One of the hip-hop pioneers, Melle Mel of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, has recently done an interview with The Art Of Dialogue where the legendary rapper shared his thoughts on Eminem and Kendrick Lamar being in the list of top 5 greatest rappers of all time by Billboard/Vibe magazines.
“Kendrick Lamar being number two? I don’t know. Obviously, he made some good songs but these songs don’t translate to the street part of hip-hop. I don’t know what records that he made like that, I just know one or two of them but I don’t think you can hear Kendrick in the club like that. It does not translate him to being number two greatest rapper of all time. It should not because he’s fairly a new rapper.” said Melle Mel.
Then he continues: “When we did ‘The Message’ that was the beginning of conscience rap. People started talking more conscience. After Kendrick Lamar does these songs, nobody wants to rap like Kendrick Lamar, nobody wants to rap like Eminem. A lot of people want to rap like Pac and Biggie. That’s my take on it. If after Eminem make his songs and he makes big splash in the game, if you don’t have thousand white rappers, then nothing changed. He’s a good rapper. He’s capable but to say that he has changed the game like Pac changed the game? No.”
In the previously shared clip, Melle Mel also questioned Eminem’s place in top 5 greatest rappers list: “Obviously, he’s a capable rapper. If we talk about sales and he sold more than everybody, okay, if we talk about rhyme style, okay, he got a rhyme style. But he is white! He is white! If Eminem was just another ni–a like the rest of us, would he be top 5 on that list when a ni–a can rhyme just as good as him is 35?! They had records and all that.”
You can watch the interview below:
Melle Mel says no one wants to rap like Kendrick Lamar, and he doesn’t have any influence on Hip Hop. pic.twitter.com/04m6yVACpu
— The Art Of Dialogue (@ArtOfDialogue_) March 4, 2023