Top Fives
Top Five lists are notoriously difficult to compose. There's always the risk of leaving off a truly deserving person or wanting to turn the list of five into a list of ten or even twenty-five. That's what makes these types of lists so interesting. I have jotted down a few of my Top Fives in a variety of areas, mainly as a way of sharing some of my creative influences. Enjoy.
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Top Five MCs
1. Phonte 2. Andre 3000 3. MF DOOM 4. Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) 5. Q-Tip Top Five Movies
1. The Shawshank Redemption 2. The Usual Suspects 3. The Five Heartbeats 4. Finding Nemo 5. 10 Items or Less Top Five Novelists
1. Toni Morrison 2. Haruki Murakami 3. César Aira 4. Octavia Butler 5. Roberto Bolaño Top Five Male Vocalists
1. Jeffrey Osborne 2. Stevie Wonder 3. Marvin Gaye 4. Michael Jackson 5. Donny Hathaway Top Five Notebooks
1. Field Notes 2. Montblanc 3. Leuchtturm1917 4. Rhodia 5. Moleskine Top Five Athletes (Women)
1. Serena Williams 2. Florence Griffith Joyner 3. Dawn Staley 4. Simone Manuel 5. Simone Biles Top Five Athletes (Men)
1. Muhammad Ali 2. Jesse Owens 3. Jackie Robinson 4. Kareem Abdul Jabbar 5. Arthur Ashe Top Five Villains
1. Gus Fring 2. Erik "Killmonger" Stevens 3. Joan Ferguson 4. Marlo Stanfield 5. Anton Chigurh Top Five Superhero Characters
1. Riri Williams/Iron Heart 2. T'Challa/Black Panther 3. Miles Morales/Spiderman 4. Ororo Munroe/Storm 5. Toni Stark/Iron Man Top Five Blues Artists 1. Howlin' Wolf 2. Muddy Waters 3. Little Walter 4. B.B. King 5. Little Milton Top Five Classic Hip-Hop DJs
1. Jam Master Jay 2. Grandmaster Flash 3. DJ Jazzy Jeff 4. DJ Kool Herc 5. Spinderella Top Five Writing Inspirations
1. César Aira 2. Ernest Gaines 3. Ana María Shua 4. Tananarive Due 5. Lydia Davis |
Top Five Books
1. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison 2. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison 3. Mama Day by Gloria Naylor 4. Waiting in Vain by Colin Channer 5. My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl Top Five Bands
1. Earth, Wind & Fire 2. Queen 3. Mint Condition 4. Incognito 5. The Roots Top Five Poets
1. Lucille Clifton 2. Langston Hughes 3. Gwendolyn Brooks 4. Etheridge Knight 5. Kevin Young Top Five Female Vocalists
1. Anita Baker 2. Chaka Khan 3. Minnie Riperton 4. Erykah Badu 5. India.Arie Top Five Movie Directors
1. Spike Lee 2. Barry Jenkins 3. Ava Duvernay 4. Kevin Smith 5. Jordan Peele Top Five Photographers
1. Annie Leibovitz 2. Herbert Ritts 3. Marc Baptiste 4. Gordon Parks 5. Ansel Adams Top Five TV Shows
1. The Wire 2. Breaking Bad 3. Atlanta 4. Black Mirror 5. Abbott Elementary Top Five Comic Strips
1. The Peanuts 2. The Far Side 3. The Boondocks 4. The K-Chronicles/(th)Ink 5. Candorville Top Five Comedians
1. Redd Foxx 2. George Carlin 3. Chris Rock 4. Dave Chappelle 5. Wanda Sykes Top Five Sports Teams
1. Baltimore Ravens (football) 2. Tottenham Hotspur (soccer) 3. Las Vegas Aces (basketball) 4. New York Yankees (baseball) 5. Brooklyn Nets (basketball) Top Five Hip-Hop Music Producers
1. Teddy Riley 2. Q-Tip 3. Dr. Dre 4. Just Blaze 5. Bink Top Five Christmas Movies
1. Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas 2. A Christmas Story 3. Charlie Brown Christmas 4. Jingle Jangle 5. Scrooged |
Top Five Artists
1. Jean-Michel Basquiat 2. Ernie Barnes 3. Kara Walker 4. Romare Bearden 5. Dr. Fahamu Pecou Top Five Playwrights
1. August Wilson 2. Suzan Lori Parks 3. Lorraine Hansberry 4. John Guare 5. David Mamet Top Five Short Story Writers
1. Shirley Jackson 2. Charles Chesnutt 3. Toni Cade Bambara 4. Roald Dahl 5. Charles Johnson Top Five Music Groups
1. The Foreign Exchange 2. We Are KING 3. Tony Toni Tone 4. Jamiroquai 5. Moonchild Top Five Dancers
1. Gregory Hines 2. Savion Glover 3. Michael Jackson 4. Harold Nicholas 5. Misty Copeland Top Five Songs
1. "Through the Fire" - Chaka Khan 2. "As" - Stevie Wonder 3. "Human Nature" - Michael Jackson 4. "Better Days" - Dianne Reeves 5. "Fairy Tales" - Anita Baker Top Five Scariest Movies
1. Psycho 2. The Ring 3. It Follows 4. The Exorcist III 5. In the Mouth of Madness Top Five Books on Writing
1. Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott 2. On Writing by Stephen King 3. Zen In the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury 4. The Way of the Writer by Charles Johnson 5. Free Within Ourselves by Jewell Parker Rhodes Top Five Jazz Musicians
1. Miles Davis 2. John Coltrane 3. Thelonious Monk 4. Herbie Hancock 5. Robert Glasper Top Five Blue-Eyed Soul Singers
1. Phil Collins 2. Michael McDonald 3. Lewis Taylor 4. Bobby Caldwell 5. Amber Navran Top Five Horror Authors
1. Stephen King 2. Tananarive Due 3. Shirley Jackson 4. Victor LaValle 5. Richard Matheson Top Five Up-and-Coming Writers
1. Nafissa Thompson-Spires 2. Maurice Carlos Ruffin 3. Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah 4. Rion Amilcar Scott 5. Leslie Nneka Arimah |