It’s always welcome to hear the OGs reflect on their fellow hip-hop vets, and Onyx’s own Fredro Starr recently hit up the Shirley’s Temple for an extensive conversation. While a variety of topics were discussed, with many notable anecdotes unearthed for the rap historians, one of the most interesting moments arose in the opening minute as host Shirley Ju inquired about Starr’s Top 5 rappers.
“Just to be politically correct,” he prefaces. “There’s thirty years of hip-hop right? So you gotta have somebody from the old school. So we’re going to keep Rakim. Then you gotta put some nineties guys, so we gotta put B.I.G, you gotta put Nas. And then you gotta put a west coast guy. I think there should be a west coast guy in the top five. I’ll put Ice Cube in that. I think he’s the guy — Snoop is heavy, but Ice Cube is the guy.”
Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images
“Then you gotta put somebody that’s rocking now,” he continues. “So, I would have to put Jay-Z. But kinda not really, cause like I said, I can’t put three guys in the nineties. Scratch Jay-Z, I would put that to Conway and Benny The Butcher together as the next top five.” When Ju asks his thoughts on Griselda’s ongoing run, Starr gives his stamp of approval.
“I heard them on Statik Selektah,” he recalls. “They were doing mixtapes, and I had my ear to the streets. I remember we was in Russia, it was cold as shit. We were at this dude’s crib, smoking shiska — that’s what they call weed out there. I was like, put on the Griselda shit on YouTube! They was loving that shit all the way in Russia!” He proceeds to compare the Buffalo crew to the Wu-Tang at the height of the golden era, naming Raekwon in particular.
For more insight from Fredro Starr, including stories about touring with DMX, Method Man, and Redman on the Survival Of The Illest Tour, check out the new episode of the Shirley’s Temple video podcast below.