This weekend, BET announced their Top 10 rappers of the 21st century (to much controversy of course). Now it’s MTV’s turn. They’ll be announcing a new name every day this week. The number 10 spot was given to Ludacris. Hit the jump to see some commentary from MTV as to why Luda made this spot.

MTV News Senior Producer Rahman Dukes argued, “Banks has had one of the most successful years without putting an album out. He really set the pace where, at one point during this year, he was the hottest artist out of New York City, hands down.”

“Nothing against Banks, but on a proportional scale, Luda’s doing that to an even bigger scale,” countered Steven Roberts, an associate producer at MTV News. “[Banks] may have had the #1 record out of New York — Luda had the #1 album in the country.”

Yomi Desalu, the director of music programming at mtvU, said that having a successful album doesn’t necessarily mean an MC deserves a nod. Desalu echoed Dukes’ sentiment, citing Banks’ heavy presence on the mixtape circuit as a key factor for his consideration.

“It’s not just about the album because anyone can go out there and get special features or high-quality producers to produce an album,” he said. “When you’re talking about what the fans are feeling in the streets — five mixtapes, that’s hungry — that’s the hunger for more,” Desalu said, slyly dropping the title of Banks’ debut follow-up.

Sean Lee, MTV News’ supervising producer, concurred. “For him to have three big records off that album, that’s an accomplishment as well,” he said of ‘Cris.

“I think people see him not being on the music scene as much, but he’s still active in a certain capacity,” said MTV News senior writer Jayson Rodriguez. “I think that still speaks to the artist he is and the caliber of talent that he is too.”

Props: Info x MTV