Nov 16, 2017 A major concern I have with his upcoming album is that Eminem isn’t really interested in music, but more so the technical aspects of rapping. He also seems to have little to zero involvement in the actual production of a song. Contrast this to Kanye who workes for weeks. (and in some cases months) on end to perfect a song. Eminem just emails his verse and that’s it. WoW could have been so much more impactful if he took a different approach; ie a gloomy, atmospheric beat such as Rock Bottom, Difficult, Trick Trick’s Crazy or by taking inspiration from other artists who excel in this type of music, eg Julian Casablancas. Imagine production similar to these masterpieces. Instead we got a bunch of random chords strung together. When was the last time Eminem actually created a melodic song? If he doesn’t surround himself with people who can take care of this for him (as the Bass Brothers did in the early days), he will continue to create unlistenable music. Rick Rubin is a legend but his work on MMLP2 shows he is not a right fit for Eminem. I was initially so excited when I heard he was producing that album after his work with Kanye and Johnny Cash but his beats were godawful. The fact he dictated WoW so much is worrisome to say the least. Wtf is with the Beyonce referral? Seemingly a choice dictated by optimizing sales as opposed to a artistical one. Eminem can’t do it on his own, he then resorts to people already in his circle like Skylar Grey, Pink etc but current signs show he doesn’t surround himself with the right people. Hopefully I’m wrong but we should probably prepare for another album full of copy and paste vocal tracks over premade beats with choruses included. Eminem just doesn’t care enough about music.
Nov 16, 2017 I'd suggest you to listen to the album with an open mind and then form your opinions though, going with a preconceived notion for a listen takes away anything remotely positive about the experience of listening to a new sound.
Nov 16, 2017 f--- that s--- n-----, wait and listen, then judge. Besides, Em pretty much never gave a d--- about instrumentals or music, he just rapped.
Nov 16, 2017 Mostly agree with @Brubbels here altough I don't think mmlp2 (or walk on water) are that bad. The point he makes isn't wrong tho
Nov 16, 2017 op has a great point. I have been saying similar things. He needs to focus on production a lot. He used to do it but now he is so lazy with it. I mean he nearly produced the whole TES himself and his post hiatus beats are usually the bests in his albums like Brainless, or even the beats he gave out to others are still good. He must take his time with also prducing the album himself. That'd lower the possibility of s-----y production a lot and help him catch a better sound
Nov 16, 2017 He is a legendary producer lol, him and Em together are just hit & miss imo. I (one of the few I know) love Berzerk and really like Love Game and Rhyme & Reason. Walk on Water is solid though I don't really know wtf he actually produced on that record, and So Far is pretty annoying to me, though I think that's more due to Em than the beat itself.
Nov 16, 2017 If I'm not mistaken, Em produced 9 tracks alone, and 3 others with the Bass Brothers (Dre handled the other 3). It's no coincidence it's highly regarded as his best work and one of raps GOAT albums. He's at his best and seems to feel much more comfortable when he flows on his own beats, and that goes for his guest verses too on songs that he produces (ala Obie, 50 etc.)
Nov 16, 2017 Completely agree. This has been a gripe of mine for a while. He only seems interested in the verses, and he's getting all stressed out about topping himself technically and fussing over who doesn't like which vocal tone etc. but doesn't seem to realise the major issue is how the songs are put together, the end result... his compromises... lack of care for the whole song and just putting together random music.
Nov 16, 2017 That's not true at all. SSLP through to Encore he was very involved in production. With SSLP, MMLP & TES especially he worked closely with Bass Bros and would hum melodies to them and s---, which is the reason why s--- like The Way I Am exists and the whole song has his unique vibe. These weren't just random beats he hopped on, it was s--- created for, with and often by him. With TES he said his vision was to capture the 70s rock era type vibe. Like, that big rock vibe. He produced that album and the end result was fantastic. He cared about the whole songs.
Nov 16, 2017 Excellent post. Good points by@EminemBase too. Another thing about the Beyonce feature. It seems really odd how she featured on a pretty personal song. Rubin was at their place, played them the song & asked would Beyonce feature on it. Maybe get in the studio first & see do they have any chemistry. Beyonce feature seems off for me & she has made no mention of it on her social media. Rubin just threw them together on a song.
Nov 16, 2017 For anyone not in the know: From Angry Blonde: “The Way I Am” was one of the few tracks that I did completely by myself. I had the beat in my head before I went into the studio to lay it down. I had the rhyme and the piano loop all worked out. I had Jeff [Bass] play the loop and I finished the rhyme listening to my headphone set on the way to L.A. That’s why the flow is like that, cause all I had was the piano loop in my headphones. I wanted to do some different s---. I thought about the rhymes first. Once I got the third line I didn’t want the cadence of the rhyme to stop going with the piano. Even if I took a break with rappin, I made the words echo so that they still went with the piano.
Nov 16, 2017 Lmao. If you count humming melody’s to musicians and half working a drum machine the yeah he produced it all himself.
Nov 16, 2017 He did the same thing with Like Toy Soldiers. He wrote hit so every rhyme hits along with the drum beat, which is why his flow is like that. Clever s--- tbh
Nov 16, 2017 How u know that ? And being able to using some machines and playin instruments not really important compared to creativity u need to come up with some dope melodies, that's the real productivity. Even if he got tons of help from people who can make beats, he did a great job creating his own f---in' music. And it was the main reason he TES had so much replay value for me.
