What Separates Eminem From His Peers?

[Notalius]

He's white

[EminemInsider]

Talib Kweli actually nails the elephant in the living room here (if you get past the obligatory leftist BS in the beginning):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St0670cSFe4

[Slim Fiasco]

See, this is why comparing rappers kinda fails. Rap music expresses life and a rapper's life situation has nothing to do with skill or talent. If Em wasn't white, his father didn't leave him, he didn't meet Proof, if Nas and Biggie were born in Bel Air etc. a lot of their music wouldn't have manifested. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Em isn't the best MC ever because he is and it's the result of A LOT OF HARD WORK more-so than anything but he also did have the luck of the perfect storm so to say.

He was raised in the right period and circumstances which of course were awful but make a great back story. His father leaving, mom being crazy, wife being crazy, being broke, uncle committing suicide, his daughter, being white, Proof, rap grinding - battling, getting signed by Dre. Some of these things and worse happen to a lot of people but the combination of ALL of this, you must admit is rather rare. We like to think that our personality is ours but most of it is a product of the environment and Em had an interesting unique character outcome.

Now, when you have talent but also put A LOT OF HARD WORK like Em did, your mind starts to work in great ways and is able to associate everything with anything and put things together marvelously. You have to remember that creativity still comes from the unconscious mind and it's just how you "feed" it with practice and various information. And Em fed it with GREAT food, haha. So yeah, it is his skills for the most part but he also had an amazing clay to work with.

Plus he's cute to girls so that helps. And even the whole blonde hair thing helped to make him stand out even more. If he looked like this in the My Name Is video, it wouldn't be as good:

[Amadeo]

See, this is why comparing rappers kinda fails. Rap music expresses life and a rapper's life situation has nothing to do with skill or talent. If Em wasn't white, his father didn't leave him, he didn't meet Proof, if Nas and Biggie were born in Bel Air etc. a lot of their music wouldn't have manifested. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Em isn't the best MC ever because he is and it's the result of A LOT OF HARD WORK more-so than anything but he also did have the luck of the perfect storm so to say.

He was raised in the right period and circumstances which of course were awful but make a great back story. His father leaving, mom being crazy, wife being crazy, being broke, uncle committing suicide, his daughter, being white, Proof, rap grinding - battling, getting signed by Dre. Some of these things and worse happen to a lot of people but the combination of ALL of this, you must admit is rather rare. We like to think that our personality is ours but most of it is a product of the environment and Em had an interesting unique character outcome.

Now, when you have talent but also put A LOT OF HARD WORK like Em did, your mind starts to work in great ways and is able to associate everything with anything and put things together marvelously. You have to remember that creativity still comes from the unconscious mind and it's just how you "feed" it with practice and various information. And Em fed it with GREAT food, haha. So yeah, it is his skills for the most part but he also had an amazing clay to work with.

Plus he's cute to girls so that helps. And even the whole blonde hair thing helped to make him stand out even more. If he looked like this in the My Name Is video, it wouldn't be as good:

I think it's more to do with genes than the environment.

People like Eminem have more drive than the average person, and it's written in their DNA. They're stronger, mentally.

Even if placed in a different environment or even if he grew up rich, he would have possessed the same core traits: an obsessive mind, a love for words, and a "fighter" mentality. Not saying he still would have been a rapper, but he'd be doing something in the creative arts and he would have had the drive/ambition to excel beyond mediocrity.

[Devil'sAdvocate]

The guy just raps, come on guys.

[Sofi1993]

Because of his tight lyrics and dreamy eyes

[Kenneth Kaniff]

He's white.

[Im-Shady]

His ability to Rap full stop