Don’t tell me that you just realized that Eminem is greatest rapper of all time? Greater than the decoded Jay-Z, or even the stillmatic, enigmatic NaS. Eminem should make an album called Pillmatic. What other musician has been able to parlay their recreational drug use into millions of albums sold and dozens of entertainment industry awards. Eminem is the perfect storm of functional dysfunction in our reality show influenced culture. And most importantly, without a shadow of a doubt, he is a white dude.
The top spot in the pantheon of rap music god’s was always reserved for a white dude. See Glenn Miller for big band music, Bob James for jazz and of course, Elvis Presley for rock and roll. This is America after all we are talking about. It’s the land of milk and honey for whites, but the trail of blood and tears for everyone else. I will accept the fact that Eminem has worked his metaphorical and lyrical ass off to be the king of this musical genre but there is no way we should be discussing his receipt of ten(10) Grammy nominations on an album that isn’t even his best work.
Eminem’s Relapse album was a darker more revealing and technically superior album to this Recovery offering. This latest album feels like something people who have no interest in rap music will enjoy listening to. Sadly, the Recovery album becomes the representative of Hip-Hop to these people. I remember when Sarah Silverman was quoted as being reverential to Eminem for bringing real emotion to rap music. This is the danger of Hip-Hop being absorbed by popular culture. No one will even remember the social and economic frustration that the artform was borne out of.
Rap music has totally jumped into the pop music pool with the praise being lavished on the Recovery album by Eminem. My advice to all the people that cherish Hip-Hop for the authenticity of characters and content that have made the artistic movement so profound need to start putting their underground artists on repeat play. Roc Marciano delivered the best Hip-Hop album this year of any artist or group in possibly the last 10 years but there was no praise nor peep from the powers that be. If we fans of Hip-Hop can’t do better for the heroes still in the trenches then we might as well start calling Eminem the greatest of all time.
