When you hear the word “rap,” you may think of old-school rappers like Tupac, Biggie, and Snoop Dogg; or you might even think of modern-day rappers like Lil Baby, Travis Scott, and 21 Savage. Although these rappers have released excellent music, people seem to have forgotten Eminem’s impact on music culture. 

From the beginning of his career, Eminem was considered an ordinary rapper with no distinct skill or talent. However, his popular albums—Marshall Mathers and Slim Shady LP, and The Eminem Show—say otherwise. These have been the major highlights of Em’s career and possibly the most unique albums we have ever heard. 

One thing you notice about Eminem’s music is every song has a different style to it; Marshall always comes out with very unique flows, which is what separates him from other artists. Eminem has an incredible ability to deliver lyrics at a rapid-fire level, with Rap God and Godzilla being great examples of this. Most rappers are known to talk about sex, money, and murder. Eminem, on the other hand, is an incredible storyteller and generally talks about his childhood struggles along with his worldviews. Eminem is the most respected but also one of the most hated artists in the rap industry; this is primarily because of the number of times Em has dissed and insulted other artists or public figures in some of his songs. For example, in one of his tracks, “The Warning,” Eminem explained the lying accusations between Mariah Carey and her husband, Nick Cannon. Em also made fun of Nick for defending her. One of Marshall’s more popular diss tracks is none other than “Killshot,” which was directly targeted to American musician Machine Gun Kelly (MGK). Killshot took the internet by storm with its incredible verses, which hurt MGK so severely that he switched from hip-hop to rock music.

Eminem is among the best-selling music artists of all time. He has sold over 228 million albums and singles in the US, achieved the platinum album mark more than 50 times, and been featured in 10 number-one album charts throughout his career. His best-selling album was the legendary “Marshall Mathers LP,” which has sold over 32 million copies. Eminem has been a phenomenal record-breaker and earned an astonishing 15 Grammy awards.                 

While Eminem carries many accolades and is widely considered the greatest hip-hop artist of all time, he still lacks consistency. Eminem is never able to have a good back-to-back album or song. One of his albums could be the best of the year, but the next one could be one of the worst. 

Despite this, Eminem is still an amazing artist that had one of the biggest impacts on hip-hop. While there is still plenty of room for improvement within Marshall’s career— especially in his lyrics—he has accomplished the impossible, given that he grew up in poverty and had to go above and beyond to be where he is today. Eminem will go down as one of the greatest in hip hop and no one can ever replace him.

By Pranav Parlapall