Chuck D believes that both Eminem and Black Thought are technologically gifted when it comes to rap.
During an appearance on N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN’s Drink Champs podcast on Saturday (April 1), the Public Enemy legend gave both MCs their bionic props.
“Eminem and Black Thought… big ups to Black Thought, The Roots, and also Eminem. Cyborgs, man,” Chuck said. “They’re cyborgs, but let me tell you this: we can also get caught up cause’ you know, you got future generations, and then you got people who ain’t gonna even get on the register who are so dope.”
The “Fight The Power” rapper continued by praising Skyzoo as a dope lyricist, which prompted the Brooklyn MC to give Chuck D his flowers on Instagram.
“The good word on a Sunday from the pastor of hip-hop, the legendary rhyme animal Chuck D,” Skyzoo wrote in response. “An absolute icon. Honored x humbled x grateful to say the least. Thank you OG. The book I studied from as a young aspiring writer had chapters dedicated to your penmanship in it. I learned from you 1,000%. Salute OG.”
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Eminem and Black Thought were both featured on Billboard‘s Top 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time list in February, with Em ranked at number five and The Roots frontman at number 28. Chuck D himself landed at number 34 on the list.
While Marshall Mathers and Tariq Trotter haven’t collaborated extensively, the pair have sharpened their lyrical swords on a few occasions. They famously appeared together in the 2009 BET Hip Hop Awards Cypher alongside Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def), before joining forces on wax for the first time on 2020’s “Yah Yah.”
Reflecting on the aforementioned cypher in a 2013 interview with The Combat Jack Show, DJ Premier — who manned the turntables for the heavyweight rap session — gave Black Thought the MVP honors over Eminem.
“I’m not even being politically correct. I loved everybody’s verses, but Black Thought bodied that. Bodied it. Hands down,” the legendary producer said. “Eminem got busy on the Shady cypher when they did it themselves, with Slaughterhouse, Yelawolf and him. That was a fun shoot.”
Chuck D’s comments about Eminem and Black Thought being “cyborgs” aren’t far-fetched as we continue to see the rise of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in Hip Hop. On Sunday (April 2), Eminem AI “Cat Rap” creator Grandayy was hit with a copyright strike against his popular YouTube video which has now been taken down.
Taking to Twitter, the Maltese YouTuber posted a letter from the video streaming platform confirming the copyright strike filed by Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), which signed Eminem to a worldwide, exclusive administration agreement back in 2007.
“Universal Music Group just decided to copyright strike my AI Eminem Cat Rap video,” he tweeted alongside a screenshot of the strike message. “Usually they just claim and monetize videos like this but they really wanted AI Eminem to be taken down for some reason.”
The AI Slim Shady’s “Cat Rap” video has generated a lot of commentary since its debut — so much so that it was even featured in a February episode of the popular HBO talk show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
Meanwhile, an AI-generated JAY-Z verse that went viral recently sparked concern from Young Guru, 9th Wonder and DJ Clark Kent last month.
Hov’s esteemed engineer shared the digitally-generated vocals on his Instagram page last week, which sound almost indistinguishable to the Roc Nation mogul. That was enough for Guru to sound the alarm bells for where AI is heading and call on the government to intervene.
“I’ve been trying to tell everyone that this is where we are now with AI. For some reason this one got everyone’s attention. So what do we do. On one hand I’m well aware that you can’t stop technology. Once the genie is out of the box you can put him back in,” Guru wrote on Instagram.