1. Rakim ... the god...
2. Tupac... can't front... the dude was dirty!
3. Run DMC... pioneers of this shyt and was the first to do quite a few things for hip-hop
4. LL Cool J... like him or not (i don't really care for him nowadays) but the man gets my respect for holding Def Jam down single handedly since his first album "Radio"
5. Eminem ... Face it, the dude is multi-talented... freestyles, battle raps, albums, production... he's the complete package

On another note... i love biggie to death but he's not in my top 5 ... he was good but he didn't contribute nearly as much as the guys on my list... werd