That said, for NYC to truly reemerge as the dominant force in rap music, the city is going to need new blood to burst onto the scene. Here are the artists that seem most likely to get the job done.

Primary Challenger - Saigon. His major label debut The Greatest Story Never Told continues to be pushed back further and further to the point where I'm starting to worry that the title is going to be prophetic. That said, I can't imagine anyone that has a better shot at bringing New York rap back to the forefront than Saigon. He's got arguably the hottest producer in the industry (Just Blaze) in his corner, a distribution deal with Atlantic records, and a series of guest spots on Entourage that only served to boost his popularity. Saigon's combination of gritty street tales, clever punch lines, aggressive boasts, and on-screen persona have him poised to be an enormous hip-hop star. We just need that album to come out. Sometime. Anytime.

(By the way, everyone should know this Saigon story that occurred earlier this year. He was stabbed in the head with a beer bottle in a robbery and then ran around trying to hail a cab so that he could avoid getting blood in his Benz. Unable to do so, he eventually drove himself to the hospital where he wound up getting a whopping seventy stitches.)

Listen to: "The Letter P Freestyle," "Contraband," "Pain in My Life," and "Yup, Yup."

Secondary Challenger - Papoose. It was a tough call to relegate Papoose to second string. His label situation seems more secure than Saigon's as Jive/Violator recently made Papoose the "1.5 Million Dollar Man" and immediately put his debut album "Nacirema Dream" (American spelled backward) at the top of the priority list. And for good reason. Papoose has become an underground monster, churning out nearly a dozen highly regarded mixtapes in just a few years.

In fact, so prolific was the Brooklyn rapper, he received the 2005 Justo Award, given to the top underground artist. Nicknamed "The Lyrical One" and compared to the late Harlem legend Big L, Papoose's only shortcoming is that he seems to lack the charisma of Saigon. His rhymes aren't as incendiary and his style - while steady - can become a tad boring after too many spins. Expect this intelligent and confident rapper to have a long, prolific career, but I'm not sure he's going to become a megastar. He's like the NY rap version of Emeka Okafor.

Listen to: "Brooklyn Stand Up," "Alphabetical Slaughter," "Out in New York," and "Wake Up Call."