Music

Rap

Best US rappers

The community has spoken. Discover the world ranking, compare it to yours and see how everyone else voted.

Play this TopList

15contenders high-voltage

1.8kvotes

66TopList

0commentsUpdated on 09/06/2026 at 04:00 PM

Kanye West1326

The worldwide ranking generated by 1.8k votes

15 / 15

Kanye West1326

Eminem1325

Kendrick Lamar1321

Tupac Shakur (2Pac)1272

Travis Scott1246

Lil Wayne1212

Snoop Dogg1197

The Notorious B.I.G. (Biggie Smalls)1176

Drake1170

#10

50 Cent1157

#11

Ice Cube1153

#12

Nas1150

#13

J. Cole1143

#14

Jay-Z1141

#15

Nicki Minaj995

What the community says

Kanye West leads with an ELO of 1,326, ahead of Eminem (1,325) and Kendrick Lamar (1,321). Ranked over 1,781 duels between 15 contenders, last updated September 6, 2026.

Rank your favorite US rappers from Old School to Trap. Discover the greatest American hip-hop artists and vote for your rap GOATs.

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.