You can always start a lively discussion among beat making fans by asking them who the best rapper is. If you go by sales alone, the answer is probably Eminem. His Recovery album is on top of the Billboard Rap Music chart for the tenth week in a row, but the album hasn’t received the same critical acclaim that some other artists are generating.

Critical Acclaim And Music Sales Don’t Always Go Together

To be sure, Recovery is a classic Eminem product and if you like Eminem, you won’t be disappointed by what you hear. Eminem actually has two albums on the Billboard Rap Music chart; Relapse, released more than a year ago, is still holding at #11, having occupied chart space for 66 weeks running.

Critically speaking, Outkast probably has the highest-rated album with Stankonia, originally released in 2000. Currently, that distinction belongs to Big Boi, and Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty, released early last month. Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. 2 and The Roots’ How I Got Over also have gotten high critical marks, though their sales have already peaked, never having neared the top spot.

Many rap music fans would argue that sales aren’t the only measure of success, and some would even argue that they’re a poor measure of success. As I said last week, although Eminem has easily outsold Jay-Z, Jay-Z makes substantially more than Eminem does in a year, and the majority of his income doesn’t come directly from rap music sales.

The most successful rap music artists are those who make the sounds they want to make. When you ask a fan what the single most important quality of a rap song is, most often, they’ll respond by saying that the lyrics and wordplay are the two elements that make a rap worth listening to. The music is part of it for sure. The best beats can take an ordinary song and turn it into a club hit, or get the song to the masses through airplay.

One of the nicest things about rap music is that anyone can be a rap music artist if they have the right lyrics paired up with the right beats. If you want to try your hand at making your own rap music beats, check out Sonic Producer. This smart software package will give you everything you need to make your own music. Sonic Producer contains tons of royalty-free samples that you can mix to make your own beats. After hearing a new rap song on the air, if you’ve ever said to yourself, “I could do that!” then check out Sonic Producer. With Sonic Producer, you really can do that!

Photo Credit: Manu Contreras,, via Flickr