Drake is one to always show love to the artists who paved the way, as well as those who came after him. While watching footage from 2000’s Up In Smoke Tour, the 6 God paid homage to Eminem and made sure to give him his flowers.
“Man this guy is under appreciated @eminem,” he captioned a photo of a Slim Shady from the tour film posted to his Instagram Story on Thursday morning (October 28).
Drake also posted a separate Instagram Story showing love to Snoop Dogg, who he called “too raw.”
Arguably the biggest West Coast Hip Hop tour of all time, the Up In Smoke Tour was headlined by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, and also boasted Eminem, Ice Cube, Xzibit, Nate Dogg, Warren G, Kurupt and many more on the bill. The North American trek hit over 40 cities between June and August 2000.
Ice Cube recently sat down with HipHopDX to reflect on the Up In Smoke Tour and couldn’t help but laugh at Eminem’s status as an opening act, considering his now-legendary status.
“I mean, at the time, Eminem was opening up, you know,” he said. “Like, after Warren G, Eminem was going on. So that just shows you the level that we were at, that we was on. He could’ve headlined.”
As for Eminem and Drake, the rap megastars joined forces on 2009’s “Forever” alongside Lil Wayne and Kanye West, which served as a knighting of sorts for Drake to enter Hip Hop’s elite. Drizzy also interpolated Em’s “Superman” chorus on “Chicago Freestyle.”
Snoop Dogg Reveals How He & Eminem Squashed Their Beef
Last year, Eminem offered Drake some advice for being on top of the game on the Music To Be Murdered By: Side B track, “Zeus.” “And Drake, they’re gonna turn on you one day too/And the more you win, the sooner they do,” he warned.
Join Drake in revisiting the Up In Smoke Tour film below.
He’s sold more albums than any rapper ever. I don’t know if Drake knows what underappreciated means, lol.
You know very well he’s talking about appreciation in terms of skills, not sales
Eminem’s name is played with on a regular basis these days. You know exactly what Drake is talking about
So is LL. So is Snoop in comparison to how he was seen in 1993. What does that have to do with being underappreciated. Underappreciated means that people slept on you. He again has sold more records than any rapper in the history of the genre. Not underappreciated. Words, they mean something. They have definitions. I know you Eminem dickriders love to revel in the nonexistent disrespect and hate, but cut the shit.
Who is playing with his name? Because people don’t have him on their top five lists? Lol, okay. Was he not a cartoon character rapper who attacked pop stars, or did somebody else do that? Because I think he did that with his career arc, not somebody else. You can’t unring that bell. Those were the choices he made to reach the level he got to in the game just like Drake with his half singing, half rapping. Don’t get mad because that’s how you’re perceived after the fact when those were conscious decisions that were made to reach that pop star level of stardom in the beginning.
Ja Rule/Murder Inc, Benzino, Everlast, Canibus, MGK, Tyler the creator, NF and I probably missed some, but these artists that I named were not pop stars. Eminem is a true MC and is one of the GOATS in the game. No one can take that away from him. He is still at the top of his game even though he’s approaching 50!
Nah. Both yall wrong. Everybody knows Eminem is the GOAT in terms of pure skills, wordplay etc. Also, everybody knows the man has sold more albums than anybody in the last 20 years.
It’s the YOUNGER generation..the ones that think Niki Minaj is OLD SCHOOL hip hop that dont really k kw what all the fuss is over Eminen, Nas, Jay- Z, Biggie etc. Hov gets a pass because he’s still making MEGA moves..but that’s just on the business side
I’d also include Ludacris at the top of the list of criminally underappteciated…along with The Game (although he sabatoges himself more than anybody else)
If Eminem shows love to Drake, why can’t his fans do the same? They all call him soft, say he makes music for women and think his streams are all made by click farms.
Because even though I like Em’s music I don’t have to like Drake even if Em and Drake have a good relationsship. Also, Drake IS soft, makes music for women and a lot of his streams are definetly made by click farms (this is common practice in the business).
So let’s say for example, my favorite rapper says Eminem is one of the greatest, but he’s not my cup of tea. I say that, then I get attacked by swarms of stans saying I’m hating, racist, a mumble rap fan and that I have to like Eminem because my favorite rapper likes him too. Why is it acceptable one way but unacceptable another way?
respect to drake for this. mfs got too comfortable talking shit about Em like what the fuck he gonna do? I do remember drake also talking some shit though, but he’s shown much respect since then
I think Em is appreciated just right, he was astonishing on those first two albums, so fresh, nothing sounded like him, but his career since has been less about pushing new ideas and just recycling his same shtick over and over. Just a series of diminishing returns now. Everyone was on him when he first came out, he was loved.
Kinda like most of the most popular artists in the history of rap music ……
I can literally tell by your comment you haven’t listened to a single Eminem album in entirety just because of how incorrect you are. It’s ok to not like Eminem of course but every album is completely different from the one before conceptually, different flows, different structure, different songs. There’s opinions and then there’s just being incorrect
And drake is over appreciated. Worst artist to ever enter the game. How can a grown man listen to this bitch shit
Eminem is novelty rap that went too far. He’s the battle rapper who had beef with Britney and not KRS, who dissed Xtina and not Nas, who made songs against Fred Durst and not MC Ren, so you can see how deep is he in the culture. This guy quotes wack stadium rock bands as a major influence instead of Wu-Tang and Hiero. Eminem is like he listened to Agent Orange once. He hasn’t been funny or interesting since 2002. It’s time to forget about this guy.
Eminem talks about his inspirations all the time, I never thought Biggie, Big L, Trech, Redman, Beastie Boyz are all wack stadium rock bands.. But clearly you know better than all of us. I thought he dissed Cannibus, Ja Rule, and Benzino too, but you know better than me so I’ll shut up
That vato Drake trying to get on that Super Bowl halftime show holmes!
Eminem is the greatest wordsmith on the entire planet, and for that he should be truly appreciated as this generations Shakespeare, but musically there are a hell of a lot of better rappers out there. If I had to rank him in the GOAT category, he’d probably come around 4th.