bigted

You could look at the credits for "Lost and Found" and see that Will wrote all the serious songs on there himself like "Tell Me Why", "Loretta", "Could U Love Me", "Mr. Nice Guy", and "Ms. Holy Roller", he only had Kel Spencer(AKA Lennie Bennett) help him on the upbeat tracks like "Party Starter", "Switch", and "Pump Ya Brakes", Will probably gives him credit 'cause he wants to help a young brotha make the game, he ain't selfish, there's nothing wrong with that.... btw is D. Lewis Skillz?, that's the name I see on "Lost and Found" next to Will Smith and the producer on that credit.... You look at all the top artists of all time like The Beatles, Elvis, Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and James Brown, they write basically everything they've done, even if they had co-writers, they were always involved with their writing, you have to write your lyrics to be a great artist, no question....

:word: Music is music, so what Will's mainstream too, ain't he? There's probably as many underground fans that don't like Will like they don't like Kanye, when I posted on an underground hip-hop site saying that I like Will, they called me a fag and need to listen to some real hip-hop, they probably didn't even listen to any of Will's albums but they hate on him 'cause he's selling millions while nobody knows their favorite underground mc, they don't realise that Will respect underground hip-hop cats too, he's a true hip-hop head that they'd like if they actually gave him a listen....

Let's be real if Will sold double platinum for "Born To Reign", Puffy would've allowed the songs he recorded for "Bad Boys II" soundtrack to be on there, but since it flopped Puffy wouldn't put them on there..... Puffy uses a lot of those rappers he signs as ghostwriters, Black Rob and Loon basically wrote his last couple albums, then again they probably make more that way than if their careers actually blew up somewhere else, lol....

The reason why their might be 5 names on the credits is 'cause besides the name of the artist performing the song if they actually wrote any of the song, maybe a co-writer, there's a producer(s) unless they produce it themselves, and the name of the people they sample would be on the track too along with the people who produced for their song too, for example I'm gonna show you if I had Jazzy Jeff produce a track for me, and we sample a song by Keith Sweat that was originally produced by Teddy Riley, btw my real name is G. Miller if you wonder who that is, for the sake of the argument I'll have fuq co-write the lyrics with me(M.Fuqua) a lot of times you wouldn't know about ghostwriters 'cause they ain't credited that's why they're ghostwriters, there's a lot of rumors about so many people using ghostwriters but you wouldn't know for sure, Kel Spencer might be credited for writing some stuff with Will but he's a co-writer 'cause Will's credited for writing the lyrics too, that means he probably just helps Will fix a couple lines in the verse, anyway this is what the credit would like for me: (G.Miller, J.Townes, M.Fuqua, K.Sweat,T.Riley) A lot of times you'll see that more than one person produces a track too, wouldn't that be considered co-producing and if it ain't credited it's ghostproducing? You see Andre Harris and Darren Hansen produced a lot of the tracks with Jazzy on "Willenium", so r they considered co-producers? Like there's a rumor that Pharrell produced "Rump Shaker" for Teddy Riley but only Teddy Riley's credited for producing the track, so would Pharrell be a ghostproducer if that was true? I found it kinda funny that people'd protest Kanye West for having Rhymefest ghostwrite for him when he was nominated for a Grammy while Dr. Dre and Puffy won Grammies without writing any of his songs, you look at their credits and they ain't credited for writing their h own songs, maybe for producing, that doesn't make sense, they should take their Grammies away if they're gonna protest Kanye, Kanye writes most of his rhymes unlike them even though their not really that good in my opinion, lol. I don't think Will had any co-writers in the JJFP days, it's ever since he started doing movies, he probably needs a lil' help 'cause he probably don't have a lot of time to proofread his rhymes like he used to, I don't see nothing wrong with that, when it's time to perform he always rocks the house and that's the most important thing about an mc like it was stated in that interview, some cats might write rhymes for other people to make money instead of doing shows 'cause when they perform people boo them, lol... btw if I'm not mistaken I think AJ has a "Source interview" from the late 90s where Will denies having ghostwriters when they asked him, he should post it for us....

Well if Skillz mentioned Will he'd say: "If you were wondering why you felt Will Smith's "Lost and Found" track It's 'cause I went in and wrote that! " :kekeke:

Rappers that keep on addressing rappers like 50 Cent and Eminem only bring more attention to 50 Cent and Eminem more than anything, it's good that Kanye has heart to say something like that about 50 Cent but the only way 50 Cent is gonna fall off is if people start ignoring him, once 50 loses hype nobody'll listen to him anymore, he needs hype 'cause that's the only skill he has.....

The thing that's a lil' wack that Diddy put only big name artists on there on the most part, but nobody'd buy it if they put dope mcs that're less popular than those on there, that's what it came down to, Puffy's trying to revive his label and he knows that Heavy D's album won't sell much so he puts the Biggie duets album instead, lol, it's kinda sad though that Biggie would probably be irrelevant right now if he was still alive unless he kept on doing commercial songs with Puffy, that's the only way he'd still be putting out multi-platinum albums, if he went back to the gritty street stuff on "Ready To Die" he wouldn't be selling anything now that's for damn sure, maybe Puffy wouldn't even step on the mic so much if Biggie was alive though, lol.... Pac left working with Dr. Dre so he wouldn't sell much either, only the ones who work with Dre are the big sellers in the rap game now.... You see how a lot of rappers that were popular when Biggie and Pac died are irrelevant now(examples: Warren G, Coolio, Craig Mack), while it seems that the death of Biggie and Pac kept them more popular than any mc alive, kinda sad, there hasn't been much out lately but the veteran mcs that're living get pushed to the sidelines... I mean they were great mcs though, no disrespect meant, but there was also other great mcs out at that time too that got slept on, it's sorta unfair that their deaths hyped them to be larger than life while a lot of dope mcs that're living get slept on continually....

All music has a message to it though, the thing is though singers could get record deals singing somebody else's songs like they do on 'American Idol' for instance, but with hip-hop you have to be original and move the crowd with your own lyrics and energetic flow of the lyrics to get signed, that's where you could say the similar thing between hip-hop and other music when it comes to performance, 2 people could say the same thing but the one that could move the crowd better will get the victory but you gotta be original with your lyrics in hip-hop, all artists should be involved with writing their lyrics, I don't mind if somebody lends a hand when it comes to song concept but if you don't write any of your lyrics, it's hard to call you an artist, I'm sure Marvin Gaye had a hand in the writing table, I don't think he just sat there and had people just write of all of his lyrics for him.... I don't like it that Puffy boasts about writing checks instead of lyrics, that's fake, lol.....

Here's another article on it: http://www.warwickuk.com/external.php?lu=h...5-11%2F&rn=News "MC's Not Writing Lyrics Ghostwriters could be getting more common in hip hop - it's being claimed up to 40% of US tracks aren't written by the rappers spitting them. It could range from a writer helping an MC with a few lines to them penning entire tracks. Having other people write your lyrics happens all the time in the pop world, but is hip hop progressing the same way? TXU's Nick Davis caught up with XXL journalist Adam Matthews, Kanye protégé Rhymefest and J Records artist Smitty to find out. Listen to their chat here So is it all about collaboration or are hip hop stars using ghostwriters cos they lack lyrical prowess? Do you care if a rapper's lyrics aren't all their own? Is it OK for an MC to have killer flow without lyrical ability? Do you see hip hop going the way of pop? A lot of big artists are producers first and foremost - is it cool for them to collaborate? CHARL.T If it's a concious hip hop track or one of true meaning it has to be written by the artist otherwise it's just not credible and the artist ends up looking a fake. radical I tink pop's rubbish yeh and i don't tink hip hop should b goin like dis. Hip hop ain't just bout da musik, it's also bout how da artist feels and how into da lyrics dey r and da meanin behind dem. If they got sum1 else writin 4 dem den it don't really have da same effect. adamC I don't have any time for rappers that don't write their own lyrics. For singers it's different because if a singer has a good voice it doesn't really matter if they wrote the songs themselves - its still going to sound good. But if an mc doesn't write their lyrics it's a different story. Rap is all about the lyrics and the lyrics make or break a rap record. If the guy doesnt write his own songs it's going to take away from the musical experience. It just sounds fake, talking about other peoples lives and rapping from other peoples viewpoints. Most rap fans care about the lyrics and meaning of the songs rather than the flow. Shaolin I think that as an MC it is a requirement for you to be able to write the majority of your lyrics, although to be fair there have been occasions where artists have admirably carried songs they didn't write - I doubt anyone would complain as long as these artists still get the royalties! sci bucks i feel it really takes away from the whole game - hip hop is life - its meant to be real! dis whole game has fallen away from its original roots. what ever happened to sayin wat u mean and meanin wat u say - i love hip hop and hate dis all bout money rap game!!! joka a.ka P'Lyrical Teraspitz a.k.a Verbal Abuse wats da point of having a good flow or lyrical content if u dnt write it. To me lyrics are thoughts and feelings, so wats da point expressin sum1 elses thoughts. i write my own bars and will never let sum1 ghostwrite 4 me, but watch out b'cos every1's guna try copy and hate my style. duane "lil bear" mcguire i think its a cheap way into the industry an if u cant write dont rap simple all you fakers who r using ghostwriters need to move over cuz there's plenty of sick uk rappers who write there own songs and r willin to put in work Tisha As a writer and producer myself, people don't understand how hard it may be for some people, there is such a thing as writer's block. smokey robinson has written over 10,000 songs over the years. but also there's people like kanye west and pharell that you'd wish didn't write their own lyrics. Tai Monoup I think the reason we have such a hard time dealing with the whole 'ghost' issue is because we totally buy into the messages that most MCs spit as truth, to a degree. The reason we easily digest the fact that singers get stuff writen for them is that we tend to separate the singer from the song - maybe because the subject matter of most r'n'b tracks tends to be a little superficial. If we learnt that Bob's Redemption Song, or Marvin's What's Going On was written by someone else, we'd probably have a hard time dealing wid that too. Maybe the fact that MCs have more freedom to show more of their personality in a rhyme than a singer would have in a song makes hip-hop more personal. Max There is music like album fillers which you just listen to, usually while doing something else- like a lot of pop music it simply sounds good. Ghost writings fine for this. But then there are tracks which are meaningful to the rapper- the kind of song you can listen doing nothing else 'cos the lyrics are so deep. you cant have this ghostwritten, people take it to mean something to the rapper- its just lying to the listeners."

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/07/28/173121.php Ghostwriting & Hip-Hop July 28, 2003 Michael Seneadza Droppin' Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture (Critical Perspectives on the Past) William Eric Perkins Book Yesterday I was having a discussion about whether or not Dr. Dre can be considered a rapper. The discussion quickly digressed into the topic of ghostwriting. For those that don't know, here's a definition of a ghostwriter -- 'One who writes for and gives credit of authorship to another'. The practice of ghostwriting in hip-hop has always carried a certain stigma. That is to say that no self-respecting MC would be caught dead reciting rhymes written by someone else. Yet we know the practice takes place. Jay-Z once told Vibe magazine that "I get paid a lot of money to not tell you who I write for." It's widely known that Dr. Dre's lyrics have been written by The D.O.C., Ice Cube, Snoop, Jay-Z, Eminem, etc. I'm pretty sure Puffy doesn't write all (any?) of his own lyrics. Da Brat has written for Jermaine Dupri. (no comment!) And didn't Nas write some stuff for Will Smith one of Will's latest albums? Who knows how many other examples are out there. This raises several questions for me. Why aren't singers and musicians held to the same standard as rappers? Musicians aren't chastised if they play music that they didn't compose. Great singers aren't ridiculed for singing the words of someone else. Would it be better if the liner notes explicitly said 'written by XYZ', instead of trying to be stealth about it? (For that matter, does the average person even read the liner notes?) Is writing your own lyrics an essential part of being a true MC? Is that part of what differentiates an MC from a rapper? Will the stigma ever go away? THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EMCEES BACK IN THE DAY & TODAYS RAPPERS BY J.D.L You asked me Troy L. to explain my point of view of the difference between Hip Hop back in my era in comparison to now. Well first let me tell you that there’s a big difference between m.c.s and rappers. Rappers make rap records and are in the game for the sole purpose of monetary gain and fame. They have no love for the microphone or hip-hop, which consists of 4 elements - D.J.ing, Emceeing, Graffiti and Break Dancing!!! And I support this fact with pure evidence. Check it! Every time there is an anniversary for Rock Steady, Zulu Nation or the Cold Crush or even Disco King Mario do you see any of these rap stars or do you see mad m.c.’s that hold down mics like no other? Huh? No, because they don’t fit ;only the ones that have love for this music are there! Rappers don’t give out side jams and most of all rappers don’t interact with mc.s because m.c.s are a threat to them. If both were to get on the mic at a jam out side and the d.j. is playing breakbeats , the m.c. will tear the rapper ass up because he is in his domain his arena and he will not only rock rhymes he will rock the party; showcase the d.j. with no gimmicks no hype man, no dancers just him and his gift of gab. The rapper will say some good rhymes that is probably in record form, meaning it will be 16 or 24 bars and will feel very uncomfortable up there by himself, no dancers, no security and no hype man and to top it off if the record skips he,the rapper will stop and look at the d.j. or search for the soundman. The m.c. will stutter back on track. And in order for the rapper to rock the crowd he will have to borrow the m.c.s crowd motivation skills, or put on one of his hit records. Last but not least m.c.s roll with other m.c.s, rappers roll with body guards and entourages and stay stuck in v.i.p. rooms. However it’s somewhat not their fault because the record industry did that to them with trickery. How can you be a rap star and not be able to hang around your old block and chill? Everything you do is under a microscope! Then you chip off the founders **** but can’t give them a job as A&R or a talent scout! Don’t call us in for a collaboration of our **** you take, but pay the record companies that raped us for our voice samples or our songs. Niggaz talk **** about Will Smith but that mother****er brought Kool Moe Dee in when he did Wild Wild West! So we have the right to be bitter when we gave up blood , sweat and our souls so these guys can get million dollar deals. Video budgets etc. etc. We open the door and these so called rappers hold the knob on the other side so we can’t get back in. Don’t you know if we was to get them big budgets and have access to them top-notch producers we'll be just as big if not bigger. But they (the record companies) claim that they don’t want to take a chance on us! So why did they jump on our music in the first place! They took a chance then and look what happened….A 12 billion dollar industry! And that’s the difference- peace my brother holla

If I'm not mistaken, didn't Cuba Gooding Jr. win an Oscar or Acadamy Award for his role on "Jerry Maguire"? btw, one of Ice Cube's movies is called "It's All About The Benjamins" :kekeke:

:word: Well Puffy did a lot of commercial production on Biggie's "Life After Death" album so it's not really that much of a stretch with bringing that sound on this "Biggie's Duets" album, that's most likely what I figure it'd be sounding close to even though I didn't personally hear it yet, but 2Pac's a different artist than Biggie, the type of production that Eminem did on "Loyal To The Game" is obviously not something that Pac would wanna rhyme over, they should've had Easy Mo Bee and Shock G do the production instead to incorporate Pac's sound so it'd sound like an authentic Pac album....

Saying Ja Rule is biting off Pac is like saying Jay-Z bites of off Biggie, Ja Rule was just inspired off of Pac the same way that Jay was inspired off of Big, that's all, nobody from the Outlawz would be taking Ja Rule's side if they had a problem with him, btw Big Daddy Kane should be on the Biggie album since he did tracks with Biggie before Biggie signed to Bad Boy, I'm still yet to check out this album, I'm gonna check it out soon....

Chris Rock is definately more of a comedian than an actor, I can't really think of a movie where he's done a serious role, that's why people won't ask him to do serious roles, they'll ask him to do comedies 'cause that's what he's best at.... You could say that there's quite a few black actors with just as much talent as Will but they don't appeal to a large commercial audience the way Will does, it ain't Will's fault, it's just the way the industry is, it's harder for a black actor to get in the game, Will wasn't at the top right away either, he had to work hard to get there....

Well it must not be that serious if he was released from the hospital already, that'll be used in the promotion for his next album probably, like Eminem's camp needs any more controversey. :kekeke:

Ice Cube's 1st movie "Boyz In The Hood" came out in 1990, which is actually Ice Cube's best movie to date, they honored that at Hip-Hop Honors in VH1 a couple months ago.... Yeah what Chris Rock said wasn't really a diss, it's more of a joke, he likes hip-hop but he don't want them to take his check I guess, lol, I'm sure he got no beef with Will 'cause he did a cameo on FPOBA....

Yeah actually I remember that Fatal actually was backing Ja Rule and Murder Inc. when they were battlin' with G-Unit and D-12 so most likely Pac would probably be beefin' with Eminem and 50 if he were alive....

This was supposed to be a duets album so that's why there's collab on every track, that's what a duet album is, lol. I don't think Pac's album was supposed to be, Biggie probably would work with some these rappers on here so it more seems realistic for him unlike Pac with his "Loyal To The Game" 'cause Pac was more against mainstream, like I could see Biggie doing a song with Nelly and 50 'cause Puffy worked with them before on the Bad Boys 2 Soundtrack, LL Cool J, Heavy D, and Busta should've been on there though 'cause Biggie worked with all of them while alive and he probably would collab with them again if he still was, I couldn't picture Pac working with Eminem, D12, or G Unit, 'cause the Outlawz or Digital Underground ain't down wit them....

I wonder why Chris Rock'd diss Will?!!! Now Samuel L. Jackson did a movie with Ice Cube last summer so that must not be recent he said that :bat: I only really like Cuba Gooding Jr. in like a couple movies, there's a reason why he don't get major roles...

Yeah Jeff's been kinda quiet lately, besides doing a couple holiday shows with FP, did he perform at any clubs during the holidays, is he in the lab recording more material, or just chillin'?

Skillz is actually more famous for writing for other rappers than for himself, he's a ghostwriter, he dropped a couple albums but they flopped....

Hey AJ you need to understand that 99% of the people thought that Will was gonna diss Eminem when he said that he had "something for Eminem" on his song "Mr. Nice Guy", Will should've gave people what they wanted, hip-hop heads want Eminem's career to be finished, why back down, we all know that Will has enough talent and power to clean up the rap game, right?!!! He should've threw punchlines at Eminem, this is hip-hop dawg, people wanna be entertained, if Will threw some creative disses at Eminem people'd loved the track much better than they do now, only us Lorettas like "Mr. Nice Guy", most people think it's weak 'cause he didn't diss Eminem like you stated, "Husband, father, dissed by Eminem, did it bother him, yep but he classy, Big Will gets another 20 mil, walks right past 'E" is a weak response in my book even though it's true, and it's not like what Eminem said was that drastic to respond to in the first place, it was just a joke in a comedic song, if Eminem said "f*** Will Smith" in a more dramatic song then yes that's a foul diss, "Real Slim Shady"'s just a parody, I didn't take it serious when I heard it. And who gives a damn if he gets teenyboppers to say Will Smith sucks, they probably don't like Will anyway, Will don't need them, Fresh Prince is capable of doing much better than that and luckily he did better on the rest of the album or else hip-hop heads like me'd think it's time for Will to hang up the mic if that's the best he could do especially after the dissapointing "Born To Reign", I'm a fan but I'm also a realist, I don't think what anybody does everything perfect no matter how much I like them.... I was dissapointed 'cause if you say you're gonna respond to somebody you do better than that, Will'd been better off saying nothing in his interviews at all if he don't deliver what people expect, somebody with the power of Will has to stand up and destroy this studio gangstas, 2Pac would do it if he were alive, looks like nobody's man enough to do it though but I guess that's why people liked Pac so much, he wasn't afraid to go after people dissin' him no matter what the circumstances are, I was hoping that Will was gonna stand up to the G-Unit gimmicks and finish them off..... I woulda liked to see Will reply to Eminem if it was done better than what was done on "Mr. Nice Guy", the song didn't make any impact though like it would've if Will actually took shots at Em.... :thumbdown:

Here's the lyrics to the "2003 Wrap-Up" I found on OHHLA.com, they'll probably be putting up the lyrics to the 2005 one soon: We got a burner Doc! Yeah, uh, yeah, y'all know what it is, uh Its Skillz We back uh I mean y'all asked for it, so I had to do it again knowhatimsayin? Yeah, '03, let's go Yo, its the S-K-I to them Double-L-Z y'all Recappin the 2 Double-0 3 y'all R. Kelly saved face He wrote so many hits that we forgot about his sex case Everybody got a hit from the king But I ain't get the mask and the whole Pied Piper thing Till I found out who that really is Ain't that the dude that left town with all the little kids? Label of the year would have to be Shady I watched Lil Jon turn into J.D And speakin of attraction Don't you get sick when you realize he hit Janet Jackson? Da Band got a easy break And had the whole world talkin bout not walkin for cheese cake And here's the funny part The blackout hit and you had to walk just to sit in the dark Rappers kept fake pimpin' And don't lie you know you like watchin Jessica Simpson And ey'body kept eyes part flashin Styles came home, Yayo went back in The industry was silent The dummy move of the year that would be Kobe Bryant Y'all think she lyin? Thats the second time Kobe been on T.V. cryin I'm like damn Kobe In high school you was the man Kobe What the hell happened to you? Sean Paul stayed busy They careers looked iffy So Madonna decided to kiss Britney That sent a shock thru the city I wasn't shocked what would've shocked me if she kissed Missy and the south made a come back Note to BET I don't wanna see Bone Crusher's butt crack Ja Rule got madder, we watched the Farrakahn special Irv watch the Viagra What's next? we movin on Ey'body forgot about the girl that made the uh-oh song 50 kept stuntin Club songs of the year Joe Budden or Pharrell with Frontin Roc The Mic was the tour But didn't you feel Babs and Lil Kim performin at the BET awards? If you agree wit this one then wave your hands Whos tired of the throwbacks and the chickenhead dance? Okay same here Nelly and Chingy got robbed in the same year Shocked? I'ma say it quite clurr When your boys in Philly man Have his bodyguard right thurr Labels wasn't doin well They put gold tickets in albums to boost the sales And thats saddenin Cuz if you got a gold ticket you prolly copped the CD from Bin Laden As far as couples go they was on the hush strictly Beyonce and Jay-Z, Vivica and 50 I told you Ben and Jen was shifty Everybody make some noise if you went to see Gigli! .... Alright, okay As far as American Idol, the winner was Clay Pregnancy on TV was Toni Braxton Ashanti came back lookin like Janet Jackson Beyonce hit the top If you a female singer and I ain't call your name? you flopped Jay-Z was done Thank God we got the ODB show on VH1 Cam'Ron made 'em think I can't believe that dudes was walkin around my hood in pink Thank God I'm a southerner Cuz you know its over once you got the Terminator for your governor Oukast was wil'yin Video of the year goes to Dre Ice Cold 3000 This year was kinda lame It's funny, the league replaced Kobe with Lebron James The Roy Jones fight was foul And BET don't love nobody like B2K and Bow Wow He barely went gold fa sho Jermaine prolly in Atlanta like I told you so Kanye sipped the siz-yurp Zino found a tape wit Eminem usin the N wiz-ord Em I doubt that you a racist kid Thank God ya **** hit the fan the same week that Mike's did And Mike be confused again We don't know if he tuckin 'em in or stuffin 'em in Question is will they nail him? To me he don't look like LaToya, he look like Liz Taylor Diddy ran the marathon well Hottest show on TV hands down Dave Chappelle These labels is sinkin So when you say Rawkus, I say what the hell I was thinkin? Hottest song In Da Club by 50 And since she got the thighs out I'm lookin at Missy Jay tried to leave like Mike RIP to Soulja Slim, Rerun, and Barry White This year y'all did it fa sho This Skillz welcomin y'all to the Double-0 4

I wished him Happy Holidays last week on Christmas, I'll make another post saying Happy New Year's, I'm gonna make more posts over there, I'll admit I've been slacking lately...

Will didn't have to respond, he has nothing to prove to Em 'cause he got fans of all ages and is a household name, Em can't say that when most of his fans are teenagers but he is a household name so he musta done something right, for Will to say something about Em must show that he has respect for Eminem and if Eminem makes fun of Will so much it's 'cause Will's an icon, Em likes to poke fun at famous people, he'll even diss himself too, he's just a crazy guy that shouldn't be taken seriously, lol.... Now I doubt that Will'd ever respond to Bow Wow 'cause he don't have a platinum plaque or rap fans don't respect him, unless of course Bow Wow grew up and actually gets some respect., then we might hear something from Will gradually, lol, Eminem is Rakim compared to Bow Wow... The hype between Will and Em was dead already though, Will actually already did respond in interviews 5 years ago when "Real Slim Shady" came out, Will laughed it off and said that he had no intentions in responding and figured that Eminem would be irrelevant in the rap game soon, well he's right basically 'cause after "Marshall Mathers LP" Em lost his rap fanbase, he only has pop fans now, I still think "Born To Reign" track was dedicated to Eminem too, Will mocked Em's flow on there and criticised gangsta rappers in that song, I like that song much better than "Mr. Nice Guy", he should've said that was for Eminem, but maybe he wasn't that confident about the "Born To Reign" album either to say something like that, lol... Both Em and Will have had their ups and downs to be real but at this moment Will has the edge, in 2002 maybe Eminem would've had a slight advantage towards Will since Will was too much into his movies to put effort into aggressive rhyming when he was doing songs with Tra-Knox on "Born To Reign" but then again "The Eminem Show" wasn't no masterpiece either and Em had a hard time with Ja Rule and Canibus even when they weren't on top of their games at that time either so he'd barely beat Will then, from 1997-2000 Will was on top of his game and so was Em, and from 1986-1993 Will was dominating the rap game with Jazzy while Eminem was a Loretta on the sidelines watching, lol, so the overall edge goes to Will, if people'd actually compare their catalogs there's no comparison, Will has 4 or 5 classic albums out of 9 with one weak one while Em only has 1 or 2 out of 5 (counting "Infinite") with at least 1 weak one, only Stans would consider Em better than Will, most rap fans would call Will a legend before they'd Eminem, it'd be tight battle though if Em got hungry again and Will remains hungry like he is on "Lost and Found" but I doubt that'd happen now....