At this point, it’s as though the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has decided that it just wants to piss off the metal community (which, given who we are, we fully understand and support). First, the Hall repeatedly snubs rock and metal bands year after year; then, when Dolly Parton drops off the ballot, seemingly to make room for more rock artists, they’re like, Nah, we’re gonna keep her on. Now, the Hall of Fame CEO Greg Harris has gone on the record saying that rapper Eminem’s music hits as hard as any metal song.
In an interview with Audacy, Harris was asked about the various artists who were being inducted as performers into the Hall of Fame this year. When it came to Eminem, Harris straight up gushed, and seemingly chose to rattle the cage containing the metal scene as a whole (as transcribed by Loudwire):
“For a lot of years people asked about hip hop. He’s the 10th artist to be sort of categorized that way. But you listen to his music, it is as hard hitting and straight ahead as any metal song. It’s right there. It’s a chest punch with a message and with a power and with a rhythm and with a band. We’re thrilled he’s going in [his] first year of eligibility, it’s a big statement.”
On the one hand, Eminem is definitely one of this year’s nominees that had metalheads rolling their eyes the hardest. On the other hand, it’s impossible to deny that his emergence was influential on and aided by nu-metal as a whole, and The Slim Shady LP easily made our list of non-metal albums that metalheads couldn’t avoid back in the day. So we get what he’s saying with this, but also, you know, fuck ’em, induct Iron Maiden.
You can listen to the entire interview below: