It's April 23, 2024, 06:56:24 PM
+1 for this review Tanjint! It will be very hard to top this album in 2009. Best Eminem Record since MM, no doubt.
ain't it great with 3-4 relapse threads so dubcc can repeat their opinions like some parrots?...and hey lets request (audio and info about) the bonus tracks,when they're already posted in the OG thread.
Nah Raide is the homie. He's like I used to be about this place: wanting to improve it, wanting people to be better and sharper all the time. I can relate...but I stopped putting that kind of investment into my internet life...maybe when I'm done with college I can again...I come here to be lazy and for things to be at my convenience...Wow a Nima appearance. Appreciated. For reals, I appreciate the words. Like I said, when I get the chance to write as much as I did regarding this record, I have a lot of thoughts on Kid Cudi and some other stuff...-T
Quote from: Tanjential on June 15, 2009, 11:57:45 PMNah Raide is the homie. He's like I used to be about this place: wanting to improve it, wanting people to be better and sharper all the time. I can relate...but I stopped putting that kind of investment into my internet life...maybe when I'm done with college I can again...I come here to be lazy and for things to be at my convenience...Wow a Nima appearance. Appreciated. For reals, I appreciate the words. Like I said, when I get the chance to write as much as I did regarding this record, I have a lot of thoughts on Kid Cudi and some other stuff...-TYeah I feel what you saying. I go through my ups and downs posting here. Dope review once again T.
Quote from: UDollar A.K.A Nino Divine on June 15, 2009, 03:19:55 AMQuote from: JohnnyL on June 14, 2009, 05:30:24 PMQuote from: Tanjential on June 14, 2009, 02:46:48 PMare the bonus tracks dre beats? can i have them if they are?-TNah. I believe they were both Eminem production.You should check them out either way, cause they are both tight as fuck! "Careful what you wish" and "My darling" are the two tracks, and especially my darling is INSANE!.. I completely agree. They're both hella tight. And if you like Dre, "My Darling" does feature a brief appearance from Dre.
Quote from: JohnnyL on June 14, 2009, 05:30:24 PMQuote from: Tanjential on June 14, 2009, 02:46:48 PMare the bonus tracks dre beats? can i have them if they are?-TNah. I believe they were both Eminem production.You should check them out either way, cause they are both tight as fuck! "Careful what you wish" and "My darling" are the two tracks, and especially my darling is INSANE!..
Quote from: Tanjential on June 14, 2009, 02:46:48 PMare the bonus tracks dre beats? can i have them if they are?-TNah. I believe they were both Eminem production.
are the bonus tracks dre beats? can i have them if they are?-T
I know there's other threads but I'm not gonna read all 24 pages of that thread and I'm not going to post in it if I don't really even know what's been said in it:At first listen, I thought the first several tracks were well produced but over-all whack because of the tired ass subject matter. Then I really dug the rest of the album...but now I've listened to the record about 3 times and I think it's his best since SS or MM (depending on which of those you think is better, I say SS)....Em has reached a plateau with his mastery of rap that most MCs can only dream of.Dre and Em really push themselves to match different rhythms with different flows and innovate different combinations of their sound....it's a gratifying accomplishment.This is how a concept record is done: not too conceptually framed, but clearly has recurring themes and images.What I find really remarkable is how funny Eminem remains."Jessica Alba? Put her breasts on my mouth bra!" cracks me up everytime as well as"Walking down Elm street with a whiffle bat drew/came out with a little scratch ooh/lookin' like I got in a pillow fight with a triple fat goose"the Chris Reeves impersonation is GREAT as welll....comedyand many more lines are hilarious.Dre comes wiith some monster production (deja vu, my mom, crack a bottle, many more) but what stands most noteworthy is that Dre is undisputedly great at producing FOR THE ARTIST. Many other people throw their style against their collaborator's style and hope it works...Dre tailors the work to Em. It's a completely different 20 beats then if Dre was to produce for 50 or Snoop or whoever....it's exciting to know a fully dre produced record really means whatever artist he's producing accommodated to and brought to their best- though Dre is a student of the Beatles and Phil Specter's Wall of sound, he keeps his Eminem productions spare, sparse, minimalist (or at least they SEEM like they are...) so that Em's ridiculous flow and narratives are always center-stage.Sometimes I miss Em's older more straight forward style (and to his credit, sometimes the best aspects of that flow are present on certain tracks) but Dre and he have crafted a very melodic, hook ready persona for this ridiculous MC. Integrating singing into rapping is absolutely essential for modern pop hip hop success and far be it for Dre and Em to get left behind by the Kid Cudis of the world....It's absolutely incredible that Dre produced this whole record...and you can see the craft. It's been a decade since 2001 LP, and I think it's safe to say Dre has found his sparse yet complexly funky niche again.Dre can still do complex dense soundscapes, and I think we'll see him do that again with certain artists, but he knows when to take a 'back seat' but then when you stop and listen to any of the beats closely you see Dre has laced it complexly with low key piano lines, subtle synths and sound effects....it has all the complexity and rich layering of ANY dre production in the past but he just mixes it so perfect that Em shines prominently over it.Now...Em....His topics are tired but when you start to see what he's getting at..it's okay. This is, hopefully, his last 'relapse' into his typical demons and topics and he implies that this is an exorcism of sorts for himself. Getting all of this kind of thing out of his system so he can finally quit for good...Check it out, I grew up on Em. 10 years ago, I was 11 and first heard SS LP and I was hooked. Em was the first artist I really got way into. I remember relating in a youthfully disgruntled way to his insane narratives and funny style. As years passed and I became a more chill and positive person, I felt Eminem was always pissed off in that immature little kid way even though I still recognized his monolithic talent. So when I hear Relapse with Em heartfeltedly admit that he may finally need to find another outlet besides angry hip hop...it touches me close to home. It makes me feel like I grew up with the guy, you know? I have to admit I cried when I heard Beautiful: Eminem finally learned that you have to be vulnerable emotionally sometimes, you have to be corny sometimes, you have be to...god forbid...NICE sometimes to fully and effectively appreciate life. It feels like a moment of maturity for him...i read that that was the only track he made for the record while still on drugs....not surprising that he had to be at a bottom-like moment to display that kiut ennd of humility. Eminem didn't even use the word 'beautiful' before 2007.But enough about Em. People want to talk about this like he just had this huge come back....but when we're honest with ourselves he's never been out of the limelight for more than 2 years at a time since 99. What is FUCKING amazing about this is that Dre produced a whole record for someone else...he hasn't done this since 199 fucking 3 for Doggystyle.This record is veritable treasure chest of music. Dre poured his effort into this and every beat he makes (hell even the em song, beautiful does not deviate the quality of production on the record) has layers of musical gems to dissect and take in. I would buy an instrumental version of this record. The diverse collection of beats on this album would challenge any MC worth his salt.Old time's sake is a great Em/Dre throwback...almost as good as "Business" from Em show. Same with "crack a bottle". Underground...jesus eminem rips this up. The beat's a little dramatic...but that's a lot of the tracks on the record and there are cinematic purposes though sometimes I feel like the music would be better served by being musical instead of wanting to soundtrack a non existent movie, but I understand the artistic decision....Eminem understands his role in our culture(medicine ball), his social commentary and personal exploits are artistically exploited to the max...he can now weave fictions without being confused with how close they are to his life ( same song and dance, 3 am) and tell heartbreakingly moving stories and be funny and taken seriously all at the same time (deja vu, beautiful)..and he can still just fuckin' spit (baghdad, underground, hello, crack a bottle, we made you). There's a lot of musical layers here...with the rapping and the incredible dre production. It's a great record....BUT I have felt like this about all of Em's records since SS LP (with the exception of the unevenness that is Encore) at first and have always found that they fail to addict me, to hook me, to make me listen to the record for more than a few weeks. I remember Marshall Mathers LP was the SHIT for like two months...Eminem show? Awesome...for a month.Those records were well done, Em's skill impeccable...but it just didn't stick with me, wasn't jiving with my attitudes, wasn't the kind of thing that I needed to soundtrack my life, didn't have enough musical depth to warrant more than a month or two of replay value...I like to think, I sincerely hope that the all-Dre production aspect of this record is going to make it more addictive and more meriting of months of analysis and relistening. There's a lot of hidden treasure here, from Dre's cuts to layers of Em's rhymes that you may not have even noticed the first second and third times. I am digging Dre's scratching on Insane and Old Time's sake...I also like that despite not being a notoriously 'stony' rapper he and Dre give plenty of good weed-smoker cuts (old time's sake, must be the ganja, deja vu, others); all hip hop artists that really want to be succesful need to make stoner-friendly music. That's why Kid Cudi will go farther than Lupe Fiasco if you ask me. A lot of intent music critics, customers, and appreciators like myself like weed with their music it's a nice combo.flaws to this record? well, like I mentioned....on the first listen, the subject matter is tired. You have to listen to it the second and third time to realize that Eminem has been sharpening his style further yet and that is' more about his style and artistic achievement than the same tired topics....some of the beats are cinematic when they would probably benefit from being more musical....a lot of the images just make for unpleasant listening. as awesome as 'iinsane' is, i don't like hearing about dicks in little boys and shit like that. it's not shit i blaze one up to....Eminem needs to learn the difference between music you can just put on during any time and enjoy and headphone music. since so much of his work is so dark and intelligent, a lot of it is 'headphone' music because you have to listen intently to fully appreciate it...which in all honesty, makes it second-tier artwork. TRULY great music rewards a headphone listen but is still HELLA enjoyable when it's just on in the background (think illmatic, regulate, chronic...others...)...a lot of Eminem's music...and I think this is true from MM LP on, is NOT enjoyable just playing in the background: dissonant sounds, abrasive sounds and topics, unpleasant choppiness....and that continues somewhat in this record. I don't know how much I'd enjoy the record if I didn't engage it....and that's gonna matter in a month when it's on in the background and I'm not giving it my full attention. Then again, this is how I feel about most hip-hop....sometimes I wonder if even SS LP wouldn't have addicted me the way it did if it wasn't the first full length Em record I was exposed to...maybe after that first Em record addiction it can never quite happen like that because as much as he updates his style and modifies the format...he's still basically talking about the exact same shit on his newest record as on his first. Maybe more on his mom than his wife, but the same shit really. But then again...snoop dogg is still rapping about weed right? The rolling stones still sing about love, right? The difference is those are songs you can have in the background....serial killing rape disasters don't have the same kind of aesthetic pleasantries as those topics.I give 4-4.5 stars. 4.5 if I'm still bangin' this record in two months. 4 because it's just so well crafted and it's a gift to get a Dre produced album in its entirety; long time coming.I love how Em says 2020 now, pointing out how arbitrary it is to put deadlines on Dre.someone should link me to all em's records Infinite/SS EP/SS LP/MM LP....the only one I still own is Eminem Show, I haven't heard the others in a long ass time, maybe they warrant a revisit....what do y'all think? am I missing anything?-T
I know there's other threads but I'm not gonna read all 24 pages of that thread and I'm not going to post in it if I don't really even know what's been said in it:
someone should link me to all em's records Infinite/SS EP/SS LP/MM LP....the only one I still own is Eminem Show, I haven't heard the others in a long ass time, maybe they warrant a revisit....
Nah Raide is the homie.He's like I used to be about this place: wanting to improve it, wanting people to be better and sharper all the time.I can relate...but I stopped putting that kind of investment into my internet life...maybe when I'm done with college I can again...I come here to be lazy and for things to be at my convenience...-T
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