You Hear It First: Hip Hop & R&B

[thrILL!]

Let’s goooooo!!! 

[JonStark]

Say what you want about this man, but his longevity is insane. Dude still has it.

[thrILL!]

4 hours ago, JonStark said:

Say what you want about this man, but his longevity is insane. Dude still has it.

Em is one of the best to ever do it and will forever have elite wordplay and skills but this **** right here is where he went wrong in the first place over 20 yrs ago. He loves remaking the same single over and over again.  

At least I can still listen to his features on other ppl’s songs like EPMD 2. 

[JonStark]

12 minutes ago, thrILL! said:

Em is one of the best to ever do it and will forever have elite wordplay and skills but this **** right here is where he went wrong in the first place over 20 yrs ago. He loves remaking the same single over and over again.  

At least I can still listen to his features on other ppl’s songs like EPMD 2. 

I usually agree but this one was a perfect callback. Really like the direction he went with it while still bringing back some nostalgia from the shady era. 

Main thing for me is that his flow is back. He never completely lost it, but was really inconsistent with it the last couple albums. Felt like he was always trying to fit too many words in the bar but he sounded so much smoother here. 

[thrILL!]

41 minutes ago, JonStark said:

I usually agree but this one was a perfect callback. Really like the direction he went with it while still bringing back some nostalgia from the shady era. 

Main thing for me is that his flow is back. He never completely lost it, but was really inconsistent with it the last couple albums. Felt like he was always trying to fit too many words in the bar but he sounded so much smoother here. 

I heard about this track a couple weeks ago and thought he was doing a song deconstructing Slim Shady and putting that alter ego to bed. Instead he just made the same tired song again. I thought he was past this. I barely made it 30 secs into this lol. 

[JonStark]

4 minutes ago, thrILL! said:

I barely made it 30 secs into this lol. 

Don't you think you should give the whole song a chance before forming an opinion on it? 

I do think the rest of the album will have some stuff that you are expecting, but this was a pretty great lead single. 

[thrILL!]

2 hours ago, JonStark said:

Don't you think you should give the whole song a chance before forming an opinion on it? 

I do think the rest of the album will have some stuff that you are expecting, but this was a pretty great lead single. 

I’m sure I’ll pivot back to it just to hear his lyrics but I’ve heard this song before when it was called “The Real Slim Shady”, “Without Me” and “Just Lose It” lol. 

I've been a fan of Em since my crew met him at the Lyricist Lounge tour in 1997 three days after he signed to Aftermath. He’s so damn talented.  What drives me absolutely crazy is he got himself in the position to dictate what he made and released as singles and he put out the songs I mentioned.  Sure they're fun at parties or whatever but one was enough.  

Meanwhile his peers like Nas released “Made You Look” (which was street AF) as his single!  Jay-Z’s crossover songs always had bars and weren’t as silly as Em’s.  Em could've released songs like “Til I Collapse” as his singles.  And yet we get songs like “Real Slim Shady” over and over and over again. 

Edited May 31 by thrILL!

[JonStark]

19 hours ago, thrILL! said:

I’m sure I’ll pivot back to it just to hear his lyrics but I’ve heard this song before when it was called “The Real Slim Shady”, “Without Me” and “Just Lose It” lol. 

I've been a fan of Em since my crew met him at the Lyricist Lounge tour in 1997 three days after he signed to Aftermath. He’s so damn talented.  What drives me absolutely crazy is he got himself in the position to dictate what he made and released as singles and he put out the songs I mentioned.  Sure they're fun at parties or whatever but one was enough.  

Meanwhile his peers like Nas released “Made You Look” (which was street AF) as his single!  Jay-Z’s crossover songs always had bars and weren’t as silly as Em’s.  Em could've released songs like “Til I Collapse” as his singles.  And yet we get songs like “Real Slim Shady” over and over and over again. 

Yeah I mean if you're expecting him to release street singles, you're going to be disappointed. He's never been that guy. 

I get what you're saying about them all being the same song but aside of them all being goofy, they really aren't. He's saying something different in all of them and while this one is really similar to Without Me, it's more modern as he's addressing cancel culture. I'd recommend watching the video once through before really forming an opinion but if you told me he was still releasing music now back in 2002, this is exactly what I'd be hoping for. 

[WizeGuy]

On 5/31/2024 at 1:10 PM, thrILL! said:

I heard about this track a couple weeks ago and thought he was doing a song deconstructing Slim Shady and putting that alter ego to bed. Instead he just made the same tired song again. I thought he was past this. I barely made it 30 secs into this lol. 

It's been on repeat for me. Dope *** song, and it's probably one of his more popular songs over the past 15 years, but there are fans who feel similar to you as well, which is understandable since we all have different flavors of Em that we enjoy.

This is what makes Em special, though. You have people who like his deeper stuff like Stan, Sing for the Moment, etc..., his battle rap stuff like Soldier, Marshal Mathers, Just Don't Give a F***, then you have people who like his Slim Shady alter ego who play the hell out of I'm Back, The Real Slim Shady, etc...His diversity is actually insane when you take a step back and look at his catalog. I enjoy all of it, tbh. 

And, honestly, he has his fun singles, but he also has Cleaning out my Closet, Stan, Guilty Conscience, The Way I Am, Criminal, Like Toy Soldiers etc...that were big time singles used to sell his records back in the day. I distinctly remember being in middle school/early HS and watching those music videos on MTV early in the AM when I was waking up for school. A bunch of them were on TRL's top-10 list, too. 

[WizeGuy]

On 5/31/2024 at 1:16 PM, JonStark said:

Don't you think you should give the whole song a chance before forming an opinion on it? 

I do think the rest of the album will have some stuff that you are expecting, but this was a pretty great lead single. 

If the album is anything like his Slim Shady days, it'll be full of different types of songs. We'll get our dose of songs like Stan, Kill You, White America, Haille's Song, etc...

We all should be praying he's actually going back to his roots because that's when he was dropping his most savage albums and, as I mentioned in my pervious posts, his diversity on those albums were dope. 

[thrILL!]

4 hours ago, WizeGuy said:

A bunch of them were on TRL's top-10 list, too. 

Obviously you get a pass for this bcuz you were in middle school at the time but this is more of an indictment against those songs bcuz they were alongside N’Sync, Backstreet Boys, Britney, Christina, Limp Bizkit, etc.  😉

BET’s Rap City >>>>>>>>

I do admire your hopefulness for this album tho and I hope there are a few album tracks that focus on his passion for the art form and hip hop culture.  We shall see…

[WizeGuy]

13 minutes ago, thrILL! said:

Obviously you get a pass for this bcuz you were in middle school at the time but this is more of an indictment against those songs bcuz they were alongside N’Sync, Backstreet Boys, Britney, Christina, Limp Bizkit, etc.  😉

BET’s Rap City >>>>>>>>

I do admire your hopefulness for this album tho and I hope there are a few album tracks that focus on his passion for the art form and hip hop culture.  We shall see…

Haha, I was just pointing out that he had hits that weren't pop on TRL, which was mostly filled with pop songs. 

I agree, though. BET is where it was at. The basement with Big Tigger freestyles, Freestyle Friday, etc...those were the good old days. I assume it's full of reality shows now like MTV is. 

I don't really know what to expect from the album. Like you said, I assumed he was going to kill off the Slim Shady alter ego, and the music video to 'Houdini' it appears Eminem is trying to slay Slim Shady, so maybe it'll be a cool concept album.

I've come to terms with the fact Em will likely never hit his peak again, which isn't uncommon. Nas and Em are really the only two artists who have consistently dropped albums over the span of multiple decades, and neither has really touched their peak again. I will say, though, Nas has had some dope albums over the years. I feel like he's aged better than Em. I'm hoping Em's new album will be of similar quality as Nas's newer albums; not near his peak, but still really good.

Kamikaze is the only Em album in the past 15 years that drew me in, though he has had some amazing features, and his newest album wasn't bad at all...just nothing I would repeat. 

Edited June 14 by WizeGuy

[thrILL!]

49 minutes ago, WizeGuy said:

I've come to terms with the fact Em will likely never hit his peak again, which isn't uncommon. Nas and Em are really the only two artists who have consistently dropped albums over the span of multiple decades, and neither has really touched their peak again. I will say, though, Nas has had some dope albums over the years. I feel like he's aged better than Em. I'm hoping Em's new album will be of similar quality as Nas's newer albums; not near his peak, but still really good.

Nas has been on an absolute tear the last several years and the reason is that Hit Boy helped bring out this level of inspiration in him.  There was a 4 year gap between Untitled (personally I call it self-titled aka Nas 🤷🏻‍♂️) and Life Is Good.  I remember Nas being on Kimmel talking about how it had been awhile since he had dropped and how he doesn't like to force it but he had something to say (his divorce from Kelis) and it prompted the best album he had made since I Am...  

Fast forward 6 more years and he released Nasir with Kanye.  While this album/EP(?) is widely hated on, it's not nearly as bad as ppl claim.  The biggest issue was that you can tell he wasn't inspired.  His verses were fine and the beats from Ye were dope but the passion wasn't there.  I feel like maybe he made it for 2 reasons- to collaborate with Ye and to fulfill his contract with Def Jam.  

But then he links up with Hit Boy and the flood gates open.  6 albums in 3 years is freaking crazy!  King's Disease 2 is the best of the bunch imo.  And word is we might finally be getting the long awaited album with DJ Premier (I'll believe it when I see it lol).  

Back in the day when we'd buy tapes and CD's, as a fan you just hoped there would be enough songs that you liked to warrant the purchase.  If there was only like 1 or 2 songs you really liked, you felt like you wasted your money.  These days you can buy songs individually or just stream them.  I take the best songs of each album to create killer playlists for my favorite artists.  My Nas playlist is absurd right now.  Em's?  It's all older work.

So we're hoping that maybe Eminem is as inspired as Nas has been but Nas doesn't put out singles pining for crossover appeal the way Em does (I posted more about this a page or 2 back).  I haven't bought an Eminem album since Encore.  The production has been uninspired for years and I wish he would go outside his camp for more.  Alchemist has been his tour DJ for years and there isn't another producer out here who has come close to the run that ALC has been on for the last decade.  And yet the one song ("Stepdad" on MTBMB) that ALC produced for him barely sounds like his work prolly bcuz Em co-produced it (overproduced tbh like he does with too much of his music).  You'd never know that ALC even produced it if you didn't read the credits.  I need Em over the beats that Alchemist has been killing the game with like for Griselda, Evidence, Gangrene, Boldy, etc.  

The only song I remember really liking from Em recently was "Yah, Yah" off Music To Be Murdered By but tbh that was bcuz Black Thought & Royce brought out the best in him bcuz he's always been competitive AF which I love.  His verse on Nas' "EPMD 2" is bananas as well.  "Houdini" doesn't bring me much confidence but I know what he's capable of so I'm trying to be hopeful.  It sucks to be let down by artists you like but he's gotta do what he feels he needs to do.  

And yes I take this stuff way too seriously lol.

[thrILL!]

First single from the album produced entirely by Q-Tip. 

[WizeGuy]

Oh yeah, that album was so dope. Legit, a great album. If Em can drop an album of that caliber, I'd be a happy man. 

"I had run-ins with Suge, *bad word* would've been shook
At the height of the beef!"

The only album I've liked from Em since Encore is Kamikaze. I feel like he was really grinding again during that time. He had some sick features right around when Kamikaze was released. Caterpillar ft Royce being one of my favorites. 

Edited June 17 by WizeGuy