Word: eminem
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...Eminem's top five songs. Ever
...outraged or just bored? Eminem has trampled these boundaries before, and even the gothic funk and seriocomic beats of Dr. Dre, who produced all but one of Relapse's 20 tracks, can't cover up the sound of Eminem's weariness. Titles like "Same Song & Dance" and "Old Time's Sake" give away the game, as does the quality of the wordplay, which is far more blunt than manic. Eminem sounds like a man with a reputation to uphold, a lyric book to fill and a stack of Us Weekly magazines nearby. Things do not improve when he shifts...
...When Relapse works, it's usually because Eminem drops the pretense that he wants to be loathed and returns to subjects that actually haunt him. "My mom, my mom/ I know you're probably tired of hearing about my mom," he sighs on "My Mom," and since even people who know almost nothing about Eminem are aware that he and his mother are not close, you prepare for the worst. But rather than self-pitying, the tale of how Mom launched her misbehaving son's drug problems by dosing him with Valium turns out to be tragic, squirm-inducing...
...going to have a second act as interesting as his first, Eminem should probably drop the ironic psychotic fantasies and stick to rhyming the details of his life. He's never been quite the storyteller that fans of "Stan" or "'97 Bonnie and Clyde" claim he is, but hand him a task like describing the logic of addiction and his skills take flight. On "Déjà Vu," over a minimal beat and guitar loop, he explains, "Maybe just a nice cold brew, what's a beer?/ That's the devil in my ear I been sober...
...decided just to pick this pen/ Up and try to make an attempt to vent/ But I just can't admit/ Or come to grips with the fact/ That I may be done with rap/ I need a new outlet." With his limitless ability to turn pain into rhymes, Eminem clearly has the right outlet. It's his outlook that could use a little tweaking...