At the skill of rapping itself (so not how they played their career), Eminem is inferior to Vinnie Paz.

FEEL FREE TO LISTEN TO VINNIE’S SINGLE BEST SONG IMO TO DATE WHILE READING THE TEXT BEFORE THE LINKS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs6UHzQhYHE
Eminem, someone in every real rap fan’s top 10 of all time, is a brilliant rapper. This is not disputable and if anyone were to say Em doesn’t comprehend or perform rap well is a fake rap fan who doesn’t know what rap really is or how to judge it in some at least semi-objective manner. Nonetheless, there is a superior being to Em and anyone who knows both Slim Shady and Vinnie Paz only ever opposes Vinnie because perhaps of his violence and underground nature to his raps or due to his voice (some don’t like the groany-tone to it but it’s extremely orgasmic to my ears personally).
Now what am I saying here? I’m saying Eminem is phenomenal at rap but Vinnie is actually better if we ignore topics discussed, ties to gangs and other elements that perhaps make Eminem a somewhat better idol to hold as a role model (although both are severely rude and both have hinted strongly at homophobia in their raps but that’s irrelevant to the debate).
Please, if you have Spotify Premium, iTunes or the new Youtube Premium I ask that you listen to the songs in the HQ/HD version because there’s aspects to the delivery that gets audibly blurred out and is less obvious when you listen to both rappers on low quality (both have a lot of vocal effort in their raps as well as the music itself).
So, I’m guaranteeing you that most readers of this debate will have heard of Eminem, but have rarely HEARD Eminem as in peak-Em and what he really can do in raps. In contrast, if you have heard Vinnie (at all) which is not at all common, you automatically have heard him amaze you and this is the first thing I noticed being the detailed rap fan that I am; Paz always delivers, Em fluctuates.
Fluctuating in rapping can mean many things and being consistently medium for sure is worse overall than fluctuating between medium and phenomenal but the issue is Paz isn’t consistently mediocre… He’s consistently god-tier. The only ‘aight’ raps by Paz are from his early days, even then he was miles ahead of the rest (rapping itself improved over time with higher quality beats, puns and fans understanding and appreciating complex flows and rhyme schemes) and on top of that he grew older and wiser with more experience in rapping. In contrast, while Em to me always did overall profit over time in his rap-skill, to many his best days in rap were his earliest and there’s a reason for this beyond quality of raps; he came up as a battle rapper but battle-rap became non-mainstream because political correctness and ‘love each other’ attitudes have grown over time so culturally in rap, dissing has become a rare treat… Delicious and extreme dessert compared to the overall rap game that’s a lot of ‘I am best but I won’t say who isn’t’ type rapping as well as deep raps with political motivation. Due to Em being the world’s best battle-rapper and battle-rap becoming one of the least popular types or ways to rap, he had to alter who he even was in raps (which is why he dropped the name Slim Shady which he attached to being a ‘killer of opponents’, a shady character etc). Over the years, Eminem fluctuated between being pro-drugs to completely straight edge, from being anti-women to a woman-luster to being a ‘I respect women and hate Trump’ guy back to the original Shady on his recent album Kamikaze… He’s got range, sure, but range in who you play in your raps is only good if you pull all personas off well. Paz has 2 personas; angry Islamic Anarchist and heart-felt philanthropist. The anarchist persona at times becomes a ‘raw gangster Mafioso’ persona which purely is angry and not discussing Islam but this is still the same persona based on how he raps and the flows and puns he uses. With Paz, you know what type of rap you’re gonna get (one of two types) and you always, always are in awe at his combination of flow, delivery, song-quality and content.
Eminem has good raps of course, don’t get me wrong but let me just show you what I mean by inconsistency. Firstly, Eminem struggles immensely with comprehending what an alpha male is and I am going to prove it. When rapping about being in control and above all the rest, Eminem becomes squeakier-voiced, more anxious and hyper-defensive. Then, when rapping his emotional raps he becomes alpha and tough… He doesn’t always fail to pull off the rap persona or stick to a theme but he definitely fails to consistently do it with enough failures to brand him as an inconsistent rap persona.
In this rap, Eminem was clearly trying to return to his Shady days since fans were complaining about him becoming soft or something in 2012 (this song was Sep 2013) but the issue is how hard he tries to seem angry, furious and intimidating while really seeming like a whiny, angsty teen in my eyes (yes I know he was a full grown man).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab9176Srb5Y
The only good thing in this rap he does to his usual tier is the rhyme scheme’s intricacy. Everything else is off, his flow is medium with many weird alterations and break-offs mid-flow errors. The song is so brutally displeasing to the ear that it confuses me how it has such a high like-ratio but since this debate isn’t about popularity or career I can simply negate that that matters. What even is the content of that song? Like seriously, he is simply saying he will go bezerk about barely anything… That’s basically saying he’s a toddler that will throw a tantrum if you don’t watch out and he keeps to this weird pseudo-alpha persona in many of his raps.
Here are three examples of his weird ‘I will whine and cry and you will fear me.’ type raps:
Notice how all three are displeasing to the ear and the flow is broken in several places?
None are bad (Eminem is always medium at worst) but they are not amazing at all and only excel in some way while sacrificing others quite severely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBclW5mm5W4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sw9Ar6oqYs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaV9CY0fFDs
All three are extremely fascinating in their own way but all three are lacking in ear-pleasing as well as cutting the flow by having strange pauses and altering in pacing with no artistic quality added in doing so.
Now, I will give you three whiny songs by Vinnie and show you how even when he’s whining, he fully comprehends how to stay alpha male and top-dog in the rap game. Vinnie does what Em tries to do, he literally can be sensitive while staying ‘tough’ regardless and it’s done by fantastic conveying of feelings in a way that makes it crystal clear he isn’t crying unnecessarily and something so many fans can relate to (most rap fans are males who want to be ‘alpha’ let’s face it).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eSfcUzGTdk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChXlPd0H1MU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnXtY5_djjI
All three, phenomenal in every single way. There is not a single element of rap other than perhaps speed if you like choppy-rap that you can criticise him on. Paz got the flow down, so liquid it punctures any defence you have and pierces your heart don’t deny it. Paz isn’t just ear-pleasing in his delivery and flow oh no he’s also not just amazing at background sound and melody (BG sound is sound FX not just the melody), he also got content, incredible metaphors and such raw HAOW! HUFF! HUFF! Alpha wolf in the pack aura about him, you can just hear it in his voice and it makes you confident and tough just listening to it, it’s AMAZING.
Eminem fluctuates his persona of course to the other extreme and when both do it, Paz does it better. When both are being woman-hating, homophobic gangster raw rappers to the core, Paz simply does it better hands down not even a question or up for debate to be quite frank.
Let me display right now what I’m talking about:
Eminem trying to be a misogynist, a homophobe and/or a tough guy and struggling with mediocre flow and puns that make you cringe and hate him as a person:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJQhFYJvtx4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3j2DwztCFU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaMgZm1qPpY
Don’t get me wrong, Eminem does the brutal hated persona brilliantly at times but the inconsistency is what I’m getting at and since I don’t want to represent his strong side in this debate, I won’t help my opponent by doing it. Let’s look at Paz doing it now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54pd7PisYa0
https://youtu.be/6ju72emeRpY?t=137
https://youtu.be/8uyPmK8UNeI?t=77
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmcDIdvL6oA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiMpu2dttGM
https://youtu.be/8l75Z8wil_U?t=101
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am3448rMzSk
^ Those are 5 of his finest ‘tough gangster’ verses/songs (some were just a verse in a collab so the timestamp matters)
Now, let’s just give you some of Vinnie’s finest that hasn’t already been given and leave it at that for R1, I’ll see what Con brings to the table before deciding to go in detail about things like flow, metaphor-complexity and ear-pleasing, emotion-reaching delivery etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrn7ps_dhg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki4e0a9ickI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgtUmNqRxM8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ3Mgk28LFo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJt1fj_C9BI
https://youtu.be/hOuQnOzmk1E?t=167

The majority of your criticisms depend on how one's persona is represented by their music, which is less relevant than the actual structural integrity of their raps. It really doesn't matter at all if you don't like Eminem as a person or think he sounds whiney when it comes to his actual skill as a rapper, just as it doesn't matter if you think K-Rino sounds like a bully, that doesn't make an inferior lyricist suddenly better just because he's a nice person. Consistency also doesn't matter as much unless you want to argue that Paz is currently better while still acknowledging the obvious truth that Em has written songs in the past that make him look like a fool. The only reason I can see for you to say Paz is better is pure bias and personal preference, on a technical level Em is so obviously better it's not even funny. I will present only one rap of Eminem's, I challenge you to find a single rap from Paz that is better from a technical standpoint.

He isn't actually weak in those categories, they are just not his area of specialization. Eminem has a better flow then Paz ever had in many of his raps. You seem to more concerned with how "spot on" and synched with the beat a flow is rather than having an eclectic and complex flow in a tech nine sense. (This is probably why you think he has the best possible flow, he manages to stay "spot on" in the sense I just described while having the intricate flow that he has. If I had to guess I would say that you probably think a more complex flow would be "too complex" but you probably know my attitude towards that kind of thing)

This is why despite Paz's flow being relatively basic, you hold it in such high esteem. He has a very coherent flow, but not a very intricate or complex flow like Em has  relative to him in these raps:

See, here's the thing; rhyming a lot doesn't guarantee flow, but using "only so many rhymes as you need" actually stops you from having an advanced flow. A truly great rapper can have an insane number of rhymes, and still have a perfect and intricate flow and speak coherently.

He makes it flow in the actually verse though. It merely seems that it doesn't fit when you read it. When you listen to it, it sounds fine.

It's one thing to spell "Cat" perfectly. It's another thing to spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious perfectly. Paz does indeed have a nearly flawless flow, but his flow is not that intricate/complex and doesn't make me go "damn!" because it's too straightforward.

Not to mention you are focusing so heavily on flow, when if you consider everything it's clear Em is better in a general sense. Em has better everything except delivery and when it comes to flow Eminem can be "choppy" as you say but his flow has more going for it even when it's a little off or random meanwhile Paz can flow perfectly but his flow is so basic that it's not impressive.

What a load of bollocks, Eminem can rhyme Paz into oblivion.

Naturally you chose one of his most lyrically unimpressive raps.

I don't remember him whining about guns, either way Eminem may not have many meaningful metaphors but his puns are just as impressive from a purely word play standpoint. Take for example his last few lines in caterpillar

When it comes to being meaningful this is absolute garbage but the wordplay is pretty damn good.

Eminem is a way better rapper than Vinnie Paz. Vote Con.

I said what had to be said Con rebutted nothing but tries to say that Eminem is be to er despite lacking consistency and basically every skill part of rap except speed and puns when compared to Paz

Eminem has way better rhyme ability as anyone can see from listening to his raps and when he wants to he can beat Paz at everything else as well.