Rate the Bars ATS Lyrics Game

Hi friends! I hope you're having a wonderful weekend.

Yesterday I saw this clip called Rate the Bars where rappers rate pre-selected bars on a 0-5 basis.
Check out Raekwon on Rate the Bars here:


Now, it's an imperfect system, pretty subjective if you ask me, but it's interesting to see the words and rate the lyrics on this basis alone.

If you are interested, rate the following bars, 0-5, and find a few bars of your own for the next person to rate.. should be fun!!!!

I'll start with these lyrics from rappers, both past and present (shouldn't be too hard to see which is which, lol):
PS: These are not necessarily the best, fyi- a mix of the best, worst and in between imo

1.
I'm just an addict addicted to music
Maybe it's a habit, I gotta use it
Even if it's jazz or the quiet storm
I hook a beat up convert it in a hip-hop form

2.
Sometimes Fear of God, ayy
Saint Laurent the boots, ayy
I feel like I'm Dro, ayy, car ain't got no roof, ayy

3.
You think it's funny till these youngings suck a bunny
Pull the jackrabbit out and get to screamin' where the money at?!

4.
Mothers watch sons walk through the door
for the last time 'till they go view at the morgue
life is deep, we all just tryin' to eat
rap's a mental narcotic, I supply the streets

5.
Call me Thorburn, John H., staff sergeant
Marksman, skill in killin', illin', I'm able and willin'
Kill a village elephant, rapin' and pillage a village
Illegitimate killers, US Military guerrillas

6.
Your whole shell baby's wicked like Nimrod
Caught me like a fresh-water scrod, or may I not be God
Attitude is very rude Boo, crabby like seafood
It turns me on like Vassey and Lahrule

7.
Well it was more like spend the night
Three in the morning yawning dancing under street lights
We chilling like a villain and a n****a feeling right
In the middle of the ghetto on the curb, but in spite
All of the bull# we on our back staring at the stars above
Talking bout what we gonna be when we grow up

8.
Smoking in the crib, hiding dip inside of soda cans
Black bandana on his arm, needle in his hand
Momma trying to wake him up, young so I ain't understand
Why she wouldn't let my daddy sleep, used to see him stand

9.
A.M. to the P.M., P.M. to the A.M., funk
Piss out your per diem, you just gotta hate 'em, funk
If I quit your BM, I still ride Mercedes, funk
If I quit this season, I still be the greatest, funk

10.
A hardcore artist is a dangerous man, such as myself
Trained to run twenty miles in soft sand
On or off land, programmed to kick hundreds of bars off hand
From a lost and forgotten land; you done did it, man

Well, I hope I have some takers on our own ATS Rate the Bars! (PS I'll tell you who the artists are later--"extra credit" if you can name any

Just have to say #5 is one of the dopest verses I've ever heard. R.A. the Rugged man goes crazy..

a reply to: underwerks

You are right, one of the dopest verses ever penned.
Crazy that it was based on his true story, too.

Vince Staples

a reply to: Lysergic

My favorite by him!

originally posted by: zosimov
a reply to: underwerks

You are right, one of the dopest verses ever penned.

Crazy that it was based on his true story, too.

I love how it shows the two faces of the Vietnam war.

First, the Jedi Mind Tricks dude who doesn't want to be there and hates it, then R.A. comes in like the guy who loves it, "B*tches and guns this is every mans dream, I don't want to go home where I'm just an ordinary human being"

Paraphrased because I haven't heard that song in years, but I still remember every lyric. It's that visual of a story.

Good choice.

a reply to: zosimov

Eminem's 'Patiently Waiting' verse is one of the greatest of all time imo. Eminem might be responsible for many of the best verses of all time.

But single bars, that's tough because I can't remember much from the top of my head. Lol

a reply to: underwerks

Yes! Great point about Vinnie's vs RA's perspective, two of many aspects of war..

The part I love about it is the end where he dies, sees heaven, and comes back with the vision of all types living in harmony.. very intense and yet another side of war and its aftermath.

It is a deep song about real life and death sh#.

a reply to: knowledgehunter0986

Eminem is indeed an excellent lyricist!

He blew Jay-Z away on Renegade. Stan is disturbing and poetic.

Good example of a rapper with lyrical skills!

#10 is fire!!! Canibus was sick!

a reply to: zosimov

Oh yes, renegade, forgot about that. Completely made Jay-z look like a preschooler. Good thing he's Jay-z, because anybody else might have second guessed their career. Lol!

Stan isn't just one of the greatest rap songs, but one of the greatest songs in general. You should see when he performs this live.

a reply to: PorteurDeMort

Yes, #10 is Canibus, and he was ill!



PS to all-- please don't think I posted only dope lyrics-put some obvious duds in there for perspective and a couple for laughs

a reply to: knowledgehunter0986

You're right! He put HOVA to shame

To me, Jay-Z was mostly downhill from his first album Reasonable Doubt. There's some gems in that one like this:

(D'evils- he sampled Prodigy on this one!)

The closest of friends when we first started
But grew apart as the money grew, and soon grew black-hearted
Thinking back when we first learned to use rubbers
He never learned so in turn I'm kidnapping his baby's mother
My hand around her collar, feeding her cheese
She said the taste of dollars was #ty so I fed her fifties
About his whereabouts I wasn't convinced
So I kept feeding her money 'til her # started to make sense
Who could ever foresee, we used to stay up all night at slumber parties
now I'm trying to rock this b to sleep


But now, Jay-Z doesn't really do it for me.

a reply to: zosimov

1. "The master, the masses, one has power the other one lacks it, guns and power controlled by assets owned by financial forecasters, who are the masters they are the gangsters, they are the bankers, the ones who tax us, the masses they are us, the sheep, the people divided in classes, I go off like a shiite bomb..."

Chose because of how relevant it is to everything on ATS right now..

a reply to: underwerks



Thanks for playing! I don't know offhand but that's sounding like KRS-ONE (I'm sure I'm wrong)

Either way, to me, that's a dope 4.5/5 bar!!!!

They love to criticize
they always say I change for the worse
Like prescription pills when you miss using them n***a
The temple of nights when they took Jerusalem n***a
And figured out what was buried under Solomon's temple
Al Aksa the name is no coincidental
I know too much to government is trying to murder me
No coming back like cutting your writs open vertically
How could the serpent be purposely put in charge of the country
Genetic engineered sickness spread amongst me
My people are so hungry that they attack without reason
Like a fu#in' dog ripping off the hand that feeds him

a reply to: zosimov

What made Jay-z so great was his ability to adapt and stay relevant throughout his career, even now. He was never the greatest lyricist or artist. He was just always consistently really good. He's a great business man too.

Imo he will go down as the goat for all he has achieved.

originally posted by: zosimov
a reply to: underwerks

Thanks for playing! I don't know offhand but that's sounding like KRS-ONE (I'm sure I'm wrong)

Either way, to me, that's a dope 4.5/5 bar!!!!

Malcolm little running up before Elijah Muhammad The commedent killed the dinosaurs, changing the earth They love to criticize they always say I change for the worse Like prescription pills when you miss using them nigga The temple of nights when they took Jerusalem nigga And figured out what was buried under Solomon's temple Al Aksa the name is no coincidental I know too much to government is trying to murder me No coming back like cutting your writs open vertically How could the serpent be purposely put in charge of the country Genetic engineered sickness spread amongst me My people are so hungry that they attack without reason Like a #in' dog ripping off the hand that feeds him

Nas, from the distant relatives album with Damien Marley.

1.
Drive in the fast lane, eyes on the gas gauge
Listen to neo cons cry about black rage
It doesn't stop there
They're the blowhards, they puff out their chest they're full of hot air
2.
Maybe our relationship isn't as crazy as it seems
Maybe that's what happens when a tornado meets a volcano
All I know is I love you too much to walk away though
Come inside, pick up your bags off the sidewalk
Don't you hear sincerity in my voice when I talk
3.
They did the job, money came with ease
But one couldn't stop, it's like he had a disease
He robbed another and another and a sista and her brotha
Tried to rob a man who was a D.T. undercover
4.
Now it's all about Versace, you copied my style
Five shots couldn't drop me, I took it and smiled
Now I'm back to set the record straight
With my AK, I'm still the thug that you love to hate

a reply to: Josephus

3,4

Slick Rick and Pac!

I recognize 1 but can't place it and you have me stumped on 2 (not Jay-Z, is it)

a reply to: knowledgehunter0986

I do have to give it to him, he made an empire for himself.

Just not my fav artist (he got back up after being ethered so I doubt eminem could stop him either)

But Reasonable Doubt is one of my top 20 albums (maybe)