During the latest episode of Joe Budden’s The Joe Budden Podcast Dr. Umar “Ifatunde” Johnson, a staunch Pan-Africanist, motivational speaker, psychologist, activist and social media personality, talked about Eminem‘s status in hip-hop culture and said: “Let me say something to you. And this is going to my African fundamentalism. No non-African can ever be the best of anything African. It is an insult to the ancestors. It’s an insult to the race and it is an insult to every Black person. Do you think I can go to Palestine and be the best of anything of Palestinian culture? You never see that. You think I can go to Israel and be the best of anything in Israel whether it be a cook, an instrumentalist, a dancer? Hell no. We have to stop naming non-African people as being the best of any aspect in our cultural product because it’s an insult. I can acknowledge Eminem’s talent but for you to put him at the top, that’s white supremacy bro. I don’t see Eminem building schools and hospitals. I don’t see DJ Khaled building schools and hospitals,” and it seems MC Shan does not agree.
During one of his recent Instagram lives, hip-hop pioneer MC Shan, who was included in Eminem’s Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame speech showing admiration to hip-hop icons, defended Eminem against Dr. Umar comments.
“I got something to say to Dr. Umar. You pick on a wrong guy. Eminem deserves respect. You can’t look at Eminem as if he was Mark Zuckerberg and he came into our culture and he just robbed our culture. How do you think Eminem got into this culture? Because he was as ghetto as the rest of the motherf–kers, regardless to his skin. I wouldn’t be the biggest hip-hop producer who produced biggest reggae song [“Informer“] ever. Bigger than Bob Marley, the Guinness World Records say so and so who am I to sit here like ‘Snow was not as ghetto as I am’? I would go anywhere with Snow in the ghetto before I’d go with some people that I grew up with. Because that’s in him. They may be white and can do what they do but don’t be jealous of that. I’m not jealous cause Snow could do whole bunch of things that I could not. Snow was talking me to the mountains of Whistler where I was the only black person there. But he was part of our f–king culture.” said MC Serch.
He then continued: “Eminem is part of our culture Dr. Umar! I love Eminem. Eminem loves me. He has mentioned me on the Grammys or wherever he was. He didn’t have to say nothing about me. I’m not saying that about him because he said that. I’m saying it because he’s part of our culture! What about Serch? Serch was the first one. He made his way through this game. He picked up Pete Nice later on. Serch was real authentic individual. Back then, only MC Serch and Aaron Fuchs were allowed to the projects being Jew or white or whatever the f–k they were. If you was not Aaron Fuchs or MC Serch, they wasn’t letting you nowhere near the projects. If you wanna say MC Serch is about money and culture vulture , f–k you ni–a. Serch ma man! Anywhere you go, whatever was popping Serch was there! White boy!”
MC Shan did not stop there: “Dr. Umar, I understand you want this Black Culture thing but you are jumping on a wrong thing. That’s their magazines! We don’t own their magazines. Do you read it? You probably must do. I don’t read that s–t that says Eminem is number one. I never even hear that s–t until I heard you say it. Because you read their f–king propaganda. But, Em deserves a motherf–king slot in this game. Em was no rich motherf–ker to just come and rob rap game. He had more problems than any black. Eminem had f–king pill problems son. He had f–king white boy problems. He had problems overcoming drugs. Look at me! I was biggest f–king drug addict in hip-hop history, so they say. But look at me and look at Em. He had his own problems. I’m no doctor but you can’t sit there and tell me certain things. Ain’t nobody robbing us son. Em gets his respect from us. So, if you don’t want to respect him, you do what you do, we don’t f–k with you anyway like that. We talk hip-hop sh–t, you talk Black Culturism. Em is down with us son. Snow is down with us son. Serch is down with us son. So all of that, that you talking, you read in their books. Stop reading their s–t. Don’t f–k with Eminem. Do not f–k with Serch. And do not f–k with Snow. Stop with that propaganda. You just make everything a f–king race thing.”
“Motherf–ker, you know Em is nice. And why is he an innovator as far as hip-hop motherf–kers like myself are concerned? Because the style Eminem got! He got his own lane son. And you see Twista and him going back and forth but that’s within our culture. I think I’m better than Chris. Chris thinks he’s better than me. That’s what the f–k we do. You can talk all the s–t that you want but you leave Eminem, MC Serch and Snow out of your sentences for the simple fact that these are people that were down in the trenches with us when we were in the f–king trenches… Eminem made money… I don’t see you talk about all this black motherf–kers that made money ain’t putting nothing back to community.” he added.
You can watch MC Shan ‘s livestream below:
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