Top Five New Jersey Rappers

New Jersey has been an important component of East Coast hip-hop since its inception, its artists producing classic records and top-notch artists. Here are the top five rappers from New Jersey.

Treach

Known for his nimble rhyming style, which could give Twista or any of the Bone Thugs a run for their money, Treach is an East Coast pioneer who made history as the frontman of Naughty by Nature with multiple Billboard hits. As an emcee adept in double and triple time rhyme, Treach is also a master of metaphor, simile, flow, and every other skill you could imagine. Ongoing legal troubles cemented his reputation as a gangster rapper long before even Tupac Shakur became a household name, and his street credibility, coupled with his skills as a songwriter and rapper, make for one hell of an emcee. His catalogue of hits is stronger than most rappers with his level of skill. It's unfortunate that he's not still actively making music but his work during the nineties has a left a lyrical legacy of which New Jersey should be proud.

Redman

A lyrical monster whom few could share a mic with without repeatedly rewriting their verses, Redman, a veteran in the game, is one of the best pure lyricists and freestylers in the game. In terms of lyrics, he is on another planet. His punchline-heavy flow has created hundreds of quotable verses over the past seventeen years. His live performance skills are among hip-hop's best, and his albums are among the best releases of the nineties. He's wittier than most and highly influential...count Eminem among his students. Having just released the excellent Blackout 2 with partner in crime Method Man, his career shows no signs of stopping.

Joe Budden

Despite his occasional fits of pique stemming from his insecurity regarding his place in rap's pecking order, it's undeniable that Joe Budden is one of New Jersey's finest. While he may not have found the kind of commercial success as the other rappers on this list, he is a complex lyricist, particularly skilled in the use of metaphor. While usually less punchline heavy than his Slaughterhouse crew, Joe Budden typically crafts honest, straightforward and emotionally complex verses and songs. His couplets are rich in allusion and imagery and often require a second or third listen to understand the full meaning of the work. He is clearly dedicated to his craft, and gets progressively better with each release, but even lacking a major label deal or mainstream exposure, it is clear that Joe Budden outclasses most of his New Jersey peers. While he may never crossover to mainstream fame, he's already left a substantial body of work. He's also one of the first rappers to fully embrace digital distribution of music, and given the industry's shift in that direction, may one day be seen as a pioneer in that regard.

Queen Latifah

Having branched off into film and song, Queen Latifah broke into the entertainment industry as a dynamic young rapper in 1989. Over the course of her rap career, she won a Grammy and scored numerous Billboard hits, her popularity due to her empowering songs and lyrics. She could hold her own with the big boys - see 1993's Rough featuring Treach and KRS-One, but her legacy lies in her uncompromising record of reflective, candid, often controversial and ultimately affirming music.

Lauryn Hill

Perhaps the greatest female of all time off the strength of relatively few solo records and her work with The Fugees, Lauryn Hill is a lyricist who can put 99% of all others to shame. Her wordplay transcends the proficient; it is purely poetic, from verses on the groundbreaking Fugee sophomore effort The Score's like How Many Mics or Manifest or her Grammy-Award winning classic The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill or Mystery of Inequity from her MTV Unplugged 2.0 double disc. Bar for bar, she outclasses most of her peers, male and female, white, black, latino, and other, with a combination of evocative religious, historical, and political imagery, metaphor, and multisyllabic rhyme patterns.

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