Rap Report Card

1.12.22

Kool Moe Dee is a hip-hop artist and actor, most popular in the 80s-90s. Dee took pride in not only his music, but studying the craft of his piers and learning what he may be able to work on, through whom his competition is. Two versions of a “Rap Report Card” from the late 80s and 90s have made its way back to our Twitter timelines, and of course, when we’re ranking artists, we all have an opinion.

An old “report card” from Kool Moe Dee has surfaced on Twitter, that was allegedly written in the 90s. There were about twenty-five artists on each of these reports cards, in which Kool Moe Dee scored on scales of 1-10 in ten different categories. He focused on artists using their best vocabulary, articulation, creativity, originality, versatility, voice, records, stage presence, sticking to themes, and innovative rhymes. The artists he shared were ranked from A+ to C (which was given to the Beastie Boys). Of course Kool Moe Dee gave himself an A+, but also chose artists whom he felt were his companions and potential competition, so anyone that would have failed the report card did not even make their way to the list.

The report cards are not meant to be mean or have ill-will towards anyone, but ranking your favorite artists - or whom you consider the best artists - are always a hot, juicy topic. LL Cool J received an A on his report card, for Jay-Z to come in with just a B, mostly loosing points to his stage presence. A few decades later, they both take the stage at the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame, and some may argue that this was just wrong. But, it was certainly early for Jay for of course this score would evolve overtime.

This rap report card had so many hip-hop legends, from KRS One, Melle Mel, Run DMC, Big Pun, Master P, DMX, Red Man, Ice Cube, Lil Kim and more. For artists we typically hear going head-to-head, Jay-Z and Diddy both scored B’s, Jay taking the win by two points. Public Enemy scored an 80 in the rap report from the 80s, while Most Def scored an 85 in the 90s. In everyone’s most infamous debate of Tupac vs. Biggie, Biggie Smalls took the win by two points, though scoring an A+ over an A for Pac.

Kool Moe Dee gave himself an A+, but it was Lauryn Hill whom came up with a 97 for the highest score amongst both report cards. Should we create one for todays artists? Who gets an A and who is failing? Is there anything else we should be judging on?