“Proof was pivotal in everybody’s lives. It didn’t matter how frequent he was in your life, if you met P, he made an impact.” — Quest Mcody
Detroit hip-hop artist and battle rapper Quest Mcody has recently sat down with P to Da 3rd Letter on Rap Grid where the two talked about Eminem and Benzino’s reignited beef, why Eminem slander is still cool thing to do and how Big Proof influenced the entire Detroit rap scene.
“Everybody know where it stem from. Benzino has been poking. He say stuff about Eminem in the interviews all the time, in a lot of interviews. Em don’t do a lot of interviews. He rap. So sometimes when he rap he say something and he felt like saying something this time and the rest is the rest. It pushed Benzino.” said Quest Mcody.
Then he continued: “I like Eminem as a rapper. I think Eminem is a good rapper so if we just talk about raps, Benzino is just not that good of a rapper. It’s not a rap beef. I think the raps were dope but Benzino is not a good rapper, we know that and he knows that. He said it himself, he got help to put it together. So, I just think it’s silly to compare he two. I’m not about to break down and compare a ghostwritten diss-track to somebody that was making fun of you with their own raps. It’s okay to have ghostwritten work. It’s something that has been around the raps but I don’t consider people that rap on Rapper’s Delight when I talk about people like Jay-Z or Eminem or Nas and that’s just how I go.”
“I don’t think Eminem is held in such a high regard in only Detroit cause if it was just Detroit, he wouldn’t be Eminem. Every year he’s top 10 streamed artist without putting out what would some consider a classic album in many many years. He got core fanbase, he got a fanbase. He said it on records why some of that is but also is to be recognized by everybody. Like Drake can’t be Drake without crossover fans. Hip-hop can’t survive if it’s just us because we are minority. So, if you are selling million of records in America, based on the numbers alone, you gotta be able to sell records to people that are outside of your demographic and if somebody comes along and they heighten the awareness of that demographic to the whole of hip-hop, that’s a benefit for hip-hop. Because now we got more fans.”
“The reason some people are still slandering Eminem is because it’s cool thing to do to discredit. It’s cool to have these outlandish takes. It’s very very common right now to ignore certain things because you don’t like something. I can’t say somebody’s whack because I don’t like it or because it ain’t my cup of tea. Like, there is no way you can tell me that Drake is not good based on the response ‘nah I might not like it’ but it’s hard for me to say like ‘yo, this is not good’ or he is not talented. Maybe I don’t think it’s good but I can’t think he’s not talented because you’ve shown this in different ways. I gotta be able to recognize the appeal outside my own. So, I just think it’s cool to just talk s–t.” Quest Mcody added.
Then he continued talking about the importance of Big Proof for Detroit and told few unheard stories about him: “Proof means a lot. Proof was somebody that invested in the community and got love from us. He was pivotal in everybody’s lives. It didn’t matter how frequent he was in your life, if you met P, he made an impact. There’s a lot of stuff people don’t know about Proof. He was the first person to have Unsigned Hype article, not Em. Proof won The Source’s Unsigned Hype rap battle. he beat Supernatural. Proof was known across the country for being phenomenal battle rapper even more so in some spaces than Eminem. A lot of our first experiences with industry came through Proof. Proof put my only solo song on the label project that he put out and I wasn’t on the label. We never did music but we had a lot of conversations. The first battle I won money being there Proof just left doing the show with 50 Cent that night and came and hosted the battle that I won $100 and he gave it to me out of his pocket. Backpack hip-hop, battle rap world, the street music that you hear, he was the bridge to that. It was always love. He gave a piece of family and belonging to a lot of people. He had a record label with a lot of dope artists from the battle rap scene in Detroit. He gave us the opportunity to get our fanbase.”
You can watch the entire thing and make sure to check out some Quest Mcody music below.
