Kanye West On Making MTV's Hottest MCs List: 'It Feels Better Than Winning An Award'
'Ye also says Lil Wayne is 'like Eminem with 'hood records,' raves about T.I.'s swagger.
By Shaheem Reid
Now you know good and well there was no way we would put up a list of our Hottest MCs in the Game and not hit up an MTV News staple, Kanye West, to ask him what he thought.
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When we first told 'Ye about the list, he instructed us to start with Wayne as #1 and work our way down. Duly noted. What West didn't know at the time was that he was being considered for the top five as well. Now that the debate is done and Kanye did in fact crack our top five, here's what he had to say.
"Like Jadakiss said, 'Top five, dead or alive,' " he responded. "To get to the point where I'm in the top five, it just feels good. It feels better than winning an award. Even though 'Can't Tell Me Nothing' isn't doing good on radio, I never had a 'hood anthem before." (Watch Kanye talk — and talk! — about his own evolution, why Weezy is #1, T.I. and lots more.)
We also solicited Kanye's own top-five picks for Hottest MCs. "I'm only gonna accept a couple of people being ahead of me," he said. "Only two."
Here's the rundown in his own words: