My plan was to listen to Purple Rain tonight, actually. I don't listen to the radio or watch MTV, so I really did miss him entirely.
Usually I'd write a long essay on just why I love Eminem, but now noprocrast is set incredibly restrictive, so I'll be fast. The guy has an incredible power behind his voice: he's got an energy that's rare even in rock, and he really channels that energy to create something neat. Lyrically he's impressive. I will never be entirely a fan of rap's lyrical style - I'll always yearn for the incredibly focused and taut language of poetry - but Eminem does it well. He has extremely inventive rhymes, he sets up incredible rhythms, and he manages to be surprisingly funny at times, other times incredibly creepy.
I didn't like rap for a long time. Last week something clicked and I finally just understood what I was supposed to be listening for.
Sorry for the somewhat snarky tone here (and the Epic Formatting Fail), but I can't help it.. the coincidence was just too fun :)
You mentioned that Eminem is lyrically impressive, and I thought I'd like to see that.
Google pointed me to www.eminem.net, which has lyrics for many of his songs.
Right at the top of the list, there's an album called "Encore", which just happened to contain this little gem of a song called "Ass Like That".
Here's how it starts:
-----
Ohh Baby, The way you shake it
I can’t believe it, I ain’t never seen an ass like that
The way you move it, you make my peepee go DOING DOING DOING
I don’t believe it, it’s almost to good to be true
I ain’t never seen an ass like that
The way you move it, you make my peepee go DOING DOING DOING
Now compare this to Prince's "Little Red Corvette", which starts with these words:
"I guess I should have known / by the way you parked your car sideways / that it wouldn't last.."
I always thought that Eminem was just a record-company sockpuppet, cashing in on how white people have a strange tendency to equate sounding angry with having attitude, and that, in turn, with artistic merit.
Just another part of that evil, evil trend that started with Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", continued with Linkin Park and the like, and will apparently never end.
> I didn't like rap for a long time. Last week something clicked and I finally just understood what I was supposed to be listening for.
Well, I started listening to rap as a kid, around 20 years ago, and I can assure you that Eminem is not what you should be listening to (or for).
Please take some time to check out these instead:
A Tribe Called Quest ("People's Instinctive Travels & The Paths Of Rhythm", "The Low-End Theory")
De La Soul ("Three Feet High & Rising", "De La Soul Is Dead")
Jurassic 5 ("Jurassic 5", "Power In Numbers")
Public Enemy (eg "Shut Em' Down", "Can't Truss It", "Give It Up"). Chuck D has attitude. The real kind.
Somewhat rap-ish: Spearhead & Michael Franti's solo work too.
.. and some old-school classics like:
Funky Four + 1 - That's The Joint (rap music's pure essence right there)
Spoonie G - The Monster Jam
Sugarhill Gang - Rapper's Delight.
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message.
And maybe just for the heck of it, The Fatback Band's "King Tim III, Personality Jock", where it all started.
Eminem is a very talented rapper and was incredibly clever with his lyrics. Many of his lyrics including the one you quoted are meant to be satirical of generic rap lyrics.
Take the whole song 'Just Lose it' where he satirically shows he can create a catchy rap song with nonsense. Specifically, look at:
Now this is the part where the rap breaks down
It's real intense, no one makes a sound
Everything looks like it's 8 Mile now
The beat comes back and everybody loses theirselves
Now snap back to reality, look it's B. Rabbit he
Oh you signed me up to battle? I'm a grown man
Chubba chubba chubba chubba chubba chubba chubba chubba
I don't have any lines to go right here so
Chubba tubba tell me fellas (what?), fellas (what?)
He is explaining the general rap song formula where the beat becomes slower and things become more intense and it goes quiet for a bit and then there is a really amped up section following that. Basically, meta lyrics. He follows that up with just pure nonsensical lyrics.
This song made the top 10 single on charts across the world[1], with just a catchy beat and nonsensical lyrics.
In contrast, he has some very eloquent other lyrics.
> Take the whole song 'Just Lose it' where he satirically shows he can create a catchy rap song with nonsense.
A lot of "satire" going on then. I took a look at the video on Youtube. Just like the Wikipedia article explains, there are lots of references to things, but so what? Michael's nose might come off, Beavis sometimes turns into Cornholio, and some songs have a "break it down" -part. Where's the big revelation/insight though, or the implied moral higher ground?
> This song made the top 10 single on charts across the world[1], with just a catchy beat and nonsensical lyrics.
Right. That happens a lot to songs with catchy beats and more or less clever hooks.
Did "Just Lose It" become a hit because it's such a profound satire on all shallow, soulless, formulaic, mass-produced rap/pop music that gets on the charts? Or was it just because lots of Eminem's fans bought it? Maybe they're all the butt of a diabolically clever, circular/meta joke!
He's up to a lot of tricks, it seems.
Some other artists just concentrate on making music. A handful of them have even become hugely popular by writing, composing, arranging and performing it. Music that's completely made and performed by themselves. That handful includes people like Prince, Stevie Wonder, and Michael Jackson. Suck on that, Eminem.
> A Tribe Called Quest ("People's Instinctive Travels & The Paths Of Rhythm", "The Low-End Theory")
Classic. High quality.
> De La Soul ("Three Feet High & Rising", "De La Soul Is Dead")
Fantastic.
> Jurassic 5 ("Jurassic 5", "Power In Numbers")
Great quality and an interesting style.
> Public Enemy (eg "Shut Em' Down", "Can't Truss It", "Give It Up"). Chuck D has attitude. The real kind.
Public Enemy is really the precursor to a change in rap. Their style, attitude, branding just seems so much stronger than anyone before them.
>Somewhat rap-ish: Spearhead & Michael Franti's solo work too... and some old-school classics like:
Funky Four + 1 - That's The Joint (rap music's pure essence right there)
Spoonie G - The Monster Jam
Sugarhill Gang - Rapper's Delight.
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message.
And maybe just for the heck of it, The Fatback Band's "King Tim III, Personality Jock", where it all started.
Oh man you are dating yourself with some of these classics. I would say they were great for their time and really established the genre. However, because of this I don't know if you can tell someone today just getting interested in rap to listen to them and understand how different and new and unique they were. You almost have to listen to a ton of rap and then go back to the roots.
> I don't know if you can tell someone today just getting interested in rap to listen to them and understand how different and new and unique they were. You almost have to listen to a ton of rap and then go back to the roots.
The first rap I ever heard was the album De La Soul Is Dead. I happened to hear some of it at a friend's house, and his big brother was kind enough to lend it to me. I just liked what I heard, but of course didn't analyze why.
In any case, I don't think there's any harm in even a new rap fan listening to "the classics". It helps them get on the right track. Learning to appreciate the classics should come naturally later on.
Usually I'd write a long essay on just why I love Eminem, but now noprocrast is set incredibly restrictive, so I'll be fast. The guy has an incredible power behind his voice: he's got an energy that's rare even in rock, and he really channels that energy to create something neat. Lyrically he's impressive. I will never be entirely a fan of rap's lyrical style - I'll always yearn for the incredibly focused and taut language of poetry - but Eminem does it well. He has extremely inventive rhymes, he sets up incredible rhythms, and he manages to be surprisingly funny at times, other times incredibly creepy.
I didn't like rap for a long time. Last week something clicked and I finally just understood what I was supposed to be listening for.