During this year’s BET Hip-hop Awards, Eminem returned to the highly anticipated cypher showcase, where he unleashed a 4-minute freestyle that took aim at POTUS. The NFL protests, hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico, and the border wall were just some of the topics Em touched on.
“But we better give Obama props, ’cause what we got in office now is a kamikaze that’ll probably cause a nuclear holocaust/And while the drama pops, and he waits for shit to quiet down/He’ll just gas his plane up and fly around until the bombing stops,” Eminem rapped. “Intensity’s heightened, tensions are rising/Trump, when it comes to giving a shit, you’re as stingy as I am/Except when it comes to having the balls to go against me, you hide ’em/’Cause you don’t got the fucking’ nuts, like an empty asylum.”Source: http://www.complex.com/music/2017/10/eminem-cypher-verse-2017-bet-hip-hop-awards.
Once upon a time in 1998 Hip-Hop music was in an awful place after the mess Puff Daddy and Ja Rule created. Beats were slowing down and alway’s had that weird finger cymbal in it for some reason, but Hip-Hop in general was getting soft as hell. Unlike the early 90’s when you could just go into a sam goody and pull almost any Hip-Hop tape off the shelf and it would be good, the industry was now overrun by a bunch of clowns, forcing the consumer into the underground in hopes that good music was still being made.
The first thing I heard from Eminem was a guest verse on a Shabaam Sahdeeq track called “Five Star Generals” and it blew my fucking mind. “Went to bible class with a gun, blasted a nun, fuck hell Satan send my ass to the sun, I wasn’t born I was hatched, dumped in the trash with a note attached, saying someone please whip this brats ass.” It wasn’t the same braggadocios materialistic bullshit being played on the radio this was different, clever.
That’s when he falls face first onto America’s greatest talent lottery winner Dr. Dre’s dick (This is another rant all together). Eminem drops 2 unbelievable albums and writes “The Chronic 2001”. He was on top of the fucking world and had white kids that would never listen to rap in a million years listening to it, translating into millions upon millions of record sales.
It’s no secret that Eminem’s entire career has been fueled by controversy. From ’97 Bonnie and Clyde to “Stan”, and let’s not forget “Kim”. His lyrics always told a story and went against the grain provoking thought. Then there was those super awkward years from 2002 to 2010 where he basically became a pop star. Every album he released was progressively worse than the last but at that point his obsessed fan base would listen to 75 minutes of him farting on a snare drum and say it’s the dopest shit ever made.
“Recovery” dropped in 2010 and was the best thing he did since 2001, but instead of controversy as fuel, personal stories were the forefront which made it looked like he evolved. I knew this wasn’t the case when I heard he was going to release “Marshal Mathers 2”. What we got was a 22 track hunk of shit that had 2 good songs and were samples that had been used a million times but with no passion or storytelling..just old generic shit that he’s already said a million times.
The only light in the darkness of his career as of late has been these “Freestyle cyphers” he’s been doing for BET. The funny thing is that Eminem has probably never freestyled in his life. The battles which he was famous for early in his career were all written verses. He was using bars from “I just don’t give a fuck” against juice in scribble jam…but the interesting thing there is that he plays it off like he’s doing it in the moment…like he’s making it up on the spot (He did act in a movie where he was acting and trying to convince people that he was really freestyling).
In my personal opinion if you think these cinematic “Freestyle” Cyphers are actually “Freestyle” ………you’re a fucking moron. It also brings up another valid point “Rap is speaking rhythmically over a beat in time. The difficult part of rapping is saying what you’re saying in time…on bar, rhyming a 16 bar verse consecutively not rapping 3 bars with no beat and staring into the camera for effect. Historically there’s been plenty of people who have spit written raps in freestyles (Like most of Big L’s historic “Freestyles) but those people don’t say they’re freestyling in the middle of it just so the listener thinks it’s really a freestyle
Which brings us to the new Eminem hand job parade the big Donald Trump dis. Eminem is like a 90 year old dude in a nursing home, You’ve heard all of his stories a million times and now all he does is repeat himself, so the visits aren’t as fun as they used to be. If you think all of this is because he feels like it’s the right thing to say…like he just had to “Freestyle” to get this burden off his chest…you might need to look at the bigger picture. Who wants to bet there’s a new album announcement coming in the next few weeks? What he actually said was ok at best…but don’t you think bringing up a subject that millions of people are salty about is good publicity ?
I honestly don’t believe for a second that he really freestyles in those scripted cypher movies they do on BET and I don’t believe he gives a shit. The media Bukkake has not stopped and he didn’t say anything that any of us don’t already know or think…it was a laundry list of complaints that most people already have about Trump. People are pretending like he’s a white KRS-One for fucks sake.
It really is unfortunate that he became like Nas…another incredibly talented rapper that can’t pick a beat to save his life. I really can’t stand the whole concept of “acappella freestyle rapping” I liked it better when it was called poetry and the artists actually said something, but in comparison to the actual music he’s been making I can understand why people think its good…..I’m just telling you it’s not.
-Tonzo-