The Matt Walsh Show - Matt Walsh Ranks The BEST Rappers Of All Time

Episode Date: July 13, 2023

Matt Walsh ranks the top 5 best rappers of all time.   - - -   Today’s Sponsor:   Go to https://expressvpn.com/walshYT and find out how you can get 3 months of ExpressVPN free! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You know, I've had a lot going on over the past couple of years. We've covered a lot of ground, I think. You know, I've become a best-selling children's author, as you know, a filmmaker, a women's studies expert, transphobe of the year, among other accolades. But many people don't realize where this all started for me, where my journey began. They don't know who I was before all of this. They don't understand that at my roots, I am really a music critic and specifically a rap critic. And that's where it all began for me. So today I'm getting back to my roots a little bit where it all began.

as not so much a rap critic, but as a rap appreciator, an analyst, a scholar of the genre. And on that note, I am now going to give, for some reason, my definitive ranking of the, and I had to boil it down a little bit because I could go on forever on this subject. But it's going to be the four greatest rap songs of all time. There's always a debate about this, of course. But we're going to settle that debate once and for all. And we're just good on the list, four to one. So let's get into it.

First on the list is a name that longtime listeners of this show are familiar with, and you're expecting it to be on the list, and of course it is. We begin at number four with my guy, Poo Shisty. Mr. Poo has been a favorite of mine ever since he burst onto the scene in 2020 with his classic, Back in Blood. Let's listen to a little bit of that now. Wow, just tremendous. It gets better every time I hear it.

The part that resonates with me the most, the part that I really can feel and that I can relate to is where he talks about shooting up the club. And as it happens, Poushaisdi was arrested a year later for actually shooting up a club, allegedly, allegedly actually shooting up a club. And needless to say, Pushaistee is innocent. He's also innocent of the armed robbery charges and the aggravated assault and battery charges and federal conspiracy charges, all from different alleged crimes that were all allegedly committed, allegedly in the two years. years after this song came out. But poo is innocent. This is the system yet again trying to keep a young black man down and now he's in prison for the next five years. And the world is going to be deprived of the sweet sounds of poo, which I think is the greatest tragedy and travesty of all.

Here's all I'll say about this. And I don't want to get off on a whole tangent about it. But listen, just because a guy says repeatedly in a song, hey, I like to shoot and rob people and then you're out and you see someone who looks like that guy shooting and rob. people. Correlation is not the same as causation. So you can't jump to any assumptions based on that, which is why I say, as always, free poo. Moving on to number three on our list of the greatest rap songs of all time. This one is slightly more obscure, I think. It did get 20 million views on YouTube. This is from the artist 645 AR because rap artists these days are choosing rap names that sound like the password you use for your Gmail account or something.

173-4673-2-1-476 Charlie 3-2-7-8. But it's called Ford to Trap is the name of the song. And it's, and I think you'll see why, but it's easily the third greatest rap song of all time. Let's check it out. I'm sorry, I just, it fills me with joy when I hear such beautiful music. That is a real thing, apparently.

That's not a joke. And why would it be? Why would it be a joke? Not a joke. That is not a joke. That is a natural fact. It's like if Mickey Mouse grew up in a fatherless home. This is what the music would sound like.

And this is how you get credibility in the streets, by the way. You know, it's, you just, if you want to go out, go down to the streets and be taken seriously, take a hit from a helium balloon. Instant respect. But mainly, I love this song because it sounds like something that an insect might sing. It answers the question we've all asked, which is, what would it sound like if a housefly or a mosquito became a rapper? What's up? What's up? What's up? I be flossing.

Flossin Ivey Flossin And for answering that question alone, I think it deserves to be number three in the list. Have you ever read the fine print that appears when you start browsing an incognito mode, it says that your activity might still be visible to your employer, your school, your internet service provider, but to actually stop people from monitoring your online

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Number two, second greatest rap song of all time from an artist who has created so many incredible songs. It's hard to choose, hard to really whittle it down. But I'm going with the classic. Okay, so this is Lil Zan. And I know when I say best Lil Zan song, you're all going to say it with me now, wake up. This obviously is best song.

I know you've heard this a million times, but let's go ahead and play it. I mean, truly this is the song that, for me, signals that we're living through another age of artistic brilliance. You know, this is how the people who were alive during the Renaissance probably felt. They had Michelangelo and Da Vinci. We have Lil Zan. Now, there are some who will look at that comparison and say that it's evidence that the world's coming to an end, that art is dead, that we're the dumbest generation of humans to ever walk the earth. There are some who will listen to Lil Zan and lose their will to live. But those people just aren't able to hear and understand the true lyrical and musical and poetic genius of Lil Zan. Because listen to these lyrics

again. Okay, just to, just to recite the lyrics again. I wake up, I throw up, I feel like I'm dead. A, I f***ed the game up, yeah. I drew the game up. Yeah. We do not play, bruh. In my own lane, bruh. That bitch is lame, bra. Listen to that there. That is lame, bra. You know you is a lame ho. My bitch from overstate. What you mean, what you mean, what you mean, what you mean. Indeed, what do you mean? What does he mean? What does anything mean? And I think, That is the point that Lil Zan is trying to make. He's trying to capture the primal essence of a man looking out into the world and seeing chaos and randomness from his perspective everywhere, not understanding, not comprehending. It's the fear of non-comprehension, I think, is what Lil'zan is trying to capture.

He's quite ingeniously, I think, bringing out that visceral bewilderment, that confusion that we all sometimes experience when we look at the stay of the world. What you mean, he asks. But he's not asking, he's imploring. He's saying, he's saying to you, ask the question, what does it all mean? It's not so much a song as a desperate plea, a cry from the darkness, beseeching the listener to question, to think, to search, and to learn. And that brings us finally to the greatest rap song of all time. This is a song that has garnered 840 million views on YouTube, nearly a billion, okay,

nearly a billion views to this masterpiece. As you probably expect, it's a song from my favorite, personal favorite artist of all time, Takashi 6'9, and it's called Guba. Let's listen. My God, it's really stunning to encounter raw, unvarnished, artistic brilliance like that. Let's go listen to those lyrics one more time.

Now we catch him at the chicken spot, up a couple chops, put that N-word with 100 shots, Rata-tata-ta-ta-ta-ta-day made that N-word Didibop, cha-cha-cha-cha, he thought he was going to knuckle up, I don't box. And these N-words always talking shit yana, yada-ya. When you see me, what you talk about, you're talking about.

Listen to this part. N-words always want to chase clout. I am clout. Now, when you hear that, the first thing you think is, well, first you think, wait a minute, isn't Takashi 6-9 Mexican or something? So why is he allowed to use the N-word so freely? what's going on here. The second thing you think is, wow, this makes me angry. It makes me angry

at Beethoven and Mozart that they never made music half as profound as this. It makes me glad that they're dead and that they are in ash in the ground because they don't compare to Takashi 6'9. Bro, what the f***ed? What did you just say? We could obviously spend all day dissecting the lyrics, but the part you really stuck out at me again was when he said, And these N-words always talking shit, yada, yada, y'a. When you see me, what you're talking about, you're talking about, they always want to chase clout, I am clout.

When I hear those lyrics, what I think Takashi 6'9 is trying to convey is like the futility of words of speech compared with action. You know, he says, what you're talking about? N-word's always talking shit. This is a man who's not so much lashing out at his enemies, but rather at, in many ways, the lethargy and ambivalence of the modern age. He's saying, don't sit still, okay? They don't stand off to the side thinking you can substitute words for action.

This is very much like Roosevelt's Man in the Arena speech, except in every way better and more eloquent. Takashi 69 implores us to be men of action. B. I am clout, he says. This is an ode to the act of becoming, to the process of doing, of acting, in which we are all transformed. That's what I take from the song anyway. And it is why I believe that it is the greatest rap song of all time. Indeed, probably the greatest song period of all time.