Jan 13, 2021 @WPG top 20 eminem songs please. Come on. Not talking beats but complete songs. also, young zee, wasnt that the worst on 8 mile?
Jan 13, 2021 Forgot to answer—tough to pick five favorites of course but gun to my head right now: Kanye West - Yeezus Mobb Deep - The Infamous Clipse - h--- Hath No Fury UGK - Super Tight... ATCQ - Midnight Marauders But I could pick from a pool of these too: Future - Monster Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle Rich g--- - Tha Tour Isaiah Rashad - Cilvia Demo (or Sun’s Tirade, which is prob the better album, but I have a lot of memories attached to Cilvia) Freddie Gibbs - Piñata Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt Big Boi - Sir Lucious Leftfoot Kendrick Lamar - section.80 Outkast - Southernplayalistic Lil Wayne - Tha Carter These are less than 5 yrs old but haven’t left my rotation and I think will go down as all-timers for me: YG - Still Brazy Playboi Carti - Die Lit Saba - CARE FOR ME Denzel Curry - Zuu
Jan 13, 2021 1. 98-00 - the icon 2. 01-03 - the superstar 3. 08-10 - the return 4. 18-20 - the redemption 5. 04-06 - the junkie 2011-2017 was the lowest moment in his career minus a couple songs
Jan 13, 2021 this boggles my mind lol. definitive peak em lol yes dre beats were great!! so i mean - part of em's appeal (at least to me) was his back against the wall, all eyes on me individualism. that lyrical anger /rawness in his persona -- where u imagine him Having to get something off his chest - was complemented by the grim, bleak cheap style production. his DIY beats added authenticity in that way, flavors the imaginative space much of his best work existed in ... desperate, working class em with nothing to lose; the production/drum machine as extension of his motel 6 writing notebook what about 8 mile? or Cheers? or GRODT? surely not all those are 'bad'? (not saying the guy is a maestro, but he has some jams. kanye and boi1da have commended him fwiw as im sure ur aware) how about: -My Name -No Apologies -Dont Approach Me etc. "em the beat is sick!" (edit, again these arent like, the beats you write essays about necessarily but rather theyre serviceable and mood-defining. dated perhaps, but i think theres something scrappy and unsung about their utility) i did have a chuckle earlier playing the somewhat goofy opening of Places To Go -- can def imagine u grimacing to that (while wearing ur pure cashmere robe, sipping pappys 23 ). still a great song tho!!
Jan 13, 2021 lol dude i agree the bass brothers produced some great eminem songs—they’re certainly competent—but on how many of them are you like “my god, the beat is incredible”? isn’t your whole thing that em was a transcendent genius? to me, a couple outliers aside, on his best songs the production simply isn’t getting in the way. (this is why i don’t feel conflicted about including some of those early radio freestyles among his best songs.) the thing is, i actually agree with you philosophically: i like it when rappers produce their own songs, especially when it seems a natural extension of their identity, and i grade on a much more generous curve when they do. and if you reduce his production to a couple adjectives—grim, cheap—yes, it would seem to fit! but the problem isn’t that the beats are incongruous with the raps: the problem is that they’re mostly really bad, lol. i support the project, just think the results were lacking.
Jan 13, 2021 Not the biggest fan of Em as a producer, but Moment of Clarity is a great beat, and even went on to get Murdered by Wayne in a freestyle. Em has a lot of positive aspects as a producer. If Wayne raps on it, it’s hot.
Jan 13, 2021 we are! but you didnt respond to me rly -- you just reiterated 'the beats are bad' (oh, good point yes yes checkmate) i made an argument about how it complements em's imaginative space as an artist, and gave alt examples for other artists and u didn't engage with either rly lol. and like, u implied being im uncritical -- not nice! good faith pls
Jan 13, 2021 i don’t think it’s true that i refused to engage with your argument—i told you i agree with it in theory! but what can be reconciled in theory does not necessarily make for good music. what i’m saying is that, yes, the beats make sense for em’s music on paper, and i like that it was his impulse to produce himself, but when the songs actually come out i generally find the production at best disappointing and at worst distracting. put it this way: what major-label rapper in the 2000s consistently had worse beats than the ones em made for himself?
Jan 13, 2021 but which songs? again i rattled off like 10 counterexamples both for em and other artists. like do you enjoy Til I Collapse or not lol. (and also, no contest he's made some clunkers, not challenging that. i just dont agree with ur draconian stance here... which songs are u talking about specifically?)
Jan 13, 2021 lol i will get on my computer later on and link to what i’m talking about. in the meantime i would point out that you used get rich or die trying as a counterexample. his two beats on there are atrocious! easily the two weakest on the album—followed by the two he co-produced. what’re we talking about here? lol