Is Eminem Limiting Himself?

[kkaniff]

"God damnit I hate when people react
without actually reading or
understanding. I said he GOT USED
TO CHART-TOPPING meaning he's
been doing it a while. His first 3 he
was making his music with purpose,
he didn't care about sales. Now it
seems like he doesn't want to give up
his position by making an album
without Rihanna"
...
Cry me a fuckin' river, it's not my fault you're inarticulate.
You said chart-topping doesn't go along with artistic integrity, I said Em has been topping charts since SSLP when he had the most "artistic integrity".
Do you feel foolish yet?

[Hopsinshadie]

But to bring things closer to the initial post and not focus on the technical argument -- I just wish he'd have a higher drive for wanting to make a name for himself in the grand scheme of music.

Maybe I'm in the minority because, again, I'm not a self proclaimed "hip hop head." I'll listen to any genre so long as its good.

I listen to a lot of the so called "greats" and I just -- since Eminem is the only artist I'm this emotionally invested in -- want him to one day be up there when the greats are named.

How many rappers are in the conversation when people talk about The Beatles, and MJ, and Zeppelin, and Hendrix, etc.

Rap as a genre, as a whole, is still not respected in the eyes of many.

Here we have someone who sells more records than anyone else making music right now, and it's been that way for the past decade. Someone who can help put rap in that conversation.

He can make it so that when you see a list of the greatest songwriters, you don't scoff or make a face when you see his name.

But he doesn't seem to want to be that guy. He just wants to beat his fellow rappers.

Again, nothing wrong with that, it's his career, his artistic direction, his life.

But when are we gonna see another Eminem? Someone this skilled, who can write songs with the best of them, representing rap and taking things to that next level?

He can be so much more than he is if he looked at the bigger picture and focused as opposed to wasting his talents making sure he's better than mediocre rappers who won't have a career 3 years from now.

Yea he needs to kick it up a gear, wouldn't you say? He's wasting his talent and years by making average, mediocre songs. They are not bad songs, but he needs to really kick it up.

He is more than just a musical artist or a rapper. He needs to get more serious.

[DariusAivani]

Recovery sounded incredibly forced to me, and tbh "Rap God" did too. He's got skills, but it's just not a good song imo. It runs way too long and it's not really saying anything at all. But on other songs on the album he just sounds like he's having fun, which he definitely wasn't on Recovery, the only Em album I hate.