Veteran hip-hop star Reminisce has said rappers are not rated based on their wealth and stream numbers, but “pure skill.”

He emphasised that regardless of how affluent and influential a rapper is, he can only earn the respect of the hip-hop world through his skills.

The ‘Local Rappers’ crooner stated this against the backdrop of the supremacy battle between Nigerian rappers Odumodublvck and Blaqbonez.

Appearing as a guest alongside his colleague, Vector, in a recent episode of On The Record podcast, Reminisce pointed out that the reason American rapper Kendrick Lamar is widely adjudged the winner of his hip-hop battle with Canadian superstar Drake was because of his skills.

He said, “Hip-hop is the only genre that doesn’t respect numbers or money. No matter how much money you make as a rapper, you can’t buy it [the respect of the Hip-hop world]. That’s one thing I love about Hip-hop. You have to earn it. People have to say, ‘Vector is a good rapper, he’s a legend.’

“If you like see 5 trillion streams, if you like name your album the greatest. Nobody cares. Rap respects pure skills. That’s why Kendrick Lamar is widely adjudged the winner of his hip-hop battle with Canadian superstar Drake. If you look at the margin between Drake and Lamar in terms of commercial, it’s very wide. But because it’s about skill set, which is the primary thing in hip-hop, Lamar won.”