Em is not a top 5 rapper. Dude has had ZERO impact on the culture. He sold a lot of records because he's a pale devil and pale devils sit around waiting for some great white hope to rise up in areas where the so-called black man dominates. Brother Melly Mel nailed it. he's got the complexion for the selection so he's being boosted.
Only thing this woopie cushion rapping asshole has done is be a white boy that doesn't suck on the mic. MC Search, Beastie boys, Vanilla Ice, Milkbone, Stagga Lee, Bubba Sparxxx, etc, weren't good enough to be the white savior. Same thing for Mack McClung winning the recent dunk contest. Neither did anything innovative or groundbreaking whatsoever. They're just a novelty act in being crakkkas who are good at something. People are bored of the so-called black man dominating something so a pale devil comes along and is halfway decent and it's front page news.
Putting this fuckboy on the same level as Rakim, Nas, KRSOne, Big daddy kane, Melly Mel, Kool G Rap, Slick Rick, etc, is a fucking insult! These were groundbreaking artists who shaped the genre and gave people styles to run with and trends people followed. "white boy who doesn't suck" is not an innovation or a new style.
"BUT BUT BUT....He GoT SkIlZ DoE". This probes Mel's point. There's tons of rappers out there who "Got Skills". But em gets special dispensation because he's a caucazoid.