Vince Staples Says Kendrick Lamar Is the Greatest Rapper Alive Right Now: ‘It’s Not Even Close’

Vince Staples sat down for an interview with Los Angeles’s Power 106 on Wednesday, and was promptly put on the spot by being asked who’s the best rapper alive. There’s a lot of directions you can go here: Jay Z, Chance, Nas, DOOM, Black Thought, somebody obscure for the sole reason of showing off how knowledgeable you are, etc. Hell, even the show’s host J Cruz tried to prod Staples into picking Eminem.

Staples rejected that selection, citing Shady’s recent “slump” (50/50 odds on that getting brought up in a future Eminem song). Instead, the Long Beach rapper opted to go with Kendrick Lamar, which makes perfect sense since we put it in our headline. “We could say Michael Jordan, but he’s not beating LeBron one on one,” Staples said. “If we’re talking about right now, it’s Kendrick, easy, not even close.” About 10 seconds after making that declaration, he then doubled and tripled down on it.

He also made sure to give a shout to Kanye West, whom he ranked as being higher on the list than Eminem. “Because there’s not that many kids walking around saying I wanna be Eminem,” he explained. Though, as it was pointed out by Cruz, there were lots of dudes going around with bleach blonde hair in the early ’00s. He also rattled off his best five, which I’ll ruin for you: Kanye West, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube.

Yeah, I know, that’s only four. Maybe I missed one, or maybe I’m leaving a cliffhanger for you. Feel free to watch the entire convo in the vid above. It should start at the right spot but, in case it doesn’t, the discussion begins at 24:29.