He’s a crossover artist who is hailed as hip hop royalty with a sound and a style all his own. Ludacris has enjoyed a successful career in both music and film that has spanned over two decades, and when it comes to lyricism, he knows the ins and outs of what makes a good flow. During his recent appearance on XXL’s Hip-Hop Moments of Clarity, the rapper was asked to give his top five rappers with the most “undeniable flows,” and Ludacris called it “one of the greatest questions” he’d “ever been asked.”
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His first pick shouldn’t come as a surprise to many. “So, top five flows, man. Andre 3000 is going to be in there. I feel like he always challenges, always challenges. Imma put Kendrick Lamar in there as No. 2. Imma put J. Cole in there as being, like—right now, I’m thinking of people that are versatile and constantly trying to think of different flows that don’t pretty much have a set flow that they always do,” Ludacris said. Those are three. Imma go ’head and put Jay-Z in there, man. Jay-Z, you know, he does different things and he does experiment with different flows. And mostly, his different subject matter and how he’s able to weave through and be on a track with anybody. So that’s No. 4. Damn, man, No. 5.”
For the final position, Luda struggled with choosing between Lil Wayne and Eminem. “I was honestly gonna put Lil Wayne. Damn, this is hard because it’s like you got Lil Wayne… You got Eminem, but Imma have to go with Lil Wayne because the body of work and his consistency and he’s been in the game almost 30 years, bruh.” It seems that he was paying attention to living rappers, so Ludacris added Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. and honorable mentions. Do you agree with his list?
