KMD : The blood line is Me , Mel & Caz - the trinity , then KRS One , Rakim & Kane then Biggie , Nas & Jay Z. Even further you can go Caz - Kane - Jay Z .....they all had street flavor ; then Mel - KRS - Biggie...they had the social thing (even Biggie with the story telling was social) , then the cerebral side was myself - Rakim - Nas . Then you have more levels - theres always 3 masters , a superstar & an underground . So for our era the super star was Kurtis Blow - me , Mel & Caz were the masters and Spoonie Gee was underground . The next tier is Rakim , Kane & KRS as the masters and LL Cool J is the superstar - the underground is T La Rock . Biggie, Nas and Jay Z are the masters - Tupac is the star ; and its funny because sometimes the superstar gets into a battle with the Emcee . I always said that Tupac was the bigger Emcee because of his stardom and diversity , but Biggie was the more pure Emcee. Also in Rakims era was Kool G Rap
Anyway, 3 years into this 10 year span only person that's "new" with any real dominance is Drake, everyone else floats in and out the game. You got a gang of candidates though: cole, kendrick, wale, krit, and a few others but nothing solid.