Some Of Royce 5’9″ & Black Thought’s Best Work Is Side By Side In This Killer Mix

In the last two decades, two of Hip-Hop’s most extraordinary MCs are The Roots’ Black Thought and Slaughterhouse’s Royce 5’9″. Each rapper puts their working-class cities in the bars about survival, pain, addiction, and perseverance. These great minds have come together before, such as PRhyme’s “Wishin’ II,” Statik Selektah’s 2014 collabo “The Imperial,” or 2016 Royce’s EP standout, “Rap On Steroids.”

One fan takes that chemistry on an even more expansive experiment. Nickel For Your Thought is not a mash-up, but rather an examination. Digging into the sprawling catalogs of each MC (including freestyles, mixtape spots, TV cyphers, etc.), the mix finds when these rappers spit on the same beats, rocked similar concepts, and chose overlapping titles. It sequences accordingly. The mix is seemingly not out to ask who is better, but rather—showcase a-alikes in two soulful microphone mercenaries known to carry a few styles in their bags. The three collaborations mentioned above are included for good measure as well.

Earlier this week, in support of their ongoing acting roles on David Simon’s The Deuce series, Thought and Wu-Tang Clan’s Method Man smashed a give-and-go freestyle session on Sway In The Morning. Meanwhile, Royce just appeared in a video for brother Kid Vishis’ “Go Off.” That track shows that bars are the family biz.

#BonusBeat: One year ago this week, Black Thought joined Royce, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Smif-N-Wessun, Pharoahe Monch, Freeway, and others for a freestyle rendition of Juice Crew’s “The Symphony,” which Ambrosia For Heads caught from the crowd:

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