Veteran hip hop artist and entrepreneur, Rick Ross has taken shots at Billboard over their controversial Hip Hop Greatest List which excluded Tupac Shakur whilst including emcees who are still relatively new in the business like Kendrick Lamar.
According to the Young Renzel aka Rozay, the list was an editorial failure on the part of Billboard, and he called for the staff who authorized the publication to be reprimanded. His biggest grouse as regards the list, he told Breakfast Club’s OAPs was it’s omission of Tupac who he said single handedly did more for the culture than any other individual. He also credited Biggie (who made the list).
From Ambrosia For Heads:
Ross addresses Billboard’s recent omission of Tupac from the publication’s 10 Best Rappers of All Time list (17:10). Ross is clearly incensed, as he goes on an expletive-laden tirade, saying “anything without Tupac on it. ANYTHING. How dare you. They should be reprimanded.” He talks about the impact of Tupac’s death, remembering the hardest men in the streets of Miami crying when it happened. He goes on to passionately speak not only about Pac’s importance to Hip-Hop, but Biggie’s, as well, saying “I can’t say ‘Big’ without saying ‘Pac’ and I won’t say it…They made the culture.” He closes a nearly 5-minute discussion of the issue by ranking each of the two MCs as equally the greatest of all time and says they continue to inspire him and his music to this day.