Who Is Better? You decide!

The good folks over at New Yor Magazine recently broke down the two most successful rappers of our time…

Albums
So how do their best albums stack up against each other? There’s no public consensus one way or the other, so this is completely a judgment call. That said, we’re pitting The Black Album vs. Marshall Mathers, and we’re giving the edge to Jay.

Also worth nothing: Both have seen their skills decline as they’ve aged but, remarkably, this has had not much impact on their commercial relevancy: Eminem’s Recovery has had even more success than Relapse, and Jay’s “Empire State of Mind” — off the uneven Blueprint 3 — is the biggest single of his career.

Awards
Jay-Z: 10 Grammys; 6 VMAs
Eminem: 11 Grammys; 11 VMAs; 1 Oscar (Best Original Song, “Lose Yourself”).
Edge: Nobody remembers the winners of VMAs seconds after they are announced, and they’re pretty much even with Grammys. That Oscar, though, gives him the go-ahead.

Lyrics
In the broadest possible terms: Jay-Z is untouchable when it comes to talking about how incredible he is; Em’s untouchable when it comes to talking about how fucked-up he is. Em’s the better technical rapper, and, at the peak of his powers, his internal-rhyme-laden trickery would often make all other rappers seem irrelevant. Jay’s more methodical, staying away from overwhelming you with double-time flows in favor of killing you with rock-solid boasts it can take until the next verse to completely unwrap. (From “Threat”: “I dig a hole in the desert, they build the Sands on you / Lay out blueprint plans on you / We Rat Pack niggaz, let Sam tap dance on you.”) Both have sterling battle-rap bona fides (see “Notable Beefs” for more), and both are grand masters at sketching out scenes and stories, although Jay’s credentials in that department, from “Reasonable Doubt” to “99 Problems,” are arguably more heralded. Eminem’s both the intentionally funnier (the shrooming hookup with daddy issues from “My Fault”) and unintentionally funnier (the dated celebrities on “We Made You”) rapper. Also, for what it’s worth: The one time they rapped together, on “Renegade,” popular opinion is that Eminem — in the words of Nas — “murdered [Jay-Z] on [his] own shit.” All that said, making a fully objective case for one over the other may not be possible.