In fact, it's their relationship with the 'lyrical' that makes 'lyrical' something even worth discussing in the first place.

That doesn't mean that rap artists who subvert, mutate, or even undermine that tradition are less hip-hop, or that they don't make good music. But the term is still useful, because it distinguishes hip-hop from pop music more broadly. At its worst, calling a rapper 'lyrical' makes their art sound more like a math problem. Sure, 'lyrical' can be misused in hip-hop, ascribed to the dry technical aspects of MCing. The one constant: an artfulness to how each rapper creates his work. A fan of Southern street rap might have a different idea of 'lyrical' than a fan of underground hero Tech N9 ne, who in turn has different values than a traditionalist from New York.

As hip-hop's audience has expanded, the rules of what makes a rapper 'lyrical' have broadened as well. This list is an argument that lyricism is still very much a part of rap music. It becomes received wisdom, taken as truth: It's 2013, and rappers are gimmicky. 'Rap isn't lyrical any more.' You hear it enough that it becomes an ugly kind of common sense.

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