While the hip-hop community is largely comprised of creatives, executives, and fans playing an active role in furthering the culture, there are a number of figures beyond the rap world who are “down” by law. Legendary writer, editor, and publisher Stan Lee, who passed away Monday (Nov. 12) at age 95, was one of those people to gain the respect and adulation based on the strength of their own talents and contributions; His presence helped influence a majority of rap history’s most iconic figures.
Beginning his career in 1939, Lee was a pioneer and trailblazer in the world of comic books, helping turn Marvel Comics into a powerhouse as the company’s long-time editor-in-chief. Responsible for creating legendary comic book characters (Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Mighty Thor, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Daredevil, Ant-Man, Black Panther), Lee’s work influenced scores of comic book fiends, including entire generations of hip-hop lovers.
Much like Lee, whose imagination helped affect how people see the world, many rappers morphed themselves into superheroes in their own right; Ghostface Killah gathered direct inspiration from his characters. After stepping out of the shadows and making cameos in various films based on the comics he created, Lee was as ubiquitous as ever prior to his death, with rappers and other figures within hip-hop invoking his name with the type of reverence reserved for an icon.
In celebration of his life and impact on hip-hop, VIBE compiled a list of 20 of the illest rap lyrics paying homage to Stan Lee.
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1. Common – “Chapter 13 (Rich Man vs. Poor Man)”
“A Manwich has mills like Stephanie Mills, dills like pickles/ I’m fancy, man, I tickles like the French/ Not Johnny but like Bench, I press on like Lee/ I stan’ like Lee, while you stagger like Lee”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=br8xqLzQvzo
2. Royce Da 5’9 – “I’m Me Freestyle”
“I take care of my family/ They say “Do the kid rock like Pam Lee?”/ The answer is yes and I invest/ It takes money to make money, so I make green off Green like Stan Lee”
3. Jon Bellium – “Adult Swim”
“My stance here as a bandleader is Pangaea/ My heart free-er, I’m cold, heater than Cambria/ I rock steady, my Johnson’s Dwayne-heavy/ We just erase heroes, I Stan Lee your remedy“
4. Timeless Truth – “Pop Champagne”
“Illustrate like Stan Lee… Kubrick/ Color code a Rubik’s Cube with my eyes closed/ Time froze… modern day Picasso’s viotech flows/My dialect grows when I elect, yo“
5. Killah Priest – “Sword Clan”
“Meditate, talk to Magneto and Professor X/ Y’all world’s last chance/ Telepathy like from the mind of Stan Lee/ My strength in the comic world is like family/ Your pix sticks of style of rap is weak“
6. Canibus – “Wreck Room”
“Flaw’s the illest and I put that on my daughters ‘cause/ I’m hungry, like the effect I get that marijuana does/ In this game, you’ll be the horriblest//So even with Stan Lee fighting Marvin Hagler, you couldn’t marvel us”
7. Daylyt – “First Breath”
“Isley brother that Mister bigger than ever it’s contra/ No contradiction we pill them like top prescription/ Here’s my prediction, if y’all get offensive there’s consequences so constantly/ Kinda Stan Lee, it’s marvelous moments charcoal upon us?“
8. Chino XL – “Closer To God”
“I’m feeling wild lately/ I don’t know how to die, kill you, you can educate me/ I’m back when the game is horrible/ I stepped right out of Stan Lee’s imagination, Chino is a living Marvel”
9. Apollo Brown & Ras Kass – “Animal Sacrifice”
“I’m at least top 10 breathing on land, me/ Helped Dylan raps, I got skills like Lee/ Which Lee? Any Lee, choose two/ Spike Lee, Bruce Lee, Stan Lee, Chun/ From Street Fighter 2 with the fire fall shoe/ Studied the best bars old school to the new”
10. Redman – “Ni**a Like Me”
“My credit card that I swipe/ True Religion’s all on my Nikes/ 7:30 train wreck, brain freeze/ I’m Capo, Marvel, got the Iron Man, Stan Lee”
11. Joe Budden – “Going Through the Motions”
“Here’s a message to the haters tryna stampede/ You wanna kill the kid, you’ll need a plan B/ Voices in my head soundin’ louder than the banshee/ Callin’ me a character, this ain’t sponsored by Stan Lee”
12. Chiddy Bang – “(Swelly) Extra Well”
“Young Chiddy turn a verse into a masterpiece/ Ni**a focused on the pie, I can let you have a piece/ Everything you can’t be, Fendis in the pantry/ Haters marvel at it like Stan Lee, damn me”
13. Chris Webby – “Get By”
“Never fade away, this the raw sh*t/ Blueprint, Stan Lee couldn’t draw this/ Flow a perfect 10, head-to-toe flawless/ Give ‘em a colostomy bag if they try to talk sh*t”
14. Dumbfounded – “Zonin’”
“There was no Plan B, told myself I can be/A superhero make myself dinero like I’m Stan Lee/I was a daydreamer, voted as the night mayor/ Packed inside a club like I don’t like air”
15. The Last Emperor – “Secret Wars (Prince Paul Mix)”
“Now with all these heroes down, Stan Lee refuses to surrender/ He got Storm from the X-Men, as if I couldn’t match the gender/ Stan Lee shouts ‘Excelsior!’ Yo, Stan you best to chill’/ There’s no match for Storm,’ I guess he’s never heard of Lauryn Hill”
The Last Emperor – “Secret Wars II”
“What if I had the power to gather all of my favorite MCs/ With the illest comic book characters and make them arch enemies?/ Inconceivable? Unbelievable? Yet as wild as it seems/ The Emperor and Stan Lee would coach the two opposing teams”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=g45FhfuaNpk
16. Apathy – “Plan B”
“I’m killin’ about a million little innocent civilians/ And chillin’; still in my secret location on top a hill an’/ Narratin’ this adventure like Stan Lee/ I narrowly escaped, time to start up my Plan B”
17. Hieroglyphics – “Phesto D”
“Manhandling, your crime family like Stan Lee/ Branding ni**as with the Hiero, symbol and/ Adrenalin is, hallucinogenic/ By the time the ambulance rolled up, the pharmaceuticals entered”
18. Chuuwee – “Decension (Routine) (ft. dahLak)”
“Trying hard to maintain things is the only thing I’m on lately/ Only going out if it pays me, the fuss and fighting just pains me/ But I dust it off can’t stain me, Stan Lee can’t create me/ I can sense the feeling ni**as hate me, but I can’t be seen in HD screen”
19. Cambatta – “Stoopid”
“My design was derived from Stan Lee/ Unequivocal mind I combine with hand speed/ Make a ni**a look like he died by stampede/ Even with a pair of God’s eyes, you can’t see“
https://youtube.com/watch?v=dRfJJzQntLU
20. Mickey Factz – “Sway in the Morning Friday Fire Cypher 2016”
“Yeah, that mean the flow is too gamma/ And I could fly, teleport, I threw hammers/ I’m Stan Lee in a cipher, Jack Kirby of writers/ Frank Miller drawing lyrics in lightning”