Eminem Covers XXL...

(click pics to enlarge)

In the June issue of XXL Eminem talks about Proof's death, drug addiction (surprise!), the current state of hip-hop and more specifically Lil' Wayne and T.I....

“I stayed up on the music, and obviously I watch TV and saw what was going on. And without naming any names, it just felt like hip-hop was going downhill. And it seemed like kinda fast. You know, in them three years, it was like everybody just cares about the hook and the beat; nobody really cares about substance. But with this new T.I. album, with this new Lil Wayne album of recent, it seems like things are looking a lot better now. You can appreciate Lil Wayne using different words to rhyme and actually rhyming words that you know. Or T.I., where you hear shit and you’re like Whoa, ah, I wish I would have thought of that! You know what I mean? Or you hear all the compound-syllable rhyming and all that. It just seems like now the craft is getting cared about more.”

Is it me or does it sound like he was trying really hard to find something good to say about Lil' Wayne?..."using different words to rhyme and actually rhyming words that you know." Really? A rapper that uses different words to rhyme and words that you know? That's some groundbreaking shit right there...rap is truly evolving as we speak.

Question: Does Em really like Wayne's music or is he just mentioning him because he's what's "hot" right now? I wish Em was as critical about other rappers as he is about other celebrities. He says he felt hip-hop was going downhill but he doesn't wanna name anybody in reference to that. Why not? He doesn't have any problems calling out the names of movie and pop stars for things that have absolutely nothing to do with the desecration of his beloved art form, hip-hop.