Top five dead or alive? Personally, of course.
However, I can understand why others may not feel the same way. So there will never be an argument from me there. For others, you have two deceased emcees who are guaranteed spots in the top five, no matter what. Add the pinnacle of the game, Jay Z in there. Nas. Throw another rapper in there and there you have it. 96% of every hip hop fans top five. Arguing top five is ridiculous when everyones top five looks damn near the same.
But if Eminem perished tomorrow
theres no way in hell you can tell me that the white boy is NOT top ten. Granted, Eminems discography is all over the place, but so are the majority of rappers. In fact, I think his discog is pretty standard. Biggie and Tupac met their demise early and went out with great but small discographies, but they definitely would have seen themselves become the villian if they survived. No way in hell they would have been to adapt the game like Jay Z. Speaking of which, even Jay da GAWD had subpar albums like Kingdom Come and Vol 3. Nas had Nastradamus and Streets Disciple. We all know how Rakim went out. Same with Cube. Same with whoever.
A lot of people try to say that the only reason Eminem is mentioned in top rapper discussions by the media is because of his race, and thats completely ridiculous. Granted, it plays a part, but a lot of his recognition is because of his skill, which is incredible. Give the white boy props, hes still a beast on the mic and overall, theres very few rappers out in the game who can go head to head with him. Maybe his next album will be the one thatll get brehs to realize. Hopefully.
Admittedly, Eminem IS corny and he HAS made garb songs like Just Lose it, Fack etc. But I attribute that to his warped sense of humor and the fact that dude IS WHITE. I think I saw some nicca say Em is forgettable because his songs have no soul.
But, real shyt, those goofy songs like those are like 1% of his shyt, so I will never understand the focus on them. Everyone knows the great amount of songs from his first three albums, but even his recent shyt Im a huge fan of Relapse for example is wonderfully crafted. Even Recovery had gems like Seduction, Going Through Changes, No Love, etc. I think hes still got it. The talent is extremely evident when hes around Royce, for damn sure.
Ultimately, I feel you have to dig deeper to understand Em sometimes. For example, with Relapse, A lot of niccas focused on the accents, but underneath it all, he was spitting some insane shyt on top of top notch production. It was a concept album -- What would a serial killer sound like if he made a rap album? What if I had no limits on what I could say? Recovery was about him overcoming his drug addiction, so all of the pop sounds and the skyler grey esque hooks made sense.
Niccas will forever be alienated by shyt like this, so unfortunately, I feel Eminem will never get true respect from hip hop fans. Overall, though, his discog are not bad albums. Ill give yall Encore, however. But for me, he's one of the greats easily -- even if he died tomorrow.
, can't listen to these lil niglets
