Eminemnow wrote:Encore is better. Relapse people overrate it because it's his first album in 5 years and they're shitting their pants over new material. Encore had Never Enough, Yellow Brick Road, Like Toy Soldiers, Mosh, Mockingbird, We As Americans, Ricky Ticky Toc & Love You More. Even Puke & Encore/Curtains Down are good songs as well. On Relapse, you have Beautiful, Deja Vu...and what else? I like Bagpipes From Baghdad but it doesn't compare to the good songs from the Encore album. 3 AM, Stay Wide Awake & Must Be The Ganja are also very good songs from the new album. Encore had more serious, songs you could relate to. You can't relate to "My step dad sucked in the bed" or a lot of the other stupid shit that was said on the album. Not to mention his accent. People are going to say, oh the accent, I barely noticed it. It was quite noticeable. Eminem is better when he uses his regular voice. I know he was messing around and trying different flows, but songs like Like Toy Soldiers, Mosh & Mockingbird can't be tarnished with. Amongst all the poppy bullshit on Encore, it still a better album. And he had great flows on previous albums, it's just he improves a little bit each time and gets that much better then everybody else. I'm sorry, I just can't listen to some of the songs on the album too much, especially with the voices he's using. I know Relapse 2 will be 10 times better then Relapse. Relapse was nice, but I prefer Encore, but Relapse 2 could shatter all of that plus more. We'll see.
Well obviously it's all subjective but I think you're totally wrong about
Encore being better.
I've been listening to Em for a decade and am not overrating
Relapse just because it's new. I actually judge Em's stuff a lot harder than others because I expect so much from him.
I was a bit let down by "Chemical Warfare" (the track) for example.
Relapse is awesome though. I'll tell you why I think that, no it's not because it's new and no it's not because I'm a Stan, it's for the following reasons:
Production - The fact that Dre produced all of it bar "Beautiful" gives the whole album a very coherent and solid feeling. Much like
The Eminem Show because it was basically all Em that did that.
I prefer Em's production to Dre's, especially on himself but never the less, Dre did his thing and produced a solid batch of beats for Em.
Lyricism - On
Encore, Em obviously got lazy. There were moments of glory such as "Never Enough" and "Crazy In Love" and even some really interesting innovation on parts of "Rain Man" and "Big Weenie". It was full of irony and tongue in cheek.
He did however bring some half-ass nature to
Encore. The whole album felt like a mixed bag in every sense. Half silly half serious, half Em production, half Dre. It felt more like two mixtapes as apposed to one album. And I know stuff like "Ass Like That" is just him taking the piss and being himself and I like the fact he always does that. But honestly... A track like that should not make an official Eminem album ffs.
The lyricism on
Relapse however is incredible. His wordplay and rhyme schemes are totally magic these days and he's obviously passionate about the craft again as apposed to being passionate about things which don't really matter or contribute to him making great tracks.
When before has he come close to the lyricism of "Stay Wide Awake". Nearly every syllable rhymes, rhymes within rhymes, repetition rhymes, slick vocabulary... He's just become an awe-inspiring poet.
After
The Eminem Show he became too much of an emotional "poor me" rapper. He used to get the balance right but stuff like "When I'm Gone" (which I do like) just became too predictable and sluggish.
Now he sounds totally energized in every direction. Never a dull moment.
Flows - Never before has he stretched himself so much in terms of flows. He shows on
Relapse why he's the best rapper. He can do any flow that any other rapper can do AND better. He can do what any great can do better than they can but they can't do what he can.
Within the space of a few tracks you'd swear you were listening to a different rapper. Not only does he mix it up every album, he mixes it up every track. Never cliche' and always on-point.
Every flow is so polished. No other rapper perfects their flow(s) to the same level. He maximizes the syllable of every sentence and animates every line. Even if he's saying something totally absurd or silly, he puts so much effort and self-belief into the delivery of it, it sounds brilliant.
Most rappers keep one flow for a decade, do more or less the same thing every album then retire. He reinvents himself every album, that's why he's still got all the excitement after a decade. Because you truly never do know what you're gonna get. He could flip the coin at any moment.
Storytelling - A lot of people are saying
Relapse has no substance or gets repetitive with the rapes, killings etc. I'll tell you why it doesn't for me:
When he used to rap about this stuff as Slim Shady, he was still him but just adding some twisted stuff in there for effect / reaction.
Now he's become a totally committed lyrical poet. To the point that he's fully taking form of a mindset and creating mass imagery through every verse. He stays on-point and goes into such profound detail and pyschology. Everything progresses, stuff like "Same Song & Dance" is just dark genius.
He's taking himself out of the picture now. He's spazzing out, creating real art. He's no longer just focusing on his life, he's creating genuinely important lyrical pieces that will stand the test of time more than his other work simply because what he's talking about / delving into is timeless.
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To sum up,
Relapse goes from one brilliant track to the next. The only track which sticks out like a sore thumb is CAB and that never should of made the cut. Had he put "My Darling" as track 2 and "Careful What You Wish For" instead of CAB then it would be a 5/5 album for me. Because he didn't and ended up putting a totally irrelevant party song with an abysmal 50 Cent appearance on an otherwise fantastic piece of horror-rap then it's a 4.
Solid production, excellent lyricism, flawless flows. He's energized and passionate again and he just cares about rhyming and delivery more than anything. The way it should be. If you'd rather listen to him simplistically and slowly bitch about how hard it is to be famous, why Kim's a bitch or how he loves Halie be my guest.
He's thinking bigger now and with this album has (to me at least) created a totally original, interesting and thriving piece of musical art in an industry and genre that is both slumped, boring, repetitive and uninspired. A feat not to be snuffed at in this day and age.
I'd much rather hear some twisted psycho rap in tremendous lyrical detail these days. I don't want a repeat performance, his first four are there to cherish. What he's doing now is great. Can't wait for R2.
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