Last month, during a panel discussion called “The Great Debate” at REVOLT WORLD in Atlanta, California rapper Symba caused a stir when he ranked himself above Eminem and suggested that his lyrical content is all style and no substance.
“I respect Eminem on a level as a man. But as a rapper, I feel like I can name five better rappers. Yes I’m better than Eminem. Anybody can rhyme words, what are you saying?” said Symba.
During a recent appearance on Good Luck! with Gino, Symba addressed his comments about Eminem. “I recently said something about Eminem. Dude, I was not prepared.” he said.
Then he continued: “Here is what I learned about ‘click culture.’ Five minutes prior to what they cut, I’m literally giving Eminem the biggest praise in the world. I’m like ‘yo, I respect Eminem on another level.’ Eminem is the one person who didn’t take brand deals because he felt like he was exploiting hip-hop. Do you know how much integrity that takes?! You know the millions of dollars he missed out on to protect this culture?! So, respect that I have for him as a man is on another level. The question was asked to me who is my favorite top 10 rappers. I list my favorite top 10 and someone asks me why isn’t Eminem in there. So, as I’m trying to explain it to Tierra Whack, she asks me, do I think I’m better than Eminem, as an MC, personally, I think there is about five people that’s better than me. To me! And I can be wrong. My opinion is not a fact. In my opinion, I rap better than a lot of people they were naming that were not in my top 10. So, when they brought that up, they literally take that one clip, where I say something, and they cut it up.”
“In my opinion, I’m better than Eminem. That does not mean I’ve done half of the work that Eminem has done. That does not mean I have sold the records that Eminem has sold. That does not mean I’m nowhere near Eminem’s level. That’s rap! That’s how we feel. Going into the studio, if you put a beat on, and if you put Eminem over there and you put me over here, in my mind, I’m going to go crazy. And I’m going to write the craziest s–t. I’m not gonna be intimidated that someone who sold the most records in hip-hop. I’m going to rap! But that does not mean that I don’t respect him as MC. I respect everything he has laid for me to do what I’m doing. They cut the clip up and people literally were like ‘WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?! F–K YOU. WE ARE GOING TO KILL YOU!’ and I was like ‘oh, s–t, this is what having a fanbase looks like.’ This is what having a community looks like. And it was the first time I was on the side of the internet that was not a popular opinion and I loved it. Because I told my management and they were like ‘yo, this s–t’s looking crazy.’ I said ‘no, this is beautiful.’ They said ‘what do you mean?’ I said ‘now I have a whole community of people to prove I can rap. I don’t care if they think I’m better than him. I’m going to prove them to the rest of their life I can rap and they’ll listen because they will forever say ‘is this better than Eminem?! Let me hear what this s–t is!’ It’s all about proving the consumer wrong.”
“I never said was a fact that I was better than Eminem. That’s my opinion.” Symba added.
You can watch the interview below: