![\"30](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/lyricallead.jpg?fit=640%2C348&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“Rap isn’t lyrical any more.” You hear it enough that it becomes an ugly kind of common sense. It becomes received wisdom, taken as truth: It’s 2013, and rappers are gimmicky. Personality has won out over bars.<\/p>\n
This list is an argument that lyricism is still very much a part of rap music. As hip-hop’s audience has expanded, the rules of what makes a rapper “lyrical” have broadened as well. A fan of Southern street rap might have a different idea of “lyrical” than a fan of underground hero Tech N9ne, who in turn has different values than a traditionalist from New York. The one constant: an artfulness to how each rapper creates his work.<\/p>\n
Sure, “lyrical” can be misused in hip-hop, ascribed to the dry technical aspects of MCing. At its worst, calling a rapper “lyrical” makes their art sound more like a math problem. But the term is still useful, because it distinguishes hip-hop from pop music more broadly.<\/p>\n
That doesn’t mean that rap artists who subvert, mutate, or even undermine that tradition are less hip-hop, or that they don’t make good music. In fact, it’s their relationship with the “lyrical” that makes “lyrical” something even worth discussing in the first place. <\/p>\n
The best rappers, whatever their relationship to “lyrical” rap, make verses that have you hanging on every word, punchline, narrative, image, and\/or bit of knowledge. We’ve taken a look at the last half decade of hip-hop to figure out what “lyrical” rap looks like in 2013. These are The 30 Most Lyrical Rap Songs of the Past 5 Years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n