Melle Mel's remarks on the newly announced Billboard & Vibe's Top 50 best rappers list continue to make news. In a new segment of his conversation with The Art of Dialogue podcast, the Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five star discusses #2, Kendrick Lamar, claiming that no one wants to rap like him or Eminem.
According to Melle Mel, Lamar's tracks "don’t translate into the street part of hip-hop." "I don’t know what records he made like that," he went on. "I might know one or two of them, but I don’t think you even hear Kendrick in the club like that."
Mel goes on to say that, despite of K. Dot's talent, he does not deserve to be ranked as the second finest rapper of all time. "Nobody wants to rap like Kendrick Lamar. Nobody wants to rap like Eminem. A lot of people wanted to rap, like ‘Pac and Biggie, he claimed.
Melle Mel says no one wants to rap like Kendrick Lamar, and he doesn't have any influence on Hip Hop. pic.twitter.com/04m6yVACpu
— The Art Of Dialogue (@ArtOfDialogue_) March 4, 2023
Related Story: Melle Mel Says Eminem Only Considered Top 5 Rapper Because He's White
He additionally stated in another section of the discussion that Eminem is only a top 5 rapper on the list because he is white. "Obviously he’s a capable rapper. If you was talking about sales, he’s sold more than everybody. If you were talking about rhyme style, okay he got a rhyme style. But he’s white. He’s white,” he says. “So now if Eminem was another ni**a like all the rest of us, would he be Top 5 on that list when a ni**a that could rhyme just as good as him is 35? That had records and all that? He’s 35. He’s white."
He continued, “And anybody could be as mad… They could feel how they wanna feel. If you don’t think that race plays a part in the equation of how great he is — I heard one of the dudes that’s down with him, Royce Da 6’9″ [Royce Da 5’9″] or one of those – I heard he’s just as good as Eminem. Why he ain’t as big as Eminem? Because he’s Black. Ain’t none of that sh*t hard to figure out. Eminem gets a top spot because he’s white.”