This article was updated on 18th May.
Rapping fast means more than just pairing rapid lyrics with a quick beat. As rap and hip-hop have developed as genres, artists have more frequently departed from the traditional, on-beat lyricism, opting for half-rhyme, internal rhyme, syncopation. In some cases, we see complete vowel-and-consonant obliteration that takes them out of just the music world and even immortalizes their faces in world record books.
Rappers like Twista, Eminem, Twisted Insane, and Aesop Rock go beyond the confines of rap and hip hop, using their own artistic and skilful experimentation to elevate them beyond just rap artists – towards more like rap gods. Here’s an unordered list of some of the fastest rappers of all time, officially and unofficially.
Twista
Twista
Twista is commonly considered the fastest rapper of all time, both officially and unofficially. In 1992 he became the Guinness Fastest Rapper Alive, able to drop 11.2 syllables per second. That’s right – 11 syllables in just one second. Twista has been featured on many popular songs, including some by fellow rap and hip-hop artists Chance the Rapper, Tech N9ne, and Busta Rhymes.
Twisted Insane
Twisted Insane
San Diego-based rapper and Brainsick Muzik founder Twisted Insane is known for being one of the fastest rappers in the industry, likely resulting from his practice in writing rhymes from the age of 12. Music became a way for him to survive as he faced homelessness in 2006, coinciding with the release of his first album, Shoot for the Face. Needless to say, Twisted Insane is one of the best Choppers of all time. Tech N9ne noticed the young rapper’s skill and invited him onto his 2011 single “Worldwide Choppers,” where Twisted Insane met Busta Rhymes and Twista among others.
Eminem
Eminem
Detroit-born rapper Eminem, known for holding nothing back and more than once getting censored on his own track, takes no prisoners lyrically and speedily. He has always been a technically clean-cut chopper rapper, with the incredible ability to execute syllables in fractions of a second. “Rap God,” his 2013 single, shot its way into the Guinness Book of World Records for the Most Words in a Hit Single – 1,560 unique words in a little over six minutes, or about 4.28 words per second.
For Shady’s fans, his first record-breaker was in 2000, when “The Marshall Mathers LP” sold 1.76 million copies in its first week – the fastest of any hip-hop album ever. Definitely quick in more ways than one, Eminem maintains that biting, quick wit and employs a sharp tongue even today.
Busta Rhymes
Busta Rhymes
Brooklyn-born rapper Busta Rhymes comes to mind for fulfilling his name in every possible way, collecting 11 Grammy nominations across his decades-long career. From “Break Ya Neck” to “Look at Me Now,” “Touch It” and “I’ll Hurt Ya,” Busta Rhymes employed a rap technique that used both internal rhyme and half rhyme which, coupled with the breakneck speed he keeps, puts him up top the legacy list of speedy rappers. And he’s still doing it – in February of this year, Busta confirmed that he’s almost finished with a new album he created with Dr. Dre.
Tech N9ne
Tech N9ne
Co-founder of record label Strange Music and musician in his own right, Tech N9ne follows the Chopper technique, executing perfect, clean pronunciation down to a single letter. In “Takin’ Online Orders,” a song he made with Brotha Lynch Hung, Tech N9ne lays down 12 words per beat, 76 beats per minute. To do the math for you: that’s 15.2 words per second. Tech N9ne switches up flow patterns quickly and easily, making it impossible to keep up with his blitz bars.
Aesop Rock
Aesop Rock
Dubbed by The Guardian as the rapper with a wider vocabulary of words than Shakespeare, Aesop Rock is known for his incredible and far-flung techniques with lyrics. Designer Matt Daniels collected and analyzed data on a number of musicians, counting their first 35,000 words in three to five studio albums with 35,000 words of seven of Shakespeare’s early plays. With this analysis, Daniels can figure out how many unique words the artist uses, which he then ranks on a scale with other musicians of a similar calibre. The kingpin of underground rap, Aesop Rock clocked at 7,879 unique words used – more than 3,000 more than the average cluster of rappers, who hover between 3,000 and 4,500 unique words. The only competition to Aesop on the chart is Busdriver, but even he has 5,000 fewer unique words than the Appleseed artist. He himself said he reads a lot of news and science articles to find new words to use in his songs, writing down specific ones that he finds appealing.
Tonedeff
Tonedeff
Tonedeff first became popular due to his rap battle skills and for opening for some well-known acts like Common and Royce da 5’9”. His two verses on the Substantial song “Velocity” hit hyper-speed, and on top of his own skills, he has QN5 Music, a label he founded. QN5’s roster includes CunninLynguists, Substantial, and Pack FM. In the rap world, Tonedeff is a lauded underground artist, winning multiple rap battles as well as becoming Lollapalooza’s 2006 Last Band Standing winner. There, Tonedeff put on an incredible performance on his first mainstream stage, and with that, he transcended from cult-favorite underground battle star to reputable, renowned, and lightning-fast rapper who music journalist Jon Pareles says “has so many variations of rhythm and tone that his songs are enjoyable even without a rewind button to find out what they meant.”
Krayzie Bone
Krayzie Bone
From the group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Krayzie Bone’s star-studded solo album Thug Mentality 1999 and his 2001 album Thug on Da Line only set him up for his later successes, including a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a duo or a Group for his song “Ridin’” with Chamillionaire. His verses are known for their speed, especially on “Heated Heavy,” “Clash of the Titans,” and “Flow Motion.”
Dizzee Rascal
Dylan Kwabena Mills MBE aka Dizzee Rascal is one of the names mentioned less often when people discuss the fastest rappers of all time. The London-born rapper has had a long career and was one of the first commercially successful grime MCs. His 2003 album Boy in da Corner laid the foundations for the genre and made him a household name in Britain.
Most measurements put Dizzee’s rapping speed at around three and a half words per second, making him by far one of the fastest MCs in the game, however, he falls short of some of the other names on this list such as Twista and Eminem.
So…who is the fastest rapper of all time?
Statistically, it’s obvious that Twista’s vocal abilities surpass any other rapper. Not only does he somehow fit more than 11 syllables into one second, but he does it clearly and consistently. Twista elevated the Chopper style to a whole other level, immortalizing himself both in the record books and in the lore of rap music. Even so, the Chicago native was given his Guinness title in 1992, leaving the crown available for the taking. Who’s next?
