By Landon Antonetti

Reading The Smoking Section’s critique of Blender Magazine’s “The 33 Most Overrated People, Places, Trends and Other Junk in Rock,” made me remember just how much I love lists. So, I took heed from the TSS crew and decided to shorten it up, and turn it into a hip-hop only affair. Ladies and gentlemen: The 10 Most Overrated People, Trends and Other Junk in Hip-hop.

10. Rapping about your car and/or jewels

Tasteful boasting has always been apart of hip-hop. Run DMC did a track called “My Adidas” and Kool G Rap & DJ Polo did a song about cars and they were dope. When your entire record consists of you rapping about your diamond-encrusted Mickey Mouse pendant, or your Hummer on ‘38’s then please don’t bother sending your stuff my way. We’re in a recession, how is Lil’ Jon still holding on to that “Crunk Ain’t Dead” piece?

9. DJ Khaled

The day when I don’t have to hear DJ Khaled scream “We the best!” over a track will not come soon enough. Coming from a man who only produced a total of five, yes five songs, for both of his albums combined, this is a false statement.

8. Griping about the mainstream

I hate classifying hip-hop as underground or mainstream. There’s only hip-hop for the educated and hip-hop for the ignorant, you either know or you don’t. So many great MC’s spend their time crying about how messed up the “mainstream” is, and it makes me sick to see talent wasted on a subject so cliché. Rap about gas prices or the election, there’s a lot more interesting stuff to be said other than why you aren’t making any money and Lil’ Wayne is.

7. Bringing back the old school

No matter how much we wish it was 1996 again, it’s not. That time has come and gone. Relevance is the most important thing to surviving in the rap game. Spending all your time and money trying to recreate a DJ Premier beat is not a good look. By the time you do it, some dope MC/ Producer that is relevant to TODAY will have already taken your shine. (Note: Don’t confuse this with paying respect to the old school, that’s encouraged, but when your career is based around bringing back an era, then you’ve already messed up. Get out.)

6. MF Doom

This cat was way cool back in the day but ever since “Madvillainy,” I really quit feeling him. Maybe it was the fact that his lyrics began to puddle into pure nonsense, or the fact that he doesn’t show up to his concerts anymore. Either way, in 2008, this dude is way overrated, especially since he hasn’t put out an album since 2005.

5. Tight Jeans

Let’s face it, if your favorite rapper wears jeans off the women’s rack at JC Penny’s then he shouldn’t be rapping. He should be the lead singer of your favorite emo band instead.

4. Rapper Cameos

If it takes an LL Cool J cameo to get me to see your movie, then the only thing I recommend to you is a straight to DVD release. Very few actives in the rap game have the talent to master the silver screen so please, quit giving everyone in the game false hopes that they can be an Oscar winner.

3. Ring Tones

This one is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you can tell if someone likes great music, on the other hand, you can tell if someone likes horrible music. If you meet a girl you’re really connecting with at a party and “Crank That” starts blaring out of her purse, run away.

2. T-Pain

Aside from the fact that the vocoder hasn’t been cool since Zapp & Roger, T-Pain is just one of those dudes you grow tired of easily. Most T-Pain hooks are whack to me, save the one on Kanye’s “Good Life,” but I digress. If I could doctor my voice with studio effects and spout the same stuff over every mediocre rapper’s track, then I wouldn’t be sitting on my futon drinking cheap beer. I’d be drinking Cristal with Jay-Z and Beyonce at the 40/40 club.

1. Lil’ Wayne

I can foresee getting a lot of grief for this one. Let me start by saying Wayne is good, but he’s nowhere near his prime. If I have to argue with one more person about how Weezy is not the best rapper alive, then I might lose it. People forget that Rakim is still alive and recording.

Educate yourself.