Verse Vs. Verse: ‘Blueprint’ Or ‘Marshall Mathers’ – Who Had More Soul!

Exclusives — January 6, 2010 at 11:00 — no comments

In the annals of history (pause for those who care) the mastery of debate has kept civilizations and human consciousness moving forward. Unfortunately, the Poverty Boyz haven’t read too many books to keep up with all that stuff. Instead the guys in Bed-Stuy decided to wax poetic about some of music’s most cherished works of art.

Clark Kent says: The Poverty Boyz proudly present: ‘Verse vs. Verse’ — Will Jay’s ‘Blueprint’ be enough to best Marshall Mathers’ self-titled classic? Find out after the jump.

RULES: ‘Verse vs. Verse’ is a song-by-song assessment of greatness between two classics works of art. If by chance an album has more songs than its competitor, the weakest songs on the tracklist will be cut to make the battle fair. Feature appearances count for the headlining artist — no matter who the guest star is. In the end, after the first verse of said headlining artist is played, the song is voted and tallied for a total to determine a winner. Let’s get it on!

Clark Kent says: For the interest of time, we’ll be giving you the stand-out battles between Marshall and Jay. If you want to follow the play-by-play, make sure you follow Don’t Lose Your Day Job on Twitter!

ROUND 1: “Stan” vs. “Takeover”

While Jay’s classic Nas diss, “Takeover” may have had fans all over going ooh and ahh over Kanye’s production, Hov’s beef pales in comparison to Eminem’s issue with hardcore fans. Even though Black Friday thought that Jay had this locked because of how Jay navigated the beat, created a hype for not only his album, but for his Roc-A-Fella movement in showcasing an up-and-coming talent from Mr. West, and managed to push Nas’s back into a corner. But yours truly and ‘Nuff Sed both agreed that while that may be all well and good, it pales in comparison to Marshall Mathers creating a new hip-hop lexicon. On the album, “Stan” was dark, brooding, and full of clever Eminem witticisms that made anyone who’s a star acknowledge the “stan” as a part of reality. Even for the non-stars, “Stan” reflected the most normal of human needs — privacy. While we may have the luxury of being nobodies in the grand scheme of things, “Stan” gave the regular folks something to call invaders, too.

WINNER: “Stan” [See song below] –

ROUND 2: “You Don’t Know” vs. “I’m Back”

There’s something about that Bobby Byrd sample, but Just Blaze put his foot in it with this one. ‘The Blueprint‘ was like that — a perfect blend of street soul that resonated with anyone who understood what it takes to put any plan in motion. Black Friday alluded to the fact that whenever this song was played in New York folks would go crazy. Even Em would have to tip his hat to that.

WINNER: “You Don’t Know” [See below] –

ROUND 3: “All I Need” vs. “Kim”

Jay’s braggadocios rhymes were up against Em’s homicidal tales of terror. ‘Nuff Sed thought that “Kim” had all the makings of a great rap song. The Bass Brothers provide Marshall with the perfect backdrop for the Dirty Dozen front-man to go straight horrorcore. While Black thought that Jay’s “All I Need” was better in ways opposite of Em’s “Kim,” he concluded that it’s dope because it passed the car test. With me as the tie-breaker, I went with “Kim” over Jay’s witty track because Em gave the listener an audio movie.

WINNER: “Kim” [See below] –