Ex-Slaughterhouse MC analysed statements that Eminem and Snoop Dogg exchanged recently and made a series of confusing statements.
The conversation on his podcast started with Mal stating that Benzino made some valid point about Eminem and his place in hip hop culture and Joe reminding that Eminem is an objectively exceptional rapper and artist that is difficult to keep up with. And that statements that “nobody listens to Eminem” cannot be accurate with all the numbers Marshall shows.
And then things went downhill. Joe played the segment from Marshall’s interview where Em explained why he felt necessary to address Snoop’s remarks.
Em said:
A couple of months ago he was doing an interview with the Breakfast Club. Somehow my name got brought up, and he was saying things about, you know, I’m not in his top 10… And everything he said, by the way, was fine up to a point… I’m not in his top 10 because there are some rappers from the 90s that I can’t fuck with. And him saying Dre made the best version of me – absolutely. Why would I have a problem with that? Would I be here without Dre? Fuck no, I wouldn’t. The rappers he mentioned from the 90s – Krs-One, Big Daddy Kane, G Rap – I’ve never said I could fuck with them.
Everything was good until… You know, I think it was more about the tone he was using.
Joe pushed the stop button here to deliver his verdict that surreally contradicted to all versions of reality that we know:
This is bothersome to me listening to this clip. Ironically, because of the tone. I don’t like Em’s tone in expressing… I didn’t like his tone before he got to this part. You could hear it’s not something he really wanted to do. It’s kinda the same way I felt when he was responding to me through the interviews and songs. It didn’t sound like it was something he wanted to do. But just did it. The fact that all of this exists sounds like it’s worrisome for Em. That’s how it sounds. And then he says, “It wasn’t any of that!” Which means it was all of that. And it gets to “it was the tone”. And that’s where I have a huge issue in hip hop and hip hop critiquing, and culture critiquing, whatever the fuck you wanna call it now. Are we tone policing? Because that’s exactly what it says, “I’m not mad at what you’re saying”. As humans, instinctually, we would feel something if our friend or someone we were closely affiliated with did that. Cool. When you say it publicly, it sounds like bullshit. Him saying, “Y’all, I don’t have a problem with all of the people you put ahead of me in your top 10, and you’re not listening to my shit” like that was cool. No, it wasn’t! Because he had a problem with it. I think he did. I heard the tone part, but I think it’s a lazy scapegoat. I think it’s true, but I think it’s a lazy scapegoat.
Joe was scoffing at “tone policing” while doing exactly that – building his theories on the tone alone and disregarding facts. The facts that Eminem indeed never puts himself above the Golden Age hip hop titans that Snoop had in his top 10 and always and forever gives credit to Dr. Dre, who made his ascension possible. But Joe preferred to trust his projections more than facts. It seems as his own wounds left after Joe’s departure from Slaughterhouse and Shady Records are open again and make it difficult for Joe to think straight.
Watch Joe Budden reacting to Eminem’s interview:
