In the latest episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, Dr. Umar “Ifatunde” Johnson, a staunch Pan-Africanist, motivational speaker, psychologist, activist and social media personality, said that Eminem can’t be considered as one of the greatest rappers of all time because of his skin color: “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.”
MC Shan defended Eminem against Dr. Umar comments during one of his recent Instagram livestreams. ” 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.” he said.
Then he 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… 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. 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. Don’t f–k with Eminem. 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. 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.”
It seems Eminem has already heard MC Shan’s livestream and decided to show love on social media by posting picture of him playing classic MC Shan cassettes, which are very rare thing to find in this world: “Down By Law,” “Play It Again, Shan” and “Born To Be Wild.” Check the post below:
— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) December 30, 2023