Eminem's impact is basically like Elvis's. He popularized a historically Black genre for the masses.

He also has influence on a number of technical rappers and helped Dr. Dre's label blow up to epic proportions while helping 50 Cent/G-Unit blow up.

Within rap itself, though, Jay's more influential. All sorts of rappers from different generations draw influence from Jay and Jay has literal clone rappers just like Eminem.

Jay's quotables are also so stapled in the culture it's insane. Eminem has "Stan" but Jay has bars that regularly get quoted to this day. Takeover alone is ironically one of the most quotable rap songs ever.

Jay also played a role in popularizing the "off the dome" approach to rapping.

Once again, it could go either way. But since online rap discussions are obsessed with numbers and popularity, people will likely answer Eminem off the strength of people in Mumbai bumping Eminem more than Jay-Z.

Impact is one of the only times where sales actually matter and Em has 100 million sales over him tbh

It's a stupid comparison anyway cause both of them within the top 10 of most impactful but Em easily has more reach

The first sentence of this post shows why you white ppl are not taken seriously during these discussions. Ppl from Israel and Switzerland are irrelevant to the culture.

227 million sold to 125 million

Cry about it

Some of y’all started listening to Eminem in like 2010 and it shows

Eminems real influential era was between 1999/2000 until 2005. S*** was different at that time

Both are GOATs but if we are talking about impact it’s definitely Eminem

Even my 87 years old grandma knows Eminem

wouldn't that be a reason why being known in those areas is impressive ? yall are wild man

Hov got him ye and ri and bron

Eminem got 50 and hopsin

so you’re crediting Em for bringing hip hop to the suburbs & trying to paint that as a positive?

Eminem the WOAT if we attribute that to him

What did Eminem even I spire

Jay and Em are both GOAT contenders and deserve respect.

But some of the arguments people are using for Em here sound almost parallel to the arguments that Drake stans use against Kendrick.

"More people listen to Drake's music."
"Drake has more sales/hits/streams."
"More people in the Netherlands bump Drake than Kendrick."

Same talking points and it's kinda sad since Eminem has an actual legacy besides his fame and sales.

Lol, what?

What line from Takeover gets quoted daily?

Answer is obviously Eminem, but KTT2 still trying too hard to separate themselves from their suburban upbringing to say it.

I know for a fact that most of y'all trying to s*** on Em ITT are White/Middle Eastern, so miss me with that "we don't bump Em in the streets" s***.

Jay Z's influence draws from -- not so much his rapping -- but the fact that he's seen as the consumate hustler in a culture that glorifies wealth over pretty much anything else.

Eminem's influence is because of the way he pretty much pioneered self-examination and the exploration of taboo topics, from the use of d**** when it was unpopular to the fight against d**** when d**** were mainstream. If you're a rapper and you're exploring uncomfortable topics, Em's your father in some way. If you're a lyrical miracle nigga, Em owns some part of your DNA, if you're White, he was your influence at some point.

Those are valid talking points; as valid as any points people post in Jay Z's defense.

More people listening to you, higher sales, known in more areas are all qualities of impact lol

So, Post Malone has more impact on hip hop than Chief Keef?

Post Malone is not a rapper

If you say Nelly, yes.
Flo Rida, hell yes
Even MC Hammer

I guess that depends on the impact and how it's defined.

I mean...Keef godfathered Drill which is one of the biggest hip hop subgenres in the world and he coined the phrase "Thot."

But Keef isn't a household name nor does he have major numbers so I guess you could argue that, popularity wise, even Durk has more impact than him.

It all depends on the definition.

That's not what I said, and this is clearly a race thing for you guys

Hov the greatest MC of our lifetime

How?

Eminem impacted white peoples outlook on Hip Hop,Jay impacted Hip Hop as a whole.

THE END

Yeah, I see your point. Popularity is still the closest indicator of influence that we have though.

Would you say that only White people listen to Eminem?

Lol, nigga said THE END in all caps like he said something sensible.