Poll Position - My Readers Know Nothing About Hip-Hop.

I started this tradition of running polls a few months back, mostly to get a better gauge on how my readers view certain topics. More times than not, my personal vote differs from the final tally on any given poll, but we're usually in the same ballpark at least. But a recent poll I just ran about the greatest Hip Hop Duos of all time really, really showed me there's a huge disconnect between yours truly and AverageNation™. I chose duos because this effectively eliminates "he's the DJ, I'm the rapper" combos like Eric B. & Rakim and Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. This naturally resulted in a list of candidates with an East Coast 80's/90's bias. The entire point is a duo should consist of two guys (or ladies) with distinctly different voices. And now, the sobering results.

Uhhhmm, seriously ya'll, Outkast? Greatest Rap Duo Evar!?! What the hell is ya'll smokin'?!?

The best way to explain all this is that folks generally have short-term memory. Outkast is prolly the last of a dying breed, as rap duos are pretty much extinct now. But still, the fact that they ran away with this poll is inexplicable. Seriously, when's the last time these guys actually recorded as a duo? What's their artistic (not commercial) highlight? Aquemini? Does nobody remember that stinker of a soundtrack for Idlewild? Do ya'll even remember that Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was essentially a double solo album? I'm not sayin' Andre 3000 and Big Boi haven't had their moments, but reality is, their career highlights have come as solo artists, and their collective highlights aren't necessarily what anyone would consider classic material. Am I right or am I right?

Do ya'll even remember A Tribe Called Quest? De La Soul? Run DMC? Salt -N- Pepa? Apparently not. But perhaps most perplexing of all was the relative lack of votes for my personal choice, EPMD. Have ya'll forgotten about their string of classic platinum LP's like Strictly Business, Unfinished Business, Business as Usual, and Business Never Personal?

Did ya'll forget this?



Or this?!?!



Or this?!?!



Erick and Parish Makin' Dollars only tallied a handful of votes, and I'm willing to bet that one of them was from The Green Eyed Bandit himself. Sad, just sad, ya'll. I haven't been this disappointed in a group of black folks since the 2004 Dream Team.

Question: Who did you vote for, and why? Is EPMD chronically slept-on? Is Outkast chronically overrated?