Eminem’s Rare Debut, Infinite, Available For Free Download

[Booz]

There is snippets for those bonus tracks on thisis50.com also:

http://thisis50.com/profiles/blogs/eminem-careful-what-you-wish-1

"Careful what you wish for" is obviously one of the top tracks on Relapse 1.
It also shows that he can rap without fucking accent too, hopefully he drops that accent on Relapse 2.

[Jimmy H.]

ya its a cool thing but it definetly is a promotion scheme for Relapse. Ill bet the money to fly them out came from the label and not ems pocket but i could be wrong.

I'll take that bet. You really think Interscope is just gonna hand out that kind of money? Even if they charged it to the promotional budget, they'd recoup it ahead of Em getting paid so regardless how you label it, Eminem is still paying for it.

[dubsmith_nz]

ya its a cool thing but it definetly is a promotion scheme for Relapse. Ill bet the money to fly them out came from the label and not ems pocket but i could be wrong.

I'll take that bet. You really think Interscope is just gonna hand out that kind of money? Even if they charged it to the promotional budget, they'd recoup it ahead of Em getting paid so regardless how you label it, Eminem is still paying for it.

Yeah Interscope don't have enough money to waste it on that, Em loves Detroit, it is what it is

[hellrazor86]

Never 2 Far.. One Of My Fav. Eminem Traccs Ever!

[Jaydc555]

As far as the Jimmy kimmel thing and nobody else doing that type of stuff.Cormega rented out buses and took every single person in queensbridge out on a vacation day.But he didn't make a press release or call up the media he did it for his people not for news.

[A1]

Listen to infinate for the first time on this is 50.

On one of the tracks he drops a sick line, something like "run you brain round the block to jog your fucking memory"!!

[Dre-Day]

edit: apparently it just got taken down

[Rud]

Never 2 Far.. One Of My Fav. Eminem Traccs Ever!

word!

On one of the tracks he drops a sick line, something like "run you brain round the block to jog your fucking memory"!!

yep sick as hell...from "313"

[kuruptlon]

I love putting this album on and just chilling. Completely different style for em. Its got a real classic feel to it, I'd advice anyone who even likes em a little bit to check this out, its really listenable.

[OG Hack Wilson]

I love putting this album on and just chilling. Completely different style for em. Its got a real classic feel to it, I'd advice anyone who even likes em a little bit to check this out, its really listenable.

exactly!  anyone who loves rap will love Infinite - it's just not for Eminem fans

[2euce 7even]

I just might check this out, never heard it.

[thisoneguy360]

Tracks aren't in great quality but lyrically/flow wise Em was on a whole nother level for this shit

[virtuoso]

In that case you will love this review 

 watched a very interesting programme the other day about the former prodigy turned fully-fledged (and fully-formed) superstar of the violin world, Vanessa Mae. I know that you're already thinking this to be one of my ropier random connections, but stay with me. She has sold a similar amount of albums to Eminem (we're talking high multi-millions) before her thirtieth birthday, had problems with her estranged mother (who, when dumped as her daughter's manager, buggered off) and took a long time, by her own admission, to emotionally mature. The whole point of the documentary was that Vanessa Mae had been labeled a wunderkind her entire life, and wanted to know whether her undoubted brilliance on the violin was down to nature or nurture.

Nature or nurture. Eminem released only a thousand copies of his very first album, "Infinite." It was, almost exclusively, for his local Detroit area, where he got unceremoniously labeled a "Stan" - see what I did there? - of Nas (not so much) and AZ (yeah, alright). It was a short eleven-track offering with the mid-90's hip hop sound (which actually sounds better than I thought it would - future DJ Premier hook up, anyone?) with a youngish Marshall Mathers spitting for his life.

I'm going to cut to the chase here - he isn't very good. Seriously. He isn't wack, and of course he was heavily influenced by his (then) heroes - which is fine at this kind of level. But the album should really have been placed on ice for a couple of years - there is little real emotion, his off-kilter flow is nowhere near maturity, and he sounds like (bring it on) a battle rapper trying to make a decent album. Tracks like "It's OK" and "Never 2 Far" are nice enough, and the lyrics are well put-together - but it feels like an extended demo.

So, to the crux of the matter: nature or nurture? Was Eminem born a brilliant rapper, or did his eventual tutelage by Dr. Dre change and elevate his entire style forever? The step up to his next album was immense - they might as well be different artists. Whether Em would have made it or not is really a moot point, because either you do or you don't - that is frequently down to the whim of the Gods of Hip Hop (especially as far as a white rapper was concerned in the mid-90's). The point is that if your flow is amazing on a tiny local album, it should be amazing on your major label debut.

There is another point to consider - the two year time gap between "Infinite" and when the Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine caught wind of Eminem from his performance in the 1997 Rap Olympics, thus handing a tape to Dr. Dre. Now, dear Reader, it is almost impossible to state just how important a couple of years can be in the development of an MC, especially before the age of 26. The whole lyrical flow can change, as can the implementation of the voice - not to mention overall confidence just spitting. It seems more likely that he released "Infinite" and got criticised, thus focusing his talent and spurring him on to improve. By the time 1997 came round, he had made the jump up sufficiently enough to get noticed by the people in the right place. Plus him being white was already a Unique Selling Point (in the eyes of the record labels).

There isn't actually much to go on when trying to settle the nature/nurture debate if you listen to "Infinite" - it shows an Eminem still in the Research & Development stage of his rap career, which usually doesn't get heard by the general public. Whatever happened, he blossomed into one of the greatest MC's of all time - few can doubt that now. If he comes back in the next few months, as predicted, let us pray that he is over his myriad of problems and is focused on the MUSIC side of things that got him that spot at the top of the tree. Oh, and let Dr. Dre and Primo produce the whole thing - that would be wicked. Nevertheless "Infinite" is an interesting enough look into the mind of a young Eminem – just treat it like the demo it was and don't expect to learn too much.

Music Vibes: 5.5 of 10 Lyric Vibes: 5.5 of 10 TOTAL Vibes: 5.5 of 10

Originally posted: August 12, 2008
source: www.RapReviews.com

[Triple OG Rapsodie]

I love putting this album on and just chilling. Completely different style for em. Its got a real classic feel to it, I'd advice anyone who even likes em a little bit to check this out, its really listenable.

its pretty much Em's version of illmatic. Dope, but not exactly original. This album is for those who like em's multis but can't stand the silly subject matter on all his other albums.