Redman Essentials

Redman remained a grimy rapper when his fellow MCs were all rocking shiny suits. He's still ready to bust through the velvet rope to lace raw funk breaks with gut-busting punchlines. With the beats rumbling like a graffiti-splattered subway train, Red's early bangers like “Time for Sum Aksion” laid out a hardcore-but-hilarious blueprint, saving the most brutal disses for his own ridiculous self. And he stayed raw when hip-hop went glitzy, bringing that mean-mugging but self-mocking attitude to tear-the-club-up jams like "Let's Get Dirty." He's also cooked up some of rap's greatest rough-meets-smooth anthems, pairing his edge-of-hysteria flow with the laidback charisma of brother-in-rhyme Method Man.