The whole idea that eminem is a technical beast has to do with his TECHNIQUE and really more so about the variation in technique from album to album/era to era. All this "soul" shyt is outside of that argument and more so about what you can "feel" or identify with, or even what beats you like.
The only time something as subjective as "soul" really registers to me is when it comes to technical ability is actual song writing, which is indeed something that takes technique. Beanie sigel is great at conveying emotion, pac was the best at it, these are SKILLS, not innate shyt like having a dope voice or just being..black.
Em is great at conveying emotion in his prime, which adds to his overall skillset.
Now as far as "the most technically skilled" blah blah blah... IMO that's really because the people who have to take it THERE are really comparing him to his mainstream competition and not the game in entirety. Em is elite across the board but it's plenty of rappin ass rappers outside of the mainstream that can compare. When you pit him up against mainstream rappers it can look lopsided because he's benefiting from not having as much competition.
Just another reason to give the white boy his props in his own space than try and force some kind of handicapped ranking system to make you feel better about being fan.
his flow is ass half the time.
I'd strongly disagree. Even during his underground run, I wouldn't say his flow was bad, just that he was more concentrated on lines because that was the aim, it was a particular style that he was running with, not a lack of ability. Look at a song like "underground" where he revisits that "choppy" chino XL'ish style deliberately.
Compare "if I get locked up tonight" to some of his early early shyt where he was really just rapping like a normal rapper, ie shyt like biterphobia or the nas/az influenced shyt..staying on beat wasn't a problem, conforming to a straight up rhyme pattern while trying to be visual and cartoony is.
As he stopped being such a line for line oriented rapper he reverted back riding beats more normally.
His voice is his voice...not a technique, how he plays with his voice however does contribute to his TECHNIQUE being that he's adept and slants and bending words.
he has no soul. no flavor. a lack of rhythm.
This just sounds like "he's not black enough" to me. As I said, to me soul is largely being able to convey emotion, he can do that very well. He couldn't rap as well as he can without rhythm...flavor
I mean I know what you are trying to get at but "flavor" is not a technique, that's some intangible variable that you'd have to really reach deep into the opinion pocket to clearly define for a discussion like this.
Not in his prime, in the least. No, and maybe even
EARLY in his career? Bizzare's verse is wack but ammityvile is one of those great displays of how to deliver a verse, the second in particular...that's mic presence to me, and his ability to do that didn't really get shaky til after encore.
All in all...his technical prowess for me boils down to variation. Twista is another cat up there on the technical scale but picture how dope he'd be if he went back to that resurrection flow, or even some different shyt besides the double/tripple time. I think he'd be much more fun to listen to, this is one of the reasons i'm a big fan of em.
@ this being an example of "just like em, but better"
