25 Best East Coast Rappers Of All Time

Nicki Minaj kicked doors down when she first broke through in the late 2000s and all these years later, she’s still a force to be reckoned with in Hip-Hop – and not just amongst the women either. Whether they like it or not, a bunch of rappers have her to thank for paving a lane for them that wasn’t necessarily there beforehand.

Busta Rhymes showed rappers that it was okay to be flashy and flamboyant with both his style of rapping and his music videos, his collection of which are up there with some of the most consistent and timeless ever. He even reinvented himself a little in the 2010s with his fast flow that we all heard at least a few times.

You can make an argument that Pusha T’s the greatest drug rapper of all time but honestly, that’s a little dismissive to a great body of work that he’s compiled with his brother and solo in the past decade and a half. As part of Clipse, he arguably has a couple of classics and then there’s DAYTONA too. Of course, he also cut the head off of the biggest rapper of his era in a beef, another great feather in the cap.

Lauryn Hill has at least two classics under her belt with The Score and The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill, the latter of which was the first Rap album to win Album of the Year at the GRAMMYs. Overall, she’s also the most GRAMMY-awarded woman rapper and she did all of that while not compromising her lyrics in terms of their complexity or their social awareness and blending multiple genres as well.

Though to the casual audience he might be considered the most technical rapper from G-Unit, avid Hip-Hop heads know that the PLK can sound like one of the best rappers of all time at his best. After a dry period where he wasn’t dropped much new music, Banks has recently dropped a trilogy of albums and the fourth in the Halloween Havoc series where he sounds like he’s in his prime.

DMX’s gravelly voice contrasted beautifully with his deeply honest and vulnerable lyrics in a way that’s hard to describe. If you were ever lucky enough to see him live, you know that he was a performer at heart and the stage presence, like the mic presence, was there in abundance. JAY Z even said that he had a tough time following X on tour. In 1998, DMX dropped two #1 albums in the same year, one of which was his classic debut.

Meth is one of three different Wu-Tang Clan members on this list, which should properly convey how grand the group’s impact was on Hip-Hop culture in general. Method Man specifically has dropped stellar verses both in the group and outside of it, plus he has an array of accolades outside of music, like his classic movie How High. He’s also a great example of a legend aging gracefully and unproblematically, a blueprint for all of our OGs.

He isn’t one of the more well-known names on this list, but that doesn’t mean that Roc Marciano hasn’t more than earned his place in the pantheon of great rappers. His flow often sounds disorganized and turbulent, but it never falls out of pocket either.

You can’t talk about the legacy of East Coast Hip-Hop without tipping your hat to Kool G Rap, a pioneer in its truest sense. G Rap is your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper and has influenced Hov, Biggie, Nas, Eminem and countless other entries from your top ten list.

The man who defined Hip-Hop as intelligent movement is impossible to gloss over. KRS-One embodies what it was to be a rapper in the first few decades of the genre’s birth, not afraid to stand up for what he believes in in terms of political and social issues. In many ways, he transcended and redefined what it meant to be a rapper and we see some of that today with rappers like J. Cole, Lupe Fiasco and others who try to speak truth to power.

The Chef has curated some of the best albums ever made, including but not limited to his debut album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…, a cornerstone of the genre and a guidebook on how to do cinematic Hip-Hop. Raekwon doesn’t just make albums; he creates entire worlds and brings listeners into them effortlessly.

Not to be confused with A$AP Rocky, Aesop Rock hails out of Syosset, New York. To call him a wordsmith would be a criminal understatement. For many people’s money, Rock is actually literally the best rapper out there. You haven’t had multi-syllabic rhyme schemes until you’ve heard them from him. His verses can genuinely feel like they’re transporting you somewhere you’ve never been before.

They say that Jadakiss has never laid a subpar verse down and it’s hard to argue. As part of The LOX and with his solo work, Kiss has cemented himself as one of the best rappers out there, let alone from the East Coast. His Verzuz moment brought him a lot of warranted shine and any recognition and accolades he receives in the future are well deserved.

Formerly known as Mos Def, Yasiin Bey operates on his own time and it’s fair to say that his moral compass decides his direction a lot of the time. Black On Both Sides is the definition of a classic debut and he’s done some great work with Talib Kweli as part of Black Star too. His star power and respect is wide-reaching too. You might remember seeing him on Chappelle’s Show or Def Poetry.

Big L’s wordplay was so witty and fierce that it genuinely put fear in other MCs’ hearts. His storytelling was vivid and his punchlines stand the test of time in a way that’s hard to describe. On some occasions, he would have rhymes that made you wonder how anyone could possibly think of them and on other occasions, he would say things that made you wonder how no-one had thought of them yet.

B.D.K. was a breath of fresh air in the mid-1980s when he emerged, so much so that he influenced and took under his wing a young JAY Z. He was an early adopter of the fast rap that so many artists do these days, but did it with a charm that kept it fresh. Kane has also done a great job of showing praise to rappers a few generations below him, praising J. Cole as his hero.

At #9 is Redman, a name who every Hip-Hop head should be very familiar with. Red proved that you didn’t have to be serious 24/7 to be taken seriously as a rapper and his bars aged well for it. That attitude led to a bunch of great opportunities outside of Hip-Hop, like his various acting roles.

Ghostface Killah’s assertive delivery would be enough to make mediocre bars sound good, but luckily for him, he’s an incredible wordsmith that has painted some of the most vivid pictures in the 50 years that Hip-Hop has been around for. He made himself stand out amongst his fellow Wu-Tang members with some great solo work that solidify his legacy as one of the best rappers of all time.

Pun was the first Latino rapper to go platinum and he did it with his first solo effort, Capital Punishment. He tragically passed away far too soon, but his rhymes outlive him, particularly “dead in the middle of Little Italy, little did we know that we riddled two middlemen who didn’t do diddly”, which he thought of as a joke and only included on “Twinz (Deep Cover ’98)” because Fat Joe begged him too.

You can’t have a nuanced conversation about Hip-Hop, especially East Coast Hip-Hop, without acknowledging the impact and influence of Rakim. You only have to see the video of the late great DMX cheesing when meeting Rakim to understand how serious his significance is in the culture. Rakim was proof that top-tier lyricism could be cool.

Black Thought’s Funk Flex freestyle from a few years back brought him a lot of attention, all of it deserved, but his career spans far deeper than that. His work with The Roots is underrated, as is his solo work. Whenever you see that Black Thought is featured on a song, you can bet that he’s going to steal the show and become a highlight of it.

MF DOOM was a character like Hip-Hop has never known before and if he’d have hidden behind theatrics and his mask for his career, he wouldn’t have been taken seriously. Instead, he’s earned a spot as one of the most talented and consistent spitters out there and one of the best East Coast rappers of all time. When his death was announced by his family at the close of 2020, hearts broke worldwide and that just speaks to how many he was able to touch throughout his career.

In just a few years and over two albums, Biggie became one of the best rappers of all time and it’s insane to think about what he could have done, had it not been for his murder. B.I.G. had flows that were smooth three decades ago and still hold up today. That, combined with his charisma and storytelling will always be a killer combo. Plus, he influenced a numerous amount of people that have appeared before him on this list and even those after him…

Nas was always known as an incredible rapper and storyteller, but with his recent run of stellar projects with Hit-Boy, he essentially hit a second prime nearly thirty years after the release of his debut album, Illmatic. Nasty Nas has been one of the best East Coast rappers for almost 3 decades. For many, the album is considered the best in the genre while for others, it’s not even the best in Nas’ discography. That just speaks to how elite of a rapper and artist Nas is and how regardless of what you thought about his beat selection, his rhymes were never in question.

To be brutally honest, any one of the top three could be shuffled and this list would be hard to argue, but it didn’t feel right with JAY Z not going at the top. He’s almost unanimously considered the greatest rapper of all time and pretty much ticks every box, whether that’s lyrical ability, being able to craft albums well, commercial success, business success and more. He introduced the world to J. Cole, Kanye West, Rihanna and more icons and did it all while being your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper. So how could he not be one of the best East Coast rappers ever?