Who's on your Mt. Rapmore?

Recently, I was reading the most recent Sports Guy Bill Simmons' mailbag. Among other questions about Roger Clemens being a lying, cheating piece of shit and questions about the Patriots being choke artists, Adam in Hillsville, VA. submitted the following question:

"If they were going to construct the Mount Rushmore of the rap industry, who would the four members be? Keep in mind that it is the four most influential people to the history of the industry, not necessarily the four best rappers."

Bill Simmons responded by saying that Tupac, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z and Notorious BIG would be on "Mt. Rapmore." He says Tupac was the rawest, Dr. Dre helped form West Coast rap and found some of the best rappers. Jay made the most money and is an icon. He threw Notorious up there because "you can't have a Mount Rapmore with Tupac and not Biggie when those guys are so intertwined historically."

So, my question to you is who would you put on your Mt. Rapmore? Bill Simmons did not put groups on there, but I think you need to allow them. I think it is an incomplete list if you just put individual people on there.

I would agree that Jay-Z needs to be on this list. I think by far he helped ligitimize East Coast rap. He also is extremely influential in the Hip-Hop fashion world. He owns/runs one of the largest Hip-Hop record labels and one of the largest clothing labels.

My second rap face would be NWA. They solidified West Coast Gangsta rap. They were really the "World's Most Dangerous Group." Two founding members, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre went to have huge solo careers. Dr. Dre was so influential to other rappers including Eminem and 50 Cent.

I would put Russell Simmons on the list. He is not a rapper, but he is Hip-Hop. He was co-founder of Def Jam Records along with Rick Rubin. Rubin went on to work with tons of groups, some hip-hop, some not. Simmons was key in putting Hip-Hop on the map with contributions in the music and fashion.

The fourth face was difficult to select. I am going to go with the Beastie Boys. They are one of my all-time favorites. They were the first "white kids" to sing "black music." They also brought Hip-Hop from the streets to the party scene. These 3 kids from Brooklyn did it all in there early days from touring with Madonna to playing concert with a giant inflatable penis on the stage. And if that doesn't get you on Mt. Rapmore, I don't know what does.

PS: If you had asked me to bet my life savings on how many faces are on Mt. Rushmore, I would've said 5 without a doubt. I'm such an idiot.