how much do y'all think that this dude would benefit from a change in producers?


I've always thought his flow was tight but I hate the sing-songy choruses. That shit makes you soft in my book.

yeah i hate his choruses and his production. looking at you to, nas. feel me.

right? like who has dr. dre making your beats and decides it would be a better idea to handle his own production? doesn't he have some tangential connection to slum village or something, give jay dee a call

i can't berate him for wanting to have more controll and be more creative rather than living off of Dre's skill.

And i'm sure Dre (or Dre's engineers or whatever) makes those beats better anyway.

Now, Dre can rock it, never doubt, but Em's choruses are sing-songy and half the fucking time don't even rhyme, or do the Too Short "It steel rhams if you jest use the same word ova again"

i.e "I am, whatever you say I am, if I wasn't, why would I say I am"

That's great Popeye.

i see what you're saying about him wanting to break out of the "dre protoge" category, but rapping and producing are two entirely separate skill sets. it just bothers me that he has nothing new to bring to the table, and a lot of his beats just end up sounding like pale dre imitations anyway (slow, ominous strings). a lot of the time a rapper taking over his own production strikes me as the "i want to direct" of rapping.

His best songs ("Stan" and "Lose Yourself") stand out because they're not told from the point of view of Marshall Mathers trying to exorcise his demons. True, "Stan" was about a psychotic fan of Eminem, but at least it gave a different perspective, while "Lose Yourself" was the age-old tale of the underdog trying to make it to the top. Nothing revolutionary, but still fun.

I think he's done artistically (if not commercially) unless he finds new territory to mine, be it politics and social issues or just getting crunk. That's another problem; when was the last time he released a song that was fun that you could dance to at a club? I'm thinking "Without Me" in 2002. Since then it's been self-flaggelation, moping and vitriol, and that shit gets old in a hurry.

Following the Beatles/Dylan corrolary, he needs someone he trusts (Rakim? KRS One? Dre?) to tell it to him straight that "You're not really saying anything, man" and motivate him to put out a "Rubber Soul", ie, something that rewrites his whole rule book. Till that happens, yeah, he's running in circles.

Bit the bung?

Although ive never been a big fan, even i realise he had jumped the shark by the time The Eminem Show was realised

well, i still liked eminem show, but did see a decline from m&mLp to eminem show to encore. was hoping for a revival -- that his hits extras would show he's back on his game. but i guess not.

fack 'em.

I got bored with "Stan" really fast. If I were to listen to the Marshall Mathers LP today, I'd likely skip "Stan." Part of the problem is the Dido sample. I actually like Dido, but I'm sick sick sick of "Thank You."

I never liked him.

ironicly Stylus review of this yesterday thinks so:

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/review.php?ID=3626

"History has shown “Eminem vs. Triumph” wasn't just a ridiculous footnote, it was the turning point. It was the moment when Eminem stopped being in on his own joke, a not-so-fleeting moment where he took himself too seriously and revealed himself as the artist we see today; humorless, charmless, embarrassingly intense. It doesn’t matter how often he (over)compensates by hanging out with the Crank Yankers. It finished what “The Way I Am” started: Slim Shady is dead.

Case in point: the compilation’s requisite new songs: The “Hailie’s Song”/”Mockingbird” retread “When I’m Gone,” club-track (never Em’s strength) “Shake That,” and the inexcusable “Fack,” predictably formulaic and antagonizing for the sake of it, the ghost of Slim Shady spitting unreasonably, to see how dumb we are if we actually like it...

So if you’re wondering why Eminem thinks it’s time to hang it up, doesn’t know where his career is going, why after only six years we’ve got a career-summarizing greatest hits compilation, there’s your answer. But it wasn’t supposed to be this way."


Reviewed by: Barry Schwartz
Reviewed on: 2005-12-13