Eminem breaks silence after Kendrick Lamar dethrones the rap god

Eminem is placing his bets on Kendrick Lamar to sweep the 2025 Grammy Awards, even though the two rap icons will face off in the Best Rap Performance category.

Speaking on SiriusXM’s Shade45 during its 20th-anniversary celebration, the rap icon praised Lamar’s monumental year, calling him a “top-tier lyricist” and declaring that “Kendrick is gonna sweep that sh*t. He’s going to, and he should.”

Lamar, already crowned Billboard’s Greatest Pop Star of 2024, has seven Grammy nominations, including double entries in some categories thanks to hits like his Drake diss track Not Like Us and his collaboration with Future and Metro Boomin on Like That.

Both songs dominated the Billboard Hot 100 in 2024, solidifying his grip on the industry.

Moreover, K.Dot’s album GNX also outperformed Eminem’s The Death of Slim Shady on the charts, debuting with 319,000 equivalent album units compared to Eminem’s 281,000, and setting the year’s biggest streaming week for an R&B/hip-hop album with 379.72 million on-demand streams.

Meanwhile, Eminem’s own Grammy nods include Best Rap Performance for his single Houdini and Best Rap Album for The Death of Slim Shady. Lamar’s GNX, however, won’t be competing this year due to its release outside the 2025 Grammy eligibility period.

This isn’t the first time Eminem has publicly praised Lamar. The two shared the stage at the 2022 Super Bowl Halftime Show and have long expressed mutual respect. “Kendrick is at the very, very top tier of lyricists,” Eminem said, adding, “Not just of this generation, but of all time.”