Comparisons and battles are about as old as the Hip Hop genre. As long as there has been rap, there have been pundits and listeners comparing their favorite artists, wondering who is better bar for bar. Sometimes, rappers battle each other and let the crowd decide. Other times, they throw barbs through song, leaving it up to debate who actually won. This time, we have 50 Cent calling out Jay Z, saying that Eminem is a better battle rapper, and that other artists are upset that a white rapper can do it “better than black artists.”
“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 during a 2014-interview with Music Choice.
“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.”
In June of the same year, 50 even called Jay overrated in jest, referring to Jigga’s line on Kanye’s “So Appalled” record.
“Overrated?” 50 said. “Jay-Z. He would say he’s overrated. ‘Rather be overrated than underpaid.'”
