Eminem has voiced his support for fellow hip hop heavyweight Kendrick Lamar, dubbing the Compton rapper a “top tier” lyricist.
Ahead of his highly-anticipated performance at the Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show on Sunday, Eminem spoke to Sway Calloway on SiriusXM’s Shade 45 about the event, as well as discussing the ‘DNA.’ rapper’s lyrical talent.
“Kendrick, to me, is one of the electrifying lyricists of his generation, would you agree with that?” Sway asked Em during a snippet of the interview.
“I absolutely would agree,” the ‘Venom’ rapper replied without missing a beat. “Kendrick is the very top, top tier of lyricists – not just of this generation, of all time.”
It’s not the first time the Detroit rapper has shown love for Kendrick. Eminem regularly gives a shoutout to K.Dot in his music, as well as in interviews over the years.
“I love what Kendrick is doing. He is continuing the tradition of making rap exciting. What he did with ‘Control’ verse was incredible,” he told BET in 2013.
Then, he told the New York Times in 2016, “I love Kendrick Lamar. I just try to pay attention to what’s out. Wayne puts out a new song, and my ears perk up. There are certain artists that make me do that just because of the talent that they rhyme at — it’s like candy to me. Kendrick, the way he puts albums together — front to back, they’re like pieces of art.”
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Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Shade 45 interview which is set to be released in full on Saturday (for us Aussies), Slim admitted that despite his many years in the biz, he’s still nervous ahead of the Halftime Show performance.
“It’s fucking nerve-racking. This is like to me, there’s nothing more final than live TV,” Em said.
“You know what I’m saying? So, if you fuck up, your fuck up is there forever.”
“When Dre first asked, when the whole thing started going down and we were like, ‘ok, this might be actually serious.’ I was trying to envision what Dre might do,” he continued.
“I was thinking like, ‘yeah, it’s dope that all of us are gonna rap together.’ […] I didn’t expect it to be, like the production to be like this.”
Along with Eminem, the Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show will see appearances from rap icons Kendrick, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Mary J. Blige.
For more on this topic, follow the Hip Hop Observer.
Check out Eminem on Sirius XM’s Shade 45 below:
