Eminem Needs To Play To His Strengths - Not Punchlines!

[MikeNUFC]

Eminem is not a punchline rapper. Simple as that.

I have nothing wrong with Eminem attempting to do punchlines since his comeback. But surely by now he realises how it's ruining most of his verses?! Surely someone by now has told him how he isn't very good at them and they're not clever at all.

Let's take his latest verse, as an example.

Fuck, it’s fuckin’ rainin’! Shit, there’s lightning!
Bitch, it’s thunderin’, ’cause I’m cussin’ up a storm

Pretty much the same shit as Recovery Em. Take a phrase ('cussin a storm') and make that phrase literal - cussin = use swear words. 'storm' = describe a storm. Royce uses the similarly shitty technique in his verse on one line.

It's the simpliest method - anyone on here could do it.

Now the bit that everyone is blowing their load to:

You 2000 and late, man, and Will I ain’t, I’m the bad guy
Type of guy that’ll drag five girls up on stage
Pour ice in their pants, and the first one who pees gets a black eye

I get the wordplay. Black Eyed Peas. Fergie peed herself once. Will I Aint, 2000 & Late. I get it all.

But the thing about wordplay is it has to mean something outside of the actaul wordplay itself. And this doesnt.

Pour ice in their pants? Drag five girls on stage? Give them a black eye because they pee themselves?

Maybe I'm missing something but to me, it's complete gibberish and nonsical. He's conceding making sense for wordplay. He's conceding having logical lines for wordplay. In the same way you can have forced multies, here you have forced wordplay/punchlines.

Eminem's main strength is rhyming. Why isn't he playing on this strength? Why is he jumping on a bandwagon of punchline rhyming? He could have used Relapse as springboard to move the rhyming (and flows) he displayed on there in better content and concepts (he'd started this with Deja Vu).

The main problem is he'll be working with Slaughterhouse & Yelawolf (punchline emccees) and I can only imagine this to encourage him even more to use them.

[buffalo bill]

I agree. This is so fucking frustrating.

[j1234v]

this is rap now...we're gonna hafta get used to it. when eminem left the game from 07-09ish he opened the door for the likes of lil wayne to come in and take over. everyone got all obsessed with wayne's punchlines and now thats all that rap is. there is no more storytelling (with the exception of like 1-2 tracks per each rapper's album) that's just how it is. the focus is on punchlines that make you say "whattt thats hilarious" which unfortunately em isn't great at...I would say he's still pretty good at them tho. i thought the black eyed pees bit was funny. a lot of recovery's punchlines are great too (cum/come back like nut on your spine)

[DanWS]

Em's biggest strength is his ability to tell stories in his music and make us feel whatever emotion he is going through. I think his punchline game has fallen off only in the last year when he's been constantly (over)doing it. I think his punchlines on The Slim Shady LP were 10x better, shit he said back then would shock you, make you laugh etc. But I can't remember the last time I smiled at an Em punchline. He is definitely at his best, especially now, when his songs have a theme and he can talk about shit that makes you think or feel some sort of emotion. He can still make us laugh or think "wtf!?!?!" (Relapse is an example with songs like Insane and Bagpipes) but his punchlines don't really do anything for me anymore.

[Master Chief]

That Black Eyed Peas punchlines is also a play on Will Smith. I'll find the quote that explained it all and I'll edit my post.

EDIT:

Okay, I noticed something in this verse (I'm not sure if it's been mentioned...I haven't looked what so ever!)

I know people might say this is reaching, if it is then oh well but in the verse Em says:

Take you on a date, you mistake me for a gentleman
You 2000 and late, man, and Will I ain’t, I’m the bad guy
Type of guy that’ll drag five girls up on stage
Pour ice in their pants, and the first one who pees gets a black eye

Now I caught the Black Eyed Peas reference but I think there's a Will Smith one here too. Will smith on his Lost and Found album has a song called Mr. Nice Guy, on this song he says how he's a nice person, people like him yada yada (it's a good song btw xD), more importantly 2 things crop up, in the second verse he mentions dating and in the first verse he responds to Eminem name dropping him. (Below)

Mr. Niceguy relationship advice guy
Liked on the vices priceless smile
Look at the eyes got the look of a survivor
Husband, father
Dissed by Eminem but did it bother him (yup)
But he classy Big Will just get another 20 mil
And walk right pass E.
I'ma nice guy why ya'll harassing me, huh

So, when Em says "Will I ain't" which is a play on Will I am, but it also seems to match up because he's saying to Will (Smith) he ain't a gentleman and then proceeds to say he's a "Bad Guy".

Okay probably my longest post in a while and who knows whether it even makes sense or not, I don't care but I shall continue to hear it that way!

[RKOunion]

Agreed. While listening to Boys 2.0 I was begging he wouldn't use thse punchlines, sadly he even begins the verse with them.

He always tries to hard with them but fails.

I think he's clearly influenced with those Young Money punchlines and I don't know why he of all rappers finds them amusing.


Why do I hear the sound of toilets flushing
Some shit is going down

Just cringe-worthy. How the hell did he write those lines and thought "This is brilliant".

[FreeSpeech]

That Black Eyed Peas punchlines is also a play on Will Smith. I'll find the quote that explained it all and I'll edit my post.

EDIT:

Okay, I noticed something in this verse (I'm not sure if it's been mentioned...I haven't looked what so ever!)

I know people might say this is reaching, if it is then oh well but in the verse Em says:

Take you on a date, you mistake me for a gentleman
You 2000 and late, man, and Will I ain’t, I’m the bad guy
Type of guy that’ll drag five girls up on stage
Pour ice in their pants, and the first one who pees gets a black eye

Now I caught the Black Eyed Peas reference but I think there's a Will Smith one here too. Will smith on his Lost and Found album has a song called Mr. Nice Guy, on this song he says how he's a nice person, people like him yada yada (it's a good song btw xD), more importantly 2 things crop up, in the second verse he mentions dating and in the first verse he responds to Eminem name dropping him. (Below)

Mr. Niceguy relationship advice guy
Liked on the vices priceless smile
Look at the eyes got the look of a survivor
Husband, father
Dissed by Eminem but did it bother him (yup)
But he classy Big Will just get another 20 mil
And walk right pass E.
I'ma nice guy why ya'll harassing me, huh

So, when Em says "Will I ain't" which is a play on Will I am, but it also seems to match up because he's saying to Will (Smith) he ain't a gentleman and then proceeds to say he's a "Bad Guy".

Okay probably my longest post in a while and who knows whether it even makes sense or not, I don't care but I shall continue to hear it that way!

That's just stupid, you're reaching way too far on that...

[Master Chief]

^ As you can see...I didn't write that. And no, it's not reaching, it makes a lot of sense. Why else would he say "I'm the bad guy"?

[MikeNUFC]

Let him go through his little phase, maybe if we keep bitching he'll admit to running the punches into the ground so hard that he broke his fist...then when he stops the punchlines, we'll get a tsunami wave of complaints, "His punches were dope! Why is he listening to his fans aka US!"

Or we could be blinded Stans and love everything he puts out regardless of quality. (not aimed at you by the way, you're a good poster)

If Newcastle are playing badly, I still support them (obviously) but will criticise them and won't expect them to perform well.

Same goes for Eminem - if he's out of form, I'll still will him on to do well but will criticise him and my expectations will lower.

MC - I saw that, point still stands though. It's still meaningless, especially the latter part.

[DanWS]

OK even if the Will Smith reference does make sense, it's not funny, it doesnt make you laugh or be shocked or feel anything. All it makes you do is examine it for hours wondering if it is/is not a reference.

[FreeSpeech]

^ As you can see...I didn't write that. And no, it's not reaching, it makes a lot of sense. Why else would he say "I'm the bad guy"?

Yeah I know, my bad, wasn't trying to say you wrote it.

And he said it cuz it rhymed with Black Eye. If he really did intend that line as a reference, then

[EminemBase]

I agree for the most part except...

I don't agree that bit you mentioned is nonsensical. It's not arbitrary - it's abuse towards females, it's twisted / bizarro-world misogyny.

He has been sacrificing a lot of sense for puns since Relapse, absolutely but - there's more than enough pure gold to justify this new style. For a little while. Being hateful, being an anarchist... these are well-rooted in his image and artistic 'mojo', it's not random.

And I'm glad that he's had a period of all-out punchlines. But, yes I would like him to get off it now. But, he's yet to repeat a style for two albums anyway so very unlikely he'll continue all this beyond the Slaughterhouse album and Detox. So, new Em is coming.

[DanWS]

OK even if the Will Smith reference does make sense, it's not funny, it doesnt make you laugh or be shocked or feel anything. All it makes you do is examine it for hours wondering if it is/is not a reference.

Maybe his goal isn't to always make his fans laugh? Maybe he's just doing it for himself. I thought that was hella creative on his part, and the Will Smith reference does make sense so if it had two meanings in one, that's even better.

I don't CARE for his lyrics to make me laugh, or 'shock' me.

The aim of a punchline is to get that sort of reaction from the listener, usually to make them laugh or think "wow he connected those different subjects in a dope way"

I don't care to have to spend hours analysing a punchline that is supposed to make me laugh to see what it is referencing cuz I can't understand it/because it's so ambiguous.

[HereHere]

I agree with most of this, it's really starting to annoy me with all the punchlines. I was fine with it though, assuming he'd change his style for a new album but now he's signed Slaughterhouse, I'm not too sure.

[Kevin Paul]

Surely someone by now has told him how he isn't very good at them and they're not clever at all.

Considering encore came out I doubt anyone will ever come out and tell him how horrible his punchlines are.