Giving Off Bad Vibes

"Best rapper alive." -- Jay-Z

"Best rapper I alive...since the best rapper retired." -- Lil Wayne

Well now the retiree has since returned, so is he still the best rapper alive? What about the best rapper ever? Vibe magazine has recently thrown together a tournament in hopes of putting this everlasting question to rest. (And yes, I do mean it was thrown together.)

Whoever was in charge of choosing the competitors and the seeds should be shot...or at least fired.
The purpose of having ranking seeds is so the best competitors don't go up against each other early on. But its obvious Vibe just paired up some rappers who are linked together by style, location, characteristics, or beef.

Take a look,
Bracket 1, Round 1 Matchup: #3 Snoop Dogg vs. #30 The D.O.C.
#7 50 Cent vs. #26 Rick Ross

Bracket 2, Round 1 Matchup: #4 Scarface vs. #29 Pimp C

Bracket 3 Round 1 Matchup: #5 Big Punisher vs. #28 Fat Joe
#2 Ice Cube vs. #31 MC Ren
#8 Eazy E vs. #25 Spice-1

Bracket 4, Round 1 Matchup: #13 Twista vs. #20 Bizzy Bone

This is supposed to be a competition to crown the best rapper ever. Clearly some of these people should not even be in the running. I mean don't get me wrong, newcomer #32 Kid Cudi, is a hot new artist with some hella good new tracks, but let's be real; his first album hasn't even been released!

Not to mention, Lupe Fiasco, Cassidy, and Royce Da 5'9" are not even in the damn competition! No Obie Trice, no Papoose, no Eric Sermon, no Styles P. But instead we have Bow Wow, Will Smith, and Lil Kim. And where the hell is Joel Ortiz? Come on Vibe!

For crying out loud, Joe Budden has a 32 seed and MC Hammer has a 17. I feel your pain son.

Consider all of the criteria when choosing who the best rapper: lyrics, delivery, style, album sales, resiliency, versatility, etc. I wonder what Vibe editors used.

Let the great debate begin.
And the best rapper is...