Last year, Billboard ranked the 50 greatest rappers of all time, a list that no one had any problems with and everyone agreed with. Everyone except Eminem, that is. He was placed at #5, one slot ahead of The Notorious B.I.G. and behind only Tupac (No. 4), Nas (No. 3), Kendrick Lamar (No. 2), and Jay-Z (No. 1), but on “Tobey,” his new song with Big Sean and Babytron, Eminem voiced his displeasure with the ranking.
“I got so many stories, but I hate ceilings / Ain’t feelin’ your top five favorite rappers / So I know they ’bout to be pissed at me,” he raps on the track. “But this, to me, is a mystery / How rappers I’ve already ripped could be / Higher up on a list than me / Yet here I sit on your list though at five, wished it was fine / But just know inside, to me, that sh*t’s hilarious.”
Eminem also had words for Melle Mel, of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, who thinks Em is only considered a top-five rapper because he’s white. “So when I get dissed though and by a pioneer who was one of the reasons why I am here / They tell me I should just let that shit go and slide / ‘Melle Mel shouldn’t get no reply’ / ‘That man is a legend,’ bitch, so am I,” he raps.
You can listen to “Tobey” below.