Couple of years ago, San Francisco Bay Area, California-born rapper Symba, who was cosigned by Dr. Dre by posting his freestyle on Instagram with the caption: “One of my new favorites,” did an interview on Revolt where he declared himself better rapper than Eminem: “I respect Eminem on a level as a man but as a rapper… I feel like I could name five better rappers. The Slim Shady LP, The Marshall Mathers LP, The Eminem Show. It’s fire. It’s fire but you want my honest opinion? Yes, I’m better than Eminem. Anybody can rhyme words. What are you saying? Hey, the girl that’s yelling, rap me an Eminem verse! She got quiet.”

During a recent episode of Connect The Dots podcast Symba responded to a backlash: “Shout out to Marshall Mathers. If you ask any NBA player who’s better than him, they gonna say nobody. It’s a competitive spirit that we have. Now, that does not take away from the legend and an icon and all the work Eminem has put in. But I was asked the question and they gut the clip up at certain way that made it look like I was going at one of the GOATs. But it was not that at all.” said Symba.

Then he continued: “I respect Em. I got a lot of respect for Em. Learned a lot from him. I worked with Dr. Dre and Dre told me a lot about Em. But when they were asking me, I don’t feel like nobody in this world is better than me as a rapper. That’s just how I feel. But shout out to GOAT Em.”

Later in the interview, Symba named his favorite Eminem verse and revealed that he learned a lot from Slim Shady: “My favorite verse is ‘Reggie, Jay-Z, Tupac and Biggie, Andre from Outkast, Jada, Kurupt, Nas and then me but in this industry I’m a cause of a lot of envy so when I’m not put on this list, this s–t not offend me, that’s why you see me walk around like nothing’s bothering me.’ Eminem thought me how to have character. So, the whole narrative of Symba don’t like Eminem, that’s false. That’s cap. I learned a lot from Em.” You can watch the interview below: