MTV's 'Hottest MCs' starts Monday

Yeah, this one should be pretty easy to guesstimate. The top five will include Eminem, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne and Drake followed by a tier of undeserving artists like Rick Ross, Cudi, T.I., 50 Cent and we'll say Young Jeezy. Maybe they'll sneak in Raekwon.

"On September 28, my fellow MTV News Hip-Hop Brain Trust members and I will start to release our -- keyword being "our" -- list of the Hottest MCs in the Game. Number 10 will be announced on the 28th, nine on the 29th, etc. through October 2. Then, on October 4 during "P. Diddy's Starmaker," we will reveal numbers five through one. Numero uno, the number-one spot.

You know the drilly by now, right? I mean, this is the third year we've done it. Well, in case you forgot or just didn't know, a group of my MTV News colleagues and I sit down at a roundtable and discuss who we think are the 10 hottest cats in the game right now. Each year the audience is very vocal with comments, and some people even come up to us on the street to tell us how much they agree or disagree with our list. We love it.

This year, there were over 1.2 million votes in our fan poll. The cumulative votes will be factored into the Brain Trust's rankings. But keep in mind, this is still the Brain Trust's list. Personally, I like having the fans' votes factored in. We're all in this together. I love the debate, and as anxious as you are to see who we picked, I'm even more interested to tell you guys. The Miss Cleo in me says that this is going to be our most controversial list ever. Just remember to have fun with it. That's right -- have fun, enjoy it. You'll get excited. You might -- almost definitely at some point -- get upset. But this is hip-hop. This is the music and culture we love"