Here Are The 32 Hip-Hop Groups Competing To Be Named Best Of All-Time

Ambrosia For Heads

“Finding the GOAT Group,” the fourth installment of Ambrosia For Heads’s annual competition series features Hip-Hop’s greatest collectives vying for the #1 spot. Sixty-two groups were pre-selected by a panel of experts, and one slot will be reserved for a wild-card entry, including the possibility for write-in candidates, to ensure no deserving band of MCs and DJs is neglected. The 2018 contest consists of seven rounds, NCAA basketball-tournament style, leading to a Top 32, then the Sweet 16 and so on, until one winner is determined. For each match-up, two groups are pitted against one another with a ballot to decide which one advances to the next round.

Round 1 has ended this past weekend. In a run-off match-up, Black Sheep defeated crosstown opponent Main Source (52% to 48%). Despite the call to action, that was not the closest margin in Round 1 (which began back in early April). That distinction belongs to EPMD, who bested onetime Def Jam Records label-mates the Beastie Boys by a single percent. Notably, a group in the tournament in Round 1, Slaughterhouse, disbanded during the competition. KXNG Crooked announced his departure just days before one super-group was defeated by another, thanks to Run The Jewels.

Speaking of super-groups, the Wild Card winner was determined by readers to be Method Man & Redman. Commonly known as “Red & Meth,” this longtime Def Jam duo came together amidst their existing (respective) ties to Def Squad and Wu-Tang Clan (who is very much alive in the tournament). The collective has a strong history of collaborative work even outside of their two Blackout! albums. The pair took Wild Card with 13.38% of the vote, beating out Meth’s Loud Records label-mates, Tha Alkaholiks (6.3%).

Here are the 32 Hip-Hop groups still in the tournament (listed alphabetically):

A Tribe Called Quest (defeated Souls Of Mischief)

Atmosphere (defeated Little Brother)

Black Sheep (defeated Main Source)

Black Star (defeated Organized Konfusion)

Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (defeated Three 6 Mafia)

Boogie Down Productions (defeated Ultramagnetic MC’s)

Brand Nubian (defeated Jungle Brothers)

Cypress Hill (defeated Das EFX)

De La Soul (defeated Leaders Of The New School)

Dilated Peoples (defeated Jurassic 5)

EPMD (defeated Beastie Boys)