Eminem's clause splitting at the snare - analysis

[SliK]

The thing that annoys me about Eminem doing this is that he pauses and makes it blantently obvious.

I don't understand why he doesn't just flow it smoothly if he wants to do it this way.

[momentsgolden]

Insightful.

[Devil'sAdvocate]

Great thread, most annoying thing about modern Eminem.

[xYnDart]

Interesting read.

[EminemInsider]

The thing that annoys me about Eminem doing this is that he pauses and makes it blantently obvious.

I don't understand why he doesn't just flow it smoothly if he wants to do it this way.

Well, that too, which I've brought up in other threads. As soon as he gets the beat, he's trying to figure out how to deliver what he's written in such a way as to make syllables hit in certain places. Old Eminem would have already written with a certain flow, and his attention would turn to voice acting. "Say it like I mean it."

He's trying to point out all his rhymes to the listener now. He clearly thinks he has to prove something to us as far as that's concerned.

So you get stuff like, "encyclopedia BURRRRR/....tanica," because he wants people to figure out that "pedia burrrrrr" rhymes with "be an expert."

Old Eminem didn't give a rat's ass whether the average listener picked up on it or not. He'd go in there and rhyme "bitch retarded" with "16 dollars" and pronounce them like normal, without a care in the world other than saying the lines like he meant them. In Brain Damage, he'd pronounce the "choc" in chocolate milk the same way you pronounce "chalk," even though on paper it was designed to rhyme with "dropped and spilt."

You're right...if Eminem's going to continue splitting things like this, it'd sound better if he just ended mid-rhyme at the snare and then began the next clause on the next line and rapped it as if there was no rhyme there. Think of Renegade. Most people don't even realize the following:

But that ain't the case, see it's a matter of taste
We as a people decide if Shady's as bad as they say he is
Or is he the latter a gateway to escape
Media scapegoat
They can be mad at today
See it's as easy as cake

Modern Eminem would've rapped it the following way:

But that ain't the case, see it's ---->
A matter of taste, we as ---->
A people decide if Shady's as bad as they say he is
Or is he the latter a gateway to escape
Media scapegoat
They can be mad at today see it's ---->
As easy as cake

[Lowdownandshifty]

Insightful you shed a lot of light for us that know something has changed but couldnt put a finger on it

[skc_]

The thing that annoys me about Eminem doing this is that he pauses and makes it blantently obvious.

I don't understand why he doesn't just flow it smoothly if he wants to do it this way.

this!
Sometimes theres a pause and then he gets really fast and choppy. Why not use the pause and make it slower and smoother that way.


Also +1000 to this thread in general.
The "choppy flow", as we love to call it, is the thing that annoys me most about modern shady. To be honest if he'd cut that shit and flow smooth instead, id see mmlp2 around his 3 classics.

[SliK]

Listen to Drug Ballad, that's how to do this style properly.

[Trilla]

The problem is, he can't do the style properly anymore. I'm sure when he "re-learned" how to write, his writing process became the one EI used in the OP. Where he writes the lines first and then stuffs the rhymes.

[Hadez]

Old Eminem would layer his rhymes a lot.

Not to mention he stressed syllables back then too:

"Homophobic? Nah, you're just heterophoooobic
Staring at my jeans, watching my genitals buuuulging (Ooh!)
That's my motherfucking balls, you'd better let goooo of em
They belong in my scrotum, you'll never get hoooold of em"

All these lines are complete ideas in themselves and, therefore, is not anything like what OP is talking about.

"My mother did drugs - hard-liquor, cigareeeettes, and speeeeeed
The baby came out - disfigured, ligameeeents indeeeeed
It was a seed who would grow up just as crazy as she
Don't dare make fun of that baby cause that baby was me"

same as first quote

"Windows tinted on my ride when I driiiiive in it
So when I rob a bank, run out and just diiioive in it
So I'll be disguiiiiised in it
And if anybody identifiiiiies the guuuuy in it
I'll hiiiiide for fiiiiive minutes
Come back, shoot the eyeeeewitness
Fire at the private eye hired to pryyyyy in myyyyy business"

This is kind of the same style we're talking about. But if you notice, when he says the lines they flow smoothly. In his current stuff, the issue OP is referring to is that there's this jarringly noticeable break mid statement that breaks the flow instead of creating a flow. Granted this is handled better on his new album than on, say Recovery or the collabs between the two albums. But it's still there.

"His paaaalms are sweaty, knees weak, aaaaarms are heavy
There's vomit on his sweater already, mooooom's spaghetti
He's nervous, but on the surface he looks caaaalm and ready to drop bombs,
But he keeps ooooon forgetting what he wrote down"

"Has gotten me to the point, I'm like a snaaaaail
I've got to formulate a plot or I end up in jaaaaail or shot
Success is my only motherfucking option, faaaailure's not
Mom, I love you, but this traaaailer's got to go
I cannot grow old in Saaaaalem's lot
So here I go it's my shot.
Feet, faaaaail me not, this may be the only opportunity that I got"

These parts share the same style, technically. But, like I said above, it creates a flow, not destroy a flow. In this quote he does it to keep a rhyme scheme. Cool. In his recent work it's like a big neon sign saying "hey this part was supposed to rhyme so I'm splitting the statements up and cutting words in half at the points where it's supposed to."

I guess you can say it's his execution that's the problem, not necessarily the "style."

[EminemInsider]

Old Eminem would layer his rhymes a lot.

Not to mention he stressed syllables back then too:

"Homophobic? Nah, you're just heterophoooobic
Staring at my jeans, watching my genitals buuuulging (Ooh!)
That's my motherfucking balls, you'd better let goooo of em
They belong in my scrotum, you'll never get hoooold of em"

"My mother did drugs - hard-liquor, cigareeeettes, and speeeeeed
The baby came out - disfigured, ligameeeents indeeeeed
It was a seed who would grow up just as crazy as she
Don't dare make fun of that baby cause that baby was me"

"Windows tinted on my ride when I driiiiive in it
So when I rob a bank, run out and just diiioive in it
So I'll be disguiiiiised in it
And if anybody identifiiiiies the guuuuy in it
I'll hiiiiide for fiiiiive minutes
Come back, shoot the eyeeeewitness
Fire at the private eye hired to pryyyyy in myyyyy business"

"His paaaalms are sweaty, knees weak, aaaaarms are heavy
There's vomit on his sweater already, mooooom's spaghetti
He's nervous, but on the surface he looks caaaalm and ready to drop bombs,
But he keeps ooooon forgetting what he wrote down"

"Has gotten me to the point, I'm like a snaaaaail
I've got to formulate a plot or I end up in jaaaaail or shot
Success is my only motherfucking option, faaaailure's not
Mom, I love you, but this traaaailer's got to go
I cannot grow old in Saaaaalem's lot
So here I go it's my shot.
Feet, faaaaail me not, this may be the only opportunity that I got"
-

Also the "choc" in "chocolate" is pronounced the same as "chalk".

There's a difference between stressing syllables in their normal places, and stressing the wrong syllables (and in the example I provided, holding the sound) in an effort to point out the rhyme to the listener.

We've been through the "choc" thing. In most dialects it is, but there are some who pronounce it "chahk-lit" (open your mouth and say "ah"), which is what he was going for on paper to rhyme with "dropped and." But he has a midwestern dialect and just pronounced it the same way he usually pronounced it.

[Iris2]

I've never liked this part:

this eighty G's a week to say the same things
TWEECE!
TWICE? Whatever, I hate these things
Fuck shots! I hope the weed'll outweigh these
drinks
Motherfuckers want me to come on their radio
shows
just to argue with 'em cause their ratings stink?

[Kangol]

this is a perfect example of this. His choppy flow at this point in Bad Guy is the one thing about the song that annoys me.

I've been drivin' around your side of this town
Like nine frickin' hours and forty-five minutes now
Finally I found your new address, park in your drive
Feel like I been waitin' on this moment all of my life
And it's now arrived, and my mouth is full of saliva
My knife is out and I'm duckin' on the side of your house
----See, it's sad it came to this point
Such a disappointment
I had to make this appointment
to come and see ya----
But ain't here for ya empathy, I don't need your apology
Or your friendship or sympathy; it's revenge that I seek

the flow at the start of the verse is on point but then he changes his flow to try and fit in the ryhme, then reverses back to his original flow.