What was Eminem's biggest mistake in his career?

[Blu]

You can't say Eminem wrote his albums sober... he doesn't really have the balls to say the things he did on albums like The Slim Shady LP and The Marshall Mathers LP.

[ShadysDisciple]

I always thought he wrote the entire SSLP sober, but recorded it on X.

I'm pretty sure your right. I remember reading somewhere that him and Dre used to lock there selves in the studio, get fucked up on Cognac and X and just record for like 3 days straight, pass out for a week and do it again or something like that lol.

[EminemInsider]

..........Actually, I hate to break it to you, but...Em did write parts of the first three albums under the influence, particularly MMLP. You can't truthfully say that he wrote all three of them stone-cold sober.

Mathers says you can trace the arc of his addiction by listening to his albums: He was more or less sober writing the white-trash party that was The Slim Shady LP (1999); he credits experimentation with drugs for taking his music to unexpected places on The Marshall Mathers LP (2000); with The Eminem Show (2002), he struck the perfect balance—a potent mix of punch-line raps and intensely biographical material. Then the balance tipped: His fourth album, Encore, was his weakest, and it took him two years to complete because of his addiction to pills.

I met Eminem by accident just after he’d finished throwing up a fifth of Bacardi and a slice of pizza. It was all he’d eaten that day but was only an appetizer for what was to follow: three club appearances spiced with four ecstasy caps, chased with ginger ale. Cruising from Staten Island back to Manhattan that night, Eminem was a different kind of tour guide. Riding a high that would floor most people, he was a lyrical
Tasmanian devil, spitting couplets at all of us—his manager (Paul Rosenberg), DJ Stretch Armstrong, collaborator Royce Da 5
9, and a few others—that caused combustive laughter, jaw-gaping awe, or, often, red-faced embarrassment for the subject of his well-aimed darts. He was a living, breathing, drinking, falling, and reeling Slim Shady that night. His energy was almost tangible, as if you could see his synapses firing. The bits of stimuli before him flooded into his dilated pupils, coursed over his brain, and were spit back out at us, redefined in rhymes, jibes, and insults impossible to rebut. He commanded the room, the limo, the afterparty, wherever we were, not because we, his entourage, were a doting audience—in fact, there were many wits in the bunch—it was because no one could touch him.

...As the E starts to hit him, Eminem becomes a word dervish, a rhyme tornado, a spaz, and a force that can’t be reckoned with. In most people, ecstasy brings on a state of bliss. In Eminem, it brings out Slim Shady. Right now Slim Shady is cranked up to eleven and bristling with energy he can’t contain. His drug-fueled rhymes are sharp, and he cannot sit still. When the radio catches his ear, he’ll rap along perfectly with OutKast’s “Rosa Parks” or DMX’s “Ruff Ryders Anthem,” until the next bit of stimuli redirects him.

"For those who are curious about my methods in the studio, it goes a little like this. If I'm writing rhymes I smoke weed or take Tylenol, or muscle relaxants, something to get the stories rolling. Or I take ecstasy. A couple of the songs on the new record [MMLP] were written on X," he confirmed to music365.

Um, hate to break it to you, but your links don't say that. All he said in any of those is "a couple of songs on MMLP were written on X." Whatever those were. Maybe his verse on Under the Influence. I guarantee you Eminem didn't write any of the major songs on MMLP under the influence.

He was busy peeing into a cup (under the conditions of his probation) while he was making TES...the only thing that ever entered his body during the making of that album was Ambien, but that would've been when he was finishing up the album on the set of 8 mile. I'm guessing his verse on When the Music Stops was Ambien-influenced. That's why it's so mediocre.

But nothing that factors into Eminem's greatness ever came from drugs. That's just sheer idiocy...the claims of morons.

[AbramIsaac]

EminemInsider for the L.

Drugs don't create art. People create art. Sometimes they're under the influence of drugs, sometimes they're not. Either way, their state of mind will influence what they create; drugs can influence that state of mind. Whether or not it produces anything better than what would have been produced sober isn't always easily quantified one way or another. That's neither here, nor there though.

You attacked Cube23 for the point he made. A valid point, by the way. While there's nothing embarrassing about simply being wrong, calling someone an idiot for saying something that is verifiable true is not only incredibly ironic, it's completely unnecessary. Don't be such a dick, you can use those well written posts to do more than be hostile and make yourself look foolish.

[EminemInsider]

EminemInsider for the L.

Drugs don't create art. People create art. Sometimes they're under the influence of drugs, sometimes they're not. Either way, their state of mind will influence what they create; drugs can influence that state of mind. Whether or not it produces anything better than what would have been produced sober isn't always easily quantified one way or another. That's neither here, nor there though.

You attacked Cube23 for the point he made. A valid point, by the way. While there's nothing embarrassing about simply being wrong, calling someone an idiot for saying something that is verifiable true is not only incredibly ironic, it's completely unnecessary. Don't be such a dick, you can use those well written posts to do more than be hostile and make yourself look foolish.

No, dipshit, what he said was flat-out idiotic and false. His first three albums are exactly what Eminem's "sober penmanship" looks like. That's the whole point. The vast majority of SSLP was already done before he'd even met Dre...when he was underground, working two jobs and barely having enough money to support his family. Sober.

The Eminem Show was made during and after he pleaded guilty to the gun possession charges and was sentenced to probation. Sober...or, up until the point where he was having a problem with Ambien.

Marshall Mathers LP...how much of that realistically could have been "written" when he was under the influence (of completely different drugs than what he ended up having problems with, by the way)? By the way, Eminem jots down rhymes every single day, not just when he's in the studio. He doesn't usually just sit down and write songs from beginning to end.

You think he wrote Stan under the influence? LOL. *puff*...."Sometimes I cut myself to see how much it bleeds/It's like adrenaline, the pain is such a sudden rush for me"...*puff*...*pops ecstasy*..."I looooove you, mannnn"

Kim was written around the same time as 97 Bonnie & Clyde...he saved it for MMLP.

*Pops ecstasy*..."See it all makes sense, doesn't it?/You and your husband have a fight/Somebody tries to grab a knife/And during the struggle, he accidentally gets his Adam's apple sliced/And while this is going on on, the son has woke up/She panics, and he gets his throat cut/So now they're both dead, and you slash your own throat/So now it's double homicide and suicide, with no note"

"Have I ever told you how much I Looooooove you? I LOOOOOOVE YOU"...

Of course, who cares if the effects of the drugs he apparently took recreationally in those days are the complete opposite of the moods/emotions he expresses in most of the songs on that album? Who cares about the intricate rhyme schemes that require a razor sharp mind to come up with?

Your first paragraph is utter horseshit, by the way. As someone else referenced in this thread, Dre/Eminem mentioned they used to experiment with recording songs in the studio while on ecstasy. Then they'd go back and listen to it, and go, "WTF?" I think it's safe to say they threw that into the bin that would wind up in the hands of a Saudi Arabian faggot. Just call it a hunch...that two known perfectionists in Eminem and Dr. Dre didn't actually use incomprehensible music they made under the influence on the actual albums. Well, not until Encore...when they didn't have any choice, because Eminem was in his own world.

[CrashBand]

You attacked Cube23 for the point he made. A valid point, by the way. While there's nothing embarrassing about simply being wrong, calling someone an idiot for saying something that is verifiable true is not only incredibly ironic, it's completely unnecessary. Don't be such a dick, you can use those well written posts to do more than be hostile and make yourself look foolish.

It wasn't really a valid point at all. (edit: cube's point)

His first three albums were made virtually sober. Okay Em had the odd joint here and there like we all do but Cube23 implied the outcome of his first three albums was a direct result of him being on drugs. i.e. that's why they were so damn good.

Which is pretty much a load of shit.

[Wreck]

01. If he didn't go to rehab he'd be dead.
02. The biggest mistake was taking so many pills a day & getting addicted, due to his fame. That lead to Encore being half ass, half good, half bad, & then leading to bad songs, & almost dying.

[Manly Moose]

That 2pac album Loyal To The Game. Have you ever heard the original version of ghetto gospel? Its easily 10x better than Ems choppy version, whose only saving grace was an elton john sample.

[Amaranthine]

That 2pac album Loyal To The Game. Have you ever heard the original version of ghetto gospel? Its easily 10x better than Ems choppy version, whose only saving grace was an elton john sample.

I'm just glad he did the album for free.

[Mathers]

That 2pac album Loyal To The Game. Have you ever heard the original version of ghetto gospel? Its easily 10x better than Ems choppy version, whose only saving grace was an elton john sample.

Em's version on Ghetto Gospel was great except for high pitching pacs voice, I agree that everything else on the album was awful though.

[Wreck]

That 2pac album Loyal To The Game. Have you ever heard the original version of ghetto gospel? Its easily 10x better than Ems choppy version, whose only saving grace was an elton john sample.

I agree, & disagree. Agree because he ruined the music because he put pop artists on there, & had G-Unit on there, & had Pac say G-Unit, which was wrong, but also, musically, it was fantastic. Also, the decision to put Jadakiss, a friend of Biggy, on there. While Jada came with a hot verse, it was very wrong to do that.