Eminem Calls Tupac Shakur the Greatest Songwriter of All Time
Eminem has revealed the artist that is first and foremost on his Mount Rushmore of great songwriters.
During Em's "Music to Be Quarantined By" playlist on his Siriux XM Shade 45 radio station on Monday (May 4), the Detroit rapper affirmed his admiration for Tupac Shakur's pen game, calling him the greatest songwriter of all time.
"OK, this next song is from an artist that I feel like might be the greatest songwriter of all time," Eminem began before playing ’Pac's record, "If I Die 2Nite." "Debate what you want about MC skills and all that because he had that, too. This is one of them songs by Tupac that, to me, was like, he was showing you I can write heartfelt shit and I can write lyrical, crazy shit, too."
The Music to Be Murdered By rapper went on to explain why he crowned Tupac with the honorable title. "They say pussy and papers, poetry, power and pistols/Plottin’ on murderin’ muthafuckas ’fore they get you," he rapped, reciting lyrics from the record. "The play on the p-words and all that shit and like, how he was doing it was so crazy mixed with the feel that Tupac could give you, which is constantly why I feel like he was always saying, 'Can ya feel me?' because you felt ’Pac. You can't just listen to ’Pac. You feel ’Pac. If you listen to him, you're gonna feel him."
Speaking of Tupac, the rapper apparently has a namesake who was recently accused of fraud in Kentucky last month when trying to apply for unemployment amid the coronavirus pandemic. A Lexington, Ky. resident named Tupac Malik Shakur was called out by Gov. Andy Beshear on April 26 after trying to file for unemployment insurance and receive a monetary determination letter back in March. After the governor's office found that Shakur's filing was not a prank, he received a personal apology from state's governor.
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