RJOrion said:

phunkdaddy said:

we all dont have to get everything-

i like some old-school rap.

eminem is a little too new-school for me..

but who gives a damn!

phunkdaddy said:

Can we all please stop using the black and white division and start regarding each other as 'human beings'?

We have to find ways to unite people, not divide. We are all brothers and sisters and the sooner we tear down the walls of division (race, countries, wealth, etc.) the better IMO. One earth, one people, one love!!!

I don't think the racial aspect can be left undiscussed when discussing Eminem. Most of the people on this site are adults, so there's no reason why such a discussion can't be handled in a civilized manner.

I'm "as white as it gets" as far as my genetic and cultural background are considered, but I don't have a problem stating Eminem's massive popularity wouldn't have been possible without him having been white. The thing is, when you became an A-list star in popular music, a large percentage of your record buyers are going to be young people that see themselves in the artists or need to be able to relate to them on other fairly superficial levels. I know the 10-12-year-olds in the apartment next doors to the one I was living in liked Eminem a lot, as I could hear them listening to him all the time. I can't really say the same for stuff like Jurassic 5, which is what I was playing at the time (early-00s).

This is the same reason why I've tried to convince some of the orgers living in the US / UK that Beyoncé is nowhere near the massive star or a cultural icon in countries where there are fewer black people (or people of other ethnicities that may be able to relate to blacks). Eminem, at the peak of his popularity, was everywhere on the other hand. It sucks, but it's just a numbers game in the end.

Is Eminem really one of the best rappers out there? I don't know, when people started stating that I had to conclude that I have no idea anymore what's supposed to be good or not in hiphop. Around that time I stopped listening to the genre, for the most part. It became too poppy for me and all that poppy stuff was supposed to be somehow as legit as the underground stuff from the past.

[Edited 1/21/17 3:48am]

RJOrion said:

novabrkr said:

Is his influence apparent on the music that we hear today?

no

Of course not, do yall listen to what's out today? It resembles nothing great about hip hop lol.

Meet me in Paisley Park.

phunkdaddy said:

214 said:

Sorry guys, but smells like racism all over this thread, and this is not against black people.

Well this racist guy here was a fan of the Beastie Boys.

You can be fan of any artist of any race or cultural bacxkground and still being a racist.

214 said:

214 said:

tritoncin said:

novabrkr said:

EmmaMcG said:

i think mtv oughtta be a larger part of ya'lls conversation regarding who was responsible for popularizing hip hop amongst the white youth...you've got to consider that mtv had a national audience. kids were no longer limited to whatever the local radio market decided to pump out or to their parent's generational record collections.

beastie boys, run dmc, epmd, grandmaster flash, 3rd bass, blondie, fat boys, nwa, 2 live crew...too many to mention. then later dre, snoop and all the death row imitators. it was never a single artist of any race. mtv brought all of it to an audience that would never be exposed to it unless they made a wrong turn off the highway and ended in the wrong part of town while they were on vacation far from home.

it was a different time and things happened differently. you all seem to be looking through the lens of the way things are now is the way it's always been.

as far as eminem is concerned...by the time he came along, i think most folks were already hip hop fans if they were going to be. i'm not a huge fan, really, but i had enough hip hop exposure to hear about him when he was still just releasing mix tapes. dude's got skills and he's funny as fuck. i don't think him being white is a factor in anything. people just gotta have something to bitch about.

mechanicalemotion17 said:

mechanicalemotion17 said:

Like Elvis and Vanilla Ice before him...Eminem is highly overrated. Another great white hope nothing more nothing less. Dre cosigned and Blacks fell for it lock, stock, and barrel.

peedub said:

RJOrion said:

mechanicalemotion17 said:

peedub said:

i think mtv oughtta be a larger part of ya'lls conversation regarding who was responsible for popularizing hip hop amongst the white youth...you've got to consider that mtv had a national audience. kids were no longer limited to whatever the local radio market decided to pump out or to their parent's generational record collections.

beastie boys, run dmc, epmd, grandmaster flash, 3rd bass, blondie, fat boys, nwa, 2 live crew...too many to mention. then later dre, snoop and all the death row imitators. it was never a single artist of any race. mtv brought all of it to an audience that would never be exposed to it unless they made a wrong turn off the highway and ended in the wrong part of town while they were on vacation far from home.

it was a different time and things happened differently. you all seem to be looking through the lens of the way things are now is the way it's always been.

as far as eminem is concerned...by the time he came along, i think most folks were already hip hop fans if they were going to be. i'm not a huge fan, really, but i had enough hip hop exposure to hear about him when he was still just releasing mix tapes. dude's got skills and he's funny as fuck. i don't think him being white is a factor in anything. people just gotta have something to bitch about.

Y'all forgetting how big LL was. He had some major MTV hits too. What bugs me is how when Eminem came along white music writers acted as if he invented hip hop....or like he changed the game and brought intelligence to it that it was lacking before. Suddenly Rolling Stone writers who had completely ignored hip hop unless it was to write something snide are talking about cadence, meter,dactyl,anapest, elegy, while comparing his lyrics to Shakespearean sonnets. Like he somehow made it a legitimate art form [Edited 1/24/17 9:37am]

yeah, but you're kind of putting the cart before the horse. the only reason they were talking about him was because he had skills enough to get their attention. maybe they had previously neglected hip hop, but that ain't on eminem. the press is the press, but eminem was good before dre got ahold of him and before rolling stone said so. he may not be your taste and you can dislike him for whatever reason you choose, but the only reason you know his name is because he's got talent.

peedub said:

mechanicalemotion17 said:

peedub said:

yeah, but you're kind of putting the cart before the horse. the only reason they were talking about him was because he had skills enough to get their attention. maybe they had previously neglected hip hop, but that ain't on eminem. the press is the press, but eminem was good before dre got ahold of him and before rolling stone said so. he may not be your taste and you can dislike him for whatever reason you choose, but the only reason you know his name is because he's got talent.

Actually his "talent" and "skill" was knowing whose styles he could bite and get away with it. Eminem wasn't original by any means. Everything about his perceived' signature style' was stolen from lesser known MCs. Even he knew he was a fraud [Edited 1/24/17 11:03am]

well, stay tuned long enough and you'll see a thread started making the same claims against 90% of all artists in every genre of every medium. standing on the shoulders of giants, all.

mechanicalemotion17 said:

peedub said:

yeah, but you're kind of putting the cart before the horse. the only reason they were talking about him was because he had skills enough to get their attention. maybe they had previously neglected hip hop, but that ain't on eminem. the press is the press, but eminem was good before dre got ahold of him and before rolling stone said so. he may not be your taste and you can dislike him for whatever reason you choose, but the only reason you know his name is because he's got talent.

Actually his "talent" and "skill" was knowing whose styles he could bite and get away with it. Eminem wasn't original by any means. Everything about his perceived' signature style' was stolen from lesser known MCs. Even he knew he was a fraud [Edited 1/24/17 11:03am]

Right right... thats like saying Prince was fraud because James Brown, Sly and Jimi were better. You really have no much to run with.

There were plenty of white rappers from Ice, to Cypress, to Snow to Chaos, to Marky Mark that just didnt have the IT factor Eminem possessed. Eminem is the kind of person who can come on a verterans or legends track and make it their own (Dead Wrong - Biggie, Renegade - Jay-Z)

You can say what you want about originality without any receipts; however you cannot deny his craftsmanship and skill for conjuring the songs and albums under his belt without these "hidden icons" you proclaim were 'better'...that have not wrote any of his material.

As well, Eminem speaks very candidly about his own life. Nobody else is writing his material for him. Songs like Kim, My Fault, Brain Damage, The Way I Am, Just Don't Give A Fuck, Cleaning Out My Closet, Yellow Brick Road, up to Insane and so many others speak from a reflective and personal experience. Doesnt sound like you know what you are talking about.

RJOrion said:

paisleypark4 said:

mechanicalemotion17 said:

Did he REALLY just bring up Marky Mark??? Next he'll be trying to legitimize Freedom Williams

Yet you still bring no receipts