Eminem is definitely my favorite rapper after Tupac. Probably the element of his music that appeals to me is the story telling, the feeling and the humor (which actually annoys a lot of people). I also think 50 has a lot of humor in his music that his biggest fans don't get but anyway..........I would say I relate to Em's music, but hell no. I don't know anything about doing any form of drugs or being bullied at school (I wasn't a bully either). The elements of his music are definitely beyond these themes I have mentioned but, I'm convinced beyond anything that he is the best rapper out there right now. His lyrical skills are beyond anything I have heard being put out today. That's why I'd post in a thread about him when it comes up and ignore other threads related to hip hop. Even when I posted on the Jay-Z thread, I was doing so as I wanted some questions answered, not coz I contributed to the discussion.
As for the evolution of Em's LP's, I haven't ever bothered to listen to anything before the
Slim Shady LP. It's not an LP I enjoy listening to but
Brain Damage, Rock Bottom and
Role Model were the stand out tracks for me.
My name is has to be one of his songs that I just can't stand. The
Marshall Mathers LP is just awesome, my favorite of them all. I remember all the controversy when it was released and how
The Real Slim Shady was the best song out in a long time. That LP is close to me as it marks a time period when I was living in Germany. I remember how listening to it had me thinking Eminem was putting out the craziest (in terms of topics and just what he said) music I had ever listened to. The media were saying so many negative things about the content of the LP and it had me thinking, "I have to buy this LP". Did anyone experience that classic moment of coming from the music shop excited, putting the CD in the stereo and hearing, "....upon purchasing this CD you have just kissed his a$$." I'll admit, that one got me hard.
The Eminem Show was good, when I listened to it the first time but, it kind of bored me after a while. I also liked
Encore except for that track
A$$ like that. It's a terrible song really. I remember asking my friend in frustration, "How could he record such a song?" I liked the bonus disk on
Encore as
We as Americans turned out to be my favorite Eminem song ever.
Relapse was an insult of an LP to his fans and I'm glad Em realizes it. When that LP won a Grammy Award, I remember thinking to myself, "Screw the Grammy Awards if they can award that album." In hindsight, how many times have some of us thought that, when we see the winners of those awards?
Getting back to him being my favorite rapper after Tupac, I'm still wondering if he will come out and publicly admit that he screwed up Tupac's
Loyal To The Game" LP. If the creativity issues he is talking about on
Recovery are fact, then I'll have to accept that he puts
Loyal To The Game in the same time span of the screw ups he acknowledges he was making musically.
I haven't made my judgment on
Recovery yet, I just know I like what I hear so far.
