Drug Ballad (The Marshall Mathers LP)

This is Eminem's love song...it goes like this...

But Drug Ballad isn't even a "love" song. It's an anti-love song. It's about how young people take ecstasy and they think they're in love with people ("I think I'm in love wit' you") but it's just drug-induced artificial love. It's more a parody of a love ballad, and it's a ballad to drugs, not women. Eminem later re-uses the same concept in Space Bound, the concept of a song that on the surface seems about women, but is actually about drugs. In fact, there are more examples I'll point out later in this review where Eminem has (probably unknowingly) taken elements from this song and re-hashed them in later songs

Throughout the song, Eminem muses on the effects of party drugs: "This ecstasy's got me standing next to you, gettin' sentimental as fuck, spillin' guts to you...we just met, but I think I'm in love wit' you..." He was on ecstasy while he made some of The Marshall Mathers LP, and on ecstasy a hell of a lot while on tour.

I suppose the main appeal of this song is not the themes/ideas, but rather the execution: the flows and rhyme patterns are intricate and focused:

Back when Mark Wahlberg was MARKY MARK
This is how we used to make the PARTY START
We used to, MIX HENN, with BaCARDI DARK
And when it, KICKS IN, you can HARDLY TALK
And by the, SIXTH GIN, you gon' PROBABLY CRAWL
And you'll be, SICK THEN, and you'll PROBABLY BARF
And my pre-...DICTION, is you gon PROBABLY FALL

Some subtle rhymes people may have missed: minutes/ Guinness/finished/bitches, start wilin'/smart eyein'/start drivin'/car pile up, co-pilot/go by it, no sign/smoke flyin', wind-up dolls/dinosaur, sit there ignorin'/shit every mornin'

Another thing I love about this song is how Eminem makes a reference at the beginning of the third verse to the instrumental, which contains a sound which sounds very similar to an empty bottle: "That's the sound of a bottle when it's hollow, and you swallow, wallow and drown in your sorrow." Sound familiar? Yep, Eminem rehashes almost an identical series of rhymes on Talkin' 2 Myself (Recovery):

Marshall, you're no longer the man, that's a bitter pill to swallow
All I know is I'm wallowin', self-loathin' and hollow
Bottoms up on the pill bottle, maybe I'll hit my bottom tomorrow
My sorrow echoes in this hall, though

Although, let's be fair: a significant portion of Eminem's memory was damaged after his 5-year drug haze, so he may have forgotten that he even penned those Drug Ballad rhymes.

And here's another metaphor Eminem goes to use later in his career: the whole idea of being high...metaphorically represented by being in space: "I'm in outer space, I just vanished without a trace." He uses the same metaphor on Deja Vu (Relapse): "All systems ready for take-off, please stand-by." And again uses the metaphor on Space Bound: "I'm a space bound rocket ship" (meaning he is high on drugs).

What else is there to say about the song? It's an undoubtedly great song but there's not a whole lot to say. His flow is on-point, his humor is on point ("you have the right to remain violent")...the beat is an F.B.T. production. Quite stripped down, but also got a great melody and a killer bassline. A nice appearance by Dina Rae on the chorus (the same girl in Superman). I have a feeling this was one of the first songs Eminem made for this album...his voice sounds closer to the SSLP nasally voice than the deeper MMLP voice.