Kool Moe Dee’s rap report cards
What makes a great rapper? Ask a room full of music fans and you’ll get a room full of different answers.
Kool Moe Dee put his answer on paper. His rap report cards gave fellow MCs marks across ten categories, turning a familiar argument into something you could compare line by line.
The first card appeared with his 1987 album How Ya Like Me Now. A later card followed in ego trip’s Book of Rap Lists in 1999. Both found a new audience when they circulated online again in 2022.
What was he listening for?
The categories covered vocabulary, articulation, creativity, originality, versatility, voice, records, stage presence, sticking to themes, and innovation.
That’s a useful listening exercise even if you disagree with every grade. A voice that grabs you immediately might belong to a very different kind of writer from the rapper whose verses reward a few more listens.
Try Paid in Full by Eric B. & Rakim with that in mind. Pick one category and follow it through a song before moving to the next.
Lauryn Hill near the top
Hill received 97 on the later card. When Rock the Bells asked about his choices in 2022, Moe Dee explained that he wanted to give her skills their due. He also stressed that the grades reflected a particular moment in each artist’s career.
Put on The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and listen to how she changes her phrasing between a sung line and a rap verse. Then ask yourself which of those ten categories matters most to you.
The cards are one musician’s opinions, preserved at two points in time. The fun is hearing what they make you notice, then making your own case.
Read Kool Moe Dee’s explanation in his Rock the Bells interview, or revisit our hip-hop guide.
