KXNG Crooked speaks on Eminem’s legacy.
Slaughterhouse’s KXNG Crooked who recently spoke on Dr. Dre’s impact on Snoop Dogg, Em, 50 Cent & Kendrick’s career, released a new video where he addresses the hate against Eminem which started a few years ago in the culture. It was a good transition into Slaughterhouse’s history and Eminem’s influence in ensuring their spot in the game. After all four of them appeared on Joe Budden’s Mood Muzik mixtape, Crook recalls that fans suggested they form a group.
In the 16 minute video, KXNG Crooked talks about Eminem’s legacy as a lyricist, influencing other rappers, how Em evolved the flow, style of writing, and more.
KXNG Crooked says:
I’ve been noticing something over the past couple of years. It’s been creeping up, it ain’t just like super in the face to me and I’ll explain to you why I don’t believe it’s just plain as day but it’s been stirring up. A couple of years ago a wave started a wave that I never really saw before inside of the culture. Now, outside of the culture, I’ve seen people not liking this particular artist because of his content, because of the controversial things he was saying in his music. I know outside of the culture a lot of people had a problem with this particular artist. But inside the culture, a lot of people respected this artist because the skill level was immaculate. The writing was masterful. And that artist that I’m talking about of course is the homie, Eminem. A couple of years ago I started noticing people making little comments. That was kind of weird when it came to talking about Marshall. It started to seem as if somebody had an agenda to try to push him out of the culture and I noticed this like in 2018-2019. But it was just like a small movement and then it started growing. It started growing and to me, it’s just odd.
As a guardian of hip hop, I talk about everything. First of all, let’s get that straight when it comes to rap music I talk about everything under the whole spectrum of rap. The connoisseurs, y’all know we discuss all types of projects, all types of rappers, all types. But when I start talking about Marshall, people get bothered by that but I’m not here to care about how people feel about something that I want to express. Take it or leave. Now back to this issue that I’ve been checking out. A couple of days ago I saw a tweet and I usually don’t talk about tweets because everybody’s entitled to their own opinion. But I started seeing people that I was following retweeting this particular tweet. And people that are verified, with big platforms spreading this tweet around. The tweet and this ain’t verbatim, had something to do with a question asking “If we erased or got rid of Marshall Mathers, Eminem’s entire discography right now would hip hop be affected? If you just totally deleted his existence from hip hop would hip hop skip a beat? Would it be affected? What would happen? Now, of course, his fans were like, “Hell yeah, would be affected!” And some people were saying, “No”. A lot of people said “No” and that’s made me sit down and do this video because I was surprised that certain people who were saying hip hop would not be affected.
These people aren’t experts, they’re just verified accounts with big platforms but that’s where it starts. That’s where you start normalizing sh*t. People with big platforms start saying certain shit and it becomes something normal to say. People who aren’t really qualified to answer that question. Now, we get online and we answer a bunch of sh*t we’re not qualified to answer. I’ll engage in a conversation if somebody hits me and ask me my opinion and I might not be an expert on the topic but I still might just give my opinion, so that ain’t nothing, we all do it. So I ain’t mad at that. But I was really surprised that so many people said that we could get away with Eminem’s whole catalog in the game and it wouldn’t affect the hip-hop game whatsoever. That’s crazy, that’s crazy right there. We’re starting to get into crazy town a little bit, we’re starting to go into some goofy sh*t. And I’m only saying this type of sh*t ‘cause I’m a guardian of hip hop. Y’all who follow me and know me, you know I’m speaking on the health of hip hop, I’m speaking on being there to support people’s sobriety, it ain’t just about going in the booth with me. If we gonna be guardians of hip hop it’s about giving flowers, you know what I mean. I just send out appreciation tweets for different rappers that motivated me, inspired me, or just touched the world. I have no problem giving the next man his credit he is due, his props. Guardian sh*t. And me being on my guardian shit and seeing that people are attacking Marshall’s legacy, I gotta say something.
You’re gonna miss out on a lot of shit. We could go down a hypothetical rabbit hole real quick and say, “Okay, what does that put 50 Cent if there’s no Eminem?” Dr. Dre, of course, was already Dr. Dre, let’s not get it twisted, he was already one of the greatest rap producers of all times before he even met Marshall or was doing anything with Marshall and Em knows that, the whole world knows that. But it was beneficial for him to sign Eminem, a phenomenal writer, and to stamp, Eminem was beneficial for the Good Doctor too. You don’t want to go and just sign somebody who’s not gonna have an impact and not gonna eventually be a legend in the game. It was beneficial for Doc to do that and we don’t know what we don’t know, what that chapter of Dr. Dre’s life or career, I should say, looks like if he doesn’t put out Marshall Mathers. We don’t know. Yes, he’s successful as f**k up until that point, let’s not get it twisted, but that relationship with Em, that collaboration is a big chapter in the life and career of Dr. Dre, period. You take Eminem away, we don’t know what that chapter looks like. We don’t know what the 50 Cent situation looks like.
He expanded rap music. He wasn’t the first global artist by no means. I see a lot of stans saying that and that’s incorrect. He was not the first global rap artist, there’s plenty of rap artists who penetrated other countries outside of the US before and after Em. But he did help expand the reach of rap music. He brought more fans to the table and you gotta give him his respect for bringing those fans to the table. He brought more fans to the table, more people got interested in hip hop because of Eminem. His fan base, a lot of them never even listened to rap music before they discovered Eminem’s music and that’s what got them open to going listening and checking out other artists. Facts.
We don’t know where he’s at if he’s nowhere to be found in hip hop, we don’t know where that leaves 50 Cent, we don’t know where that leaves the fans, the millions of fans that were exposed to rap through him, we don’t know what that other chapter of Dr. Dre’s career looks like.
Courtesy: Eminem.Pro
The Eminem defamation is pointless for KXNG Crooked, as much as his haters may hate to hear it. KXNG Crooked took a moment to reflect on the emcees who genuinely presented a danger to his verse of the year goals when he spoke with HNHH for our 12 Days Of X-MAS interview special. He instantly glanced to his “I Will” collaborator Eminem and began to throw down a joyful appraisal, singling out Black Thought, Benny The Butcher, Royce Da 5’9″, and more. While it’s unclear who he was referring to directly, if anyone other than the broad haters, it’s evident that Crooked admires Shady’s penmanship. Though both emcees are distinct, they both appreciate multisyllabic rhyme schemes, internal rhyming, and seeking out unconventional pockets, which is unsurprising given their shared prowess as lyricists, not to mention their stylistic similarities; though both emcees are distinct, they both appreciate multisyllabic rhyme schemes, internal rhyming, and seeking out unconventional pockets. As a result, when you hear them on the same track, one rarely outshines the other.
Check out the whole thing below.
