Big Gipp has claimed that Eminem made JAY-Z cooler, and that overall Slim Shady was the better rapper on “Renegade.”
Gipp sat down for another interview with The Art Of Dialogue, and said Em definitely had the better verse on the 2001 track – agreeing with Nas who argued the same on his iconic JAY-Z diss track, “Ether.”
“Hey man, Eminem,” Gipp said when asked who he believed had the better verse. “And I fuck with JAY-Z. JAY-Z one of the best, top 5. Solo rappers, top 5, but Eminem at that time was a fucking monster. He was eating everybody that stood next to him. What you’re gonna say, and what most people are gonna say is, ‘Well I identify more with what JAY-Z said because that’s my life and that’s where I came from and that’s my background.’”
He continued, “Okay, that’s right, but at the same time you gotta look at Eminem and say, ‘Yeah, but look at the kids that was looking up to him. That look like him and got his background. That takes him off into the middle of America, and a lot of places that we probably wasn’t at yet.
“So If you’re looking at the demographics, I’m sure that Eminem and JAY-Z, Eminem took JAY-Z to a whole lot of places and whole lot of households he ain’t ever been in just cause he was on the song with Eminem. So you gotta look at both sides of it.
“If you was to put the same light on Em, he’d really represent it, his community same as JAY represented his community at the time of them doing that record. But as far as influence? Shit, to me Em came out as being as great, or even a better rapper then Jay. Technically, on that record…I think he took JAY-Z into households JAY-Z wasn’t in at that time. He made JAY-Z cooler, no way JAY-Z made him cooler.”
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“Renegade” arrived on JAY-Z’s sixth solo album The Blueprint in 2001. Produced by Eminem and written by Hov, Shady and Luis Restro, the single was initially intended for Bad Meets Evil, Eminem’s group with Royce Da 5’9. The song went on to sell over 500,000 copies and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in February 2018.
JAY-Z’s verses touch on his fatherless childhood and how financial difficulties forced him into drug dealing. He raps his demeanor was “30 years [his] senior,” which suggests he grew up too fast. Eminem, on the other hand, raps about the criticism his music was receiving at the time and how he felt like a “media scapegoat.” They both conclude they’ll keep doing them while asserting they’ve “never been afraid to talk about anything.”
While Gipp has now joined with Nas in saying that Em had the better bars, Memphis Bleek argued the contrary in a 2022 appearance on the Justin Credible Podcast.
“You really trying to spark some drama,” he says in the clip posted by The Art of Dialogue. “Everybody, of course, I feel like certain songs Jay records be over people’s head, I guess not at that time. To me, the streets and everybody, the public opinion of course says Eminem, right? At that time.”
He continued, “Go back and listen to that record today, I bet y’all gonna agree it’s Jay, because Jay was talkin’ something that was so far of what you even understood or comprehend that you didn’t know what he was talking about.”
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