We'd like to thank everyone for telling MTV where to stick it. Our Dopest MC poll has come to a close and the winner is revealed after the bounce. You know you wanna click! The image above represents 4 of the Top 5 but not the "Dopest," according to the whopping 100-something readers that voted. Who could've possibly beat out Jay-Z, Common, Lulu Elastic and Black Thought? There will be cheers, there will be tears. ill Mami, our West Coast Editress, qualifies the win after the bounce. Do you agree?
Beating out such hip hop luminaries as Jay-Z and such newcomers as Joel Ortiz, after 15 years in the game, is it really any surprise that Andre 3000 won our "Dopest MC" survey? While Dre's emergence on the hip hop scene was more so marked by his part of a pair with Big Boi and the unique Dirty South production of Organized Noize, it was his continual reinvention that has made him the Madonna of the rap game. And unlike Madonna, who seems to have hit a dance music goldmine and milked it for all it may ever be worth, Andre 3000 continues to bend his lyrical style as much as he chooses to bend his fashion sense. Even after being accused of drinking a little too much of Erykah's Kool-Aid back when he was neon-colored rocking wigs, football padding, and furry boots as part of his onstage ensemble, we now know that this was Dre's way of letting us know that his creative spark was just beginning. Let's all agree that "Skew It On The Bar-B" with Raekwon from Aquemini was Andre's first foray into lyrical dopeness. Add to that everything he's ever done since, including some little known gems from others' mixtapes, his magnificent Love Below album, and the recently released "Skew It" Redux a/k/a/ "Royal Flush" and now you have no other choice but to give it up to one of rap music's most agreed upon lyrical talents. And the best part: being a rapper is only one of his many talents. Add to his resume clothing designer, instrumentalist, cartoon character, and actor, Andre 3000 is not just the "dopest MC" in the game right now. He's our own hip hop renaissance man.
View the complete results here.
