Re: In a word........ Why?
While I agree with point 1, I have to disagree with point 2, as a person who likes hip-hop (shock horror) P Diddy is regarded as the guy who hung around with Notorious BIG for years, if anything he is a producer who occasionally raps, and for his dues he produced some half decent music back in the day, for example Mary J Blige’s first album, but he is not ‘overrated’ because he is not rated.
Eminem is not the exception, Eminem is the overrated one of the three, he had two maybe three and a half good albums, with some really good songs on the first two, but when you have Dr Dre behind you they are not going to be terrible, and while he has got skills, if he was black no-one would care, go up to your average Daily Fail reader and ask them if they have heard of Talib Kweli, Raekwon, Mos Def, Common, Rakim or Nas, they will have no idea, at a push they will know 2Pac, but everyone knows Eminem, now ask them to name any songs, “That one with Dido?”
Jay Z on the other hand has made hit album after hit album for the last 20 years, credit where credit is due, Jay Z has never been afraid to do things he finds challenging or different, from doing an album with Linken Park to crying all over Song Cry (the live version with the aforementioned Mary J He continues to influence the music scene , The Black Album is easily in the top 10 best albums of the last 10 years not rap albums, just albums
Even though I am a much bigger fan of Nas I can admit this.
As for ‘Rap’ being over hyped and empty, its possibly because all anyone hears is the pop crap, judging Hip Hop by its pop form is like judging any other type of music by its pop form, so instead of Led Zeppelin and the Beatles you get Busted and One Direction.