Melle Mel reacts to Eminem’s place on Billboard’s Top 10 best rappers list.
Melle Mel made an appearance on The Art of Dialogue podcast, where the legendary talked about the recently released Billboard & Vibe’s Top 50 greatest rappers list. During the conversation, the Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five icon discussed Eminem’s place on the list and states that he’s only at number 5 because he’s white.
“Obviously he’s a capable rapper. If you was talking about sales, he’s sold more than everybody. If you were talking about rhyme style, okay he got a rhyme style. But he’s white. He’s white,” he says. “So now if Eminem was another ni**a like all the rest of us, would he be Top 5 on that list when a ni**a that could rhyme just as good as him is 35? That had records and all that? He’s 35. He’s white.”
He continued, “And anybody could be as mad… They could feel how they wanna feel. If you don’t think that race plays a part in the equation of how great he is — I heard one of the dudes that’s down with him, Royce Da 6’9″ [Royce Da 5’9″] or one of those – I heard he’s just as good as Eminem. Why he ain’t as big as Eminem? Because he’s Black. Ain’t none of that sh*t hard to figure out. Eminem gets a top spot because he’s white.”
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This behavior is nothing new from one of the pioneers of hip-hop, and is expected by long-time fans of the genre. Melle Mel has been critical of younger rappers for decades, including Run-DMC and Public Enemy. Recently, Melle Mel claimed he could “beat” Eminem in a rap battle during an interview with VladTV, and Method Man spoke out about his own negative experience with the rap icon in a video with Math Hoffa on YouTube. With a touch of sorrow in his voice, Method Man urged Melle Mel to remember that many of the people he speaks negatively of actually hold him in high regard.
Check out his interview below.
