Why Are You Ranking: Closest Resemblance Between the Artistry of Rappers and Directors Listed from Somewhat Similar to Striking

Rappers paint pictures with poems. The best ones are able to craft whole worlds and color them with witty metaphors and similes. Film directors use the visual medium to illustrate entire plotlines. Both sets of artists rely on form and technique to execute in their given field of work. Some Hip Hop artists resemble directors in their oeuvre. The best among them draw parallels between their spoken word and the images on the screen. Like painters and singers before their time, rappers and directors use their respective art to show a story. Yes, that’s show because with street poets and spoken word artists and film auteurs, especially, the idea is to convey a theme. There exist parallels between Rap artists and movie directors. Sometimes the physical appearance is just a bonus to what each of the figures offer in their works. But for the most part, it’s the content. The driving force behind the words and images of a great director is to put the audience into a worldview that challenges their beliefs, delivers hope, or demonstrates heroism. In all of the cases listed below, both camps have proven over time that their mission, goal, and point is to make a lot of great art. And the striking likeness between directors goes a step further. Their separate spheres allow cross over appeal in both Rap audiences and the film world. So, get your keyboards and microphones and cameras and lights for Why Are You Ranking: Closest Resemblance Between the Artistry of Rappers and Directors Listed from Somewhat Similar to Striking.

The Author of Suspense Supremacy

Martyr Turned Mural

4. Alfred Hitchcock and Christopher “The Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace

Enveloped in both the director and the rapper’s style is simple: beautiful women, brash leading men, and a wicked tale to communicate. Their physical plumpness provided an overbearing sometimes intimidating presence but their works speak louder than their outward appearance. In films like Vertigo (1954), Hitchcock brings to life the anxiety, the suspense, and the drama. In “I Got a Story to Tell” from Life After Death (1997) Biggie brings those same elements to the fore with a deft audible display.

Rank: Somewhat Similar

Mr. West takes time to contemplate.

He's the one on the left.

The Tarantino Stare

Mr. Lee Looking Concerned

3. Kanye West and Wes Anderson and Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee

This trifecta of directors go into all of Mr. West’s output. The pop culture references and outright stolen scenes from past films imbued in Tarantino movies are similar to the paid samples of the Chicago rapper. Additionally, Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992) and 1994’s Pulp Fiction are to Kanye his The College Dropout (2004) and Late Registration (2005). The baroque and painstakingly detailed sets and designs of Wes Anderson films like The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) mimic some of the orchestral and maximalist works that West has produced. And Yeezy’s long trail of civil rights pieces cements his resemblance to the race provocateur, Spike Lee. When he says, in “New Slaves” from the album Yeezus (2013), “My mother was raised in the era when/ Clean water was only served to the fairer skin,” he’s playing directly into the artistic resemblance to nearly all of Mr. Lee’s offerings.

Rank: A Slight Resemblance

Mr. Carter in Deep Thought

A Peabody for One of the Brightest Minds Behind the Camera

2. Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter and Martin Scorsese

The mafioso inclinations and the sometimes gory subject matter shine through in each of these artists’ works. Concerned with the guidelines of the mobsters, both the director and the rapper envision codes of honor even amongst the lower classes of humanity. Carter’s “D.O.A.” from his album, The Blueprint 3 (2009) could read like a script for the Scorsese movie The Departed (2006). The machismo and masculine nature of both works stand to evoke a sense of manliness inherent in both men and their art.

Rank: A Close Likeness

Eminem points all fingers back at the camera.

The Director Looks at Another Photographer

1. Marshall “Eminem/Slim Shady” Mathers and Steven Spielberg

Both of these men of great talent have similarities. For instance, they have a proclivity to capture young children amidst violent situations. For instance, in the song “Kim,” from The Marshall Mathers LP (2000) Eminem speaks in explicit, grisly detail about killing his then-wife Kim Mathers all while their baby girl Hailie sleeps. This is like Spielberg’s decision to pit then-child actors Ariana Clarice Richards as Lex Murphy and Joseph Mazzello as Tim Murphy against velociraptors. They also exhibit an idealism of both serious, brooding dramas, and light comedies. This is the distinction between Eminem and Slim Shady. This is also just like the difference between Schindler’s List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998) and The Terminal (2004) and Catch Me if You Can (2002). Slim Shady’s “My Name is” from The Slim Shady LP (2000) and “The Real Slim Shady” on The Marshall Mathers LP (2000) and “Stan” (also from TMMLP) and “Not Afraid” from Recovery (2010) illumine the contrast between laughter and pain. For both of these artists, the idealism of how to execute humor and and drama is taken to ever greater heights with each release that they make.

Rank: Striking