Kind of like the band Living Colour and the late Jimi Hendrix's guitar virtuosity in the typically white boy game of hard rock.
Fresh takes have tweaked the genre on its ear since the Beastie Boys broke on the scene in the 1980s. Pride of Detroit, Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem showed that a facile tongue and quick witted mind can show up the best of them, perhaps inspiring the South African hip hop/rap act Die Antwoord, whose electrifying performances and avante garde videos defy the typical rapper tropes too.
Eminem's latest single “Rap God," has him mocking and celebrating the genre as he puts his competition in the Hip-Hop world in check (like 16 year old Kiwi phenom Lorde does in her lyrics to 'Royals') and, comparing himself to all others he concludes, “I’m beginning to feel like a rap God.”
He perfectly plays up his offensive persona and then takes the mickey out of himself and others in the game. It's brilliant. There's no gold teeth grill, Maybach or tigers on a gold leash in this Motor City savant's world, and even his modest run at acting show there's much more to this guy than music.