2Pac has an astounding catalog-- in fact, I have no doubts that they aren't incredible. But, Eminem has made such a bigger name for himself. Let's first address the fact that 2pac has never won a Grammy and has never sold a diamond album while he was alive(Yes, I know Jay-Z has more Grammies than Eminem, but the argument is specifically against 2Pac). In fact, All Eyez on Me and the Greatest Hits compilation was given the Diamond certifications several years after he had died.
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Eminem, on the other hand, has at least 3 Diamond singles and is the only artist in hip-hop to have not one, but 2 Diamond selling albums; No other rap artist has done this. The Marshall Mathers LP is the fastest-selling album in all of hip-hop, (I specified hip-hop because all time goes to Adele)literally going double platinum in 1 week.
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The Eminem Show is another album that went Diamond in 2002. In fact, if you know the background of hip-hop music in 2002, most of the other artists were considered watered down and boring. When the Eminem Show came out, it was literally the most talked about album of that year. Many people find that the Eminem Show is the only other album that can compete with the Marshall Mathers LP in terms of both sales and impact. But we can go even further into what many consider Eminem's 'worst' album-- Revival.
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That album may only be Gold in sales, but I still wanna brag that it was the #1 debut album on the Billboard 200. In fact, Eminem's name is so marketable that people can literally use it for clickbait. Critics, other artists who either diss or collab with Eminem, experience the most viewership because of simply putting the man's name on their videos. But if we simply want to ignore any past accomplishments from Eminem, we can go straight into Music To Be Murdered By. While inspired by Alfred Hitchcock, the 2020 album is Eminem's 10th consecutive #1 debut. 2Pac, statistically, doesn't compare anywhere close to Eminem's numbers. This album(MTBMB), in the span of 3 months[from its release], already is gold in sales, and 2020 isn't even over yet. To add, we can't ignore the fact that Eminem has broken his previous record for the most words put into a single within the Genius Book of World Records.
We could also mention the fact that Eminem is the 1st rapper to ever win an Oscar and has literally made soundtrack albums for 3 movies(8 Mile, Southpaw, and Bodied) and has a single(Venom) starring in one of them.
2Pac had his fair share of movies too, but not the same caliber as Eminem. While it could be argued that Eminem's sales are a source of his longevity in comparison to 2Pac's shorter career, I feel that if we're comparing rappers from a lyrical standpoint, Eminem still takes the cake.
