The favourite past time of everyone in the hip-hop community right now is to fantasise who can battle whom on Verzuz. People come up with matches unexpected as well as sacrilegious. Fat Joe spent over 20 minutes on Drink Champs Quarantine Episode debating possible combinations. He only stopped when DJ EFN suggested Eminem.
They were discussing who can stand up against Busta Rhymes and of course this was only going to lead to the suggestions of the top quality battle rappers. “I think Bust against Eminem would be crazy”, said DJ EFN. But Fat Joe was more realistic:
I don’t know who wanna battle with Eminem. I don’t think nobody gets to fuck with Eminem. Nobody. DMX? Nah. DMX got the biggest hits in the world, one of the greatest rappers of all time. Legendary. Iconic. Superhero. And everything I’m saying is understated. He’s bigger than that. But there’s something about that white boy and his fans. Nah bro. You wanna see some crack in the Internet? He’s gonna crash, nigga. That nigga is carefree, bro.
Then Noreaga chimed in with his own controversial opinion, worthy, as he said, of breaking the Internet. Apparently, and he is aware that he is the only one who holds this opinion, he thinks that Eminem did not body Jay-Z on “Renegade”.
Fat Joe was lost for words:
I don’t even have an opinion on that. Eminem was hot when we came up. His fans from the day one, they are 40-45 years old. These white people teach their kids that are ten years old that Eminem’s the greatest. You’re going to an airport and a 10-years-old are playing his shit like 45-years-old but like it just came out right now. It’s a big difference with this boy. It’s something different. This generation they keep teaching their kids that he’s the man, like the ultimate science. You meet little white kids 10-11-12, and they know every Eminem song like it came out today. It’s different.
It was too close to claiming that white people are indoctrinated to love Eminem from childhood and N.O.R.E. stirred the conversation back to “Renegade”. He certainly had some heated discussions defending his opinion from people who took it very personally. But it was Lenny S who reminded that while both rappers bodied their verses it was ultimately Eminem’s track, it was his flow that married him perfectly, he made the beat and he also produced that song.
Fat Joe had something to tell about Eminem’s approach to producing that might probably annoy people who do not share it:
Eminem is the only guy who sent me for “Leanback remix” that same verse 30 different times, saying it with a different tone. He wouldn’t make up his mind. 30 different takes. The same bars! Different flows, higher, lower… I don’t know what to tell you, this dude is such a perfectionist!
Listen top the conversation below:
