Ok, I've been wanting to do this thread for a while, and since we are close to the "one year anniversary" of Relapse Refill, might as well do it now.
The "horrorcore" songs from the Relapse era are as good as anything Eminem has made in the past. Period. Sometimes, when I read messages like "LOL Relapse is wack" "Em fell off!" "Nikka went pop" I scratch my head and think of these 5 masterpieces: 3 A.M., Music Box, Buffalo Bill, Insane, and of course, Stay Wide Awake.
See, a lot of the "complaints" about these songs (also Relapse as a whole) are about the themes and the accent. Honestly, I don't get it. Yes, I do realize that some people may not enjoy listening about explicit violence, raping, murder, etc. But the way I see these songs (again, Relapse as a whole too) is the same way you see a good horror movie. There's fucked up stuff in The Silent of the Lambs, the first Saw, etc. The point is that, that's the vision of the maker, and you gotta respect that. Afterall, if the movie is good, it doesn't really matter what the themes are. If you like a Hanibbal Lecter movie, it doesn't mean you are some fucked up individual, no, you are open minded enough to appreciate what the maker was going for. This is exactly what I think of this whole Relapse horrorcore stuff. I'm also in the group of those who prefer Eminem rapping about real shit, life struggles, music you can relate to, etc., but that doesn't make me appreciate his fucked up stuff any less.
Ok, now that I've given some context, let's jump straight to the meat. I really believe that the songs that I mentioned before are Eminem at his best, from a lyrical, flow, creativity perspective. You can name any song from his "prime" (as some like to call 'em) and I think that these songs are easily on par, if not above.
Let's start with 3 A.M. Actually, this is the one song that took me the most to appreciate. Quite frankly, when I saw the video I was grossed out (now I think is his best video ever.) This + the Dr. West intro from Relapse are the perfect way to start Em's Dark Twisted Fantasy (Kanye's stuff is a sissie fantasy compared to this). Fucking great song:
"And your in Nightmare
It's HORRIBLE
Right there's the coroner
Waitin for you
To turn the corner
So he can corner ya
Your a goner
He's on ta ya
Out the corner of his cornea
He just saw you run
All you want is to rest
Cause you can't run anymore
Your done"
All these songs have incredible rhyming and some truly fucking outstanding, clever, unlike pretty much anything out there verses. That's my favorite from 3 A.M. Never would have thought that all those words rhymed -- and made sense. Gotta applaud the beat and the chorus too; both add a lot to the song.
Now onto Music Box. "She smells like tacos I wanna eat" aside, this is fantastic story telling. It's also a damn complex, metaphor packed song (some believing that even has to do a lot with his real life). And just like Shady said, you hear the beat and don't wanna go to sleep. Chilling shit and a memorable hook.
I'm in the back, through the back door, slip in
Through the crack leavin' the corpse drippin'
The mortition of love, sent from above,
Forced entry, the more wenchy, the more stingy I become
Been doin' this for more than a quarter century, I'm just numb
Am I dreamin', is it real? Someone pinch me on the buns
The time has come to tie her up, gotta roll me the ladder
I'd had enough of the chatter, climb up to the window, look at her
And climb in and slowly shatter her brain matter and batter her
with the bat, a matter of fact that will splatter her
But before I do that, I'll have a chat to flatter her
Give her two compliments, back-to-back, like Tabatha!
I'm your secret admirer, I'm back to ravish ya
Class.
Buffalo Bill was the perfect sequel to Stay Wide Awake, obviously not as good, but still incredible. Since the beat kicks in you just know you are in for a treat. I don't know what is it but Dre and Eminem shine like a thousand suns when it comes to make this horrorcore shit. Listen to that beat and tell me that it doesn't pierce your skull and stays in your mind for long after you listened the song.
"now here I come again, damn stomach rumbling,
you can even hear the evil spirits coming from within,
someones in, the back of my damn house rummaging,
its a girl, she looks pretty thin but I want her skin,
been on the hunt again, when will it ever end,
Evelyn why you trying to fight you will never win,
severing legs, arms, damn there goes another limb,
pull the lever then trap door, death is evident"
Eminem fell off my ass. Everytime I hear this I wonder, who but Em can think of something so beautifully constructed, maniacally twisted as this shit?
I heard someone say, on this fucking forum, that Insane is as embarrassing as "Ass Like That". I was so appalled, I mean, this shit is fucking ridiculous. I called this Eminem's most underrated song ever, and this is why:
"Did you get him?" Naaw, fucker tried to bite my face off I just got fuckin' chased off with a chainsaw
Then he took the chainsaw, bit the fuckin' blades off
Ate the blades, stuck a baseball in a slingshot
Then he aimed at his own face, let the thing pop
Took his eye out, picked it up and played ping pong
Then he played ping pong with his own ding dong
That motherfucker's got nuts like King Kong Then he set the lawn mower out on the dang lawn
And he laid all up underneath it with the thing on
Then he took his pants, he took every fuckin' thing off
Everything, except his tank top and his training bra
Ain't he raw? Yeah maniac, that's Shady dog
Man that motherfucker's gangsta, ain't he dog
Shady dog, what be going through that fuckin' brain of yours
Say no more, what the fuck you waitin' for, sing along"
Absolutely and utterly insane. Flawless.
And of course, the very best of the best: Stay Wide Awake. People love their Rock Bottoms, and Stans, and Sing for the Moments. Stay Wide Awake is my shit. I mean, this is the song I can, for real, write paragraphs about. Fuck, I could even write a 5 page paper explaining why is it so fucking incredible. Let's start with the beat. I can't think of a more haunting, creepy, memorable beat than this one. And I remember critics saying that Dre's production on Relapse was "outdated" and worse than his Kingdom Come stuff. Aurally, this song is phenomenal. The imagery is so vivid you can almost feel like you are watching everything Shady is doing. The hook is one of Eminem's best, like the beat, haunting and chilling. But the real meat of SWA's is in the 3 flawless verses. This is song doesn't waste a fucking second; it's memorable line after memorable line after incredible rhyming after insane punchline.
"So dark and so cold
My friends don't know this other side of me
There's a monster inside of me
It's quite ugly and it frigh-tens me
But they can't see what I can see
There's a vacancy in my tummy
It's making me play hide and seek
Like Jason, I'm so hungry
She's naked, see no privacy
But I can see she wants me
So patient see, I try to be, but gee, why does she taunt me?
Close the drapes and she goes right to sleep, and I creep right through the front seat
So blatantly but silently cause I know that she's sound asleep
Who's waking me so violently, and why's he on top of me?
He's raping me, she tries to scream, somebody please get him off me
He's taping me, he's biting me, he's laughing like it's funny
She's scraping me, she's fighting me, she's scratching like some dumb freak
Escaping me, no die she see, I might just be Ted Bundy
Or Satan gee, what a sight to see, I'm dancing in my red panties
I'm crazy but it's alright with me, man life can be so empty
Stay away from me cause I'm dancing to quite a different drum beat "
There are no words.
I still remember the moment this song "clicked" with me. I was like, yeah, shit's good.
Like I said earlier, the other reason why some can't stand these songs is because of the "accent." I think the accent fits all of these PERFECTLY. It shows how mentally ill (in a good sense) Eminem is, it gives them variety and character, and it helps creating rhymes that otherwise would not sound right.
Now I know this is longer than an EminemBase post, but I hope you read at least some of it.
For those who skipped the whole thing, what are your opinions about Em's horrorcore?
It's a crime against humanity that we won't hear Relapse 2, which probably had more of this top tier material.
and i love the Horrorcore em 
