nas was KONY

 

[28 Gramz]

An honest accounting of the KONY would admit the crown was vacated for years after 50's run, followed by Jay returning a few times around the BP3/WTT/MCHG years, followed by another vacated period. There hasn't been a KONY since at least 2013 (Jay). Pop Smoke was on the path but never reached the throne. Nobody else matters because the city doesn't matter.

Pop Smoke definitely had that crown before he passed.

 

[mobbinfms]

Complete list with notes

Hometown love, commercial success, impact and keeping a pulse on the new generation were the criteria.

So rapping ability and album quality didn’t factor in at all?

Also, I get a strong sense of recency bias from the criteria and what was written about a Maybach doesn’t stop being a Maybach when you get out of it. What about artistic integrity and not chasing trends? The Maybach quote was actually fitting as, much like late 80s to mid 90s NYC hip hop, the Maybach was long ago discontinued in favor of inferior but newer models chasing all the latest trends, but most importantly, putting money over craftsmanship.

 

[Kool]

1990... LL Cool J? I know LL had "Mama Said Knock You Out" and "Around The Way Girl" but n*ggas in the hood was f*cking with X-Clan way more IMO.

In 1990 X-Clan was the sh*t!

 

[Awesome Wells]

1990... LL Cool J? I know LL had "Mama Said Knock You Out" and "Around The Way Girl" but n*ggas in the hood was f*cking with X-Clan way more IMO.

In 1990 X-Clan was the sh*t!

Classic!!

To The East, Blackwards was one of the first albums I copped as a kid, with my own money. X-Clan was DOPE!!

I still play this album all the time. Brother J is one of the most underrated and slept-on MC's of all-time. Dude used to go to high school with Hov and Busta, and would freestyle with them in the lunchroom way back. True legend.