there has always been a list of MCs better than Em - that Em has also said some of himself - starting with Pharoahe Monch and Black ThoughtYeah his Eminem ass kissing really showed how hard up he was to make it.
I feel you. When you get a chance we can compare their bodies of work song for song and you will see Buddens wins it by a landslide. Eminem is definitely a good rapper. Has good wordplay and a good flow. That said, the thing that made him GREAT was the fact he was white which was an added novelty. There are a whole bunch of black artists with the same level of wordplay and flow that didn't have half the career as Em. Black Thought from the Roots was 10x better than Em. Canibus and Em are around equals but had totally different careers. In 20 years Eminem really only had two dope albums.
back in 2000s Em was better than Joe and maybe Royce - but not now