I hear ya, I lived in the city for the better part of 10 years and was lucky to get offered a job in the North Bay — Santa Rosa, to be precise. It's a fine town and I completely missed the pique of the gentrification, but it was happening before my eyes. I was in the Mission back in 2002-03, 24th and Alabama, but…

Not to mention, cities in the south bay and the peninsula are doing absolutely nothing to provide or create housing for the workforce it claims to want, instead dumping it on San Francisco and Oakland. That's a big part of this equation.

Sure you did....

No one — not natives or long-time transplants — calls it "SanFran." Gangsters can call if Frisco. That's not xenophobia, it's basic respect.

The "housing" being built does absolutely nothing to alleviate the shortage. It's high-end condos, not accessible housing. I'm all for revitalizing run-down neighborhoods, but not at the total expense of supplanting 2/3rds of the city's population.

I mean, yeah, this sort of competition is good for the consumer, but isn't a bit telling that the big guys best hope is to essentially copy someone else instead of coming up with something new? Again, it's not a horrible development, but perhaps telling of the stagnant levels of innovation among the leading companies.

Layers of chaos.

Why is that distributing?

Awesome, look forward to the list. Given the vast subject material out there, I'd say you could easily turn this into a 5-part series.

It's crazy to stop and realize El-P has only three official albums for someone so prolific.

While I have mixed feelings on Sage Francis's entire body of work, he's an obvious candidate for this chart. I think Apathy would be a good inclusion as well.

If Mr. Lif has enough material, he'd be an obvious candidate ( I know he's basically fallen off these days but he had some incredibly smart rhymes back in the early 2000s). Same with Cannibal Ox. Maybe even throw in Apathy and a few of the Demigodz?

I hear ya, but too much repetition (repetitive repetition?) gets old and less creative the more it's utilized. It's ok to use it from time to time, but in Kanye's case, and others, I find it gets pretty uninspiring after a while.

It sounds to me as if you haven't heard much hip-hop beyond the top 40 crap. It's as diverse as any other genre of music, replete with formulaic poppy nonsense to independent, underground, highly original content and music. Just like "rock" is far too vast and a catch-all description that fails to adequately…

What about El-P? And J-Live was wondering the same ... Great list otherwise.

True, but the likelihood of that seems nil considering this wart on humanity's past record.

But at least in Jordan's case, he had actual talent.

To be clear, you're a fucking douchebag. When I think ghetto thug, Magic Johnson is the first person that pops into my head. Right. Likewise, when I think small-dicked knuckle-dragging troll, you're the first person that pops into my head.

For real, it's amazing how Stern, in retrospect, will go down as an awful commissioner. It wasn't always the case but the past 15-20 years, fucking pathetic.

There's now way around that, he owns the team. What do you propose?