Why 'Beautiful' fits on Relapse

[ShadyNarkoticz]

Anyways, back on topic, Beautiful. I feel it fits with the album, why? Because like all of Em's album, it's part of the story. Starting with...

Do the other songs on Relapse follow a storyline or are they just a collection of songs?

[Master Chief]

It fits conceptually because it's the moment where Em realizes that it doesn't matter what other people say in the story. The songs take a different tone, and he goes back to his "normal voice" from Beautiful onward. Coincidence? No, Beautiful is on there for a reason. His voice and the beat might not fit, but if you look at Relapse like I do (a story) then Beautiful makes sense

This.

The album is not a 100% serial killing, rape album.

[Rash J]

It fits conceptually because it's the moment where Em realizes that it doesn't matter what other people say in the story. The songs take a different tone, and he goes back to his "normal voice" from Beautiful onward. Coincidence? No, Beautiful is on there for a reason. His voice and the beat might not fit, but if you look at Relapse like I do (a story) then Beautiful makes sense

This.

The album is not a 100% serial killing, rape album.

[Satire]

Anyways, back on topic, Beautiful. I feel it fits with the album, why? Because like all of Em's album, it's part of the story. Starting with...

Do the other songs on Relapse follow a storyline or are they just a collection of songs?

They transition pretty smoothly into one another. The opening skit Dr. West goes perfectly into 3AM.

My Mom focuses on how well..Em's mom was fucked, putting shit in his food and always being a bitch...kinda driving him...Insane (that's a bit of a reach, but hey, why the fuck not).

Hello goes into Tonya which beautifully goes into Same Song & Dance, which is followed by We Made You - a song dedicated to dissing celebrities, something Em has done time and time again, hence the catch phrase, "same song and dance", then Medicine Ball, "I guess it's time to hate me again" which kinda echoes critics' initial reactions to Em's celeb bashing singles back in the day.

The Paul skit goes into SWA very well because he's just saying how Eminem is fucked in the head with all the songs then BAM, there is an entire song dedicated to the rape of a girl named Brenda.

That stretch ends there, but is picked up again with Old Time's Sake, Em and Dre spitting back and forth on a track and smoking up, which transitions greatly into Must Be The Ganja, and although MBTG isn't really focused on the drugs, it's entitled reference pertains to drugs leading to the Mr. Mathers skit which is Em overdosed from drugs and....I explained the rest in my aforementioned post.

Every part of that made sense and flowed smoothly except the My Mom to Insane part. Alot of people dismiss "My Mom" as just another track bitching about his mom but it's really him taking an introspective look at his own hypocrisy. He does it in a very laid back and clown-like manner so no one gets this but he even says it. 3 AM is his rampage after he just relapsed, and My Mom is him exploring the possible explanations as to "why" as well as taking a second to look at himself in the mirror.

"I am like I am cause I'm like her".

He says in the beginning he's aware that he bitches about his mom alot. Then he talks about how she used to pop pills in the same house hold and be high while in the same room as her kid, the same thing he was doing with Hailie when he was on drugs. He's saying that despite all of this bullshit, he ended up being just like her.

And then Insane is him contemplating more on his past life with his family, only with way more exaggeration lol.

As for the thread, I always thought Beautiful fit perfectly after Deja Vu. Deja Vu was his overdose, while Beautiful was his low point of self pity and emotional breakdown after that incident. I think he placed it there because that's even how it played out in his actual life. He wrote "Beautiful" the day he arrived in rehab.

[BigBangBazinga]

SMH @ people saying Relapse is a serial killer album...

And yeah, Beautiful fits PERFECTLY. If you can't see it, too bad.

[Slill_Slim_Shady]

Thank God EminemBase is not online now!!

[StanBase]

only reason embase hasn't answered this thread is because he's writing a 10 000 words essay

[BigBangBazinga]

only reason embase hasn't answered this thread is because he's writing a 10 000 words essay

Kempe grejt!

[EminemBase]

But it's NOT a 100% serial-killer album...MOST of it is, but some of it isn't. It actually has a story, has a purpose, and has an ending. Beautiful FITS in because he stops listening to others. Why is no one seeing this?

I think all these ideas / stories people keep making up in regards to Relapse are personal conviction, there's no real structure to it.

And regardless of all of that, even if you were absolutely correct in what you're saying - it doesn't fit because of how it SOUNDS, not conceptually.

"Deja Vu" isn't about eating babies or raping women either but it fits SONICALLY. The beat is from the same sessions, the production meshes, the flow - meshes. There's a reason an artist usually makes all songs in a single session. Because otherwise it would just sound like a random mix-up of tracks.

Can you imagine if Em took some songs from 99, some from 03, some from 05 and made one album out of it? Do you seriously think it would sound coherent. No, it would sound like Curtain Call aka a hits album.

Irrespective of whether you love or hate "Beautiful" or whether you think it fits on the album CONCEPTUALLY, it sounds nothing like the rest and sounds stuck on. It's from another era, a different Eminem, a different rapper, a different flow, different production.

It doesn't fit at all.

And, I believe he put it there as a back-up track. Interscope probably wanted some kind of assurance of a hit and what else did they have to go on? the celeb-bashing single and a bunch of tracks about rape... and do you noticed what happened - they used it as a single and then what...

Once people didn't like Relapse, Em has an 'epiphany' and came with Recovery. Anyone notice the similarity between "Beautiful" and Recovery? I'm thinking in particular of the fact it's a bunch of rock samples and glaringly honest emotional back-peddling...

There was a noticeable mixed reaction from everybody, split, on the new material but a pretty overwhelming response to "Beautifull". And despite Em coming back and saying he wanted to lose the personal shit and stop bitching etc. as soon as the cards were in, he played the hand his fans dealt him. I believe it was calculated, and his bullshit line about 'putting it there to remind him' was just a cover line. I don't believe he sat down for years thinking of how to comeback, meticulously crafted those Relapse songs (and my, they are very meticulous) and then had a sudden change of mind on his own accord. He got the reaction, and went with the 'Beautiful style'.

I think Eminem put it there because he knew there was a chance his fans would hate the new material, so if that happened - he'd switch to that style. And that's what he did.

[Wreck]

Beautiful totally fits on Relapse in a "Beautiful way" people just don't see it the way others see it as how it fits on their.

[xxTrigger1989xx]

But it's NOT a 100% serial-killer album...MOST of it is, but some of it isn't. It actually has a story, has a purpose, and has an ending. Beautiful FITS in because he stops listening to others. Why is no one seeing this?

I think all these ideas / stories people keep making up in regards to Relapse are personal conviction, there's no real structure to it.

And regardless of all of that, even if you were absolutely correct in what you're saying - it doesn't fit because of how it SOUNDS, not conceptually.

"Deja Vu" isn't about eating babies or raping women either but it fits SONICALLY. The beat is from the same sessions, the production meshes, the flow - meshes. There's a reason an artist usually makes all songs in a single session. Because otherwise it would just sound like a random mix-up of tracks.

Can you imagine if Em took some songs from 99, some from 03, some from 05 and made one album out of it? Do you seriously think it would sound coherent. No, it would sound like Curtain Call aka a hits album.

Irrespective of whether you love or hate "Beautiful" or whether you think it fits on the album CONCEPTUALLY, it sounds nothing like the rest and sounds stuck on. It's from another era, a different Eminem, a different rapper, a different flow, different production.

It doesn't fit at all.

And, I believe he put it there as a back-up track. Interscope probably wanted some kind of assurance of a hit and what else did they have to go on? the celeb-bashing single and a bunch of tracks about rape... and do you noticed what happened - they used it as a single and then what...

Once people didn't like Relapse, Em has an 'epiphany' and came with Recovery. Anyone notice the similarity between "Beautiful" and Recovery? I'm thinking in particular of the fact it's a bunch of rock samples and glaringly honest emotional back-peddling...

There was a noticeable mixed reaction from everybody, split, on the new material but a pretty overwhelming response to "Beautifull". And despite Em coming back and saying he wanted to lose the personal shit and stop bitching etc. as soon as the cards were in, he played the hand his fans dealt him. I believe it was calculated, and his bullshit line about 'putting it there to remind him' was just a cover line. I don't believe he sat down for years thinking of how to comeback, meticulously crafted those Relapse songs (and my, they are very meticulous) and then had a sudden change of mind on his own accord. He got the reaction, and went with the 'Beautiful style'.

I think Eminem put it there because he knew there was a chance his fans would hate the new material, so if that happened - he'd switch to that style. And that's what he did.

That may be true, but that's the great thing about Relapse, is that you can look at it from so many angles. I understand what you're saying and agree on some of it, but I still believe that Beautiful was put there for a reason, if not just to add a little light to a dark album. You are 100% right about it not fitting sonically, because it doesn't, but I still believe conceptually it does fit, if you look at Relapse the way I do. I think it all depends on how you interpret Relapse

I also agree on Beautiful being the reason we got Recovery instead of Relapse 2

[EminemBase]

^ Yeah well whether it fits conceptually or thematically is separate debate to me.

And not one I'm personally interested in having. As... the sound is what matters, primarily, I think. On whether it works or not.

Just like "Rock Bottom" and "If I Had" fit The Slim Shady LP and "The Way I Am" fits The Marshall Mathers LP and "Hailie's Song" fits The Eminem Show.

It doesn't matter if he breaks character or, whatever route he takes in a song, the reason they all fit is because they were made for those albums. The production, the writing, the flows - they all fit the album like the other tracks. "Beautiful" doesn't. Because it wasn't made for Relapse.

It's another world. It just sounds awful there to me, because of that. And slightly ruins the overall feel and memory of Relapse, because it's so randomly out of place.

[chiasmus]

^ Yeah well whether it fits conceptually or thematically is separate debate to me.

And not one I'm personally interested in having. As... the sound is what matters, primarily, I think. On whether it works or not.

Just like "Rock Bottom" and "If I Had" fit The Slim Shady LP and "The Way I Am" fits The Marshall Mathers LP and "Hailie's Song" fits The Eminem Show.

It doesn't matter if he breaks character or, whatever route he takes in a song, the reason they all fit is because they were made for those albums. The production, the writing, the flows - they all fit the album like the other tracks. "Beautiful" doesn't. Because it wasn't made for Relapse.

It's another world. It just sounds awful there to me, because of that. And slightly ruins the overall feel and memory of Relapse, because it's so randomly out of place.

Do you think that without 'Beautiful' Relapse would have been a better piece of 'art' then, regardless of the overall sonic effect the song's exclusion would create? Because I personally think it can be justified within the theme at least, if not for the sound.

[EminemBase]

^ Yeah well whether it fits conceptually or thematically is separate debate to me.

And not one I'm personally interested in having. As... the sound is what matters, primarily, I think. On whether it works or not.

Just like "Rock Bottom" and "If I Had" fit The Slim Shady LP and "The Way I Am" fits The Marshall Mathers LP and "Hailie's Song" fits The Eminem Show.

It doesn't matter if he breaks character or, whatever route he takes in a song, the reason they all fit is because they were made for those albums. The production, the writing, the flows - they all fit the album like the other tracks"Beautiful" doesn't. Because it wasn't made for Relapse.

It's another world. It just sounds awful there to me, because of that. And slightly ruins the overall feel and memory of Relapse, because it's so randomly out of place.

Do you think that without 'Beautiful' Relapse would have been a better piece of 'art' then, regardless of the overall sonic effect the song's exclusion would create? Because I personally think it can be justified within the theme at least, if not for the sound.

Yeah I do think it would of been.

I think that Relapse would of been best, if it was a double-album, which was more conceptually committed ie. him relapsing into a murderous, anti-social rampage that... got worse / more extreme through the tracks, like a movie then winded down or ended with a bang. With the odd skit like "Tonya" to tie it together...

It could of been like music theater and, especially with the visuals that could of been created, with those songs. The style, the... rhyming etc, it just sounded so unique and crazy. I think it could of been a real high-point in his career.

I don't think ANY personal mentions or songs should of been included. You know, outside of... comic reference to himself etc. I wish he had been totally committed to his vision, instead of being like 85% committed then using the other 15% to pander and break the 4th wall. And, in art which is so honed and particular, every percentage makes a difference. Because the rest is so potent and weird, and unique - having "Beautiful" there is just... very bad, to me.

I mean haven't we had enough personal explanations of his life through his music? This was a chance for a new beginning, but as soon as people debated the new direction (which would 100% happen no matter what he did) he ran back to safesville.

[Devil'sAdvocate]

The song is just so out of place.