10 Rappers with unbelievable speed
There are rappers, and then there are fast rappers. As with everything, tastes often differ when it comes to music and it is difficult to find objective criteria. However, when it comes to rap music, one factor can actually be measured, namely the speed at which the words can be spoken by the artist. Some musicians have turned this into a real competition and are vying for the title of fastest rapper of all time.
We present the 10 hottest candidates for the title of “fastest rapper of all time” here.
1. NoClue
Ricky Raphel Brown, known by his stage name NoClue, is an American rapper from Seattle. He set an official world record in 2005. In his song “New West”, he sang 723 syllables in 51.27 seconds (14.1 syllables per second). He was then recognized by Guinness World Records as the “Fastest Rap MC”.
He started rapping at the age of four and began writing his own lyrics at the age of nine. NoClue was heavily influenced by West Coast hip-hop. He has established himself as a versatile lyricist with happy beats that are expressed in each of his songs.
2. Kollegah
Kollegah has been one of the big names in the German rap scene for years. Known for his “boss-like” appearance and his fast rap interludes, he is the most popular German rapper in our Doubletime Rap Top 13. Kollegah was born Felix Blume on August 3, 1984 in Friedberg, Hesse. As the son of a Canadian father and a German mother, he grew up bilingual and often worked as a translator in his youth. He successfully completed high school and began studying law at the University of Mainz, but never finished it.
After being active in battle rap leagues and releasing a few underground tapes, his first charted album, “Alphagene”, was released in 2007. Since then, the “Boss” has delivered nine more albums, five of which have topped the German album charts.
If you analyze his rap speed, Kollegah speaks up to 9 words per second. Particularly impressive examples of Kollegah's double-time skills can be found in the tracks “Billionaire's Club”, “Gs die jung”, “Veni, Vidi, Vici”, “Mondfinsternis” and “AKs im Wandschrank”.
3. Busta Rhymes
Trevor Tahiem Smith, better known by his stage name Busta Rhymes, is one of the fastest rappers in the world. In addition to his rap music, Busta Rhymes is also a successful singer, songwriter, producer and actor, and often attracts attention with his unusual sense of design and fashion. His parents are both of Jamaican origin, so young Trevor was exposed to music in his daily life from a very early age. His youth was characterized by frequent moves and, even before he had finished high school, young Trevor was already living in New York, USA and Liverpool, England before he finally obtained his high school diploma in New York.
Since his debut album “The Coming” in 1996, the rapper has become an icon in the rap business. From 1996 to 2009, Busta Rhymes released a total of ten studio albums.
The fastest rhyme by Busta Rhymes to date can be found in “Break Ya Neck”. In about 231 seconds, he manages to rap 758 words brilliantly. That's an average of 3.28 words per second!
4. Eminem
Eminem has been known as an extremely fast rapper ever since he declared himself the best rapper in the world with his song “Rap God”. But earlier songs also showed his enormous talent for language. The “Rap God”, whose real name is Marshall Bruce Matters III, was born on October 17, 1972 in St. Joseph in the US state of Missouri. His mother almost died during the 72-hour labor, so Eminem remained an only child. He spent much of his youth in a predominantly African-American neighborhood of Detroit, where he and his mother often had problems because of their skin color. It was here that Eminem first came into contact with rap music, a circumstance that would have a lasting impact on his life. The film “8 Mile” tells the story of his destiny and the beginnings of his rap career.
In 1996, he released his first studio album “Infinite”, which, according to his own information, probably only sold 70 copies. All of his subsequent albums have consistently topped the US Billboard Top 100 Hip-Hop Chart.
Probably his most famous Doubletime song is the song “Rap God”, released on the 2013 album “The Marshall Matters LP 2”, in which he delivers a breathtaking 1560 words in six minutes and thirty seconds. That's about four words per second. “Rap God” also got an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the song with the longest lyrics.
In his 2020 song “Godzilla”, Eminem raps 948 words in less than 244 seconds, a new record. That's a rate of 3.88 words per second! In one part of the song, he raps 225 words in 30 seconds, an average of 7.5 words per second.
5. Tech N9ne
Anyone who has ever heard a Tech N9ne album knows that he should not be missing from any doubletime playlist. Tech N9ne has perfected the so-called “chopper style”, which allows him to rap incredibly fast, but doesn't always make it easy for even native speakers to understand his content. Tech N9ne was born Aaron Dontez Yates on November 9, 1971, in Kansas City, Missouri. He started practicing his rap very early on and is said to have rapped the letters of his name as a child to help him remember how to spell them. His mother was very ill, a circumstance that led him to seek God at an early age and is still present in his rap lyrics today.
After starting out in the underground rap scene, Tech N9ne has released 15 studio albums since 1999. Considering his rap speed, in his fastest song, “Takin Online Orders,” he manages an incredible 912 words in just one minute (15.2 words per second). It's hardly surprising, then, that his stage name is inspired by an automatic weapon.
6. Twista
Another incredibly fast rapper and representative of the chopper style is the US artist Twista, also known as Tung Twista, which translates as “tongue twister”.
Twista was born on November 27, 1973 in the US city of Chicago, where he also grew up and first came into contact with hip-hop. He is said to have started rapping at the tender age of 12, but his first album was not released until 1992.
His breakthrough came in 1996, when he released the song “Po Pimp” together with Chicago producer The Legendary Traxster and rapper Do or Die, and it was a hit.
In total, Twista has released 14 studio albums, working with greats such as Kanye West, Ludacris, T-Pain, Jamie Foxx and R. Kelly. True to his stage name, Twista has released a dizzying number of lightning-fast songs.
The fastest of all, however, is undeniably “From Da Tip Of My Tongue”, in which he raps the 116-word first verse in just 16 seconds. The rap song “Victory or Death” (1999) is also super fast. In it, Twista raps 12.8 syllables per second.
7. Yelawolf
Yelawolf, whose real name is Michael Wayne Atha, was born on December 30, 1979 in Gadsen, Alabama, the son of a Cherokee descendant and a white mother. The latter was only 16 years old at the time of his birth and moved very often with her son during his childhood. He then attended an elementary school in Nashville that was located near a social housing project. According to Yelawolf, this was the first time that rap made sense to him. He released his first album, “Creek Water”, in 2005.
Since 2011, he has been under contract with Eminem's label Shady Records, and with “Radioactive” he released his first major label album in 2011. Just like his label boss Eminem, Yelawolf is a master of double-time rapping, as he impressively demonstrates in the song “Worldwide Choppers”, for example, on which other double-time greats such as Busta Rhymes, Tech N9ne and Twista also show off their skills.
Yelawolf has mastered the chopper style and can easily roll off six syllables per second, making him one of the fastest rappers of all time.
8. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
Unlike all the other artists presented here, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony are not a single person, but rather a collective of musicians consisting of the rappers Bizzy Bone, Wish Bone, Layzie Bone, Krayzie Bone and Flesh-n-Bone. They are all undoubtedly among the fastest rappers in the world and co-founders of the Midwest chopper style. The group was formed in 1991 in Cleveland, Ohio and initially called themselves “Baind Aid-Boys”. Under their now well-known name and with the members listed above, they released music for the first time in 1994 with the EP “Creepin on ah Come Up”. The album stormed to number 12 in the US album charts and was a hit. The two singles, “Foe Tha Love of $” and “Thuggish Ruggish Bone”, both received platinum awards.
To this day, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony have maintained their signature style of fast-paced rap and soul music, which often deals with profound topics such as domestic violence or spirituality. A great example of how fast the guys can rap is the song “Flow Motion,” in which rapper Krayzie Bone raps 239 words in just 26 seconds.
9. Twisted Insane
For many of his fans, Twisted Insane is the undisputed number one of all time in terms of doubletime rap. In 1992, he actually made it into the Guinness Book of Records as the fastest rapper in the world.
Twisted Insane was born Michael Johnson on September 22, 1982 in San Diego, California. He grew up in San Diego and wrote his first rhymes at the age of 12. After his first live show, he was so overwhelmed by the feeling that from then on he was “concert addicted”. He traveled around the U.S. and performed at various locations, making money from CD sales and a tapas stand.
His first solo album, Shoot For The Face, was released in 2006. At the time of its release, Johnson had no fixed abode. Since then, he has released another 13 solo albums, but his biggest success remains his feature on the song “Worldwide Choppers”, in which he raps a full 105 words in just 13 seconds alongside other Doubletime stars.
10. Spongebozz (Sun Diego)
This German rapper of Ukrainian origin is arguably the most serious competitor for our German Doubletime star Kollegah.
Spongebozz, whose real name is Dmitrij Aleksandrovic Chpakov, was born on March 17, 1989 in Czernowitz in the Ukrainian SSR. He was introduced to music by his mother, a professional musician, from the cradle. He never knew his father, who, according to the artist, was an alcoholic.
In 1992, he and his mother fled to Germany, where they initially lived in Berlin and later in a refugee home in Osnabrück. There, Spongebozz attracted attention mainly because of his criminal behavior, and he is said to have committed identity theft and cell phone fraud on a large scale.
In terms of rap, he first appeared in 2004 in the Reimliga Battle Arena, where he befriended rapper Kollegah, who later brought him to his label Selfmade Records. In 2013, he rapped for the first time under the pseudonym Spongebozz and released his first studio album, “Planktonweed Tape”, two years later. According to the label, the album is supposed to have reached number one on the charts, but it was banned due to an anti-police song. If you want to see Spongebozz's double-time skills for yourself, check out the JBB final. Here he raps a full 260 words in just 57 seconds.