Producer Delray Richardson chimes in on Tupac Shakur’s biological father’s reaction to Billboard and Vibe Magazine ranking Jay-Z over his son on top 50 rappers.
Richardson says, “You like who you like, but Jay-Z being the best rapper of all time as far as Billboard magazine is concerned is for clicks and for views at this particular point.” He went further to state, “there is no way on God’s green earth that Jay-Z is the greatest rapper of all-time.”
Richardson believes Jadakiss is a better lyricist and rapper than the Marcy projects legend. Tupac’s biological father, William Garland, took to social media to detail why he believes his son has the crown of greatest of all-time.
Billboard revealed their top 50 rappers of all-time in honor of hip hop’s 50th anniversary.
Richardson believes Jay-Z wouldn’t be where he is today if it wasn’t for Tupac name dropping the rap billionaire during the 1996 east coast/west coast hip hop rivalry. In the video above, he also plays a clip of Jay-Z giving flowers to Rakim for paving the way for him.
He is referring to the last album Shakur dropped while he was alive, Makaveli 7 Day Theory, in the fall of 1996. Richardson notes that Jay-Z didn’t really sell any large amounts of records at this time or have anywhere the impact that Tupac had.
Man this album changed the game. #bestalbumever
— SMOKESTAKS🦍 (@hotboxmusic) February 14, 2023
The producer believes Vibe magazine and Billboard are pandering to Jay-Z today because of his billionaire status, but the list doesn’t reflect the history in context. He also agreed with Tupac’s father that Jay-Z is a capitalist and not one in furthering the community against impressionable young minds in impoverished situations. Richardson says Tupac ran the rap race and Tupac mentioning his name caused Jigga to get mainstream shine.
Jay-Z was spotted at the Superbowl as Roc Nation was behind the musical presentation for the half time show led by Rihanna. During the event, we saw Jay-Z and Beyonce’s daughter, Blue Ivy appear wearing ironically a Tupac t-shirt as seen above.
