From left to right: Royce 5’9″ / Kxng Crooked / Denaun Porter / Eminem / Swifty McVay

During one of the recent episodes of Joe Budden podcast, a staunch Pan-Africanist, motivational speaker, psychologist, activist and social media personality Dr. Umar said Eminem can’t be considered one of the greatest rappers of all time because he’s white. Aside from MC Shan and DJ Akademiks, Royce 5’9″, Denaun Porter, Swifty McVay of D12 and Kxng Crooked have also came out in Eminem’s defense.

“So, never heard or seen my brother say he was anything but grateful and happy to be a part of the culture. He’s not even on that. He just happens to write relentlessly, gives 100 percent effort relentlessly and always respectfully to the culture recklessly s–t on any other artist that came before him. You never heard nobody say he did sh–t to them only what he didn’t do for them. And while he might not have built an actual school, the dude never wants a camera around for anything he does charity wise…because he’s not about that, he ain’t ever been nothing but stand up donating and helping with respect to the persons situations.” said Denaun Porter under the comments section on one of the posts on Instagram.

Then he continued: “In my opinion, people choose to hate a motherf–ker these days because he doesn’t donate to the cause you deem worthy. A man counting your pocket doesn’t mean he know who you have helped. I respect Dr. Umar for what he tries to accomplish but this is just an opinion. It doesn’t change the character or is anywhere near altering to how homie moves with the highest respect for and in the culture. He knows he ain’t black. He also doesn’t act like it or expect s–t. He does try every time his best, he just humbly is one of the dopest motherf–kers that ever touched a pen and that makes some of y’all uncomfortable. Respectfully and gracefully I don’t give a f–k what a ni–a say about my brother. He will always be one of the GOATs.”

Denaun Porter’s response to Dr. Umar’s Eminem comments.

Royce 5’9″ also defended Eminem and said: “Dr. Umar said it was nothing personal. Bro is top 5 dead or alive and been that for decades via general consensus. No one man’s opinion could ever change that so let the man have his opinion lol. Nothing to be upset about. I get what he is trying to say. He feels hip-hop originated in Africa, therefore non-African could never be at the pinnacle. It originated in Queens, New York and it is not a color code but there is a few cultural characteristics that are unique to just black people. Nobody could ever crip a Cali ni–a but the whole world is slanging and banging.”

He then continued: “This is an art form and a business but most important, a skillset. Bro came up with his own way to do it on the highest level and pushed every boundary, checked every box. He cold dog. Now on the flip side, Umar is just looking at rap how high level white executives look. We gotta shock the world to be come a billionaires and we still might end up broke and in jail if we piss of the wrong gate keeper.”

Royce 5’9″s response to Dr. Umar’s Eminem comments.

D12’s Swifty McVay also came out in Eminem’s defense and said: “Some fans think he’s the GOAT, some fans don’t. Just like with any other legendary lyrical architect. But why it gotta turn into a race thing though?! S–ts stupid as f–k. He was the wrong person to ask about Em. SMH.”

Swifty McVay’s response to Dr. Umar’s Eminem comments.

Kxng Crooked also talked about it during his Crook’s Corner podcast which is not out yet but he gave us a snippet of the video clip where Long Beach rapper says: “Dr. Umar was almost right, when he paired Eminem with white supremacy. Because, Eminem is white and he’s a supreme emcee. He’s white! And he’s supreme MC! Almost like white supremacy but really nothing like white supremacy.”