Psychologist and activist Dr. Umar isn't budging on his position that Eminem being white keeps him from being the best rapper.
He recently spoke on the subject while on The Joe Budden Podcast, and he's since doubled down on that opinion.
Here Umar's initial comments:
"No non-African can ever be the best of anything African," he said. "It is an insult to the ancestors, it is an insult to the race and it is an insult to every Black person ... We gotta stop naming non-African people as the best of any aspect of our cultural power because it is an insult … I can acknowledge Eminem’s talent, but for you to put him at the top, that’s white supremacy."
Afterward, people from various races blasted Umar for his comments, so he responded.
"When I look at the responses from America’s Caucasian community over this issue of Eminem being the G.O.A.T. of Hip Hop — and let me say this: I have nothing personal against Eminem," he said on Live. "My comments had nothing to do with Mr. Marshall Mathers personally. And I want Mr. Marshall Mathers to understand that Dr. Umar Ifatunde harbors no personal ill will towards you. You are a talented musician, lyricist, producer. You seem like you are an okay guy."
"So my comments are not personal; they apply to any non-African," he went on. "This is about business, the business of protecting the integrity of African culture. But from a cultural integrity perspective, haven’t they stolen enough from us? Haven’t they appropriated enough from us? "
"Haven’t they robbed, stole, killed, enslaved, lynched, miseducated, mass incarcerated, politically dominated us enough? The fact that you got Black people arguing for a white man to be considered the greatest of all time in an African artform speaks to how psychologically ill we are as a race of people," Umar explained.
But why is it that whenever people argue about which rapper is the best or not, hardly anyone brings up things like lyrics, flow, rhyme cadences, and you know, the art of MCing?