Last year, the NBN co-founder vented frustrations about Top 5 lists and their impact on Hip-Hop. “I don’t think a lot of rappers get the credit they deserve ’cause it’s always like, ‘Who’s your Top 5 or Top 10?’” Treach told Math Hoffa’s My Expert Opinion in 2022. “It’s the most disrespectful question I get in Hip-Hop. Who’s my best five or 10 when we going back from the ’70s to now. From [Grandmaster] Melle Mel and Grandmaster Caz to like now? LL Cool ]J] … you telling me to name five and then five up until when? Now? And I only got five? And then you ain’t even mentioning the females!”

However, speaking with N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN, the artist was willing to shout out his Top 5 MCs from the Garden State. “Top 5? Damn,” responds Trigga Treach at 7:17. “It would have to be King Sun, Apache,” he begins. Treach proudly corrects N.O.R.E. that King Sun hails from Paterson. Apache was a fellow Flavor Unit member and Tommy Boy Records artist, who died in 2010. “Wise [Intelligent],” he continues, referring to the Poor Righteous Teachers co-founder. “Redman and Queen Latifah,” Treach adds. After acknowledging the first five, he continues, “Rah Digga, Lauryn Hill, DoItAll…it’s like, Jersey, we tight and right. And it’s just we’re overlooked so much.” He adds Wyclef Jean to the list amid his point. “Jersey [has] venom-spitters, and everybody have a different style. So it’s like, I’m a fan before I was friends with ’em—and a lot of ’em, I was friends before fans.” He then shouts out Flavor Unit cohorts Lord Alibaski, Chill Rob G, Lakim Shabazz, and Double J. Last month, the Flavor Unit’s original architect, 45 King, passed away at 62 years old.

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