Eminem's clause splitting at the snare - analysis

[EminemInsider]

It just sounds annoying and forced, right?

What I've found, as someone who has screwed around trying to write lyrics over the years, is this sort of thing tends to happen when someone is trying to write a verse with meaning in chronological order, starting at the beginning and working to the end of each line, and thinks of the perfect word or two to rhyme with a word or two fairly early in the previous line, but can't figure out how to finish the rhyme scheme with the remaining words in the previous line. I'll give you an example.

Let's say Eminem decides to write the line,

"Hailie thinks I'm an embarrassment to both her and her sisters"

His next thought may lead him to thinking, "every attempt I make to apologize DON'T WORK"...."YEAH, that's it, both her/don't work."

So Eminem hastily writes this down, because his writing process has changed. It's blatantly obvious when reading his lyrics off paper while listening to him actually rapping said lyrics that he no longer writes to the beat, but rather he writes what he wants on paper independently and then tries to improvise when he gets the beat, leading to forced, choppy deliveries.

So anyway, we have:

"Hailie thinks I'm an embarrassment to both her and her sisters
Every attempt I make to apologize don't work..." shiiiit, how do I finish this? What do I do about, "and her sisters?"

Eventually, he realizes he must start a new clause and carry it into the next line for an elongated, multiple-line clause.

"Hailie thinks I'm an embarrassment to both her and her sisters
Every attempt I make to apologize don't work and she's pissed, cuz ---> OVER to next line
I try to interfere with her dating all these douchebags in her class "

In the past, Eminem used to work in reverse. He wouldn't sit down and write line to line, he'd think of the subject matter and then think of various words/expressions that connected to what he'd want to say. You can see this on his lyrics sheets.

For instance, if he was working on Brain Damage, his stacked ammo would have a bunch of grouped words on the page like, "the janitor's storage booth/Kicked the door hinge loose/Ripped out the four-inch screws/brooms and foreign tools/took my orange juice." Then he'd get the beat and put it all together.

With the rhymes out of the way, he could work in reverse and make the line begin the way he wanted it to, which is much easier than trying to think of a way to complete the rhyme scheme, working line-to-line.

It's kind of similar to how modern freestylers like TheSaurus approach the challenge now. They think of the second line first, then create a punchline to go with it. TheSaurus thinks, "Look at this guy's Giants hat."

TheSaurus: All I know is that, this guy shouldn't even try to rap
Cuz all his lines are whack and he's a loser in that Giants hat

The point is, it's important not to box yourself in by forcing yourself to have to come up with the challenging part of your lyrics within the parameters of the set up lyrics.

[Kill You]

Obsession, obsession, obsession. What the fuck. I would hate to have your life.

[PAINKILLƎR]

[EminemInsider]

Errr, that should say "form a setup line," not a punchline. Can't edit my post thanks to Bad Gateway problems, and don't feel like clearing cookies right now.

[Never_Enough]

Obsession, obsession, obsession. What the fuck. I would hate to have your life.

It's actually a good post.
And I also kinda agree.
It's obvious when Em writes to a beat and when he doesn't.
So Much Better lyrics were written to the beat, for example, Rhyme or Reason weren't.

[JamaicanPattlez]

It's interesting, to be sure. Cause I'm guilty of having a writing style similar to the first example and that does happen, a lot easier than most people will give credit for.

[Never_Enough]

I also use the first writing technique too, and I find it easier than the second one actually.

[JamaicanPattlez]

I also use the first writing technique too, and I find it easier than the second one actually.

I actually do the second one a lot, but I use it in combination of the first. Cause what I like to do is write multies, like a big list of em that would be relevant for that song. Then piece it together but it's difficult cause you have to know your multi game well to pull it off, which I admit, I need to work a lot on. Trying to lean towards the second cause it's easier in the sense of, I don't have to sit there writing a line to not make it sound forced cause I have the rhymes there. I just have an extremely bad habit of either trying to make everything rhyme or sticking to a similar rhyme scheme.

[TonyTilt]

I get what you're saying but...

Take some inventory, in this gorge there's a Ford engine, door hinge
Syringe, an orange, an extension cord, and a Ninja sword
Not to mention four lynch pins and a stringent stored
Ironing board a bench a wrench or winch and an attention whore

-Brainless

[Trilla]

I get what you're saying but...

Take some inventory, in this gorge there's a Ford engine, door hinge
Syringe, an orange, an extension cord, and a Ninja sword
Not to mention four lynch pins and a stringent stored
Ironing board a bench a wrench or winch and an attention whore

-Brainless

That's just Eminem rhyming words, though...

It would be pretty stupid if he decided to split the syllables there.

[Insidious91]

LMAO

[Amadeo]

Obsession, obsession, obsession. What the fuck. I would hate to have your life.

I find it ironic you see obsession as a bad thing when you're a fan of Eminem, one of the most obsessive people in the history of music.

[Hadez]

I'd say that in a similar way he's forcing words into his lines that mess up the flow. He raps at a normal pace, then suddenly like 6 syllables gets crammed into 2 syllables and he's "forced" them to fit.

i.e.
"I went to the store and bought a sack of rice
Then tripped on the way and fell on the face of a faggot dyke"

Using his current flows as a template, he'd squish that whole second line to fit within the snares like the first line would naturally.

It's kind of annoying really and sounds sloppy.

[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.