for eminem, you see its like he only writes about about 4 things
-family(mom, kim, daughter)
-him being white
-publics view
-random stupid eminem sh!t
theres probaly more but the majority of his stuff is that, thats why encore was bad, any of the bearable songs where already rapped about by him and all the others weird severly f*cked up album fillers.( which can be classified as random eminem sh!t on my list). so its still the same stuff.
on the slim shady lp he had more topics and stories, plus it was orginal then. the next album was big cause the contriversy and it was raw, had lots of emotion in it. it was a more mature eminem. i think eminem show was pretty solid album actually, but encore was just trashy messed up tracks.
i wouldnt keep him on the list and replace him with talib kweli or common or mos def or someone like that, but if he had to stay i would make him #10. and jay z definatly cant be number one, thats a joke. hes too commercial to be the best rapper, maybe best selling (but i dont even know that). if your talking lyrically and passion and influence i would have to go with the cliche answer of tupac. cause not only was he passionate but actually had messages in some songs,powerful ones.