Some people have interpreted J. Cole's mention of Eminem as a white artist who has "snatched the sound" as a dig against Shady.
We didn't see the lyrics to Cole's new song 'Fire Squad that way. We thought Cole was making an observation that the music industry pushes white artists who do black music because they are more broadly marketable, not making any commentary on Em's skills. (In fact, Eminem himself has made that very point about the privileged position of white artists in Hip Hop.)
During an interview with Angie Martinez on Power 105 yesterday, Cole made it clear that he has all the respect in the world for Eminem as an emcee.
"It’s silly how big of an Eminem fan I am," he said. "t was a very select group of, like, top notch people that I worship ... Eminem was literally at the top of that list. My first song sounded like an Eminem bite. If you think I’m dissing Eminem, I know you just read the headline ... or you're listening to the song with the headline in mind.”Later in the interview, Cole included Eminem in his top five all-time rappers, coming in fifth (tied with Dre of Outkast) after Tupac, Biggie, Nas and Jay-Z.
So call off the Shady army. Cole loves your boy, too.
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