Rappers That Influenced Me

1. Biggie I can still remember the first time I saw the "Juicy" video and I was blown away. He is the main reason I became an artist and Big's music still influences me heavily today.

2. Jay-Z How can you not have Hov on your list? This guy is the absolute greatest guy living period. Half a billionaire, married to Beyonce, plus made classics such as Reasonable Doubt, Volume 2, and Blueprint and has countless hit guest appearances. If there wasn't Jay-Z, there wouldn't be Drega.

3. Noreaga Ohhh the rap geeks are going to hate me for this one. But Nore's influence on me is untold. From the classic The War Report to N.O.R.E to all those smashes he had with the Neptuenes, Nore made it okay to be the entertaining asshole. People think my name came from Noreaga which I do give some credit to homie. But it really came from when I was 11 years old doing tagging and my tag name would be Dre.G.A., the "G" stood for my last name and the "A" for my first name.

4. Method Man People forget how ill Meth was. I still can recite everyword in Tical, I could probably perform anything from "Sub-Crazy" to "Mr.Sandman" lol. Meth was influential on myself in terms of spitting some deep stuff with a melodic flow.

5. Nas When It Was Written came out it was a complete shift in the way music was made. Everything prior to that sounded like "Illmatic" with the boom bap sound, The Trackmasters and Nas totally changed how hip hop records sounded with this one. "Take It In Blood" is still the greatest song in rap history, next to "Juicy".

6. Ma$e Ma$e is probably the most influential rapper of the last decade. Every rapper got their slow flow right after M-A-Dollar-Sign-E cemented Bad Boy's dynasty.

7. Raekwon & Ghostface I'm a give it to these two for their work on Only Built For Cuban Linx. That album is the perfect album that any rapper, including myself, should strive to use as a blueprint.