Eminem Thread

Egads, I hate GOAT discussions in rap (music in general) and sports. Just too many variables and contexts to get it right, not to mention one’s personal bias. And music is really about what you viscerally connect with even more so than sports.

I see Tupac’s legend being his style that he brought to the mic. The image and energy, repping L.A., with a “Billy the Kid” shoot from the hip boldness at a moments notice. In one word - Aplomb.

Biggie I also see in a similar light as Pac with respect to him having a certain style that was very N.Y. repping. In one word - Style.

Nas is just a smooth poet, very concious, and conscientious even, rhymer with good wordplay. His style aged well and he has made really good albums in his later years. I think of Obama as a oratorical comparison, different context of course. In one word - Wise.

Em, ha, he is just an ill a** wordsmith. Aggressive with incredible energy in his rap. I don’t connect with his style in a way I would with the others usually because of the subject matter and his chorus balladeering just doesn’t connect with me. In a word - Wild.

I would compare and contrast Royce da 5’9” with Em in saying he has that similar wildness, but it’s a little more refinement with a better voice. In one word - Dope.

 

No way ever to settle Goat in this conversation and its really pointless anyways. Its all about preference in what type you gravitate to.

Conscious/Woke: Kdot, Cole, Nas, Mos Def
Poets/Storytellers: Pac, Big, Jay, Rakim
Verbal Assassins/Lyrical Geniuses: Em, Redman

I love battle rap and that pen game that you have to decode to figure out that the target get annihilated 2 obvious ways and 5 encrypted ways. They make sites like Rap Genius for artists like Em. His bars are legit puzzles that you have to figure out...his wordplay is straight bonkers.

When it comes to lyricism and wordplay, no one touches Em and that is why no one in the industry wants that type of heat to step to him. He was on that god flow in Kamikaze...s*** slayed my ears almost to the point where I need to listen to something else to "revive" them.

 

Nice touch at the end.

 

SO, I’ve been listening to “Not Alike” over and over and I’m thinking that Machine Gun Kelly needs to retire now, because he is just dead meat otherwise.

 

And the “...are, Kelley” I took him to mean “R. Kelly” since MSK was jonesing on Hallie like a perv. Brilliant.

 

Probably my favorite part of the album. The way the beat switches and Eminem's just shooting bullets at MGK with such dense wordplay.

 

This is gonna be fun.

 

Damn, I couldn’t even listen to the whole song. Boring. And just wrong.

It’s just a characteristic of these younger generations to disrespect the one before it. Like the idea of mgk trying to diss Em on its face should get you ignored and frankly beat down by anyone true to this game. White rapper, any white rapper, especially when you copy Em’s style, should bow down to Em period. He paved the way for international acceptance by going through anything he had to go through to get respect from his peers. He is a Rap God. Now this underling really is going to go after him. Just stop dude, no one is giving a f*** and you are not to be taken seriously.

 

This is light work for Em. First off you are not a younger Em...no one has ever said that other than you...both of y'all are white doing black music, but y'all are "Not Alike".

This is decent for R(ichard) Kelly, but I wouldn't be actively trying to piss off Em. How you going to holla at his 16 year old daughter (at that time), then pass it off as a joke, then catch feelings when her old man comes at you with his machine gun and keeps your pervin' a** away from his radio station? Although, no one is talking about dude before this, he's probably going to treat this like all those young girls he taped and exploit the s*** out this. He's smart for using Em's diss as a jump-off, cause honestly no one was thinking about dude before this.

Now what would be fun is if Drake (and his workshop of writers) or Buddens came for Em, cause they got the pen games that could make it interesting.

Still, no one truly wants that type of heat from Em. Drake didn't even want it with Pusha and Buddens is retired, which ironically could be Em's next album "re-" title.

 

Did we listen to the same song?

He acknowledges Eminem’s greatness multiple times and refers to him as an idol. His main issue is how Eminem apparently tried to pull strings in the industry to sink his career. He points out how Eminem waited so long to respond to his comment, and the hypocrisy of Eminem not being able to take a joke when he’s made a career out of offensive statements.

Those are all valid points, and just about as “respectful” as you can be in a rap beef ... other than name dropping both Hailie and Kim though. Em’s gonna murder him for that and I look forward to hearing it.

His flow is nothing special, but as someone whose never listened to MGK, it was surprisingly decent. Even though Eminem will destroy him, I think it was a brave move to actually respond and probably gonna be good for his career. No one was talking about him before this.

 

We heard the same song, though I didn’t finish it for reason. He wasn’t saying anything special. Em’s joint was that good to where it wasn’t worth listening to mgk finish the song. It’s like if Raja Bell told you to listen to him explain how Kobe is scared of him. Brave, or stupid?

But you said it, as did Em, nobody was talking about mgk before this weekend. It’s a tired ploy and why it was never worth Em’s time to even go there. But the bravery that you say mgk has is pointless because everyone knows he can’t stand next to Em and he is just trying to cash in on the moment. I’m not the type to give people credit for that or call them brilliant because they tricked someone of relevance into mentioning their name to get them attention. So I don’t see the point in even trying to pretend he has something interesting to say.

 

Thats crazy talk. IMO but thats your taste, all good. To me 2pac,biggie,nas,jayz,Em,young snoop,dmx,big pun, all of wu tang, bone,jcole,logic >>>>>>kendrick

 

pretty much

 

I really like kendrick, i just think hes very overrated. That doesn't mean he isnt' great in my view, i just think this generation overhypes him

 

Would you acknowledge that placing Cole and Logic ahead of him is mainly a reaction to your perceived overhype of Kendrick? I.e, you think they're underhyped in comparison but maybe not actually better? Or do you actually think those two are better than Kendrick as overall musicians? Lyrical ability, wordplay, variety and speed of rap flows, ear for beats, construction of cohesive conceptual projects, songwriting that transcends generic song structure, influence on the culture. If you actually think Logic and Cole are better as an overall music package, we're just not ever going to see eye to eye on any of this. I can get why you might not want to put Kendrick on the same level as the GOATs, but to put him firmly behind any of his contemporaries is surprising to me. And even then, in regards to anyone whose possibly acknowledging his greatness right now but not willing to put him into the GOAT conversation, that really reminds me of Lebron's situation where fans are disregarding his historical greatness due to nostalgia.

And in response to realdeal, I'd agree that Andre is one of the most overlooked GOATs. Although maybe that's a bit understandable given his lack of solo work. I'd say the same about Black Though.

Back on topic, for whatever reason, that MGK diss has been stuck in my head all week. Again, I really like it and think there are some valid points. Obviously MGK is for the most part a nobody and he's set himself up to be destroyed. But I think the track itself was pretty good for a rap beef reaction, and if you're going to hate on it without even listening to it all the way through that's pretty damn biased.

Also, Joe Budden has lashed out at Eminem in his podcast. Claims that Eminem hasn't delivered content. He's done a great job at rhyming words together but hasn't said anything of substance in over a decade. That he believes he's a better overall rapper. I think Budden is probably hypocritical. And I haven't listened to him enough to say whether or not he's ever been up to Eminem's abilities as a rapper.

But I think he has some valid points. Been saying this for a while. Eminem is one of the greatest technical rappers. His music though, in general, has not been interesting for quite some time. He's had great raps but the songs are safe. Boring production, formulaic structure, and features that haven't meshed well. Fast raps and punny lyrics don't make up for that, especially when the music is as absolute trash as Revival. You're really gonna call your audience "mentally r*******" on Kamikaze because we didn't like Revival? It doesn't matter if I missed out on the meaning of some of your lyrics, that project was garbage and insulting to the ears. If Em doesn't realize that, he's straight up delusional.

But with that said, these criticisms are mainly towards his previous work. Kamikaze did a lot to correct that. His rapping was great as always, but for whatever reason he simply executed everything else a lot better. Like the hook on Normal, on paper, is something that I would not like. But here, I actually like his singing voice and think it's pretty catchy. Same with Venom. Royce and Joyner give some great features. The beats are more engaging with some captivating beat transitions. Instead of sampling generic rock classics and having features from Pink, this time around we have a great feature from indie legends Bon Iver, and then a few songs later is a track with a Kingdom Hearts sample. Dope stuff. And while I wish he had more to say aside from outlash against his critics, but at least that made the project come across a bit more focused.