The best rapper from all 50 states

Oregon

Artist – Illmaculate

Years Active – 2010s

Notable Track – “New Chain”

Sample Rhyme:

“My surrounding’s a warzone

The trees watching, police choppers, concrete cracks beneath my feet walking

Dream big, I’m asleep but I sing conscious

She feed me grapes while she draped like a Greek goddess

Christ-like, walked water and seemed flawless”

—

Interpret this how you will, but Illmaculate is … really good. Not that any of the other rappers you’ve never heard of on this list aren’t good. Plenty of them are just fine! A few of them might even be worth listening to again, particularly if you intend to visit the state they’re rapping about.

Illmaculate is like getting hooked up to an oxygen mask after wading through the states of the Midwest and New England. His flow is smooth and maybe his rhymes aren’t incredible, but this is still some seriously impressive stuff from a rapper who, by all appearances, still makes the rounds at rap battle competitions.

He’s not rapping about how beautiful Oregon’s pine forests are, or even how great the donuts are in Portland (really great). Being a Native American — like a real one, not just the 1/15 Cherokee we all think we are — he’s got a unique perspective and the skill to flesh it out for us.

Illmaculate’s so good that it’s almost discouraging. Why don’t we know more about this guy? Why isn’t he getting guest verses instead of, say, Big Sean?

Next: Pennsylvania