Eminem‘s comments about being a “guest” in Hip Hop have gained the support of one of his peers, Benny The Butcher.
The Griselda Records rapper recently sat down with DJ Vlad to discuss a variety of topics and Lord Jamar’s comments regarding Em’s place in Hip Hop came up in the conversation.
“I feel like a guest too,” Benny says about the matter. “I don’t feel that Hip Hop is mine, I feel like I have a pass in this thing of ours that we call Hip Hop. It’s like a fraternity. I feel like a guest too because everybody not allowed in. And even if you’re in, that doesn’t mean you’re allowed in.”
Benny added, “I feel like we all are guests. Hip Hop don’t belong to none of us. Hip Hop belong to them niggas in the Bronx who did that shit when they invented it, it belong to them. If you wasn’t in that park when they was hooking up them mothafuckin’ speakers up, wearing them Kangols and breakdancing, you can’t say that it’s yours. I don’t give a fuck what you’ve done or contributed. You don’t own it.”
5 Facts About ‘The Marshall Mathers LP,’ Eminem’s Cultural Peak
Back in February, Em addressed his feud with Lord Jamar and the Brand Nubian rapper’s stance about Slim Shady being a guest in Hip Hop.
“I never said I wasn’t a guest,” he told KXNG Crooked in a sit-down interview. “I’m absolutely a guest. “I never said I wasn’t. I never said I was king of anything, right? I had a song called ‘Kings Never Die’ … that was the concept of the song. I’m like, ‘I can’t say I’m the king of Hip Hop, so I threw Run-DMC in there, Jam Master Jay.’”
Em continued, “I don’t want to be the king of Hip Hop. Who the fuck is the king of Hip Hop? Is there a king of Hip Hop? People say, ‘Just because you sell the most records doesn’t mean you’re the best. Even though you can rap 40 million syllables doesn’t mean you’re the best.’ I care more rhyming the syllables. I care more about the craft than any of the other stuff.”
Check out Benny’s thoughts on guests in Hip Hop above.