Vince Staples found himself playing defense on Twitter this week after comments he made about Eminem’s BET Hip Hop Awards freestyle went viral. The Long Beach rapper, who was speaking at Pitchfork’s In Sight Out Series in Chicago on Friday (October 13), called Shady’s nearly five-minute tirade against Donald Trump “trash” and said he believed Em “could do better.”
Following Pitchfork’s account of the event, the Big Fish TheoryMC took to Twitter to call out the media outlet for being “thirsty.”
“The mnm statement was all in good fun I like him & Kim,” he tweeted Friday. “@Pitchfork took it out of context because they thirsty. Lemme get these jokes off.”
He added, “How we gonna clown Xtentacion for rapping like a sorcerer on XXL but let M go full assassins creed & then deny me the right my jokes. Me not being able to make jokes about mnm is white supremacy @pitchfork don’t make me call Cornell West.”
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Subsequently, his Twitter account blew up with comments and soon turned into a conversation about white privilege. As of Saturday morning (October 14), Staples was still engaged with Twitter users, attempting to explain his position.
Staples reiterated that he wasn’t referring to Eminem as “trash,” he was simply addressing the bars. He also recognized the importance of Em’s message.
“I didn’t call HIM trash I said I didn’t care for the freestyle but I appreciate the support in the message,” he wrote Saturday morning.
Staples did take a jab at what some believed was Em’s worst line. Shady opened his freestyle with, “It’s the calm before the storm right here/ Wait, how was I going to start this off?/ I forgot … oh yeah/ That’s an awfully hot coffee pot/ Should I drop it on Donald Trump?/ Probably not.”
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After a Twitter user told Staples that Em still did something Staples is “lyrically unable to do,” he replied, “If I’m unable to say awfully hot coffee pot I’m ok with that.”
He did make it abundantly clear that his issue wasn’t with Eminem — it was with his bars.
“I hold Eminem in the highest regards I wanted him to go harder than that. That’s all,” he wrote.
Before he wrapped up his Twitter tirade, he touched on the NFL/National Anthem controversy, again reaffirmed his “quarrel” isn’t with Eminem and explained his stance on white privilege.
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“White privilege. Ignore what blacks say & go through until it’s convenient for you,” he wrote. “They brushed off [police] killings until it disrupted football.”
He added, “Eminem received white privilege whether he likes it or not which I believe is the latter which I believe is why he chose to speak out.”
Staples appears to have had enough and offered up one last plea, “Look man just admit that some of y’all champion him because he looks like you,” he wrote. “it’s okay everybody does it Idk why y’all try to hide it lol.
“My point is I didn’t like it as a fan and expected more,” he concluded. “Then I was told ‘be happy he spoke up for you’ like I’m some sorta citch ass nigga.”
