[Hockey_Ninja]

Originally Posted by kipperfan

Don't get me wrong, his creativity is amazing, one of the things I've always loved about him. And as I stated in my first post, nobody can deny his technical prowess on the mic. But I stand by what I said, I don't think he would be in my top 30, looking at it strictly from a lyricism stand point. And that's for a couple of reasons:

Firstly, as touched upon in my post above, I have a real hard time listening to homophobic and misogynistic lyrics lacing a large portion of his songs and I have an even harder time considering someone who has to resort to those sorts of lyrics a top lyrical emcee. I didn't mind that kind of stuff so much when I was 15 years old and listening to SSLP and even when I was 18 and listening to the Eminem Show. But in the last 15 years not only have my views progressed leaps and bounds as I've matured, but societies views have as well and I kind of hoped Eminem, who is now 40+ years old, would have matured a bit too.

Secondly, on his last few albums (this one included) Eminem has 2-3 songs that are pretty great-awesome lyrically, but he also has 10-15 that are average to below average lyrically. The artists I would put in my top 30 (and to clarify, I haven't made this list. Who knows, Eminem might sneak into the late 20's) put out albums with 10-12 great-awesome lyrical tracks. When I think great lyrical emcees, I think legends like Masta Ace and Slick Rick, I think underground legends like Gift of Gab and Slug (Atmosphere emcee), hell I think of the THE Living Legends!

Just my take and despite all that, Eminem is still close to, if not at the very top of my list as far as hip hop artists I hope to see live one day - because he is that dam skilled.

Em is a top 10 all time MC and lyricist IMO. In his prime he had untouchable skills that very few emcees today can touch. While a lot of this subject natter and content was extreme at times he still displayed a lot of passion and love for his craft that several people, even those who don't like him, can admire. He's one of the main reasons I feel in love with hip hop and he'll always be quite possibly my favorite rapper.