The Roots frontman Black Thought delivered a freestyle this week that firmly staked his claim to GOAT status in the game and reverberated throughout hip hop.
Philly emcee Black Thought, né Tariq Trotter, had an extremely magical moment at his day job earlier this week during an appearance with Hot 97’s Funkmaster Flex.
On a side note, personally, I was amazed that a 46-year old man just obliterated the whole “mind like a steel trap” idiom. I can’t recite a full verse from any song other than Slick Rick’s “Children’s Story.”
Thought, a truly ingenious wordsmith, burned down Flex’s booth with a freestyle that exceeded ten minutes in its entirety. Flex’s twisted up facial expressions from time to time, during the performance, indicated the high level of skill Thought’s performance exemplified. For those who don’t know, the Philly veteran is more than just the guy who stands on the edge of house band’s stage area on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
The now legendary freestyle – the YouTube clip accrued nearly 860,000 views in just two days – did earn Black Thought a visit to Fallon’s couch for a moment of praise and recognition.
In addition to Fallon, several hip hop personalities took notice of Black Thoughts feat.
https://twitter.com/Diddy/status/941518118081519616
Ascribing Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) status to Black Thought as a MC is a somewhat confounding matter. In an article earlier this year I mentioned some crucial criteria when countering arguments that Outkast’s Andre 3000 is the game’s best rapper, and the case for Thought gets murky when we deliberate whether his catalog with The Roots constitutes one chief prerequisite – solo album(s).
After being blessed with this display of skill and technique – and still needing some time to properly note all of Black Thought’s punchlines and mentions – perhaps we can dissect that detail another time. The culture, well at least some of us, did need a chaser to soften the disappointment of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s announcement that LL Cool J – arguably hip hop’s original G.I. Joe in terms of the modern MC – is not a part of this year’s class of inductees.
Now that it’s the weekend, I’m going to gladly contribute to the number of views of Black Thought’s clip to fully take in all of its brilliant highlights. However, let it be known that, along with a proper LP from the mythical Jay Electronica, I’m still holding out for at least a Thought EP featuring production from 9th Wonder, Statik Selektah, Apollo Brown, DJ Premier, and Pete Rock.
Oh, and before I go, RIP Prodigy. Black Thought was spitting over the instrumental of Mobb Deep’s single “The Learning (Burn) ft. Big Noyd” – but if you clicked on this post you knew that already.
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