During an interview with Music Choice, rapper 50 Cent spoke about his longtime collaborator and friend Eminem. While acknowledging that hip-hop is a black art form, 50 shared his belief that Em is the nicest rapper and that there isn’t a black rapper that can challenge him for that title.
“Hip-Hop is black music, without question, and, unfortunately for some people, it’s tough to accept that you have a white artist that does it better than black artists,” 50 Cent says. “It is what it is. You can get, like, whoever you think is the best black artist and stand them face-to-face in a room with Em and he will eat that [guy] alive. Right now, if you had ’em prepare themselves, whatever way they would have to prepare themselves to come battle, I bet what I have, everything – that Eminem would win.
50 Cent also stated that Jay Z isn’t on Eminem’s level, and that the pairing of the two stars in 2010 for a series of shows in Detroit and New York was only because of business, not because Jay is equal to Eminem in stature.
“That’s Live Nation ‘cause [Jay Z] sold his touring career to Live Nation,” 50 Cent says. Jay signed a lucrative promotional deal with Live Nation in 2008.
“They’ve got to keep him hot enough to go get their money back,” 50 continued. “So they match ‘em up with Em, put them together ‘cause he got more momentum connected to his relationship with Beyoncé and his record with Alicia. It makes sense. It makes sense, the Detroit-New York show. But it only makes sense to me because of business, it makes sense, because Em sold like 60 million records more than him. How you put ‘em there like they’re equals? It’s tough for me to say some of this [stuff] and not sound like a hater. But I don’t care.”
