I honestly don't write stuff like this just to spark outrage from people. Upsetting people is such a tiring and dumb idea to want to achieve. However, whenever a certain illogical narrative needs to be called out, I feel the need to be the voice of reason. When I am the voice of reason, we have an issue. I'm about to open the gates of fanboy hell with what I am about to say: Eminem hasn't been very good for a very long time.

This all sprung up when Drake, who also isn't very good at all, decided to foolishly challenge Eminem. The internet exploded as it does when anything happens ever. Eminem and hip-hop fans came out of the woodwork to prop up Eminem and call out Drake. Look, Eminem would murder Drake in any rap battle ever. This fight was over the moment when Drake contacted his ghostwriters to help out. This is no defense of Drake. This is taking an up-close look at Eminem and destroying the narrative that he remains anything special. Basically, I'm calling the entire hype behind this dumb. Where the Drake camp is obviously dumb, the Eminem camp isn't all that great, either.

Look, Eminem is by no means horrible, or on Soulja Boy levels. However, to still blindly claim he is great isn't warranted, either. Eminem hasn't been great since before the "Encore" album. Before then, he was untouchable. He was an insane poet with amazing flow, comedy and meaning. He would push the envelop and effectively changed the game because of it. He also had songs with hard meaning that were so cerebral you would just accept it as poetry. "Stan" is one of the greatest songs of all-time. He was straight fire and nobody was better.

Then "Encore" happened and he fell from grace and hit the ground hard. It wasn't a gradual decline from the top, it was abrupt. Like one week he was a king and the next week he was a bum. It's common knowledge that album is garbage and nearly killed his career. He himself has acknowledged that. "Relapse" was also terrible and was basically the sequel to "Encore" nobody wanted.

Fast-forward to "Recovery" where most people claim Eminem was back and better than ever. Meanwhile, I sat here thinking, "I mean, I guess this is OK. Not really Eminem, though." And I'll tell you why I had that reaction: over the passage of time between the release of "Relapse" and "Recovery," Eminem had discovered teenage angst. Gone were the days of pushing the envelop and just being uber raw. In its place stood rap songs to appeal to the Hot Topic market. He didn't have that confidence and rough edge we all loved out of him. He was putting up a front of being angry, but inspirational. Even then, his inspirational jams were so dime-store they may as well have been ripped off the back of Dr. Phil books. "I Need A Doctor" is so alien from anything Eminem has ever done. He and Dre were basically putting rap vocals to the tune of an Evanescence song.

"The Marshall Mathers LP 2" was more of a sequel to "Recovery" with brief flashes of being a sequel to his greatest album. "Legacy" is the first and only great song he has had since before "Encore." That song felt the most true blue Eminem out of anything he has done for nearly 15 years. "Rap God" may be impressive to some, but it's not a very good song. The lyrics themselves leave a bit to be desired.

I bring all this up to prove a point that we have to stop pretending he is still in the throne room. He is just another dude on the radio with the occasional good song you can groove to. Which is so damn hard for me to say because back in the day Eminem was so much more than just some dude blending in on the radio. If you like his current stuff, then good. I'm glad he is still entertaining you. However, from my perspective, he can do so much better and as fans we deserve his best. I am not OK with sitting here and accepting the bare minimum out of him when I know he has so much better to give. Giving him pass after pass isn't doing him any favors, creatively. All I'm really asking is for the real Eminem to please stand up.