While Tom Brady and Bill Belichick continue their path of football domination, Eli Manning remains the only quarterback to defeat them in a Super Bowl.

Throughout his career, Manning has been an above-average quarterback. He has climbed the all-time leaderboard for passing yards and touchdowns, but has thrown over 200 interceptions and has never been a top-tier quarterback in the league. On the whole, his career has been fairly unremarkable.

But for two Super Bowl runs, Eli Manning was elite. He led an underdog New York Giants squad to an upset victory over the most dominant team in football history in 2008 and succeeded against the Patriots again several years later in 2012.

Brady and Belichick may have built the greatest dynasty in football history, but Eli Manning will always have their number.

In hip-hop, there are a lot of Eli Mannings.

Guest features can be a dangerous game for rappers. Artists like to raise their profile by inviting talented rappers to chip in a verse, but no artist wants to be upstaged on their own song.

However, as Nas so eloquently said on “Ether”, some rappers will inevitably murder you on your own shit. Often these are household names like Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Andre 3000, and Jay-Z. Sometimes, they’re specialists who are at their best on guest verses like Busta Rhymes and 2 Chainz.

Other times, the rappers who so mercilessly upstage others are upstaged themselves. On those occasions, another emcee just has their number. These are the Eli Mannings of rap.

First, some criteria to be a rap Eli Manning:

  1. These emcees can’t consistently kill other rappers on their own song. This eliminates artists like Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, and Andre 3000.
  2. The artists can’t be in a group together but can be part of a group. For example, you couldn’t argue for Killer Mike/El-P but you could argue for Killer Mike/Big Boi. Additionally, to be considered a rap group, at least one project needs to be released by the group.
  3. There must be at least three instances of upstaging the other rapper. Smaller sample sizes are disqualified.  
  4. Friendly fire is fair game. Most of the duos on this list are under the same record label and collaborate consistently. While there’s no beef, there’s definitely some friendly competition.
  5. The person they upstage needs to be a great artist. This part is entirely subjective, but no one is impressed by beating Diddy.

Unlike Eli Manning, these rappers don’t need to make stupid faces, force receivers into making great catches or have a big brother that’s better than them. Here’s an (incomplete) list of rap Eli Mannings and their Tom Bradys: 

Jay Rock/Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar is notorious for murdering any and all guest verses he’s featured on. From the game-changing “Control” with Big Sean, to “Collard Greens” with Schoolboy Q, to “The City” with Game, a super-sized playlist could be curated with just disrespectful Kendrick Lamar guest verses.

But Kendrick has met his match on several occasions when he’s collaborated with longtime TDE label-mate Jay Rock. Jay Rock went toe-to-toe with Kendrick last week on “King’s Dead”, a single off of the upcoming Black Panther soundtrack.

However, Jay Rock’s verse on “Money Trees” sparked the conversation that Kendrick was outgunned on his own song. In an annotation for the song on Rap Genius, Jay Rock admitted to stepping up his game for a collaboration with Kendrick.

“I first heard the record before it dropped, riding in the car with Top Dawg listening to the whole album. I was like, ‘Okay, I want to hit this shit hard and rock this’,” Jay Rock said. “I wrote two or three versions before I could get writing. I didn’t want to put just anything on there—I’m going against Dot. I wanted to go in for the homie.”

Kendrick’s laid-back pace is perfect for setting the tone of the song, but when Jay Rock hops on at the four-minute mark, his impassioned flow provides a shot of adrenaline in one of the best verses on arguably the best album of the decade.

Jay Rock has also stepped up his game on the majority of Black Hippy’s efforts. He goes hard on the “U.O.E.N.O. remix”, and again on “Black Lip Bastard” and “Vice City”. While Kendrick may be the best doing it right now, he’ll be up for a challenge every time he spars with Jay Rock.

Santa Claus don’t miss them stockings

Liquors spillin’, pistols poppin’

Bakin’ soda YOLA whippin’

Ain’t no turkey on Thanksgivin’

– Jay Rock, “Money Trees”

Cee Lo Green/ OutKast

Cee Lo Green has endured many transformations since entering the music game. He started by pioneering the singing-rap trend that paved the way for current hip-hop with Goodie Mob, transitioned to the soulful Gnarls Barkley, went solo and became a judge on The Voice, maybe wore a weird gold costume to the Grammys, and then circled back to his rap roots once the TV money went away.

During the early days with Goodie Mob, Cee Lo was a surefire feature on OutKast albums. While Andre 3000 and Big Boi certainly upstaged each other from song to song, it was rare that a guest feature would come on and out-rap them both.

But Cee Lo Green did it on three different occasions. On OutKast’s debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, Cee Lo was featured on “Git Up, Git Out” and showcased his stellar lyricism in the opening verse. Andre 3k and Big Boi both provided great verses but Cee Lo’s was a perfect introduction to a standout song from OutKast’s first album.

Cee Lo stole the spotlight again on Aquemini’s laid-back “Liberation”, contributing a fiery verse to complement the offerings from OutKast and Erykah Badu.

On “In Due Time”, a promotional single from the Soul Food Soundtrack, Cee Lo contended with OutKast again. With themes focused on staying patient and having faith, Green provided the vocals for the hook and also chipped in a verse that’s so different from his Dungeon Family teammates that it stands out even with Andre 3000 providing a legendary verse.

Cee Lo had the perfect style to defeat OutKast on their own songs, making him a great addition to the Eli Manning Rap Index. Let’s just hope he’ll have another opportunity to work with OutKast on another album in due time.

I admit, I’ve done some dumb shit, and I’m probably gon do some mo’

You shouldn’t hold that against me though

– Cee Lo, “Git Up, Git Out”

Big Sant/ Big K.R.I.T.

Notoriously underrated Mississippi emcee/producer Big K.R.I.T. has released seven high-quality projects this decade. K.R.I.T.’s perfect blend of soulful, bass-heavy production and strong southern style has earned him a place among hip-hop’s elite. K.R.I.T. cemented his place as a top emcee with the release of the ferocious “Mt. Olympus” in 2014.

His albums have featured hip-hop legends like Bun B, T.I., Ludacris and Pimp C but no guest has gone harder on a Big K.R.I.T. beat than his Multi Alumni label-mate Big Sant.

When Big Sant hops on “How U Luv That”, a cut from King Remembered In Time, his aggressiveness forces its way through the headphones. An already forceful banger typical of a Big K.R.I.T. album, Sant steps up to make it one of the album’s best.

On “Return of 4eva”, the opening track from K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, Sant goes in on the second and third verses to provide listeners with a biting introduction to the album. He overshadows K.R.I.T. again on “Steps” with Smoke DZA, and “Pull Up” with Bun B.

With K.R.I.T. now independent of Def Jam, there will be plenty of opportunities for the pair to battle on future albums.

Man I’m coming out harder than you could ever imagine

Paper stackin’, breaking mics, livin’ the fastest

– Big Sant, “Return of 4eva”

Pusha T/ Kanye West

Kanye West is arguably the biggest name in rap. A case could be made for Jay Z, Eminem and Kendrick, but Kanye’s in-your-face honesty has made him one of the world’s most polarizing personalities. However, Kanye’s fame didn’t just come from marrying Kim Kardashian or beefing with Taylor Swift—it came from making great music.

Of the eight albums in Kanye’s catalogue, at least five could be considered classics, with the others not far behind.* Kanye has been out-rapped on his albums on multiple occasions, but no one has done it more consistently than his G.O.O.D. Music teammate Pusha T.**

The former Clipse member has the best moment on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’s “Runaway”,  opens with an incredible acapella verse on the remix to Chief Keef’s “I Don’t Like”, and destroys everyone on the trunk-rattling Kanye single “Mercy”.

You could also argue Pusha T upstaged Kanye on “New God Flow”, the only good thing to come from Cruel Summer, but each verse on that song is so good that it’s hard to pick a single winner.

Pusha’s intense stability is always a good way to complement Kanye’s experimental tendencies in both his rapping style and production, providing Pusha with the perfect circumstances to consistently upstage Kanye.

Invisibly set, the Rolex is faceless

I’m just young, rich, and tasteless

– Pusha T, “Runaway”

While being added to the Eli Manning Rap Index might seem insulting at first, it’s a lot more prestigious than the name lets on. As Nick Foles and the Philadelphia Eagles may find out in a few weeks, beating the best isn’t easy–and the rappers who do so consistently don’t get enough credit.

*My Kanye West album rankings: 1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy 2. Late Registration 3. The College Dropout 4. Watch The Throne 5. 808’s and Heartbreaks 6.Graduation 7. The Life of Pablo 8. Yeezus

**Pusha T and Kanye West technically released Cruel Summer as part of G.O.O.D. Music, but they weren’t on every track together, so I’m not counting this as a rap group

***I say a lot of nice things about the New England Patriots in this piece. Please know that I do so grudgingly.