Kurupt has recently sat down with The Art Of Dialogue where the legendary rapper responded to Melle Mel of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five saying Eminem is only considered a top 5 rapper of all time because he’s white.
“That’s his opinion. That’s not our opinion though. The way Dr. Dre took Eminem subject matter wise is one thing. The way Eminem rock, he’s a battle rapper and he is hip-hop no matter what color he is. Dr. Dre took him in this way so that has no bearing on his skill. His skill is renowned.” said Kurupt.
Then he continues: “That’s Melle Mel’s feel on it. Melle Mel is an icon of hip-hop. Melle Mel is speaking from his perspective, from hip-hop’s perspective. Billboard is speaking from Billboard’s perspective, which is a hit perspective. If you can make into the Billboard, you are successful. So that’s a successful list. There is no bearing of skill. Now, Melle Mel has his opinion but remember, he is hip-hop. The original hip-hop so Melle speaks from that standpoint.”
“For my generation, Eminem is our monster. His color is irrelevant. Melle Mel does have a point about Eminem being white, he might got away with lots of things, like, him talking about all these different artists. And not having the backlash to where he’s blackballed. But white has nothing to do with his skills. But yeah, he got away with lot of things, s–t, we got away with lots of things once we became successful. Once you are successful, you can do whatever the f–k you want and the game accepts it because they get money off of it. My generation, we really do not agree with Melle Mel. But hey, it’s good to agree or disagree, you know.” – Kurupt added.
You can watch the interview below:
Those who don’t know, Kurupt is one of the rappers Eminem shouted out on “Till I Collapse” with Nate Dogg from The Eminem Show album: “I got a list, here’s the order of my list that it’s in / It goes Reggie, Jay-Z, 2Pac and Biggie / Andre from OutKast, Jada, Kurupt, Nas and then me.”