Kaunda Selisho

By Kaunda Selisho

Journalist


SA hip hop at a glance: Your favourite rappers are no longer on top

The 2021 MTV Base Hottest MCs List is out and it has given a glance of which rappers are considered some of SA's best.


For many a mainstream music fan, South African hip hop begins and ends with the same 10 rappers. However, as most die-hard fans would have you know, there is a hip hop industry beyond the likes of AKA, Cassper Nyovest, Stogie T, Emtee and the late Prokid.

One of the many barometers for “what’s hot” in the industry is the annual Hottest MCs list revealed along with a two-part panel discussion that airs on MTV Base (DStv channel 322), usually in November or December every year.

Rapper Blxckie was crowned South Africa’s Hottest MC for 2021 following an MTV Base Hottest MCs 2021 discussion hosted by MTV Base Culture Squad member Tshego Koke.

Koke headed up a panel featuring DJ Zan D, Shala The Unicorn, Kai, Buhle, Siya, and French Fry and the panel based their choices of who SA’s hottest rappers are on the criteria of “bars, lyrics, impact, sales” and what MTV Base likes to call intangibles, the “X-Factor”, that indescribable thing that just gives a rapper that edge.

“Although divided on certain MCs, the panel was finally able to reach a consensus on who should be crowned the Hottest MC for 2021,” read part of a statement issued by Viacom.

MTV Base Hottest MCs 2021 List

1. Blxckie
2. Big Zulu
3. Nasty C
4. A-Reece
5. 25K
6. KO & Riky Rick
7. Costa Titch
8. Lucas Raps
9. Priddy Ugly 
10. Dee Koala

As it does every year, the list had “the streets” abuzz with conversation about the list and all the potential names that could have made it over the ones that did.

As they do every year, fans took to social media to share their thoughts on the list and lament what position their favourite rappers ended up in.

Read more on these topics

hip hop MTV Base music rapper

For more news your way

Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.