Skillz is as nice as Joe is as far as rapping. Sure we can argue that Joe knew how to structure a more mainstream sound and had more front of the house mainstream success.
But we not going to act like Skillz is some bum and doesn't have bars because he was an underground artist who farmed out his pen.
understanding song structure and making music that resonates is part of rapping. it's the same thing that separated joe's career from some of the people he was barring to death back in the day. he was never on their level overall. and skillz was never on joe's outside of lyrical ability/potential.
doesn't make skillz a bum. but there
are levels. also, arguing that joe of all people knew how to structure a more mainstream sound, given the engineering on his post-def jam albums, is
. joe's biggest mainstream moments -- outside of pump it up/fire -- were for rapping his ass off on mixtapes, battling on wax, being WAY ahead of the curve when it came to building his brand via youtube + blogging, and occasionally stumbling onto a decent-to-good single...
aka, doing what he and skillz are both known for, but doing it a lot better.
joe is right imo.