The Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors are battling in the NBA Finals for the fourth consecutive year. But which city can claim hip-hop supremacy over the other?

Turns out the answer depends on how you interpret the question. If you're talking about the city that has had the most influence on the history of the genre, it's hard to argue that the Bay Area - home to Tupac Shakur, MC Hammer and Too Short among many others - doesn't come out on top.

But if you're more focused on which team and which players have had the most impact on the shape of modern hip-hop culture, Cleveland, and specifically LeBron James, probably takes the lead. After all, without him it's quite possible you'd have one less Kendrick Lamar record in your collection right now. (It's also worth noting that the Warriors home turf actually covers two major cities - Oakland and San Francisco, as well as an extended Bay Area population of about 7,000,000, compared to the greater Cleveland metropolitan area's 2,000,000)

In the gallery below we explore the connections between both teams and the hip-hop community, and then chronicle the most famous, influential and up and coming rappers from each city.

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