In his prime, Eminem absolutely blew Jay away lyrically. He had better wordplay, better/more complex rhyme schemes, a more complex flow/a wider array of flows (although I can understand people preferring Jay's slower flow), better use of multi-syllable rhymes, was a better story-teller, and was better with songs with unique concepts (Stan for instance). I also feel that Em was much better at connecting with the listener with his lyrics, and had that rare ability to make it feel like he's personally talking to you...Jay is more of a poet, and some of his songs are extended metaphores for something else (which is the only way his lyrics could go way over your head), but I feel there are other rappers out there who have had a similar style to Jay and did it better. I just can't say that anyone's taken a similar style to Em and done it as well as he has, although I'd say Pun was the only one who had a similar style and did it at a similar level. Overall, Em was a more talented and versatile than Jay lyracist, and that's no knock on Jay as you can make a case for Em being the most talented lyracist of all-time (although Nas, Pun, Big L, Biggie and a few others are in the conversation). In terms of career, whether it be rap or basketball, I look at prime years the most, while taking into consideration quantity. Give me SSLP, MMLP, TES, and all the freestyles and mixtape/diss songs Em released from 1999-2004 (because those are some of my favorites works from Em) over Jay's 3 best albums and his non-album work. To me, that means more than Jay having a longer discography. I can understand people preferring Jay over Eminem, specifically because of production. Jay has always been blessed with amazing production of the more soulful variety, while Em had Dre and his own more "in-your-face" production earlier in his career, and now he basically just goes along with what's trending. I can also understand people not liking Em's subject matter, while Jay is more of a classic hip-hop style. However, I have no idea how anyone can say Jay is the better rapper...he simply isn't. One hot album? Illmatic, It Was Written, Stillmatic, The Lost Tapes, God's Son and Distant Relatives are all hot albums (although Distant Relatives is an acquired taste considering Damian's part in the album, but Nas himself is amazing on it). No one cares about Nas? He's in pretty much everyone's top 10 and he has a gigantic army of fanboys. Unlike rappers like Rakim and KRS, he has stayed very relevant in hip-hop, even if he isn't on a bunch of radio songs or the VMA's (keep in mind, Illmatic had little mainstream success, so that speaks volumes to how much that really means). And yes, Nas still raps. Lyrically, his new single murdered anything from Jay on Watch the Throne. On the one upload of it on Youtube, the song has 2300 likes and 30 dislikes, so obviously he's still killin' it and people are still enjoying it. Lol, he dissed a genre which, after that release, is still thriving 2-3 years later. And he dissed T-Pain...so what? T-Pain isn't even really a rapper, 'nor is he elite. If you're going to use him dissing T-Pain, then I have 0 issue using "The Warning" by Eminem, which is an absolutely viscious diss song against Mariah Carey, or his various disses to weak rappers like Benzino or Everlast.