Here Are The 16 Hip-Hop Groups Competing To Be Named The Best Of All-Time

“Finding the GOAT Group,” the fourth installment of Ambrosia For Heads’ 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 was reserved for a wild-card entry, including the possibility for write-in candidates, to ensure no deserving band of MCs and DJs was 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 2 has ended, making way for the exciting Sweet 16. With each showdown being definitive, no runoff’s were necessary. The most noteworthy ballot in the round may have been Boogie Down Productions’ close call victory against Run The Jewels, 52% to 48%, in a duel across Rap generations. The most sizable victory was a Native Tongues family feud, as A Tribe Called Quest bested Black Sheep by a margin of 98% to 2%. The reader-voted Wild Card winner, the duo of Method Man & Redman was no match for Gang Starr. Guru and DJ Premier bumped Red’ and Meth’ from the tournament. However, for Method Man, his Wu-Tang Clan squad is alive and well, going into Round 3.

Here are the “sweet” 16 Hip-Hop groups still in the tournament (listed alphabetically):

A Tribe Called Quest (defeated Black Sheep)

Black Star
(defeated Slum Village)

Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (defeated The Fugees)

Boogie Down Productions (defeated Run The Jewels)

Cypress Hill (defeated Naughty By Nature)

De La Soul (defeated Dilated Peoples)

Eric B. & Rakim (defeated EPMD)

Gang Starr (defeated Method Man & Redman)

Mobb Deep (defeated The LOX)

N.W.A. (defeated Geto Boys)

OutKast (defeated Migos)

Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth (defeated The Pharcyde)

Public Enemy (defeated Brand Nubian)

The Roots (defeated Atmosphere)

Run-D.M.C. (defeated Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five)

Wu-Tang Clan (defeated M.O.P)

Round 3 begins Tuesday (August 7).