Dodger Hightop

Haven’t had a chance to write about this yet so here goes.

How can MTV compile a list of the hottest MCs of 2009 and leave arguably the best rapper alive off the list completely in a year where said rapper released the biggest selling album of the year?

MTV’s justification goes like this…

The 2009 Hottest MCs in the Game list is based on an MC’s achievements of the moment, not an entire career. The criteria are based on a combination of mic skills, buzz, commercial success (sales and airplay), business ventures, Web presence, and impact.

Each member of the Brain Trust compiles his or her list based on those criteria. The fan list is factored as an 11th judge. Each ranked artist is then awarded a number (number 10 is worth one point, and so on). Those 11 lists and their respective values are combined to form a final list, which is then discussed and debated at the Roundtable.

Eminem’s ranking was one of the most discussed topics at the Roundtable. His hotly anticipated return to hip-hop after a long absence drove first-week sales of over 600,000 — the highest first-week sales of the year so far. He granted a handful of select interviews here and abroad, and was part of a massive moment with Sacha Baron Cohen at the MTV Movie Awards.

But then Em retreated to the lab, where he spent the summer crafting Relapse 2. From June to September, Em all but took himself out of the public eye, while other MCs generated week-to-week heat with mixtapes, guest appearances, performances and Web activity.

So not enough web activity? Are we to believe that a rapper who releases a few vlogs and a couple of moderately successful mixtapes is hotter than a rapper who completes a comeback from a 4 year absence by releasing one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful albums of the year? I feature mixtapes regularly on this site, but aside from the odd gem (Cudi’s A Kid Named Cudi, J. Cole’s The Warm Up, Drake’s So Far Gone), most mixtapes are a collection of mostly forgettable cast off tracks. Isn’t Eminem’s Relapse worth more than say another rapper’s mixtape series?

If you’re talking MCs, then who has put together a better performance than this?

Listen:

Not enough media presence? Wasn’t Eminem on every talk show in the world in the lead up to the release of Relapse? Ya he was. He also had a brief battle with heavyweight pop princess Mariah Carey, even releasing a diss track in response to her lead single Obsessed. Remember how that was all over these here internets? And yes MTV, there was the Bruno incident, which happened in your own backyard. That dominated headlines on the blogs for about a week – that’s like forever in internet time.

Speaking of forever, Em also tore apart the other MCs on Drake’s Forever tack, the rap world’s biggest collaboration of the year by far (judge for yourself). He also made a pretty funny cameo in the movie Funny People that had people talking about his return to the big screen.

Nothing against Jay-Z getting that number one spot on MTV’s list, but aside from releasing a pretty dope album around the time the list was put together, what did Jay do (as an MC specifically) from a media and web presence perspective that wasn’t linked directly to Blueprint 3 promotion? Enlighten me. So based on MTV’s criteria, wasn’t Jay’s year more one dimensional than Eminem’s?

You know you’ve fucked up when the rapper who tops your list speaks out about Eminem’s absence….

“MTV, Thanx for this nod of appreciation. Although I don’t strive to be ‘hot’ for any particular year, I thank you for the acknowledgment. My whole goal is to be recognized as the best ever. I created the term ‘best rapper alive’ as a sign of respect to my fallen comrades (Biggie and Tupac). I believe I’ve allowed a significant grace period, and I believe I would not be respecting myself if being the absolute best was not my goal, and that’s why I continue to push myself until exhaustion … salute.

“Sidebar: Kanye moment if I may … Eminem?!?! I think you do the credibility of this list a disservice if you don’t thoroughly explain his omission. As of this second he has the highest selling rap album of the year and a scene stealing verse on the best ‘posse’ cut of the year . (*Hands mic back to Taylor Swift … and nobody was harmed, I apologize in advance.)” – JAY-Z

So how can MTV put together a list of the hottest MCs of 2009 and justifiably leave Eminem out you ask?

They can’t.

They released an explanation and it doesn’t jive. So there’s no more simple way to deal with this than to just dismiss the list entirely as useless.