Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Square Dance (The Eminem Show)
Come on now, let's all get on down, do-si-do now, we gon' have a good ol' time!
Don't be scurred, 'cause thurr ain't nuttin' to worr' 'bout!
Let ya hurr down! And square dance with me
So here it is. One of Eminem's first forays into the Southern accent in his career, and an ominous sign of the many stupid accents to come later in his career (cough Ass Like That cough, cough Relapse cough). I don't mind the Southern accent on this song. It's weird, but it's cool weird.
The chorus is saying that despite what might be happening in the world, don't worry about it...just dance.
'Till I Collapse (The Eminem Show)
This is one song that is impossible not to nod your head to. It's just...incredible.
Eminem had reached the point of his career where he was pushing so many lyrical boundaries that he nearly succeeded in writing a verse where EVERY word forms part of a rhyme: a feat no rapper has ever attempted before or even come close to doing. The first verse to this amazing, amazing song is where it nearly happened. Let me begin on the almost impossible task of highlighting the rhymes to this incredibly complex verse. Try to follow this without confusing the fuck out of yourself. I'll start by copy/pasting the lyrics (fuck writing them out):
Till I collapse I'm spilling these raps long as you feel em
Till the day that I drop you'll never say that I'm not killing them
Cause when I am not/then I'ma stop (then I'ma stop penning them)
And I am not (not) hip-hop and I'm just not (and I'm just not Eminem)
Subliminal thoughts/when I'ma stop (when I'ma stop sending them) women are caught in webs spin 'em and hawk (spin 'em and hawk venom a-)
'drenaline shots of penicillin could not get the illing to stop.
Amoxacilin's just not real enough.
The criminal cop (cop) killin' (killin') hip-hop villain, a minimal swap (swap) to cop millions of Pac (Pac listeners)
You're coming with me, feel it or not you're gonna fear it like I showed you the spirit of god (god lives in us)
You hear it a lot, lyrics (lyrics) that shock is it a miracle or am I just a product of pop fizzing up
For shizzle my whizzle (this is the plot) this is the plot listen up (plot listen up) you bizzles forgot slizzle does not give a fuck (slizzle does not)
He's pretty much saying that he is going to keep rapping until the day that he's not good anymore...until he collapses. This is eerily foreshadowing his lyrical collapse on Encore (or The-Album-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named on this blog), after which he stopped rapping for five years. On Encore, he "wasn't hip hop" at all...and he was "not Eminem." He was an overweight, pill-popping zombie. For the rest of the verse, he talks about gaining Tupac fans and then wonders if he's just "product of pop fizzing up," or if he really is a serious lyricist. He then, of course, ends the verse with his catchphrase: "I Just Don't Give a Fuck!"
Eminem had reached the point of his career where he was pushing so many lyrical boundaries that he nearly succeeded in writing a verse where EVERY word forms part of a rhyme: a feat no rapper has ever attempted before or even come close to doing. The first verse to this amazing, amazing song is where it nearly happened. Let me begin on the almost impossible task of highlighting the rhymes to this incredibly complex verse. Try to follow this without confusing the fuck out of yourself. I'll start by copy/pasting the lyrics (fuck writing them out):
Till I collapse I'm spilling these raps long as you feel em
Till the day that I drop you'll never say that I'm not killing them
Cause when I am not/then I'ma stop (then I'ma stop penning them)
And I am not (not) hip-hop and I'm just not (and I'm just not Eminem)
Subliminal thoughts/when I'ma stop (when I'ma stop sending them) women are caught in webs spin 'em and hawk (spin 'em and hawk venom a-)
'drenaline shots of penicillin could not get the illing to stop.
Amoxacilin's just not real enough.
The criminal cop (cop) killin' (killin') hip-hop villain, a minimal swap (swap) to cop millions of Pac (Pac listeners)
You're coming with me, feel it or not you're gonna fear it like I showed you the spirit of god (god lives in us)
You hear it a lot, lyrics (lyrics) that shock is it a miracle or am I just a product of pop fizzing up
For shizzle my whizzle (this is the plot) this is the plot listen up (plot listen up) you bizzles forgot slizzle does not give a fuck (slizzle does not)
Holy shit. I started running out of colors. There are rhyme schemes within rhyme schemes within rhyme schemes...patterns that overlap and bend in on each other. According to wordcount, there are 39 out of a possible 158 words that don't form part of a rhyme scheme...so about 75.3% of the words in this verse form part of a rhyme. No other rapper has ever reached this strike rate and the most mind-boggling part about this verse...IT ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE.
He's pretty much saying that he is going to keep rapping until the day that he's not good anymore...until he collapses. This is eerily foreshadowing his lyrical collapse on Encore (or The-Album-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named on this blog), after which he stopped rapping for five years. On Encore, he "wasn't hip hop" at all...and he was "not Eminem." He was an overweight, pill-popping zombie. For the rest of the verse, he talks about gaining Tupac fans and then wonders if he's just "product of pop fizzing up," or if he really is a serious lyricist. He then, of course, ends the verse with his catchphrase: "I Just Don't Give a Fuck!"
The song is something special with just Eminem, but turns into something even more so with Nate Dogg on the chorus. That bassy voice over the guitar strings and stadium claps is an eargasm, along with the very catchy melody. It's a chorus to bring the house down.
In the second verse, Eminem continues the running theme of rapping until he drops dead...rapping until your run is over. And, as Eminem says, when your run is over, just admit when it's at its end. Then Eminem goes on a slight tangent, listing his favorite rappers: Reggie (Redman), Jay-Z, Nas and Biggie, Andre from Outkast (really, Eminem?), Jadakiss, Kurupt, Nas, and then me. Funny that, even though this track is on some "battling rap" shit (as he says in the third verse) and he has the license to brag (because that's what you do in battle rap songs), he's still very humble, putting himself at the bottom of that list. Let's face it: he's better than Tupac, and MUCH better than Biggie.
Then Eminem gets back to the meat of the song. We begin to see a new side to Eminem: it's almost like he's subconsciously trying to tell us something. You can tell he's very angry that he'll "never get the props" he feels he "ever deserves" and when he's not "put on the list" of the best emcees, he is bitter...he's resentful that because he's white he has to prove himself ten times as much as any black rapper.
Eminem sums up what he's all about with the last lines of the song: "A plaque and platinum status is whack if I'm not the baddest." He's not about the money...he's about the respect. And if he doesn't get it soon, well...he's going to collapse. And he did. So this song, along with 8 Mile, is like Eminem's last hurrah.
Production
I don't usually comment on production...this blog has mainly been about the lyrics. But it's imperative I talk about one of Eminem's best beats...hell, one of the best beats in rap, period. This was when Eminem just struck gold with every beat...he was making Sing For The Moments, Lose Yourselfs and 'Till I Collapses.
It starts off with those ominous, cinematic synths in the background, and the piano comes in...then that sick guitar riff comes in, and strings build...then an explosion of claps hits your ears and you're in a colosseum, with thousands of others, nodding your head in unison.
I love the little touches Eminem/Nate Dogg add to this song: the "ohhhh, ohhhhh" background melody that backs the rapping as it leads into the chorus.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Guilty Conscience (The Slim Shady LP)
Okay, so we've all seen this concept in movies...the angel on one shoulder, the devil on the other. Eminem just decided to make a rap version of it. And it's a classic Dre/Em back-'n'-forth.
I remember an Eminem radio interview where he said he made this song a single to show the world he's a serious rapper and he can write concept songs...he's not just a novelty act who makes songs like "My Name Is."
Part of what makes this song great is it's more than just an angel-devil song. It's got a point, which is that the bad side always wins in the end. At the end of this song, the bad side Slim Shady manages to convince the good side Dre to do the bad thing, so Grady kills his girl. I recall Eminem saying in the same radio interview (might have been Howard Stern) that that is the reality of most Americans' behavior: sure, people get a guilty conscience but it's always overpowered by the evil thoughts that manifest in their head. Whenever people face a moral dilemma, Shady always seems to win, and Dre caves in.
This is one of the songs Eminem recorded with Dre on the day they met, and the first time he recorded with Dre in the studio. He did this song, My Name Is, and Role Model. Dre produced all of these tracks and Eminem wrote to them. Eminem also wrote Dre's verses in this song.
I love the beat for this song. So catchy. Eminem recorded a chorus that went with the melody of the beat ("these voices...these voices") for the video and I'm disappointed he didn't put that in the studio version...I guess it takes away from the uniqueness of this song having no chorus, just spoken interludes (from Jeff Bass presumably). The beat has that melody that you instantly nod your head to, yet a dark tinge to it. It really accommodates Eminem's nasally, high-pitched Shady voice.
Guilty Conscience is quite an infamous song in Eminem's catalog. Probably the first controversial song he released...a lot of people pointed to this song as advocating violence, not seeing it for the concept/message it had. I recall Timothy White complaining about this song, and Em took a shot back on The Marshall Mathers LP: "Gimme the mic, lemme recite to Timothy White/Pickets outside the Interscope offices every night." It was this song in particular that gave Eminem a bad reputation...a reputation as a criminal/menace...a reputation he used as fuel for his next album.
Like a lot of The Slim Shady LP, this song contains some dark humor.
Humorous lines in the song:
Yo, look at her bush, has it got hair?
If it's got hair, there's your green light. Kind of sickening. If there's grass on the wicket...
While you're at work she's with some dude trying to get off? Fuck slitting her throat, cut this bitch's head off!
A bit of Eminem's personal anger seeping out here. Some of his resentment towards Kim for cheating on him with a dude while he was out working as a cook...oozing out.
"Wait, what if there's an explanation for this shit?" What, she tripped, fell, landed on his dick?
Be smart, don't be a retard...you gonna take advice from somebody who slapped Dee Barnes? "What the fuck did you say?" What's wrong, didn't think I'd remember? "I'll kill you, motherfucker," uh uh, temper temper.
Apparently Dre asked Eminem to write the lyrics and then lay the vocals so he could hear it, and Dre fell out of his chair laughing when he heard this line...Dre actually DID slap Dee Barnes (a reporter or something). He got charged for assault. Hilarious line.
Been there, done that...oh fuck it, what am I saying? Shoot 'em both Grady, where's your gun at?
Rhyming
A staple of SSLP is creative rhyming: George Burns/store clerk, conscience/nonsense/aunt's cribs/blonde wigs, bad for you/attitude, earlobe/years old, be smart/retard/Dee Barnes, violent/I went
And here is an excellent example of Eminem's internal rhyme schemes:
Now listen to me, while you're kissin' her cheek
And smearin' her lip stick, I slipped this in her drink
"Listen to me" rhymes with "kissin' her cheek" which rhymes with "this in her drink." Also, "lip stick" rhymes with "slipped this."
I remember an Eminem radio interview where he said he made this song a single to show the world he's a serious rapper and he can write concept songs...he's not just a novelty act who makes songs like "My Name Is."
Part of what makes this song great is it's more than just an angel-devil song. It's got a point, which is that the bad side always wins in the end. At the end of this song, the bad side Slim Shady manages to convince the good side Dre to do the bad thing, so Grady kills his girl. I recall Eminem saying in the same radio interview (might have been Howard Stern) that that is the reality of most Americans' behavior: sure, people get a guilty conscience but it's always overpowered by the evil thoughts that manifest in their head. Whenever people face a moral dilemma, Shady always seems to win, and Dre caves in.
This is one of the songs Eminem recorded with Dre on the day they met, and the first time he recorded with Dre in the studio. He did this song, My Name Is, and Role Model. Dre produced all of these tracks and Eminem wrote to them. Eminem also wrote Dre's verses in this song.
I love the beat for this song. So catchy. Eminem recorded a chorus that went with the melody of the beat ("these voices...these voices") for the video and I'm disappointed he didn't put that in the studio version...I guess it takes away from the uniqueness of this song having no chorus, just spoken interludes (from Jeff Bass presumably). The beat has that melody that you instantly nod your head to, yet a dark tinge to it. It really accommodates Eminem's nasally, high-pitched Shady voice.
Guilty Conscience is quite an infamous song in Eminem's catalog. Probably the first controversial song he released...a lot of people pointed to this song as advocating violence, not seeing it for the concept/message it had. I recall Timothy White complaining about this song, and Em took a shot back on The Marshall Mathers LP: "Gimme the mic, lemme recite to Timothy White/Pickets outside the Interscope offices every night." It was this song in particular that gave Eminem a bad reputation...a reputation as a criminal/menace...a reputation he used as fuel for his next album.
Like a lot of The Slim Shady LP, this song contains some dark humor.
Humorous lines in the song:
Yo, look at her bush, has it got hair?
If it's got hair, there's your green light. Kind of sickening. If there's grass on the wicket...
While you're at work she's with some dude trying to get off? Fuck slitting her throat, cut this bitch's head off!
A bit of Eminem's personal anger seeping out here. Some of his resentment towards Kim for cheating on him with a dude while he was out working as a cook...oozing out.
"Wait, what if there's an explanation for this shit?" What, she tripped, fell, landed on his dick?
Be smart, don't be a retard...you gonna take advice from somebody who slapped Dee Barnes? "What the fuck did you say?" What's wrong, didn't think I'd remember? "I'll kill you, motherfucker," uh uh, temper temper.
Apparently Dre asked Eminem to write the lyrics and then lay the vocals so he could hear it, and Dre fell out of his chair laughing when he heard this line...Dre actually DID slap Dee Barnes (a reporter or something). He got charged for assault. Hilarious line.
Been there, done that...oh fuck it, what am I saying? Shoot 'em both Grady, where's your gun at?
Rhyming
A staple of SSLP is creative rhyming: George Burns/store clerk, conscience/nonsense/aunt's cribs/blonde wigs, bad for you/attitude, earlobe/years old, be smart/retard/Dee Barnes, violent/I went
And here is an excellent example of Eminem's internal rhyme schemes:
Now listen to me, while you're kissin' her cheek
And smearin' her lip stick, I slipped this in her drink
"Listen to me" rhymes with "kissin' her cheek" which rhymes with "this in her drink." Also, "lip stick" rhymes with "slipped this."
'97 Bonnie & Clyde (The Slim Shady LP)
And now we turn our attention to the song that preceded Kim, even though it's a sequel: '97 Bonnie & Clyde.
Kim and '97 Bonnie & Clyde are like twins. Kim is the louder, more aggressive twin, while '97 Bonnie & Clyde is the quiet--but in many ways, more frightening--sibling. In Kim, Eminem shouts directly at his wife for the whole song...in '97 Bonnie & Clyde, Eminem sweet-talks his daughter, dressing up the description of his wife's violent death in baby language.
As horrifying as Kim is, it's not even in the same universe as '97 Bonnie & Clyde when it comes to creepy. Nothing is quite as twisted as a father rationalizing to his daughter, in baby terms she can understand, her mother's murder, while professing his love for her and turning her into an unwitting partner-in-crime. The fact that his daughter is the accomplice in this crime is the reason Eminem called the song '97 Bonnie & Clyde: Bonnie and Clyde were a pair of lovers/outlaws who committed crimes together. In this song, Hailie is Bonnie, and Eminem is Clyde:
Wanna help Dada tie a rope around this rock?
We'll tie it to her footsie then we'll roll her off the dock
Ready now? Here we go, on the count of three
One, two, three: wee!
Another reason for the title of the song is that it was an homage to Tupac's '96 Bonnie & Clyde, a metaphorical love song about him and his gun. Eminem has replaced "gun" with "daughter" and created a masterpiece. Considering it as a sequel to Kim makes it even scarier. He goes from a furious rage to a creepily calm, affectionate tone in the sequel. It's sickly. It's morbid. It's genius. Tell me you don't get goosebumps when you listen to his love letter to Hailie at the end of the song, right after disposing of her mother. He actually sounds like a psychopath:
That's all we need in this world, just me and you
Dada will always be here for you
Your dada's always gonna love you, remember that
You ever need anything just ask
Dada will be right there
Eminem refers to this in a later album, The Eminem Show, in Hailie's Song: Hailie, remember when I said if you ever need anything, Daddy will be right there? Well guess what? Daddy's here..
Another reason this is so creepy are the chilling euphemisms Eminem uses so that his baby daughter can understand. Here is a list:
blood = ketchup on her shirt
the slit in Kim's throat = boo-boo on her throat ... a little scratch
smell of Kim's rotting corpse = dead skunk
The real knife he used to slit Kim's throat = Dada's toy knife
Kim getting dumped in the lake = Wash off in the water
Killing her = putting her on time-out
Your mother is dead = Mama's too sleepy to hear you screaming
Help dad dump her stepfather/stepbrother in the lake too = Help dad with two more things out the trunk
But I haven't even mentioned the #1 CREEPFACTOR of this song...which is the voice of Eminem's ACTUAL daughter in the background of this song. Holy shit. Adds to the whole authenticity of this song and blurs the line between fact and fiction very nicely.
It's a little-known fact that Eminem lied to Kim in 1997 about taking Hailie out to Chuck E Cheese...he was actually taking her to the recording studio so he could record '97 Bonnie & Clyde and also record her voice. It was this song, along with Guilty Conscience, that raised the most eyebrows in the lead-up to the release of The Slim Shady LP and the aftermath as well. Murmurs of "Apparently there's a song where he kills his wife on it..." swept across America. This song made SSLP a notorious album before it even hit the shelves.
But let's get to the actual lyrics of this song before we get too carried away. In the first verse, Eminem puts Hailie in the car, the very same car in which he's screaming at Kim in the second verse of Kim. The very same car Kim's body is in, along with her new husband and her stepson. The entire first verse he's talking to her in the car (you can hear the sound of driving in the background).
You can assume he's driving to the lake (he lies to Hailie, saying it's a beach, perhaps to make it sound more fun than it is) at night time, since Eminem says "I know what you're thinking: it's kinda late to go swimming." Not to mention the sound of crickets, which are more prevalent in the night time (well at least that's what I think). Let's not forget that Eminem is drink-driving (from Kim: "You're drunk!"), so he is putting Hailie's life in danger too. But fuck it...it's fiction.
The second verse begins with:
A place called Heaven and a place called Hell
There's a place called prison and a place called jail
And Dada's probably on his way to all of them except one
'Cause Mama's got a new husband and a step-son
I love these lyrics...he's saying he's going to Hell and he's going to jail. But I was always confused because prison/jail are the same thing.
What makes Eminem's story-telling so formidable is he is able to create links and running threads through the narrative:
Come on, hey hey, we goin' to the beach/I know what you're thinkin', it's kinda late to go swimmin'/don't you wanna help dadda build a sandcastle?/And mama said she wants to show you how far she can float/We'll let her wash off in the water and me and you can pway by ourselves, can't we?/And Dad'll wake her up as soon as we get to the water/We're gonna take mommy for a little walk along the pier/But don't worry, Dada made a nice bed for mommy at the bottom of the lake/We'll tie it to her footsie then we'll roll her off the dock/There goes mama, spwashin' in the water/Now we'll go play in the sand, build a castle and junk
Rhyming
The obligatory rhyming section of my reviews. Here are some subtle rhyme schemes you may have missed:
Thinkin'/swimmin/women, throw a fit/go of it/so upset
Along the pier/wrong idea
New brother/you wuv her
Kim and '97 Bonnie & Clyde are like twins. Kim is the louder, more aggressive twin, while '97 Bonnie & Clyde is the quiet--but in many ways, more frightening--sibling. In Kim, Eminem shouts directly at his wife for the whole song...in '97 Bonnie & Clyde, Eminem sweet-talks his daughter, dressing up the description of his wife's violent death in baby language.
As horrifying as Kim is, it's not even in the same universe as '97 Bonnie & Clyde when it comes to creepy. Nothing is quite as twisted as a father rationalizing to his daughter, in baby terms she can understand, her mother's murder, while professing his love for her and turning her into an unwitting partner-in-crime. The fact that his daughter is the accomplice in this crime is the reason Eminem called the song '97 Bonnie & Clyde: Bonnie and Clyde were a pair of lovers/outlaws who committed crimes together. In this song, Hailie is Bonnie, and Eminem is Clyde:
Wanna help Dada tie a rope around this rock?
We'll tie it to her footsie then we'll roll her off the dock
Ready now? Here we go, on the count of three
One, two, three: wee!
Another reason for the title of the song is that it was an homage to Tupac's '96 Bonnie & Clyde, a metaphorical love song about him and his gun. Eminem has replaced "gun" with "daughter" and created a masterpiece. Considering it as a sequel to Kim makes it even scarier. He goes from a furious rage to a creepily calm, affectionate tone in the sequel. It's sickly. It's morbid. It's genius. Tell me you don't get goosebumps when you listen to his love letter to Hailie at the end of the song, right after disposing of her mother. He actually sounds like a psychopath:
That's all we need in this world, just me and you
Dada will always be here for you
Your dada's always gonna love you, remember that
You ever need anything just ask
Dada will be right there
Eminem refers to this in a later album, The Eminem Show, in Hailie's Song: Hailie, remember when I said if you ever need anything, Daddy will be right there? Well guess what? Daddy's here..
Another reason this is so creepy are the chilling euphemisms Eminem uses so that his baby daughter can understand. Here is a list:
blood = ketchup on her shirt
the slit in Kim's throat = boo-boo on her throat ... a little scratch
smell of Kim's rotting corpse = dead skunk
The real knife he used to slit Kim's throat = Dada's toy knife
Kim getting dumped in the lake = Wash off in the water
Killing her = putting her on time-out
Your mother is dead = Mama's too sleepy to hear you screaming
Help dad dump her stepfather/stepbrother in the lake too = Help dad with two more things out the trunk
But I haven't even mentioned the #1 CREEPFACTOR of this song...which is the voice of Eminem's ACTUAL daughter in the background of this song. Holy shit. Adds to the whole authenticity of this song and blurs the line between fact and fiction very nicely.
It's a little-known fact that Eminem lied to Kim in 1997 about taking Hailie out to Chuck E Cheese...he was actually taking her to the recording studio so he could record '97 Bonnie & Clyde and also record her voice. It was this song, along with Guilty Conscience, that raised the most eyebrows in the lead-up to the release of The Slim Shady LP and the aftermath as well. Murmurs of "Apparently there's a song where he kills his wife on it..." swept across America. This song made SSLP a notorious album before it even hit the shelves.
But let's get to the actual lyrics of this song before we get too carried away. In the first verse, Eminem puts Hailie in the car, the very same car in which he's screaming at Kim in the second verse of Kim. The very same car Kim's body is in, along with her new husband and her stepson. The entire first verse he's talking to her in the car (you can hear the sound of driving in the background).
You can assume he's driving to the lake (he lies to Hailie, saying it's a beach, perhaps to make it sound more fun than it is) at night time, since Eminem says "I know what you're thinking: it's kinda late to go swimming." Not to mention the sound of crickets, which are more prevalent in the night time (well at least that's what I think). Let's not forget that Eminem is drink-driving (from Kim: "You're drunk!"), so he is putting Hailie's life in danger too. But fuck it...it's fiction.
The second verse begins with:
A place called Heaven and a place called Hell
There's a place called prison and a place called jail
And Dada's probably on his way to all of them except one
'Cause Mama's got a new husband and a step-son
I love these lyrics...he's saying he's going to Hell and he's going to jail. But I was always confused because prison/jail are the same thing.
What makes Eminem's story-telling so formidable is he is able to create links and running threads through the narrative:
Come on, hey hey, we goin' to the beach/I know what you're thinkin', it's kinda late to go swimmin'/don't you wanna help dadda build a sandcastle?/And mama said she wants to show you how far she can float/We'll let her wash off in the water and me and you can pway by ourselves, can't we?/And Dad'll wake her up as soon as we get to the water/We're gonna take mommy for a little walk along the pier/But don't worry, Dada made a nice bed for mommy at the bottom of the lake/We'll tie it to her footsie then we'll roll her off the dock/There goes mama, spwashin' in the water/Now we'll go play in the sand, build a castle and junk
Rhyming
The obligatory rhyming section of my reviews. Here are some subtle rhyme schemes you may have missed:
Thinkin'/swimmin/women, throw a fit/go of it/so upset
Along the pier/wrong idea
New brother/you wuv her
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.
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.
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