Although Nick Cannon and Marshall Mathers have a sordid past, Cannon has never waivered in calling the Detroit rapper one of his favorite emcees. The pair were beefing way back when after Cannon claimed Eminem dissed Mariah Carey on a track. A back and forth of sorts ensued, and in recent years, the pair have matured and put their differences to the side.
Cannon discussed the Kamikaze rapper with VladTV in a sit-down interview during a discourse about Em's impact on music. While the chart-topping, multi-platinum 8-Mile rapper's influence is undeniable, Cannon shared that people from around the way weren't really fans of Eminem's music. Rapper Conway recently told Vlad that Eminem isn't a 'hood favorite because "there's nobody in the hood riding around to an Eminem album. That's just facts. I'm sure Eminem know that. He okay with that."
Cannon agreed with the sentiment. "It's capitalism at the end of the day," Cannon said. "Hip hop music—the people who buy hip hop music are white people. Specifically, are white girls. If you look at the demographics, the way it all breaks down...well, music in general...even when you look at the streaming numbers, women, number one, are the biggest connoisseurs of music when it comes to consumption. And then when you break down demographically how it all works from the fanbases to the girls who buy tickets and screaming in the front rows. They create the stars."
"Us as guys, we sit back and we respect cats," he continued. "We respect Nas, we respect Hov, we respect [E-40] and [Ice] Cube. We can sit and talk about 'em, but we ain't gon' go out and fanboy for [them]...So when you get a blond-haired white boy that is actually dope, that's like the second coming of Christ to the music industry, because you're gonna get all of the credibility. You can't deny that [Eminem's] not dope. Get in front of anybody. Battle anybody. Then it's like, oh sh*t, I can market and sell this motherf*cker like Pepsi? And he's crazy and entertaining, too?"
Cannon stated that black men felt "some type of way" about Em's success being a white person in hip hop, a genre that Cannon considers to be black music. He made comparisons to Elvis Presley and The Beatles who have been accused of the same thing. Check out the 9-minute clip in its entirety and let us know what you think.
