Eminem has resurfaced recently as a truly divisive emcee. Love him or hate him; are you being realistic if you can’t/won’t acknowledge his pure lyrical talent? I know I sound like a complete old head with my “lyrics matter” rhetoric, but I don’t care. Even his dumbed down commercial singles will still kill several of your faves; LYRICALLY. Eminem’s lyrical prowess is almost unparalleled, and I won’t go back and forth with any of you about it. Em is absolutely one of those rappers that will spit bars that you will discover a new layer to every time you listen. He’s also gifted in his delivery of said bars be it with the change of inflection in his voice, to the use of alliteration for the hell of it, and his uncanny ability to fit multisyllabic words into spaces that seem damn near impossible to fit.  Apparently, we owe Em’s latest resurgence to rapper Tee Grizzley because he name dropped Em in his new song “No Talkin”; stating that it is Grizzley in fact that runs Detroit, not Eminem. I had to Google Tee Grizzley’s age before I even started this response. I’m damn near a full 10 years older than him, so it’s understandable that he doesn’t hold the same respect for Em that I and many others do. I listened to the song, and my response is “eh”. I wouldn’t be lying if I said I wish I could get those few minutes back. The production was ok, and then I heard Grizzley reference Disney’s Cody and Zack, which further proves my point, that maybe Eminem’s greatness merely precedes the time that Grizzley may have been allowed outside. This post is actually in response to one I was tagged in after having a conversation with a friend about Em just yesterday. Back in the day before you were aware of an artists every move via social media, the only thing we focused on was their talent, and this was the time that Eminem debuted and flourished. Of course in the beginning, Slim Shady was known for his antics, in fact, I think he could be credited as one of the original trolls. And I will say, that I do not agree with everything he’s done or stands for, but I will also say that morals in hip hop were not always important. Furthermore; let’s not forget that he is solely responsible for the now overused term “Stan” which describes some of the people that are automatically siding with Grizzley and fellow Detroit Native Sada Baby, without perhaps knowing their history, or having an appreciation of true hip hop. Em has a few horrible projects, but don’t act like he didn’t murk his comeback with Kamikaze. I’m not saying all new artists must like every artist that existed prior to them, or perhaps even paved the way for their career because that’s not reasonable, but at least have the basic respect that is owed them. I also know that these new rappers tend to live for social media, so who knows, this could all be a ploy just for clicks.  Please let me know your thoughts on Eminem, his talent, his influence and his standing with Detroit natives.