It’s very hard to determine who the best artist is in a genre of music. Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, when music didn’t really have a specific genre, who was the best singer? Was it Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Paul Anka, or another well-known singer during that time? They all had major hits and you could make a case for any of them being better than the other (even though I take Elvis in that battle). This debate is even more difficult to figure out when it comes to the rap genre, because it is still fairly new and is still evolving. Some people say that Biggie is the best rapper; some claim it is Tupac; some people even believe it’s Lil’ Wayne (no....); in my opinion, Eminem stands above all others.
Most people who aren’t fans of Eminem seem to be avid listeners and supporters of Biggie and Tupac. Their reason? Because Biggie and Tupac rapped about ‘real stuff’. I have a question for those people. Where in the rapper’s handbook does it say that you will be deemed a better rapper if you rap about real life? Rap is a genre of music, and it can tell a story through its lyrics, but what you choose to rap about in your song isn’t the only thing that matters. Eminem would be nowhere if that was the case. In his earlier albums, Eminem raps about how much he hates his mother, calls women derogatory terms and constantly mentions how he dislikes homosexuals. If you ask me, that does not sound like a good resume. So why was Eminem so popular back when his music was concentrated on such controversial topics? One reason that most Eminem haters will automatically respond with is that he is white. I agree that this is an advantage to Eminem, being one of the sole white rappers in a predominantly black genre of music. But I don’t think it’s fair to say that people choose to listen to a rapper just because he’s different. Just like there’s an argument that more people listen to Eminem because he’s white, there’s an argument that some people choose not to listen to Eminem for that reason. I don’t care for the reasons, but it’s the truth. I have a friend myself who dislikes Eminem more than he should just for the fact that he’s white.
Lyrically speaking, as I mentioned, it doesn’t matter if you rap about your past, your neighbourhood, life’s challenges or about stupid stuff you do. I don’t care if Biggie had a tough life; I don’t care if Eminem hates his mother; I don’t care if Jay-Z has 99 problems; what I care about is how they deliver their message. In my opinion, Eminem’s music sounds the best. Maybe it’s because I’m a little softer myself and prefer R&B to rap. But there’s no denying that to an outside ear, Eminem’s music will catch on the easiest. That doesn’t mean that those people’s opinions should be disregarded; it just means that Eminem is better at attracting a wider audience, which is one reason he has a greater number of fans. And for lyric comparison, Eminem’s songs are not worse because he talks about more irrelevant stuff; he delivers it so strongly that he can make anything he raps about sound interesting. In ‘Criminal’ he raps about doing stupid things because he doesn’t care that/how people judge him. That’s sounds like a worse song than say, Hailie’s Song, which is stronger emotionally, yet I consider it to be a better one. Lyrical content is important, but not to the point where one topic is more important than another just because of its relevance to real life.
My opinion on this matter is somewhat biased as well. I began listening to Eminem when he was at his prime back in the early 2000s. Prior to listening to Eminem, I had not been a fan of the rap genre. I’ll admit this is a reason I like Eminem more than other rappers. But I am not talking about who I like the most; I am writing an unbiased article about who is the greatest rapper of all time. In order to determine the greatest rapper, it must be based on an unbiased statistic. The reasons people have for liking rappers may be biased and they probably are. However, if you ask the general public who they consider the best rapper, the number of people who say ‘Eminem’ or ‘Tupac’ will be unbiased. You don’t know if 30 out of 100 people will consider Eminem as the best rapper or 70; that number cannot be manipulated. But surveys aren’t conducted on random individuals in order to determine this figure; in my opinion, the best way to determine it is through sales figures. And guess who wins in that category? Honestly, the numbers speak for themselves. If he wasn’t as good as Biggie and Tupac, Eminem wouldn’t have been able to sell over 80 million albums worldwide. Here comes another argument: Biggie and Tupac were rapping when rap wasn’t yet mainstream, so they couldn’t build a reputation and recognition with the general public. What about Eminem though? When he released the Slim Shady LP back in 1999, are you honestly going to tell me that rap was popular enough for Eminem to get the recognition that he did? But wait, Biggie and Tupac had died by 1999, so their music wasn’t heard by everyone. You know what I think? I think their deaths increased their popularity, since they were the ‘big’ rappers at that time and their deaths were news. How do you think this debate would have gone if Eminem had died when he overdosed back in 2007? At that time, his last album was Encore (I’m not going to count Curtain Call as one of his albums, since it only included three new songs, one of which was terrible), which I’ll admit was a disappointing album. Regardless, had he died at that point in his career, there is not a chance in hell he would lose the best rapper debate. Relapse was an awful album, and Recovery was a pretty good effort at recovering his elite status, which he never lost. The Slim Shady LP, the Marshall Mathers LP and the Eminem Show are all better than anything he’s released since, and had those been some of his final albums, I don’t think there would be much of a discussion as to who was the greatest rapper of all time.
So as I was saying, in order to determine the best rapper, you need to observe the least biased statistic possible. And as I’ve pointed out, it’s measured through his album sales. I’m not talking about how much he’s sold in the first week or in the first year (Outkast’s double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below went diamond in its first year – who cares? Outkast has sold less than 30 million albums worldwide), I’m talking about its life. Eminem’s albums have longevity; their sales numbers didn’t drop off to zero like Outkast’s double album, which by the way sold only 5.5 million in its first year, but that figure was doubled because it was a double album, and then it sold almost nothing afterwards. If an album can keep selling and hit diamond status after ten years of release, that’s saying something.
In the end, it really doesn’t matter because supporters of Biggie and Tupac will continue to defend their favourite rappers. Fact is, there is more support for Eminem as the greatest rapper of all time than there is for Biggie and Tupac (or Nas, who I should have mentioned earlier). By the way, I haven’t really talked about Jay-Z because I don’t think he matches up with those three. He’s made way too many songs and for that reason, many of them are satisfactory, rather than being great, and the one song he did with Eminem (Renegade) didn’t make him look too good (even though he delivered a strong performance). He's been too focused on making a large quantity of songs, rather than good quality songs. Of his 15 or so albums, only three should be considered as good albums (Blueprint, the Black Album and Reasonable Doubt), and that's a fairly small percentage. You can argue for whoever you want, but bias will be involved no matter what. Eminem wins in the least biased category, and for that reason, he is the greatest rapper of all time.
Side note: You don’t have to be a devoted fan of the rap genre to have your opinion considered in this debate. If you listen to only rap and like every single artist, then congratulations to you. But if you listen to all types of music and prefer a pop artist over a rapper, it doesn’t mean your opinion should not matter. As long as you’ve had the chance to hear all sides of the rap genre, then you may contribute to the debate however you like.
