Until recently, Detroit emcee Eminem had the highest-selling hip-hop project ever and is one of the most successful artists of all time. However, as a white individual, the ‘Stan’ lyricist (real name Marshall Mathers) has faced a lot of criticism, with many claiming that his success is due to his race.
Earlier this year, hip-hop celebrated its 50th anniversary. However, as the culture looked at its most integral figures, artists such as Lord Jamar and Melle Mel began to criticise where music publications and DJs were placing Eminem in the genre’s ranks. Even West Coast emcee Kurupt spoke on the different treatment Mathers’ receives.
However, in a recent episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, the infamous pan-Africanist and racial extremist Dr Umar insisted that Eminem can’t be the best rapper due to his race as someone not of African heritage.
Umar explained his reasoning to Antwan Marby, saying, “This is going to my African fundamentalism. No non-African can ever be the best of anything African. It is an insult to the ancestors, it is an insult to the race, and it is an insult to every Black person.”
He continued, “We gotta stop naming non-African people as being the best of any aspect of our cultural power because it is an insult … I can acknowledge Eminem’s talent. But for you to put him at the top, that’s white supremacy.”
Umar went on to name some other non-black hip-hop artists and highlighted how even after they make money from hip-hop, they don’t give back to the black community, stating, “I don’t see Eminem building no schools and hospitals. I don’t see DJ Khaled building no schools and hospitals. I don’t see DJ Vlad building no damn banks and supermarkets!”
Last year, in an interview with XXL, Mathers admitted that he faced a lot of backlash when he first emerged, stating, “When things started happening for me, I was getting a lot of heat, being a white rapper, and XXL wrote something about that! I remember going to one of those newsstands in New York when the magazine had just started out, and I bought that and a couple of other rap magazines. I flipped to the last page first and XXL was dissing me. What the fuck?”
Dr Umar Johnson has always been an extremely incendiary figure in black America and has even been on national radio to reprimand people who procreate outside of their race. You can listen to Johnson speaking about Eminem below.