when was eminem at his best?

[MistaVijilantee]

I look at it like this:

When Marshall Mathers using drugs heavily = exceptional MC, one of the greatest.
When sober = only just above average, less passion.

When Marshall Mathers was using drugs heavily, he was awful. The 2006-07 period was so bad.

Encore was bad, but it wasn't THAT bad. I like it way more than that era.

Em now is better than 2003-2008 imo.

He was using drugs heavily during SSLP & MMLP

I remember a interview of proof talking about how Eminem had a serious problem with shrooms.

Eminem on pills is what made him awful.

If he started drinking, taking shrooms/acid, & smoking weed right now it would produce amazing music. Just as long as he stayed away from pills.

This whole paragraph is what I meant.
1999 - 2003 was his prime, that's when he made phenomenal music.
Since then I believe Em has been hit and miss, he's made some great songs, wrote some great verses etc but he's also made some horrible music by his standards.
The shrooms and such really brought out the creativity in him, no one can deny that.

[SliK]

97-02

[PAINKILLƎR]

97-present

[Blu]

He was using drugs heavily during SSLP & MMLP

I remember a interview of proof talking about how Eminem had a serious problem with shrooms.

This is true, but Eminem wasn't taking drugs while he was writing. He was almost always sober while writing. The only case of him writing verses while high on shrooms/weed/ecstasy etc. is "Under The Influence".

Eminem was only taking drugs recreationally back in those days. It wasn't until after 8 Mile that he started popping the pills that would eventually influence his writing since he was literally always high.

[MistaVijilantee]

He was using drugs heavily during SSLP & MMLP

I remember a interview of proof talking about how Eminem had a serious problem with shrooms.

This is true, but Eminem wasn't taking drugs while he was writing. He was almost always sober while writing. The only case of him writing verses while high on shrooms/weed/ecstasy etc. is "Under The Influence".

Eminem was only taking drugs recreationally back in those days. It wasn't until after 8 Mile that he started popping the pills that would eventually influence his writing since he was literally always high.

If he was taking drugs recreationally, would he not be taking them, and then perhaps going to write?

[Blu]

If he was taking drugs recreationally, would he not be taking them, and then perhaps going to write?

Of course. But he must have felt that his writing while high was not good enough to be recorded and put on an album, or even just dropped as a freestyle.

[Squiggles123]

We all are debating when was he at his best but the thing is he still beats the competition. He killed Drake, Lil Wayne, and Kanye on Forever, killed Wayne on No Love and Drop the World, killed Nicki on Roman's Revenge, killed that BET Cypher with Slaughterhouse and Yelawolf, the Bad Meets Evil album killed Watch The Throne, killed B.o.B in Airplanes Part 2, killed T.I. on That's All She Wrote, killed all of his verses on I Need A Doctor, killed Obie on Richard. God you guys act like Em still isn't killing.

his rap is still good but his artistic direction is questionable.

This is all true. His artistic direction is definitely questionable and he has suffered from writing unnecessarily complicated rhymes of recent that just drag on (and of course some really corny punchlines).

Other then these things I definately think he's still got it, this album should be interesting.

No way did BME kill "Watch the Throne" though.

[sbolli1]

Maybe not in sales or unnecessary hype, but in sheer rapping terms, yeah H:TS killed WTT

[*ShadyHouse*]

Em was at his best in between MMLP and TES. He couldn't be touched back then.

[the real slim shady]

TES, basically.

[Kathy]

early 2000s, probably peaked in 2002

[State28]

I would say Eminem was at his best from 2000-2003 when he made his albums The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show.

[MistaVijilantee]

If he was taking drugs recreationally, would he not be taking them, and then perhaps going to write?

Of course. But he must have felt that his writing while high was not good enough to be recorded and put on an album, or even just dropped as a freestyle.

Are you sure he didn't write while high?
I'm pretty sure a lot of his best material, wasn't written sober.
And I mean, even when he smoked weed or did X or whatever, that still counts as high, lol.

[CanadaPure]

There's a difference to taking drugs recreationally and writing and being a drug addict and trying to write.

[MistaVijilantee]

Are you sure he didn't write while high?
I'm pretty sure a lot of his best material, wasn't written sober.
And I mean, even when he smoked weed or did X or whatever, that still counts as high, lol.

I think he said in his book that he wrote the whole SSLP entirely sober, and recorded it while he and Dre were high on X. I think he wrote the MMLP under the influence of drugs though.
[/quote]
Not sure though. DOn't know if anyone has said this yet.[/quote]

MMLP is his best album, that's why I believe that his drug use amplified his skill in terms of that.