Debate Tournament Overview and Information

Information:
The goal of this debate tournament is for the users of Rap Genius to discuss some of the most popular and iconic albums in the history of the genre and argue which is superior. This can be approached from any angle, be it critical acclaim, influence, commercial success, quality, creativity or an others the users can think of

The focus is the arguments themselves, not the albums being debated. While the albums should be of similar quality and status, users will be judged based on how effectively and convincingly they are able to argue why their album is better, more important, etc

Structure:
The initial matches were randomly generated using random.org. After the first round, the tournament will progress traditionally

The albums are assigned randomly using random.org*. Each round, the remaining participants will be randomly assigned a new album from the remaining list

*I encountered an issue with the site loading, so the backup I'll be using is randomnumbergenerator.com.

The original list is as follows:

Paid in Full — Eric B. & Rakim
Follow the Leader — Eric B. & Rakim
Criminal Minded — Boogie Down Productions
The Great Adventures of Slick Rick — Slick Rick
Strictly Business — EPMD
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back — Public Enemy
Fear of a Black Planet — Public Enemy
Straight Outta Compton — N.W.A
3 Feet High and Rising — De La Soul
De La Soul is Dead — De La Soul
AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted — Ice Cube
Death Certificate — Ice Cube
People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm — A Tribe Called Quest
The Low End Theory — A Tribe Called Quest
Midnight Marauders — A Tribe Called Quest
The Diary — Scarface
Whut? Thee Album — Redman
The Chronic — Dr. Dre
2001 — Dr. Dre
Enter the Wu: 36 Chambers — Wu-Tang Clan
Doggystyle — Snoop Doggy Dogg
Illmatic — Nas
It Was Written — Nas
Stress: The Extinction Agenda — Organized Konfusion
Ready to Die — The Notorious B.I.G
The Infamous — Mobb Deep
Liquid Swords — GZA
The Score — Fugees
Reasonable Doubt — Jay Z
The Blueprint — Jay Z
The Black Album — Jay Z
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill — Lauryn Hill
The Marshall Mathers LP — Eminem
The Slim Shady LP — Eminem
All Eyez on Me — 2Pac
Me Against the World — 2Pac
Aquemini — Outkast
ATLiens — Outkast
Stakonia — Outkast
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below — Outkast
Madvillainy — Madvillain
Raising Hell — Run-D.M.C
Run-D.M.C. — Run-D.M.C
Radio — LL Cool J
Long Live the Kane — Big Daddy Kane
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... — Raekwon
Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star — Black Star
Road to the Riches — Kool G Rap & DJ Polo
Moment of Truth — Gang Starr
Mecca and Soul Brother — Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth
Supreme Clientele — Ghostface Killah
Critical Beatdown — Ultramagnetic MC’s
Grip It! On That Other Level — Geto Boys
Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor — Lupe Fiasco
Paul’s Boutique — Beastie Boys
Licensed to Ill — Beastie Boys
Breaking Atoms — Main Source
Resurrection — Common
Be — Common
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy — Kanye West
The College Dropout — Kanye West
Late Registration — Kanye West
Donuts — J. Dilla
Good Kid, m.A.A.d City — Kendrick Lamar
To Pimp a Butterfly — Kendrick Lamar
Black on Both Sides — Yasiin Bey
Get Rich or Die Tryin' — 50 Cent
Tha Carter III — Lil Wayne
Undun — The Roots
Ridin’ Dirty — UGK

For the first round, arguments must be PMed or emailed to arobie1992 on or before the due date for that piece of that round. The formatting of the argument is entirely at the user's discretion. Once they are received, arobie1992 will post lyric pages with each opening statement and notify the user's opponent that the argument has been posted

For the second round on, the lyrics pages for the arguments will be posted along with the matches page. Each user is to post their section of their argument by the due date. If a user encounters trouble posting an argument to the lyrics page, they can email or PM it to arobie1992, who will post it for them

These lyric pages will be included in this collection and linked from the matches page for the current round

If no argument is submitted by the due date, that user will be disqualified without exception. If there is fewer than 50% of the users submit arguments for any given round, the tournament may be discontinued

Once the final deadline for a round has passed, the judges will review all arguments and email or PM their verdicts to arobie1992 who will update the contestants and pages and assign the next round of albums

Citing Sources:
If you take information from a specific source, please state so, and link to the source using the Genius's inbuilt link function like so:

typed as: [*source name*](*source url*)
displays as: Rap Genius Debate Tournament Overview and Information

Replace the text inside the asterisks and get rid of the asterisks

Linking to Wikipedia can get wonky if the url ends with a closing parenthesis, ). In these cases, you'll have to use the actual HTML tags:

typed as <a href="source url">source name</a>
displays as: Rap Genius Debate Tournament Overview and Information

Since I made this rule after the start of the first round, I will only be enforcing it starting with the second round; however, it would be good practice to do so in the first round as well

Personnel:
Moderator/organizer:
@arobie1992

Judges:
@CheGuevara_KB24Stan
@charlie_54
@HeavyisBack
@1MFgenius
@Didact

Miscellaneous:
Since a few people have asked, my thinking for each section is:

Opening - Here, the user gives their reasoning for their album.
Rebuttal - Here, the user counters their opponent's points.
Closing - Wrap up, with final thoughts
However, these are by no means requirements. Arguments can be structured however you feel most comfortable and believe will be conducive to constructing the best argument you can, provided they have these three sections

Switching Albums:
Albums cannot be traded between users once they have been assigned. Doing so will result in disqualification

However, if any participants feel they are unfairly matched, then they can contact arobie1992, and he will give them a new randomly assigned album from the remaining pool. Their previously assigned album will be returned to the pool of unused albums

In theory, these albums should all be fairly evenly matched, so only use this after having exhausted all possibilities. This will only be allowed once per round per participant, and if there appears to be any abuse of this, all participants will lose this option