Vince Staples Says The Best Rappers Are From Atlanta But Some Fans Disagree

Despite being one of the staunchest flag-wavers for his hometown, Long Beach rapper Vince Staples is adamant that the best rappers in hip-hop hail from elsewhere. However, when he expressed this opinion while commenting on T.I.’s Verzuz challenge for 50 Cent, he inadvertently sparked a debate that had him fielding fan frustrations when some folks — mostly New Yorkers — disagreed.

According to Vince, “Atlanta got the best rappers ever and it’s not even close.” He tweeted this in response to fans writing off T.I. in a hits battle with 50 Cent, an occurrence to which he took some issue. “Y’all just be talking to fit in,” he wrote. “T.I. got a plethora of bangers.” However, once he’d made his Atlanta declaration, some fans enthusiastically disagreed.

“They don’t rap in Atlanta they make up dances,” wrote one fan. Vince replied: “The originators of hip hop was dancing around New York City in leather outfits.” This is true. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five; please look them up.

As evidence of his claim, Vince pointed out his view that “Young Dro got more wordplay than a lot of n****s from everywhere and he not even brought up as a top Atlanta rapper.” When asked to list his own top ten, he offered “Lauryn Hill, Andre, Scarface, E40, Snoop, Kurupt, Missy Elliot, Blu, Kanye, and Young Thug” as examples of some of his favorites.

When this sparked another minor backlash thanks to the inclusion of Young Thug — whose off-kilter delivery has always made him a subject of controversy, especially up north where all the beats sound like train tracks — Vince had to defend his pick by pointing out how the goalposts of lyricism move from case to case, mostly to suit those New Yorkers’ need to be at the center of the conversation.

“Can y’all define lyrical because y’all change it for every argument,” he asked. “Thug got obvious wordplay but y’all say he don’t count because he lacks ‘content’ but y’all didn’t say that for Ghostface or ODB.” He also pointed out why the backlash struck him as silly, because, “Y’all be treating personal preference like it’s the law of the land we gotta stop that.”

He spent a few more hours joking around with fans, including jibing a few by calling them white supremacists, until he realized that “the hip hop pages reposting me.” He got off a couple more jokes before logging off but this morning, delivered the coup de grace, in his typical sarcastic fashion: “I GOT HACCED!”

Check out Vince’s hilarious fan interactions above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.