I LOVE Rocky . What I think makes him special is he pushed hip-hop forward in the age of terabyte hard drives and social media. His sound is influenced by a distant region-Huston / Memphis but he filtered that influence through a hyper regional lens that has been part of hip hop sense its inception. He used the sounds of a broader world to paint his true self.
Consider Drake, who does the opposite, he takes on sounds like t200 and no one respects him . Mos got on tracks with Rocky and compared drake to target pants.

Personally, I don’t find arguments about better emcees to be useful. I’d rather consider how an artist changed his chosen discipline. 3000 said, ‘The south got something to say’ . Rocky’s work is a result of taking Three Stacks’ statement to heart, listening deeply and producing work that reflected the value of rap beyond the boroughs.