EminemBase wrote:There isn't a bad verse from him on the EP, and none are off flow.
Yes there are and yes there are instances.
EminemBase wrote:As for him just rapping about being violent etc. - I'd rather hearing him attempting to be humorously seething and coming up with punchlines and trying to tap back into his wit than I would another predictable verse about fame, his daughters and his struggle.
Rapping about your own life, conceptually, is the most obvious and easiest route. Just documenting his life through rhyme is uncreative and boring. I don't listen for melodrama.
Key word "attempting". Rapping about running over 2 hoes in his driveway, or going shopping to K-Mart only to find they don't have a size 8 in HOES, is not funny. Especially when he is in his late 30's. He has not made one punchline since Recovery that made me laugh. Also it's like you're implying that talking about hoes and making rubbish punchline jokes are the only alternatives to rapping about his fame and daughters etc. What about some innovation/originality?
EminemBase wrote:He's one of the most creative artists in history, and he created one of the seminal masterpieces in hip-hop (The Marshall Mathers LP). So it's simply a waste of his talent.
It's far more a waste of his talent to be talking about utter bullshit because he doesn't have anything else to write about at the moment.
EminemBase wrote:At this point, he's a millionaire doing what he LOVES to do every day. The focus should not be on him, as like it or not, he is not going through a struggle and even if he was, I don't need to hear it anymore. It's fucking redundant. I want originality.
If you want originality then how can you seriously think the stuff he is rapping about currently is brilliant? What's original about being violent/aggressive towards women at every opportunity? Or what other original concepts is he touching on these days? I find it impossible to believe that you want originality but think of his current content as brilliant.
EminemBase wrote:He's being overly misogynistic and angry as he's clearly tapping back into his earlier mindset, or attempting to, of The Marshall Mathers LP. You can say he's 'pretending' to be angry, but that's an aimless thing to say. He's an artist, he's supposed to pretend. Not everything he does or says has to be real, he SHOULD explore abstract concepts and he SHOULD embody roles. He was 'pretending' on "Kill You" too. He also doesn't really rape women and murder people.
Well by admitting that he is attempting to tap into his earlier mindset, you're conceding that he isn't being original. And no, he isn't putting any sort of new original twist on it. When he wrote songs like Kill You, of course it was very tongue-in-cheek but people were shocked and had never really heard someone come across as so aggressive on a record before. It was original. And people knew about his strained relationship with his mother and his turbulent, rollercoaster relationship with Kim, so the sentiments of that song were believable. He took on the voice of potential critics and mocked them. There
was a significant element of realism there because there were clear relations between what he was talking about and the events going on in his life at the time, even if we know he wasn't always being serious. What's more, his flow and rhyme patterns were so unique and interesting to listen to, which made him a captivating artist.
Fast-forward 11 years, he is in his late 30's and still rapping about punching and killing women, but this time around it's all completely fictional and
unconvincing, and you can smell it a mile off. I don't buy this whole "oh he is shouting, he must be mad!"; it is
so transparent I think anyone that does is clueless. Why is he still doing this 11 years later? Once you repeat concepts over and over and over again they lose their value in every way. In 2000 it was original, innovative, believable and relatable. Now, it is none of those. He clearly has run out of ideas so he is resorting to go back to this misogynistic theme that hit a home run a decade ago. Add that to diarrhoea jokes and quips about fast-food joints and it's just
EminemBase wrote:What made his early work intriguing was not his introspection, it was his persona-juggling, comedic wit, brash and bold originality (with concepts and ideas) and provocation. Where he's going with things like "Almost Famous" and "Above the Law" is a much better step in the right direction.
Almost Famous is a great track. Why? Well for one, the shouting was still new and actually fit the content of the track effectively. Two, I loved the concept of Em looking back and recapturing his early days breaking into the industry, recollecting the fuel that drove him to becoming such a brilliant and revered artist. Three, the beat fit perfectly and the hook was chilling and hard-hitting. Four, it was original and interesting. Above The Law on the other hand, like most of the songs on the EP, is much ado about nothing again, and is Em shouting aimlessley for no apparent reason for the 34534534th time. What is he actually taking about in his verse again? Oh look: "So you know if I hate fucking water-sprinklers, I don't love the hoes!!!".