During the conversation with Shaquille O’Neal on his new podcast called The Big Podcast, Jamal Crawford drew the parallel to hip-hop to rank his top five NBA players of all time and used Eminem and JAY-Z’s impact as an example and said: “In my top five, the dominance outweighs the number. You can not change the game and say this person has more points than me, he is better. It is beyond that. Jay-Z’s affect on hip-hop is bigger than any album sales Eminem will have. That is just how it goes.” It seems Don Canon does not agree.
Jamal Crawford’s statement sparked lots of discussions in social media and 50 Cent also weighed in. The Hip-Hop Wolf Instagram page posted Crawford’s interview and asked fans if they agree to the statement or not. Under the comment section, Fifty replied: “Ha, bulls–t.” with Sneezing Face emoji.
No Jumper podcast host Almighty Suspect also denied Crawford’s statement: “Bro, I can name like six Eminem clones right now. Hopsin, DAX, Logic, MGK, that white McDonald dude that white dude who’s is making If-I-Was-Black songs. Joyner Lucas is one of them too. That’s the six. I’m not naming rappers that look like Eminem. I’m naming rappers who are actual clones of Eminem. I just named six. Tell me, name me, six Jay-Z clones.”
Fredo Starr has recently visited VLAD where the two discussed about the same topic. You can check the conversation below.
“That right there is great debate because they both have very powerful impact on hip-hop and not just music. Other ventures, other ways they affected the culture, fashion, movies. They did different things. They are both impactful so Jamal Crawford is one of the illest ball-handlers in the game but his perspective is his perspective. Ask that to white kids in Detroit about Eminem and Jay-Z and you gonna see the answer you get. Everybody got their opinion. You like Mercedes-Benz or BMW better? Jay-Z and Eminem is same s–t. There is no debate on that. They both have powerful impact on hip-hop.” says Fredro Starr.
Then he continues: “For me, my perspective, I would say where I’m from, Jay-Z had bigger impact to me. Musically first, I gravitate to Jay-Z’s music more than I do Eminem. Eminem is great artist, always represent Onyx. He’s dope! No question but I’m Brooklyn ni–a so you see what I’mma like. But I can’t take Eminem’s impact away and say Jay-Z has bigger impact. I can’t say that. Eminem put “Last Days” in 8 Mile. I did that beat. So his impact to me, I’m feeling that s–t too. To me it’s even.”
“Sticky Fingaz has two joints with Eminem. “What If I Was White,” and “Remember Me.” People don’t know Sticky was about to get signed to Aftermath. He was living in LA for two months. He was in a bidding war with Universal. Dre had him working on some joints. That’s where the Eminem collaboration happened. Shout out to Dre and Eminem.” The Brooklyn rapper added.
From there, Fredro started talking about Billboard/Vibe magazines Top 50 rappers of all time list: “I don’t know who made that 50 best rappers list. I ain’t gotta be on the list but Sticky Fingaz not on the best rappers list is kinda like bugged out to me. Jadakiss was like 46?! WHO WROTE THAT S–T?! I’mma speak up! Sticky would burn half of the ni–as on the list. That’s why he’s on the records with Eminem. And I think he bodied Eminem on that particular record. That’s just my opinion and I’m not being biased. I think Eminem put that competitive thing inside Sticky and he came off with one of the illest verses ever. Eminem brought that out of him.”