He’s still a rap god, but he’s no longer a world record holder.
When Eminem‘s Rap God was released off of 2013’s Marshall Mathers LP II, it was not only a crowning achievement for Eminem, but for mainstream rap as a whole. Six minutes and four seconds of apparently freestyled lyrical venom, it’s one of Eminem’s best songs to date, and couldn’t be further away from the turn-up-at-the-club, bitches and hoes-type party rap that dominates the mainstream. At a cool 1560 words, it was also awarded a Guinness World Record for a hit single with the most words.
Now, UK-based rapper Harry Shotta has set out to beat Eminem’s record. His new single Animal is a touch longer – six minutes and nine seconds, but it sits at a whopping 1771 words – more than 200 higher than Rap God!
Shotta’s track Animal is currently nearing the top 10 spots in the UK hip hop charts, so it looks as though his claim might be legitimate.
Shotta got the idea when his DJ Phantasy mixed his own track with the Eminem single. “We did it live and it worked really well then Phantasy sent me a beat at the same BPM, I started to write to it and remembered the reaction of the Westfest,” he told UKF. I wanted it to be the exact length of Rap God and, just for a personal challenge, I wanted to see if I could get anywhere close to his word count.”
But don’t worry, it’s just about words, he’s not trying to start a beef – “No disrespect to Eminem at all! This is purely about pushing our art and having some fun. A lot of our fans have been tweeting him, we’ve had Radio 1 play and loads of support on Radio 1Xtra… It’s gone mental this week so I’m sure someone in his camp will know. I hope he likes the track and appreciates what we’ve done. It’s all about the art of MCing and pushing it to the next level.”
The track is yet to be recognised officially by the Guinness World Records. “The process is a long-winded one but we know the word count is more than Eminem and hopefully they’ll recognise that.”
Rap God was considered a crowning achievement by many, although some spoke out about Eminem’s use of homophobic slurs in the track. He responded in a Rolling Stone interview:
“I don’t know how to say this without saying it how I’ve said it a million times. But that word, those kind of words, when I came up battle-rappin’ or whatever, I never really equated those words [to mean homosexual]…It was more like calling someone a bitch or a punk or asshole. So that word was just thrown around so freely back then. It goes back to that battle, back and forth in my head, of wanting to feel free to say what I want to say, and then [worrying about] what may or may not affect people.
“Not saying it’s wrong or it’s right, but at this point in my career – man, I say so much shit that’s tongue-in-cheek,” Eminem added at the time. “I poke fun at other people, myself. But the real me sitting here right now talking to you has no issues with gay, straight, transgender, at all. I’m glad we live in a time where it’s really starting to feel like people can live their lives and express themselves. And I don’t know how else to say this, I still look at myself the same way that I did when I was battling and broke.”