Melle Mel says Kendrick Lamar doesn’t influence hip-hop.
Melle Mel continues to be in the headlines for his statements on the recently released Billboard & Vibe’s Top 50 greatest rappers list. Now in a new part of his interview with The Art of Dialogue podcast, the Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five icon talks about #2 Kendrick Lamar and states that nobody wants to rap like him and Eminem.
Melle Mel said that Lamar’s songs “don’t translate into the street part of hip-hop.” “I don’t know what records he made like that,” he continued. “I might know one or two of them, but I don’t think you even hear Kendrick in the club like that.”
Mel continued and states that regardless on K. Dot’s talent, he doesn’t belong at the number 2 best rapper of all time. “Nobody wants to rap like Kendrick Lamar. Nobody wants to rap like Eminem. A lot of people wanted to rap, like ‘Pac and Biggie,” he added.
Melle Mel says no one wants to rap like Kendrick Lamar, and he doesn’t have any influence on Hip Hop. pic.twitter.com/04m6yVACpu
— The Art Of Dialogue (@ArtOfDialogue_) March 4, 2023
In another part of the conversation, he said that Eminem is only a top 5 rapper on the list 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.”
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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.”
Charlamagne Tha God is another person who does not think that Kendrick deserves a spot among the top 10 greatest rappers of all time “I feel like it’s too early for Drake and Kendrick to be saying stuff like that,” he said as DJ Envy read aloud Billboard and VIBE‘s Top 10 picks. “Of all time? God damn! Penis is a form of transportation for y’all.”
