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Hot 97’s Ebro Darden found himself in the middle of some backlash when he made a far-fetched comment about rapper Eminem. On Thursday, The New York hip-hop and R&B radio host felt the need to go on Twitter and sing Eminem’s praises by comparing him to Black people.
“Eminem treats Rap how Black folks have had to treat life… be 5x better, work 5x harder than everyone and still not necessarily get respect,” he tweeted.
As soon as the thought was unleashed, many people were completely confused. Eminem has constantly been on publications’ best rapper lists, such as Complex’s “Best Rapper Alive” series. His albums have also received critical acclaim, including a rare XXL rating for his 2000 effort “The Marshall Mathers LP”.
Not to mention, Eminem has had multiple number-one albums on the Billboard 200 albums charts and he’s sold millions of records, with albums like “The Marshall Mathers LP” reaching diamond status. In addition to all of this, the man has won 15 Grammys including six Best Rap Album wins, and he’s won an Oscar for “Lose Yourself”.
The guy has even won a Soul Train Music Award for his song “Love the Way You Lie” featuring Rihanna. Even shows like Netflix’s “Hip-Hop Evolution” have acknowledged Eminem’s influence in the Detroit battle rap scene before he became a popular artist.
So where is the lack of respect?
Folks were quick to check Ebro with one user writing, “Eminem’s worst album still does more than any black artists cause he’s white relax Ebro.”
Another user tweeted, “Smfh miss me w/ the fake conscious sh** Ebro. Yea .. Must be hard going diamond w/ at best sub par material every single time out. He’s called ‘GOAT’ by every major outlet, has a huge low IQ cult fanbase and is widely regarded as top tier if not the highest tier lyricist. FOH.”
Ebro seemed to acknowledge the error of his ways because soon he started retweeting people’s disagreements with him. He also tweeted, “The 5x was an over statement I must admit.”
“Its a complete false equivalency …. complete,” he said in another tweet.
However, Ebro seemed to stick by his opinion that the hip hop community doesn’t embrace Eminem the way they should. “This isn’t about sales, this is about the lack of respect for his contributions to HipHop & how he continues to give regardless,” he tweeted.
But again, documentaries such as Netflix’s “Hip-Hop Evolution” and even Eminem’s semi-biographical movie “8 Mile” show that he’s respected in the hip hop community.
Thus, people continued to be baffled.
Check out some of the most pointed and hilarious tweets below.
