During a new interview with Art Of Dialogue, Grandmaster Melle Mel (the lead vocalist of Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five) shared his personal thoughts about Eminem making the top five of Billboard‘s greatest rappers list — and did not hold back.
“Obviously, he’s a capable rapper,” Melle Mel said. “If you was talking about sales, he sold more than everybody. If you talking about rhyme style – OK, he got a rhyme style. But he’s white! He’s white! If Eminem was just another n**** like all the rest of us, would he be Top 5 on that list when a n**** that can rhyme just as good as him is 35?”
As the opposite, Melle Mel noted that he’d be able to match Elvis’ success if he was a white rapper.
“If he was a Black rapper, he wouldn’t even make the list probably,” he added. “Busta [Rhymes] … see this is the difference between who writes what list. Busta, I would say, is the No. 1 rapper overall. Nobody’s gonna take Busta. Busta could rap just as good as Eminem. Eminem, he has his style. He’s got a nice little tricky, gimmicky style … But to say that he would be [able to] sell as many records if he was just another brother, that’s not true. It’s just not.”
Listen to Melle Mel’s full thoughts on Eminem above.