The MTV News Hip-Hop Brain Trust: Collectively we've made decisions that cause controversy and make the hip-hop community talk. We all stand by each other, but as you can tell from our round-table debates, everyone submits their individual lists before a vote takes place on various "Hottest" or "Greatest" list positioning — most recently for the latest edition of "Hottest MCs in the Game."
While everyone's opinions are certainly heard in the show, here are the Brain Trust's individual lists of who they think is hot right now. And yes, some of these lists have been updated since everyone sat down at the round table — the game changes often!
Tuma Basa
Director, MTV Music Programming
1. Lil Wayne
2. Jay-Z
3. Rick Ross
4. Kanye West
5. 50 Cent
6. Snoop Dogg
7. Lupe Fiasco
8. Young Jeezy
9. T.I.
10. Bun B
Bridget Bland
Contributor, MTV Radio Network
1. Kanye West
2. Jay-Z
3. Lil Wayne
4. Young Jeezy
5. Rick Ross
6. Lupe Fiasco
7. T.I.
8. Snoop Dogg
9. Andre 3000
10. Soulja Boy Tell'em
Honorable mentions:
Plies
Ludacris
Gucci Mane
Rocko
Shawty Lo
Lil' Kim
Buttahman
Director, Music & Talent, MTV Jams
1. Lil Wayne
2. Kanye West
3. Jay-Z
4. Rick Ross
5. T.I.
6. 50 Cent
7. Ludacris
8. Souljah Boy Tell'em
9. Big Boi
10. Flo Rida
11.Young Jeezy
12. Snoop Dogg
Rahman Dukes
Senior Producer, MTVNews.com
(In no particular order)
Lil Wayne
Kanye West
Jay-Z
Nas
50 Cent
Plies
Rick Ross
Young Jeezy
Prodigy
The Game
Sean Lee
Supervising Producer, MTV News
1. Kanye West
2. Lil Wayne
3. Jay-Z
4. Rick Ross
5. Snoop Dogg
6. 50 Cent
7. Andre 3000
8. Young Jeezy
9. Lupe Fiasco
10. Plies
11. T.I.
12. Soulja Boy
13. Flo Rida
14. Pusha T
Joseph Patel
Senior Producer, MTV News
1. Kanye West
2. Lil Wayne
3. Young Jeezy
4. Ghostface Killah
5. Pusha T
6. Big Boi
7. Styles P
8. Bun B
9. Snoop Dogg
10. Rick Ross
Honorable mentions:
Andre 3000
Jay-Z
Shaheem Reid
Senior Hip-Hop Editor, MTV News
1. Kanye West
2. Jay-Z
3. Lil Wayne
4. 50 Cent
5. Rick Ross
6. Lupe Fiasco
7. Young Jeezy
8. T.I
9. Snoop Dogg
10. Plies
Jayson Rodriguez
Editorial Director, XXLMag.Com
1. Kanye West
2. Lil Wayne
3. Jay-Z
4. Snoop Dogg
5. 50 Cent
6. Rick Ross
7. Lupe Fiasco
8. Young Jeezy
9. Plies
10. Talib Kweli
11. T.I.
12. Ghostface
13. Fabolous
14. Joe Budden
15. Styles P
Now that you've checked out our "Hottest MCs in the Game" show, we want to know what MCs you're feeling! Keep the debate rolling by submitting your own top-10 list below or heading to YouRHere.MTV.com to upload your video reaction. And the hotness continues: You can check in on last year's top 10 and see this year's complete list on our "Hottest MCs" page.
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