MTV: No Longer A Music Authority
Monday, 05 October 2009 | Written by Jason
When I awoke this morning and saw MTV's complete "Hottest MCs In The Game" list, I thought I found a misprint.... There was one name that was missing from the top ten... A guy named Eminem. MTV says the list is based on current achievements, rhyme skill, flow, buzz, impact, commercial success (sales, airplay, web presence, and helping to spawn other artist careers). So lets look at this closer shall we...
1. Achievements: Just this year, Eminem won "Best Hip Hop Video" at MTV's Own Award Show. His "Relapse" album has gone over the Platinum status and he just happen to be the biggest artist in the world.
2. Rhyme Skill: Is there any question that Eminem is one of, if not the best rhyming rapper, period? On the new "Forever" track which features three artists in the top 5 Drake (#3), Lil Wayne (#2) and Kanye West (#4), Eminem clearly came with the most lyrical verse, even winning a fan poll over who had the best verse.
3. Influence: Not considering the face that Eminem is the most sot-after artist, but Lil Wayne himself has gone public many times practically begging Eminem to do a song with him oh and Eminem inducted Run-DMC into the Hall Of Fame.
4. Web Presence: Besides winning MTV's own "Hottest MCs" Poll by far with over 38% of the votes (2nd place only had 18%), news stories, websites or any item containing Eminem's name quickly becomes the number one trafficked item online. Let's not forget to mention that if you go to MTV.com, they list Eminem #6 on the "Hot Artists" list, but I guess that doesn't mean MCs.
5. Sales: That's a Joke. Eminem is Hip Hop's number one selling artist of all time, period. His new "Relapse" album went platinum easily in an environment where albums are considered great sellers if they go gold.
6. Buzz: Eminem's "Relapse" album was by far the most anticipated album of 2009 and now his "Relapse 2" album is beyond the next most anticipated. Let's not forget that MTV itself used Eminem to boost ratings of their Movie Awards by staging a stunt with Bruno or getting him to do Shorts/Skits with Tracy Morgan for the recent Video Music Awards
7. Building Other Artists Careers: Really? Anyone ever heard of 50 Cent? G-Unit, D-12, Obie Trice etc. etc.
Not only is it clear that MTV does not care what fans or the public think (they ignored their own poll where fans voted Eminem #1), but they are trying to stay relevant with the youth by voting rappers who don't even an album out yet, to the top (Sorry Drake, we will be happy to take this back once you drop a debut album that does well).
Oh and we forgot that Eminem also released his own video game (with Jay-Z), is headlining the Voo-Doo Festival and is currently working on his 2nd album in a year, Dr Dre's "Detox," 50 Cent's "Before I Self Destruct" and possibly signing Slaughterhouse.
It Seems that MTV wants to USE Eminem to help their ratings, webhits, video plays and exposure but they aren't willing to give credit, where credit is do. Last year and the year before Eminem did not make the list either, maybe next year the most popular and biggest hip hop artist of all time might break their top ten.
http://www.rapbasem ent.com/eminem/100509-mtv-gets-their-hottest-mcs-list-wrong-leaves-out-eminem.html