Hoodstar Chantz Picks The Best Freestylers & Battle Rappers Ever

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place -lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good- so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email sheaserrano@gmail.com.

​This Week's Rapper: Hoodstar Chantz

Hoodstar Chantz feat. The Artist L.U.V., "Stacking Up (Dirty)"

This Week's Subject(s): Freestylers and Battle Rappers

This Week's Prompt: We figure since you've got this Red Bull EmSee freestyle/battle competition coming up, we thought we'd throw double duty at you: Let's have you list the three best freestylers of all time, as well as the three best battle rappers of all time. Got it? Ready? Go.

Hoodstar Chantz: Freestylers:

Big L - I didn't really grow up listening to Big L, but when I got older I happened to see a freestyle video of his on youtube and it was so dope I had to my research on him and I've been jamming him every since. He was obviously way ahead of his time. R.I.P. Big L.

Marco Torres

​Chamillionaire: When I was growing up I was real big on jamming Houston artists, and being from the Northside I jammed Slim Thug, Mike Jones and Chamillionaire tough. But out of the three, Chamillionaire had the best freestyle. He was also ahead of his time. Even though he was from Houston and represented hard, in my opinion he didn't sound like he was. As far as what he rapped about, yes, but the way he rapped it, no.

Jadakiss: Jadakiss is not just one of my favorite freestyle rappers, but one of my favorite rappers, period. I'm talking Top 3. Even when I was growing up and I didn't fully understand everything he was talking about, his flow and rhyme scheme was crazy. Over the years there were a lot of rappers that I really liked at certain parts of my life; Jadakiss is the only rapper I consistently liked.

Hoodstar Chantz feat. The Artist L.U.V., "Another One" (produced by Cy Fyre)