Hip Hop Thought of the Day: Black Thought is so underrated its criminal

One of the few words of wisdom that my father relayed to me, something that actually stuck to me as if I was accidentally hit with a pair of Paris Hilton's panties, was his belief that a man shouldn't have a repeated routine. I guess his belief was that if someone knew your schedule like the back of their hand, they could plot some dastardly deed that would result in your imminent demise. For most of my life I have lived by that specific piece of advice, I'm a pretty paranoid guy anyway, I change up my routine so much and keep my mere existence cloaked in a mystique of secrecy that many of my closest friends think that I'm a C.I.A operative, or a closeted homosexual. Butt plugs and a complimentary reach around aside, I feel kind of vulnerable because I have started to frequent one establishment like clockwork, that being my local smut store that carries the latest girl-on-girl and moose-on-girl titles. I'm aware that I recently said that Internet porn cured me of the awkward experiences one feels in those places, but this particular store has this fine chick named Candice who I think would let me give her an unlicensed breast exam, that's if she wasn't loyal to her boyfriend that is currently on death row. (I've never wanted a black man executed so badly before)

Anyway, as I'm driving to a place where I hoped to get the latest in midget porn, I popped in a mix-tape featuring the many verses of Black Thought, either with "The Roots", freestyles, or his many guest appearances on other artists' albums. To say that Black Thought is dope is a universally accepted theme akin to Michael Jordan being one of the best athletes ever to touch a leather ball, Stevie Wonder being a musical genius that would melt the minds of mere mortals, me not only loathing any sort of post coital affection but also having the ability to write virtual circles around the dead carcass's of your favorite bloggers at will. As I sat there bopping my head in front of an X-Rated establishment that I refer to as "my mecca", listening to many verses that I'd heard before but now found myself listening with an increased intensity, my face made that identifiable Hip Hop frown like I'd just caught a whiff of one of Biz Markie's farts.

That's when it hit me, Black Thought is Hip Hop's version of Joe Dumars!! You remember Joe Dumars, Hall of Famer who played either shooting guard or point guard on those Piston teams of the 80's and 90's. Well I'm pretty sure that Black Thought, like Joe Dumars, isn't on many peoples top ten list but he has become a quiet assassin that can take out your favorite wordsmith without a trace of perspiration. People hated facing Dumars, as cocky a motherfucker that Michael Jordan is, he even said that he loathed facing #4 and that he was the best defender that he ever faced. I mean, I've seen people go at Rakim, Jay-Z, Nas, KRS-One, do you ever remember anyone going at Black Thought? The reason why other microphone wielders dare not go after the Philadelphia MC is the same reason why he is grossly underrated, because the way he bends words, his arsenal of styles and his mastery of them, the way in which his rhyme cadence is wonderfully calibrated as if it was set to a fucking metronome. Rappers don't want it and your average listener unfortunately can't recognize greatness if it wore #4 and was the only player to virtually handcuff Michael Jordan.