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Eminem has said that he still doesn’t feel as influential as some of rap’s other greats.
Speaking in a new interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music‘s ‘At Home With’ series, Slim Shady discussed top rapper lists and shared his opinion of his standing among some of rap’s greatest MCs.
“I know I’ve been around for a minute, but I don’t feel like honestly, in my heart of hearts, I don’t feel like anything I did, anything I’ve done up to this point is more influential than they were to their era,” he said. “To me, I will never mean more than they meant to their era.”
“And that, man, a lot of times people, when they ask me what my top favorite rappers are, I don’t even know how to answer that, because there’s so many rappers that have been so great and still are great.”
He added: “And by the way, I think Rakim probably is still great. I haven’t heard anything he’s working on lately, but I guarantee you he ain’t lost that shit, because that kind of shit don’t go away. It just doesn’t.”
Going on to talk more about top rapper lists, Eminem said he thinks they should be done according to each artist’s era.
“I rap to be the best rapper, but I’m not the only rapper who raps to be the best rapper,” he said. “[Lil] Wayne, [J.] Cole, Kendrick [Lamar], Joyner Lucas. They rap to be the best rapper, and I feel like when you push yourself like that, that’s what I feel like inspires greatness.
“But the list, man, sometimes you almost have to go by era. 2Pac. I feel like rappers like Rakim, [Kool] G Rap, [Big Daddy] Kane, Treach, Pharoahe Monch… when KRS-One would drop some new shit, it just outdid whatever was before that.”
He continued: “And then along comes Rakim, and he out does that. And then along comes G Rap and he starts out doing everyone else. Redman. Redman was, to me, one of the most consistent artists, still rapping to this day is one of the most consistently dope rappers.”
Elsewhere during the interview, Em talked about his cassette collection and how nothing feels the same as listening to a tape.
“A record is not going to give you the the feel of having the tape, and it’s not going to give you the information,” he said about his passion for cassettes while sitting in front of his collection. “It’s not going to give you all that, you know what I’m saying? So for me, I always collected tapes. I know a lot of my friends collected vinyl back in the day, but me, I’ve been… I’m a tape person.”
Watch segments of Eminem’s interview with Zane Lowe above – listen in full here.
The 16-track record features collaborations with Dr. Dre, Ty Dolla $ign and DJ Premier among others.
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