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Jay-Z said it first, “men lie, women lie, but numbers don’t.”
Rolling Stone came out this week with an article that introduced the “King Of Hip-Hop,” and to many people’s surprise Eminem held the crown.
Eminem’s not really the king of consistency and he doesn’t boast the most charisma, but when it comes to selling albums and having the most Facebook friends, Em seems to reign king, but does that make him the “King Of Hip-Hop?”
I say no, with a capital N-O!
Every hip-hop fan knows that selling the most albums, doesn’t make you the best rapper or the realest rapper, it simply means you have a lot of fans who support your movement.
To Eminem’s credit, he is an amazing rapper, but the king?
Does he make top 10 rappers list, for sure, but to be crowned king is a little dramatic.
Being crowned the “King Of Hip-Hop” shouldn’t solely rest on popularity, or how many YouTube clicks you receive or how popular you are on Facebook, that’s just ridiculous.
But if we must insist on playing the numbers game, Rebecca Black got 100 million YouTube views in a short month, and we all know that her “Friday” song is the most terrible thing we’ve ever heard, but does this make her the Queen of Pop? Hell no!
To Rolling Stone’s credit they did make a disclaimer, that this list wasn’t an all-time greatest rapper list, as we can tell, by all the random rappers they have on the list.
Rappers like Pitbull, Waka Flocka Flame, Gucci Mane, and Diddy made the top 20 on Rolling Stone’s list but everyone knows they wouldn’t even make the list for the best 100 rappers. So let’s be forreal.
Instead of being labeled at the King Of Hip-Hop, Eminem should be the King Of Numbers, because let’s admit it, the guy can sell an album regardless if it’s good or not.
Tupac was crowned the best selling rap artist of all time in 2007 with over 75 million albums sold worldwide. So did that make Pac the King of Hip-Hop back in 2007?
Obviously, most people would say no, because Tupac has been deceased for 15 years now, but since Eminem has now surpassed Pac with the numbers do we hand the reigns over to him?
My problem is that the industry is too obsessed with counting numbers, which in turn, affects the quality of the overall product.
For example, Lil Wayne is a dope lyricist, when it wants to be, but sometimes he’s too busy flooding the market with mixtapes and a bunch of features that the overall quality of his product sometimes lacks.
As a Lil Wayne fan, I know that mixtape Weezy is my favorite, but after his release of Sorry 4 The Wait, it’s clear that we could have waited for a better quality Weezy.
Jay-Z said it best, “If skills sold/truth be told/ I’d probably be/ lyrically/ Talib Kweli.”
Talib Kweli rapped a rebuttal on his “Ghetto Show,” “If lyrics sold/then truth be told/I’d probably be just as rich and famous as Jay-Z.”
We know that being a lyrically great rapper doesn’t make you commercially successful, but it should it negate or discredit you being crowned as the king of hip-hop?
Should counting strictly numbers validate your overall skill?
Having the age old argument of who is the best rapper alive, or the greatest rapper of all time is one that’s messy, and based on taste.
As I have a moment of clarity, I realized that if we’re all getting the numbers and popularity contest mixed up with skill, overall talent, and lyricism.
Eminem is a great rapper, but the king of hip-hop? Ehhh….
