Em has more skills than most I would say. His fame however(not his skill) does have something to do with his race. He knows that and there's not really anything he can do about it. He can't control how people react to him and how he is portrayed in the media. If he were black I doubt he would be quite as famous, but he would still be as skilled.

but I think 'poet of his generation' is a bit of an overstatement. though I don't know who I would give that title to, if anyone.

yeah i'd definitely have to agree wit' spacemanspiff there... tho just blaze brought up some interestin' points too... but do u honestly feel that nas has gotten weaker, especially based on his last two albums and b-sides that he's been releasin' here and there?? i mean yeah the singles that they release are "pop" but every MC does that because it's easier to promote something that sells than something a lot more conscience and controversal... see em lucked out in the fact that his claim to fame is bein' controversal so it's what they expect... and they don't mind hearin' em sing about "hardships" and "preachin" but they don't wanna hear that shit from jay-z... even tho he does in his more conscience songs that u can find on every album up to date... i mean i don't know if ur radio station have been droppin' some of the tracks from black album, or if u've downloaded them urself but there's some serious stuff on that album... and nas' stillmatic and god's son were amazin'... clearly some of the better albums this year...

i defintely think that role of poet is hard to fill... but i'd definitely have to say some of the honorable mentions in the past year and in no particular order have to be...
-nas
-eminem
-talib kweli
-jay-z

Talib kweli i think got a lot worse with the release of his new album, in no way was it comparable to reflection eternal, i think he needs hi-tek even though he had some sick rhymes on it. But kwelity (spelling) is alright, reflection eternal is easily one of my favorite hip hop albums. Eminem, jay-z and nas all are pretty much the same like i said in my past post, in my eyes atleast, i think jay-z and nas were at their primes a little bit be4 eminem was. It's hard to decide who to give the title too, and when we say generation, whats the time frame?

Exactly, every song is about the same subject "oh ive had a hard life, my mum is a *****, everyone's against me blah blah blah" He really needs new material, but now he's rich, he cant rap about having a hard life anymore, so whats he gonna do?

I was listening to a g-unit mix tape in my friends car today and eminems part started out with a little rap bragging and turned into a Ja Rule dis, some of the best rap i've heard in a long time. I don't think hes run out of material since all of his songs aren't about poverty and hard lives. As far as poet/storyteller, Slick Rick is a story teller, Nas-Rewind , only eminem story i can think of is stan.

now he can rap about being rich and his money, his cars, his hoes, stupid crap like that.

Hey, if I had all that, I'd sure as hell rap/sing/brag about it!!

and then get gunned down like tupac and biggie? do you think that will happen to eminem????

I sure as hell hope so... actually, I dont wany him to be immortalized like that, I'd rather he got killed some other, humiliating way.