Over the weekend, Vince Staples was on a 9-hour flight and decided to host a Q & A with his followers. One of his followers asked for Vince's opinion on Eminem's BET freestyle. Vince did not hold back on the criticism. Being an Eminem fan himself, Vince said the freestyle was trash and that Eminem could have done much better. Several people responded to Vince's criticisms in defense of Eminem. The responses represented a larger issue of a lot of people in Eminem's fan base.
Response to Vince Staples' critique
A known troll on social media, Vince Staples made a lot of jokes about the freestyle.
There were a lot of negative responses to what Vince said. This is interesting because the general consensus is that the freestyle was not good. The people that Vince responded to questioned the value of his opinion. Many said that Vince was using Eminem's name to become relevant or that Vince's music discography doesn't allow him to critique Eminem. Some people said that Eminem was using his platform to speak against Trump so the freestyle wasn't expected to be lyrical.
Vince received racial insults as well as claims that he doesn't like white people. However, he responded to multiple tweets in order to explain his critique. After that, he explained why he received such negative responses from answering a question.
Vince's response
Vince replied to multiple twitter accounts that misconstrued his words. He stated that he has always been a fan of Eminem. That being said, he expected a better performance. He brought up lines like "That's an awfully hot coffee pot, Should I drop it on Donald Trump? Probably not." to defend his point. He made it clear that he thought the freestyle was bad and it had nothing to do with Eminem as a rapper overall.
In addition, Vince explained why he received such negative responses to his critique. He said that there are a lot of white people who champion Eminem because he is white. He believes if Eminem was black, he would be compared to Redman. Redman is a great artist but, does not have the same recognition of talent by white people.
I would argue that most white people do not listen to Redman as regularly as they would listen to Eminem.
Vince continued by saying that everyone champions people on race. Eminem is a special case because he receives both male and white privilege in hip-hop. He said this is why some white people refuse to listen to rap unless it is Eminem. In addition, he believes Eminem's white privilege is the reason why his Trump diss was so well received. When Nipsey Hussle and YG dropped FDT, it received a lot of negative criticism. A lot of people got defensive by what Vince said, only proving his point. Figures like Joey Badass agreed with Vince's points.
In conclusion, Vince Staples did not intend to disrespect Eminem's skills.
HIs critique was towards the freestyle and eventually at the fans who champion Eminem solely for his race. His forthcoming album is rumored to feature Vince Staples so, I don't believe there is any bad blood between the artists. But, I think that Vince Staples said a lot of truthful statements that people didn't want to hear. This is why Vince's opinion was challenged based on his discography, fame, and race.
