Rory Says Eminem “Kinda Washed” Jay-Z Live

Rory Says Eminem “Kinda Washed” Jay-Z Live

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Last Saturday, Jay-Z brought Eminem on stage at Yankee Stadium to perform “Renegade” together again. It was a gesture of friendship and unity between two rap legends. Yet it also reignited the old debate. A longtime sceptic saw Eminem live and changed his mind.

Taking sides

It seems like it’s never enough just to enjoy the collaboration between two rappers. The public wants to declare a winner, to identify the stronger one. And there is no lack of those who see Eminem as the one who did better on the track. One of the loudest voices behind that idea was Nas. Admittedly, he did that on his famous “Ether” diss track, going at Jay-Z at full steam. Still, Nas was not inventing the debate. He was weaponising something many listeners already thought.

Initially, Rory from the Rory & Mal podcast, Joe Budden’s former co-host, did not share this point of view, “that narrative that Em completely smoked Jay on ‘Renegade’”. He saw this collaboration as the meeting of two equal talents. “Em went crazy, don’t get me wrong”, he said in the recent episode of his own podcast with Mal. “They both showed up with different perspectives. No fucking way I could say that Em washed him”.

Apparently, seeing Eminem perform it live at Jay-Z’s show changed Rory’s mind. “I’m coming in here to apologise”, declared Rory to his audience. “After seeing it live… Nah, Em kinda washed him”.

Skills on display

Watching Eminem perform live put everything into a different perspective for Rory. Away from the controlled conditions of a studio recording, under the pressure of delivering his lines to 45,000 people who came to see a completely different rapper – Eminem was sliding over the beat.

“Em did not miss a fucking syllable live”, Rory said. “Em is such a good live performer! When you heard those verses live, Em’s hit crazy. He hit every fucking word”.

For Mal Marshall’s showmanship was not a revelation but a well-established fact. He broke it down into two main factors: “The performance and the ability of what Eminem does with his rhymes”. For Mal, there are very few rappers who can deliver this quality on stage: “Him, Black Thought – when you see them rapping live, and you see their breath control, how they are able to hit every syllable… Just remembering these lines, not stumbling over them!”

Remembering the lines written over 25 years ago might be impressive, but it goes beyond that. Eminem loves rap as a whole, as culture, not only his own personal contribution to it. Again and again, he has shown that respect by rapping legendary artists’ own lines back to them. Of course, Eminem knew more than his own part on “Renegade”. Perhaps that was what finally broke Rory’s resistance and showed which of the two legends had control of the moment.

“He was helping Jay, he was rapping Jay parts!” Rory recalled in awe. That was a moment when he saw Marshall channelling the power of hip hop. “Em turned into a fucking instrument. He’s like a horn on it. And he’s actually saying something”.

The podcast hosts also mentioned other remarkable moments from the performance. Yankee Stadium singing along to “Lose Yourself”, Em rapping the second verse of “Lose Yourself” over the beat from Jay-Z’s “Takeover” – Rory could only use one word to describe this experience: “That whole shit was amazing”.

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