Eminem: The Best Lyricist of any Genre ever?

[Emadyville]

Don McLean is the best singer-songwriter lyricist.

american pie

yeah that songs amazing

Elvis didn't write his own stuff...so you were right in the OP

But I can't say em is cause I haven't heard even a full album of an infinite number of artists, but I def feel like he would have to be top 5 with how influencial his music (and therefore writing) is to so many alone

[WakeUpShow]

[Alaine]

no, I don't think he is.

[binho]

Whos a better writter than him? If he's the best rapper ever lyrically then hes also the best lyrically artist ever. He doesnt make the best music but he write better than the rest

[EminemInsider]

i'm sorry, i love eminem, but you cannot compare his songwriting to Bob Dylan and Jimmy Page.

"There's a lady who's sure, all the glitters is gold, and she's buying a stairway to heaven"
"What you know about Buffalo Bill, nothin, so chill fuckin hoe you better fuckin hold still"

Eminem is a great rapper, but when it comes to songwriting, there are soo many in other genre's that topple over eminem.

LOL...did you seriously just compare "Stairway to Heaven" to "Buffalo Bill?"

Holy incompatible and biased comparison Batman.

Here, I can do that too, watch!

Jimmy Page: Ooh, let me get it back, let me get it back,
Let me get it back, baby, where I come from.
It's been a long time, been a long time,
Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time. Yes it has.

Eminem: I feel like I'm walking a tight rope without a circus net
Poppin Percocet
I'm a nervous wreck
I deserve respect but I work a sweat for this worthless check
Bout to burst this tech at somebody to reverse this debt

[EminemBase]

Well I can't be bothered to respond properly - Not because it's a bad thread but because I'll write 10,000 words and it's just fucking annoying to do. Plus I think it's a quite redundant idea to debate also.

Debating lyricists within one genre can be pointless enough due to... Well, saying Em is "better" than Bob Dylan for example (if you thought that) wouldn't make any sense at all really. Because they write about such different things, have such different aims, such different song structures, tastes etc. etc. that it's just worlds apart.

It'd kind of be like saying The Matrix is better than It's a Wonderful Life. It's like... Well, in what way lmao, because they may as well be different dimensions. But comparing a sci-fi film with a similar concept to The Matrix, makes more sense.

Or it'd be like comparing a comedy to a horror movie. Imagine saying Saw was a 'better' film than Superbad lmao. You could probably broadly justify it or debate it along the lines of storyline and execution but it would become so inane it'd be pointless. Because a comedy film aims to make you laugh and a horror film to scare. So surely a comedy film is 'better' the more you makes you laugh and a horror film, the more it scares you. So calling a comedy better than a horror as a film, doesn't really make sense. To me anyway.

So maybe... Rappers with similar aims to Eminem could be worth debating as lyricists. But across all genres? That's so aimless.

But I wouldn't agree that "we all know singing is harder than rapping". It's extremely hard to even rap and not sound like a total cock. Then, to rap at Eminem's level... Complete mastery of an arsenal of flows and speeds... He's made it something else. He doesn't get enough (none actually) credit for that alone actually. The heights he's taken rap flows too.

Flows were more basic before him. There were a few fast spitters etc. but he made delivery a true art in itself. And continues to push the boundaries in that area. What people also often fail to realize, when Em raps fast for example and people often say he's... Still in training in comparison to Twista...

What people fail to acknowledge or realize is, what makes Em so amazing is his emphasis in different points in his delivery. Twista spits insnaely fast yes but it's mostly in the same tone and without the same structural focus that Em does. On "All She Wrote" as an example, regardless of the speed - Em emphasises elements of his lyrics as if it were a normal conversation...

As if he were delivering lines like an actor. Which is part of the reason he resonates unlike any other rapper. Not because he has white skin or makes catchy singles, there's much deeper and more valid reasons, relating to his technique(s) that make him so translatable. That's one of them.

[shadysecret]

definitely~

[Shit Can Happen]

eh, hard to compare to artists of different genres. A great song-writer who sings doesn't focus on a lot of the things in his lyrics that a great song-writer who raps would, specifically with wordplay and rhyming.