They're both icons and shine in their own lane. But in the year 2056, who will be more remembered in the music industry?

It depends. Will white boys move on from Eminem who is their current Taylor Swift? Will black women and gay men move on from Beyonce who is their current Beyonce? Will they raise their kids to stan them?

Eminem already feels done & left behind.

Beyoncé is hanging in there.

M&m's, unfortunately

With the constant and inane comparisons, Beyonce will outlast everyone

no one cares or cared about Eminem outside of white suburb teens. his whole shtick was "omg he's white but he is a good rapper" that again, only white suburban kids fell for

Beyonce "I wrote this" Knowles is a bonafide legend. she'll be remembered 100%.

1 minute ago, Pikachoo said:

no one cares or cared about Eminem outside of white suburb teens. his whole shtick was "omg he's white but he is a good rapper" that again, only white suburban kids fell for

Beyonce "I wrote this" Knowles is a bonafide legend. she'll be remembered 100%.

everyone in atrl keeps saying that eminem had the bigger peak among all rap boys in history. He never was big where I lived, so it was a little bit unexpected for me to receive those type of comments here lol

Edited March 13Mar 13 by Strawberry Bubble

Both icons. Em Elevated hip hop to the highest level of mainstream exposure it's ever had and ever probably will. Beyonce is a Queen of Pop. No artist was bigger in the 2000's than em. Beyonce has done better maintaining her legacy tho. Em isn't a critics darling and fanbase are all men who aren't on pop forums or twitter. But his impact can't be understated for Hip hop

they're in completely different lanes and appeal to wildly different audiences, that aside, i think Bey takes win here.. there's just more to talk about with her

Although Eminem has a lot of great commercial statistics to his name, I really don't think he'll have the same level of cultural or artistic importance or even trivia-factor as Beyoncé. There are just so many layers of her career and image that it would be hard to look back and discuss the 2000s-2030s without mentioning or knowing about Beyoncé: from Destiny's Child, to her solo superstardom, to her game-changing ways and artistic album-making. The lore that an artist has around them or their work is really what makes them have a stronger legacy over time.

We can look at countless examples of highly popular artists whose legacy is not as strong as artists whose artistic merits outweigh or match their commercial ones. Using just one example, this is why Billie Holliday has a far more lasting and impactful legacy on modern audiences and artists than someone like Bing Crosby who had probably 100x the success of Billie.

So ya, Beyoncé has a stronger story for her legacy, and more "Art" with a capital "A", too.

2 minutes ago, Pikachoo said:

no one cares or cared about Eminem outside of white suburb teens. his whole shtick was "omg he's white but he is a good rapper" that again, only white suburban kids fell for

Beyonce "I wrote this" Knowles is a bonafide legend. she'll be remembered 100%.

Eminem is obviously huge and should not be downplayed at all He is literally getting twice as many daily streams as Beyoncé today

Edited March 13Mar 13 by Pluto6

2 minutes ago, Strawberry Bubble said:

everyone in atrl keeps saying that eminem had the bigger peak among all rap boys in history. He never was big where I lived, so it was a little bit unexpected for me to receive those type of comments here lol

He has the biggest peak in rap period. It's not even close. 4 diamond albums now, Tupac is 2nd with 2

both came out around the same time

both released their latest projects in 2024

only one of them was highly acclaimed and awarded

eminem is a legacy act at this point while bey has still more to offer

Edited March 13Mar 13 by Trip

I'd say Em, because his career is about the music and it has proven to be timeless.

Bey is more about the powerful celeb status, the glam, the power she has in the industry, the music itself is like a side quest.

Edited March 13Mar 13 by Egon Schiele

Considering that Eminem's music is already listened to much more than Beyoncé's nowadays, imagine what it'll be like in 30 years

2 minutes ago, Trip said:

both came out around the same time

both released their latest projects in 2024

only one of them was highly acclaimed and awarded

eminem is a legacy act at this point while bey has still more to offer

Funny, Eminem appears on the iFPI list for both 2024 and 2025, something Beyoncé is currently unable to achieve

Just because Eminem doesn't go around buying awards doesn't mean people aren't interested in his music

Eminem lyrics alone make his music age poorly. So Beyoncé by default.

The one who's still making good music…

5 minutes ago, Yuanyu said:

Funny, Eminem appears on the iFPI list for both 2024 and 2025, something Beyoncé is currently unable to achieve

Just because Eminem doesn't go around buying awards doesn't mean people aren't interested in his music

This.

Both tbh

Eminem is like 2x bigger than Bey

A legacy isn't how much you sold or are selling.

7 minutes ago, swissman said:

A legacy isn't how much you sold or are selling.

Honestly, it's funny hearing that from you, especially when Beyoncé needed her husband to make a Netflix Christmas special just to promote her album after it dropped off the charts in its 28 week

I feel like Beyoncé is more interesting as an artist, but I don't get the people downplaying Eminem. He is the best-selling rapper of all time, an Oscar winner and a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee. It's not a bad resume at all.

36 minutes ago, Egon Schiele said:

I'd say Em, because his career is about the music and it has proven to be timeless.

Bey is more about the powerful celeb status, the glam, the power she has in the industry, the music itself is like a side quest.

You are confusing career and image.

Beyoncé's image might be the latter, but her career is not about status, glam or power. Her career is about music, grit, artistic expression, Black empowerment, experimentation. If she was just about glam and celebrity she'd probably be making innocuous bops to keep her name afloat on the charts. Instead she goes out of her way to make incredibly thoughtful, layered, and meaningful works. A side quest is something secondary, something that distracts from your main goals. But music has and continues to be her main goal.

Since she's held the reigns of her own career in 2011, we've seen an artist who is more concerned with putting out a great work than achieving commercial records (which creates celeb status, glam, power). This occurred when 4 zigged while the industry was zagging, it was most evident in the way she sidestepped traditional marketing 101 to surprise release a visual album, it was furthered when she released a lead single, premiered a music video and performed at the Super Bowl while preventing that same song from entering the charts for three months. She released a rap album no one asked for, just for the sake of it. She released a live album for a Coachella performance where she went out of her way to completely reinvent her songs in a specific style. She released an entire concept album about a film she made and then created a visual album for it out of the sheer desire to create. She's released two albums this decade without a single music video and one performance between the two, more intent on letting the music speak for itself than for nurturing a sense of glamour or celeb status by embarking on promotion for it.

All in all, to say Beyoncé treats her music like a side quest when in the last 15 years she's released an album at a rate of once every 1.875 years is a bit silly. She may be more of a "celeb" than Eminem. She may have more "glamour" and "power" in the industry but not only does that add to her legacy, but it does not define it.

Edited March 13Mar 13 by swissman