SliK wrote:EminemBase wrote:SliK wrote:Exactly my point, so you shouldn't really compare Kanye to Eminem bar by bar. Their content and style is too different.
It's not bar-for-bar, it's overall ability.
In your analogy of The Beatles playing their instruments better than anyone...
Okay, so apply that analogy to rap - a rapper's instruments is his words and lyrics and how he expresses them. Does Kanye do that better than anyone? No. Did Eminem? Yes.
You can be a great rapper and not know how to put a song together. So Kanye's ability to do that makes him one of the best artists and producers. That's not rapping.
"Music" = "Sport"
"Rap" is a type of music and "Boxing" is a type of sport. Ergo "Rap" = "Boxing" in your little analogy.
Boxer with the best record = GOAT boxer. Rapper with the best discography = GOAT rapper.
It's simple.
And I quoted the wrong post.
No.
Because the boxer with the best record isn't necessarily the best boxer.
Marciano went out undefeated but that doesn't make him the best boxer, as he didn't necessarily fight the best fighters or ever have a stylistic mis-match to challenge him greatly. AND, winning fights doesn't mean you BOX the best if you define boxing as offense, defense, form of punches, speed etc... you may just have incredible stamina or determination... but that makes you perhaps the best sportsman or most determined. But that's not judging boxing any more.
Many people who aren't the best at what they do rise to the top or stay front runners through sheer work ethic or determination. But does't mean they're the best at it.
The best rapper could be a homeless man who's never made an album in his life; you're judging the ability to rap well, not the ability to build a consistent career.
The best boxer is the boxer that can box the best. Winning fights or - making great albums, is a different skill independent of boxing great, or rapping great; as it involves many elements which have nothing to do with rapping/boxing - to win boxing matches you have to have your psychology, life and composure in order, know your opponent... so many elements that superceed your ability to box really well.
Similarly, you can be a mind-boggling, genius rapper but never make a great album. And many rappers don't even produce, so saying GOAT discography = GOAT rapper is ridiculous since the end result/the album has to do with so many other people other than the rapper.
Judging rock bands is entirely different than judging rappers as many rock bands make the MUSIC on the actual album, so you're judging the entirety of the music... where as... MOST rappers in fact, don't have anything to do with the music itself aka the beats/production, the way it's put together, the hooks... so to judge them based on things they had nothing to do with is ridiculous.
Where as the ability to rap is solely down to the rapper.
Kanye is one of the GOAT hip-hop artists. Not the GOAT rapper, not even close.
Rap = rapping. Rap isn't a type of music because it has no real basis as it borrows from every other genre hence the endless sub-genres of rap. RAPPING aka rhyming words in successive sentences is the only stable element which defines rap as rap.
So if you aren't judging a 'rapper' by that, you're not judging rap.
And, leaving my argument completely aside, Kanye doesn't even have the best discog lmao.
Em's first three demolish anything he's ever done. MMLP? Are you kidding me. Kanye hasn't made music that comes close to being as conceptually inventive, original, daring or anything of that matter. Kanye has perhaps the most CONSISTENT discog. Not the greatest by any means.
