There are a few things one can expect on every Eminem album: drugs, homophobia, misogyny, hilarious skits, and insane verbal dexterity. The man finds ways to rhyme words in such away that it makes you rethink what you know about rhyming. He can find the rhyme in the midst of syllables that make your head spin. No one rhymes like he does. I do not mean that as hyperbole either. Also, no rap artist has ever sparked the kind of conversation he does. On a prominent hip-hop website, 7 of the top 10 most discussed songs on the site are Eminem songs. People just cannot help but talk about him. It is kind of powerful if you think about it. After a 5 year hiatus that included a second divorce, the death of his best friend, the suicide of his uncle, two trips to rehab, a knee surgery, and an overdose, Eminem is back.
1. Dr West (Skit) - Eminem is meeting with his doctor after spending his time in rehab. The doctor is voiced by Dominic West (The Wire's Jimmy McNulty). The doctor tells Eminem it is okay to skip meetings and that it is okay to drink. The doctor turns into a demon type thing and Eminem wakes up from the nightmare. It really sets off the album nicely.
2. 3AM- A haunting beat opens the song and Eminem is using a very high pitched affected voice that sound like a serial killer as the song is about a serial killer. The production is perfect for this kind of song and Eminem runs all over the track like a man unsure of what comes next. It is an anxious and dark track that features whip fast rhymes like "I remember the first time I dismembered a family member/December I think it was” A lot of people are not liking the voice he uses, but I think it works here. The song plays like a horror film and the video is an incredible companion. By having this as his first song, Eminem is definitely setting us up for a dark album and an album full of songs that are probably helping him work out his issues. I love the hook too. It stays with you. 5/5
3. My Mom- A big horn influenced beat combined with the catchiest of drug style hooks really help this song be very infectious, when it should not be infectious. The song is about how Eminem got hooked on drugs because his mother put valium in all of his food growing up. It is probably awful hyperbole but the sing-songy flow, mixed with a ridiculous ability for verbal gymnastics and it is impossible for me to dislike this song. Eminem finishes his final verse with this gem "I'll do it, pop and gobble it and start wobblin/ Stumble, hobble, tumble, slip, trip then I fall in bed with a bottle of meds/and a Heath Ledger bobblehead." However, after the verses is when the song gets almost too funny. He understands people are tired of hearing him rap about his mother as he self deprecates himself by saying "I can't even write a rhyme without you in it." 4/5
4. Insane- Okay, this is the crazy hyperbolic song. I do not know if Eminem was really molested as a kid, but this song posits that he was and it is an overshare if ever there was one. I imagine this is the song that people will have the hardest time listening to, but it is an important song I think. It really shows how crazy Eminem is with his rhymes, his cadences and his voices. He raps as about 4 different people, including himself as a young kid and it is truly insane. He is on his own planet, like he is rapping in a pattern that only he sees. The hook should not work and the beat should not work but they all add to the insanity of the track. This is probably Eminem at his most vile, which is saying something. It is a hard track to love, like he is daring you to hate him, but he is still too much of a wizard with words to fully hate the song. 3/5
5. Bagpipes from Baghdad- This is the first beat that really has its own life. I love the bagpipes and I love everything else in the beat. This is a song that has caused a lot of controversy because Em takes aim at Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon. Em is on some of that crazy stuff. The entire first verse rhymes on roughly the same sounds, which is not easy and then he tops it in verse two when he raps "What an ensemble, what an assortment of PHARMA-/Ceuticals this beautiful pill does to my karma/Cuticles get residue just from touchin the bottle. This song is one of the songs that everyone seems to like because Em's rhymes are crazy all over it. His flow is tight and it is one of his trademark songs where he goes after someone who will make the mistake of getting angry and giving Eminem more press. The auto-tune voice effect is hilarious at the end of the track, as well. 5/5
6. Hello- Eminem is reintroducing the slim shady character. Shady is the drug riddled misogynist. The beat is slow and dark, with an interesting rhythm and Eminem has slowed down his flow and is also rapping in an interesting rhythm that does not follow the beats rhythm, but works in tandem with it to create a whole new beat and rhythm. This dude is crazy! The song tells a few stories of a guy looking for drugs and the kinds of things he does when he is on the drugs. It also ends on some stark honesty about being sad the drug days are over. He knows the drugs were killing him, but they were such a part of him, he will miss them. The third verse is beautiful. I love the hook and it is the one I find myself singing most frequently. 5/5
7. Tanya(Skit)- Another not funny skit finds a young girl getting in the car with Eminem only to be taped up and in the song that follows it, killed.
8. Same song and Dance- I could honestly do without this song. It is not terribly awful, but it just feels stale. Eminem kidnaps a girl named Tanya, and then he does the same to Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears. What I do like is that the beat and the hook are kind of mellow and light, but the words of the hook are dark and the lyrics are all about killing people. There is a dissonance there and it kind of makes up for the stale feeling of the song. Beats this light should not be used to murder. There is a way to show that this song is about the perils of being an exposed celebrity, but it is a bit too obvious it is just a chance for Eminem to kill a few more people in an album. 2/5
9. We made you- The lead single for Eminem will always pretty much be this kind of song. The hook is crazy catchy and I like the production, even if it is totally over produced and Eminem plays the merry prankster so well I cannot hate it, even though I was hoping he would not do this kind of song again. It worked because the album sold 600,000 copies in week one. He rhymes on beat so well it is ridiculous, but the homophobia does get a bit old at times. Songs like this have such a short shelf life because by pairing John Mayer and Jennifer Aniston together, you date the song because they have already broken up. Lyrically it is better than "Just lose it" but not on par with "The Real Slim Shady." 3.5/5
10. Medicine Ball- This song is sooooo wrong it is right. The hook goes "I guess it's time for you to hate me again/ Let's begin, now hand me the pin/ How should I begin it and where does it all end?/ The world is just my medicine ball, you're all in" and then he proceeds to get the world to hate him again by calling girls awful names, drop kicking pregnant women, wrecking bisexuals and worst of all picking on Christopher Reeves, yet again. The beat is crazy and spacey and Eminem runs all over it with the verbal dexterity of a guy with no verbal filter. However, it is the end of the song that is so awful and brilliant as he raps as Christopher Reeves, complete with pauses for breaths. It is awful, but so hilarious as he raps "You'll never fill my shoes, my Superman costume {*inhales*}/ doesn't even fit you, they don't feel you/ You're taking this shit too far {*inhales*}." I know I should not laugh, but it is just perfect. 5/5
11. Paul- This is the first funny skit and features the reoccurring character of his manager Paul. These skits are always aimed at poking fun at the controversy and in this one Paul says "Christopher Reeves, you know the guy is dead, right? It is exactly what I wanted.
12. Stay Wide Awake- Oh man the beat of this song is CRAZY! The strings, the haunting voices, the keys, wow. And then Eminem starts off killing it with "Soon as my flow starts, I compose art like the ghost of Mozart." Oh MAN!!! The song is about being a serial killer, so it is nothing new, but it is so perfectly constructed I admire it. I love how the beat changes when the hook comes in and Eminem is rapping his ass off. He is rapping as a dark version of himself, like we all have these thoughts hidden deep and dark inside of us. Mostly though, it is an exercise in rhyming. In the second verse he rhymes entire sentences through the whole verse!!! The words all seem to rhyme because of his inflection and where he puts the emphasis. It is pretty damn genius and is one of the reasons why he is so damn dope. 5/5 based solely off the second verse.
13. Old Time's Sake- Eminem and Dre back together again with a funky Dr. Dre beat becoming their vehicle for their mission. It is a bouncy track and it fits Dre better than it fits Em, but Em makes it work. I love how these two work because Dre is all laid back and has a smooth voice and then Em has a crazy high pitched voice and is not at all laid back. Dre has some awesome scratches on the beat and the chorus is dope. It is a throw away track, but I like the vibe. It is a nice break from the first half of the album being all about drugs, killing and rape. This is just a back and forth dope track that only lightly features drugs and killing. It is a weed song as opposed to a pill poppin' stuff. The moral of the story is not exactly a good one, but it is a cool track and that is enough. 3.5/5
14. Must be the Ganja- Here is another dark sounding track. Actually it sounds like a room full of hazy weed smoke, which I think is the proper effect as Eminem rips the track right off the bat. I am going to reproduce the whole first verse:
Ok here we go, Do-re-mi-fa-so-fa-so-la-ti so
Lyrical rascal, kick back the Tabasco
You motherfucker's must just not know the tic-tac-so
Time to show you the most kickass flow in the cosmos
Picasso with a pickaxe, a sick asshole
Tic-tac-toe comes with sixpack, with exact doe
Knives, strangling wives with dick-lasso
3 bags of the grass, Zig Zags, I'm with the Doc so
You know how that go, skull and the crossbones
This is poison to poison girls who do not know
You do not wanna try this at home my lil vato
This is neither the time nor the place to get macho
So crack a six pack, sit back with some nachos
Maybe some popcorn, watch the show and just rock slow
It's not what you expected, not what you thought so
Bout time you wake the fuck up, smell the pot smoke
If you do not appreciate how those words fit, you probably don't like rap music anyway, so it does not matter. 5/5
16. Deja Vu- This is Marshall Mathers coming back. When Marshall raps it is with blunt honesty at what he is going through. This is an honest look at his drug addiction and overdose. It is a bit self deprecating, but it is with brutal honesty that he raps this track. The beat is simple because we are meant to just pay attention to this story. It is a dark tale of how someone gets addicted to drugs and what they go through. Eminem shows how his family fell apart and how he hurt his family and then he uses the death of his best friend as an excuse to numb the pain of life. The hook is dark and seemingly hopeless, the way it is supposed to be. The song personifies why I love Eminem. The rhymes are perfect, but he knows not to over do it because it is the story that matters. Plus it features probably the best series of rhymes on the entire album and maybe the yr to this point: Has taken four years to just put out an album, B/ see me and you we almost had the same outcome, Heath/ Cause that Christmas you know the whole pneumonia, thing/ It was bologna was it the methadone-ya, think." It is hard to show how he makes it work by just putting the word on a page, but trust me it is incredible. 5/5
17. Beautiful- In the vein of "Lose Yourself" this is Eminem being inspirational. However, it sounds nothing like "Lose yourself." Eminem has dropped his voice down an octave and raps as himself. The hook goes "But don't let 'em say you ain't beautifulllll, oh-ohh/ They can all get fucked, just stay true to youuuuuu, so-ohh-oh!/ Don't let 'em say you ain't beautifulllll, oh-ohh. They can all get fucked, just stay true to youuuuuu, so-ohh-oh!." This is a song about dealing with life's problems and staying alive. It is about enduring the struggles and owning them. It is a honest ballad Em has penned for everyone, but I imagine it is mostly for himself, his niece and daughter. He honestly raps " I'm startin to feel distant again so I decided just to pick this pen up and try to make an attempt to vent but I just can't admit/Or come to grips with the fact that I may be done with rap, I need a new outlet." The beat is really slow and basic, with a nice guitar. This is the first song Eminem wrote after he got sober and it shows. It is with stark honesty that Eminem bleeds ink for us. 5/5
18. Crack a Bottle- After two songs of a somber attitude, we get Eminem and his cohorts having some fun again. I know people did not like this song when it first came out, but I loved it. I think the beat is hot and I think Em, Dre and 50 cent work well together. The hook is fun and catchy, but very wordy for a hook, which I like. Eminem leads off with a nice verse, I think. I can see people just grooving to this track. It doesn't fully fit with the mood of the album, but I think you need something like this to break the tension of the album. If all it provides is a relief from the dark tone of the album, I think it works. There is nothing particularly special about the track and no lyrics really stand out, though. It is just a simple track on an otherwise complex album. 3/5
19. Steve Berman- Every album Eminem has to go in and visit the label guy and the label guy hates every album and in the last album Eminem shot good old Steve. This time, Steve has no patience for Eminem and pulls his own gun to make Eminem hurry up. He also says about Eminem's usual albums "Do I really need to hear it?
Let me guess, another album about poor me, I'm so famous that it's ruined my rich little life, and I'm such a tortured artist. Let me make music about it and my tragic love life,” Awesome!
20. Underground- Everything about this song is nuts. The beat is crazy, the flow is bonkers and the lyrics are absolute nuts. It is the complete package. It ties up the album the way his final song always does. Eminem is rapping on another world here as the beat provides a really complex and interesting beat, but Eminem doesn't even need it because he rapping to a beat that no one else can hear. It is an anxious track, a track on the verge of losing its mind and a track just about to slaughter a room full of people. It is probably how Eminem felt trying to get sober. I will not reprint any of the lyrics because I could not do any of this song justice. You have to hear it to understand how crazy his abilities are. It is a hyped track that gets me going. I love how over the top the hook is and how the beat rises to meet the over the top sound of the hook. PURE FIRE!!! 5/5
21. My Darling (Bonus track) - This is another honest track about Eminem's life and how it is now. He raps as himself and his own insecurities, but he raps as the mirror rapping his insecurities. The chainsaw is back and Eminem is slowed down here, but the chainsaw actually provides part of the beat. it is incredibly creative. He raps "my public adores me/ Everybody bores me, they're just so corny
So at night before I sleep, I look in the mirror/ The mirror grows lips and it whispers "Come nearer." In the second verse he really lets loose as he raps back and forth with the mirror. The mirror wants Eminem to bleach his hair again, wants him to do drugs again and he wants to tell Eminem he is nothing without all of that stuff that made the package. It is his addiction. People say he is rapping as the devil, and that he sold his soul to get famous, but I maintain he is rapping as his own insecurities about who he is and what he is about. He is trying to get rid of the slim shady character. It is true dopeness and creativity. 5/5
22. Careful what you wish for (Bonus track) - The track opens with clips from news reports about Eminem's last five years. They tell a sad tale of a life spun out of control. The first verse warns about the caution of fame and how the fame became his first drug and how it acted as a sort of gate way drug. It is not trying to qualify his drug abuse, but it gives us insight into how things like this happen. The first verse also talks about how his albums are always given only okay reviews at first and then later people go back and see how brilliant they were. In the second verse he raps "I got a letter from a fan that said, he's been prayin for me
Every day and for some reason it's been weighin on my mind heavy/Cause I don't read every, letter I get/ But somethin told me to go ahead and open it/ But, why would someone pray for you when they don't know you?/ you didn't pray for me when I was local." Eminem is a man who does not know what to do with the power he has in the world of popular culture. He is uneasy at the power of his words. It is pretty incredible. 5/5
Eminem's comeback is a success on almost every level and he has so much music he is supposed to be releasing a second album later this yr. I, for one, cannot wait.
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