Best flow in rap, all time ?

[KaiserSoze]

I was listenin to some of Biggie's collection last night when I was chillin for the first time in a while, and I think you have to stop listening to him for a while then go back and listen again to appreciate how incredible dude's flow is. Everything, from the way he rode the beat, to his switching up of rhyme structure, to his candence, to his delivery (granted, not all rappers are lucky enough to be born with Big's voice) .. it was almost as if there was nothing at all you could do to his flow to make it better.

There have been a lot of MC's out there with mega ill flows, from Rakim to Snoop Dogg to Method Man to Eminem, but do you guys think any of those dudes or others have a better flow than BIG? Let's bare in mind here that Biggie couldn't just flow over certain types of beat, he sounded equally on-point with any instrumental...hardcore, gritty, old school, banger, R'n'B, double time..his versatility of flow is almost as incredible as the flow itself.

So I thought I'd throw the question out there for debate. Personally, I'd give BIG the crown of having the best flow, and the other 4 I mentioned above (although that was just off the top of my head) would be the 4 closest to him IMO. Obviously, a lot of it will be down to personal opinion (for example, the likes of Redman, or Ludacris, will have their own fans who love their own unique flows better than the rest) but I'd like to take in to account the things I mentioned above when reffering to Biggie.. riding the beat, switching up of rhyme structures, candence, delivery and versatility.

Oh, and I just remembered Big Pun, dude also had crazy flow. To me though, a lot of modern rappers fall down when it comes to rhyme structure. For example, in "Put it On", Big-L filled pretty much every credential apart from swtiching up his rhyme structure. Nowadays, a lot of rappers seem to think it's fine to rap a whole song big rapping the first half of every bar in a similar rhythm then using the multi-syllable rhyme on the second half of the bar - each different rhyme getting a different candence. Don't get me wrong, this sometimes sounds dope as hell over the beat with the rhyme words being rapped in some sick candence rhythms. However, this is very..how would you say..."mechanical" ? ... "organised" ? That isn't what rap is all about. Flow is about more than just how you say the rhyme words. Go and listen to pretty much any Biggie track, particularly on Life After Death, and check how much he switches up his lyrical flow and rhyme structure. It doesn't just change, but all seems to fit seamlessly together from one bar to the next. It all seems to "flow".

Anyway, I won't ramble on any more and let you guys throw your 2 cents in...

[FUCK U]

Snoop Dogg( Chronic/Doggystyle days)

Biggie

 

[the ghost]

Rakim

[Lucifuge]

Eminem,Royce,Rakim,Sean Price,Havoc...

[spaner]

Tray Deee, RA the Rugged Man, Biggie, DAZ DILLINGER...

[Chamillitary Click]

Em & Pac.

[BigNeckBone]

Tray Deee
Biggie

[spaner]

Tray Deee
Biggie

REAL TALK 

[thisoneguy360]

When I think flow the first person I think of is Rakim. You presented a good point by stating that Biggie was more versatile in terms of beats he could rap over, but Rakim's flow/rhyme scheme make him the easy winner in my eyes.

[Blood$]

I can't say who has the best flow of all time but rappers who are never off with their flow would definitely be Biggie, Pac, Pun, Rakim, Bun B, Tray Deee, Crooked I, Tech N9ne, Brotha Lynch Hung, etc.

[spaner]

I can't say who has the best flow of all time but rappers who are never off with their flow would definitely be Biggie, Pac, Pun, Rakim, Bun B, Tray Deee, Crooked I, Tech N9ne, Brotha Lynch Hung, etc.

DOPE 

[50]

Biggie

[westside159]

Treach , Biggie , Big Pun , MF DOOM , Eminem ,   just a few

[JMan]

cant fault most of the names mentioned.. but iive always loved Andre 3000's flow...

[Scrappy Doo]

Biggie
Big Pun
Early Snoop