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Jay-Z’s album The Blueprint was a baller achievement; XXL Magazine gave it a perfect XXL rating, The Source gave it 5 mics (also perfect), it sold 426,000 albums in its first week. But…funny thing; the album was released on the same day as this:

Needless to say, people weren’t talking about Jay’s album as much as they would have under normal circumstances. 9/11 changed everything (kind of a big deal). But as if Jay’s shine weren’t already being clouded, the song most people were talking about was “Renegade” and, when people talked about it, all they could talk about was how good Eminem’s rap was. Granted, Jay-Z’s verses were great as well, but the consensus is that — as Nas pointed out on “Ether” — “Eminem killed [Jay] on [his] own shit.”

Poor Jay-Z: he only had one guest featured on the entire album, and, when people weren’t talking about 9/11, they were mainly talking about the two verses on the album that weren’t his.

This does raise the question: was all the hype over Eminem’s verses justified? The verses are of high quality, no doubt. Very Eminemish, with internal rhymes and silly “white boy” phrases. The following 8 lines from his first verse show exemplary proficiency:

Now who’s the king of these rude, ludicrous, lucrative lyrics?
Who could inherit the title, put the youth in hysterics?
Using his music to steer it, sharing his views and his merits
But there’s a huge interference — they’re saying you shouldn’t hear it!
Maybe it’s hatred I spew, maybe it’s food for the spirit
Maybe it’s beautiful music I made for you to just cherish
But I’m debated, disputed, hated and viewed in America
As a motherfucking drug addict — like you didn’t experiment?

Classic Eminem, the verse concentrates on assonant rhyme; the end rhymes are unimpressive, but what you hear when he raps is the first and third syllables of each of ludicrous, lucrative, youth in hys, views and his, you to just…the lines are peppered with similar iterations of the “you” sound, creating a bomb ass flow (rude/spew/beautiful/disputed)

And he ends with a clever Oprah Winfrey maneuver:

And I got nothing to do but make you look stupid as parents
You fucking do-gooders, too bad you couldn’t do good at marriage!

According to the meme, Em put together his beautifully sculpted verses before Jay had written anything, thereby cowing Jay.

Although Eminem’s verses are certainly impressive, I would argue that the difference in quality between the two rappers' verses on the song is overstated. Each rapper’s verses reveal their different approaches towards rap and, in my opinion, Eminem’s verses (despite their brilliance) implicitly reveal his deficiencies as a rapper.

Jay’s flow isn’t as great, but a few of his lines show his ability to use metaphor and double-meaning to plumb the depths of language in a way Eminem cannot match. When Jay describes standing on the corner selling drugs as having a “pocket full of hope” or refers to his chosen path in life as going “straight” at the “fork in the road”, he illustrates the notion that rap is about more than rhyming; Jay’s voice doesn’t boom quite as Eminem’s does on this track, but his poetry is more intelligent.

And that, to me, is what separates Eminem and Jay-Z. When Eminem is at the top of his game, his genius is immediately apparent because it sounds great. But Em is usually incapable of employing double meaning: everything he’s ever said has meant exactly what it seemed to mean. He is the kind of rapper a mirthless analytical philosopher would have no problem appreciating. Jay-Z, on the other hand, is at his best when his lines require unpacking.

This is why our site has so many Jay songs and so few Eminem songs; it’s not that Eminem isn’t a brilliant rapper (and calm down! We’re trying to get his songs up, he’s a boss, we love him), it’s just that every time we try to add value by explaining what he’s saying, we find ourselves repeating the obvious.

For example, in one of my favorite lines ever, Em describes impregnating J-Lo on “I’m Back”:

As great as the passage is, other than mentioning that at the time Puff Daddy was dating J-Lo, there’s not much to add…“Well…he wants to have sex with Jennifer Lopez, you see, and he doesn’t want to use a condom…” No duh! Nobody wants to use a condom, you don’t need Rap Genius telling you that.

Perhaps Jay-Z anticipated people thinking Eminem is better in noting, at the very beginning of “Renegade” that his music requires more than just skimming; you have to actually listen closely to appreciate his genius.

Then again, Eminem sells more albums…