What's the best Eminem song?

[king2vo]

Maybe not his best but my favourite

 

 

[J Dog]

27 minutes ago, wasted said:

They aren't really hip hop songs. I'm just talking about how a genre is formed. In term of evolution of a genre, it must evolve from certain elements but who presses stop snd says this is it, and why? Is it around the time it gets first big relative success or just before? 

I think it's more just feeling than success. Biggie sold 5 million, big success doesn't mean it's not rap. It's more of just a feel really. Songs like Beautiful and Monster just sound like straight up pop music to me. Nothing wrong with that. But anybody could've written them. These big general uplifting songs. Not just anybody can write Soldier or Just Don't Give a Fuck. Hip hop needs that bit of street knowledge or harsh reality, even if it's just  bubbling in the background. Listen to Biggie, Juicy and let's say Sky's the Limit, that's his two big uplifting songs. There's a difference between that and Survival.

[wasted]

1 hour ago, J Dog said:

I think it's more just feeling than success. Biggie sold 5 million, big success doesn't mean it's not rap. It's more of just a feel really. Songs like Beautiful and Monster just sound like straight up pop music to me. Nothing wrong with that. But anybody could've written them. These big general uplifting songs. Not just anybody can write Soldier or Just Don't Give a Fuck. Hip hop needs that bit of street knowledge or harsh reality, even if it's just  bubbling in the background. Listen to Biggie, Juicy and let's say Sky's the Limit, that's his two big uplifting songs. There's a difference between that and Survival.

I understand that, the parameters of genre. But who decides. And in the evolution towards it where do you draw the line. Would you include Grand master flash on the way in or Kanye/Em on the way out? I'm not saying it has to be successful to be hip hop but did street knowledge become hip hop because it was successful? Success is when you start drawing up genres. 

I suppose in a round about way I'm saying someting being hip hop doesn't make it better than anything else. But it does seem like there's a need for new genres, because a lot doesn't fit. There's a kind of more progressive rap or art rap that gets called hip hop which isn't. And there's a pop rap maybe like Em does sometimes, and ASAP Rocky etc. are street but the music is pop, so Hip Pop. 

Edited May 23, 2017 by wasted

[J Dog]

2 hours ago, wasted said:

I understand that, the parameters of genre. But who decides. And in the evolution towards it where do you draw the line. Would you include Grand master flash on the way in or Kanye/Em on the way out? I'm not saying it has to be successful to be hip hop but did street knowledge become hip hop because it was successful? Success is when you start drawing up genres. 

I suppose in a round about way I'm saying someting being hip hop doesn't make it better than anything else. But it does seem like there's a need for new genres, because a lot doesn't fit. There's a kind of more progressive rap or art rap that gets called hip hop which isn't. And there's a pop rap maybe like Em does sometimes, and ASAP Rocky etc. are street but the music is pop, so Hip Pop. 

Hip pop, that sounds pretty good. You need to trademark that.

Im not sure there's an exact answer in who decides. The audience? Like when you see a certain song that hip hop heads don't listen to, but it burns up the pop charts, that kind of tells you who's listening to it. I don't know many hip hop heads that bump Recovery, but yet that was one of the last really big selling albums. The sound too of course. If shit sounds more pop well it's pop.

 But a lot of this is mute these days. Country sounds like rock. Rock and rap sound pop. Plus none of it is too original or great.

Edited May 23, 2017 by J Dog

[wasted]

2 hours ago, J Dog said:

Hip pop, that sounds pretty good. You need to trademark that.

Im not sure there's an exact answer in who decides. The audience? Like when you see a certain song that hip hop heads don't listen to, but it burns up the pop charts, that kind of tells you who's listening to it. I don't know many hip hop heads that bump Recovery, but yet that was one of the last really big selling albums. The sound too of course. If shit sounds more pop well it's pop.

 But a lot of this is mute these days. Country sounds like rock. Rock and rap sound pop. Plus none of it is too original or great.

I'm starting to think Em was never hip hop. Guilty Conscience is pop rap out of the blocks. 

But that's part of what I'm saying, genre conventions are what become pop. Once we all agree, Iron Maiden becomes pop. What pleases us, what's easily digestible is pop. In the 50s Britney Spears would have been this satanic edge queen, probably banned and been outlaw as fuck. Elvis was the devil but now he is a pop icon. 

Also have to consider that from the context of hip hop a lot of stuff is pop. 

Overall it's a paradox to me that to get from A to B there has to be this open mindedness, but as soon as it's successful there's an instinct to close the doors. 

Maybe sometimes it's subtle changes that happen and get accepted. Like if Em came out in the early 90s I'm not sure all the characters and cartoon movie stylings would go down well. In a way I get Stones mid era vibe from Eminem early stuff, it's using comedy and deviance to keep a genre interesting. 

So I guess in relation to this thread, I don't judge Em on his hip hop credentials, so his best song isn't his most hip hop song, it's his crossover appeal, how he can bring skilled rapping and pop hooks together while tackling the dark side. To me anyway. 

Edited May 23, 2017 by wasted

[J Dog]

He definitely came around at the perfect time.

[Len Cnut]

Em' is 100% hip hop and when hes nothing to the pop world anymore it is hip hop where his name and work and credentials will live on.  He has proved late on in his career that he is truly hip hop, maintaining a foothold in that cyphering MCing sphere.

[J Dog]

 

[AxlsFavoriteRose]

1 hour ago, J Dog said:

 

God i love this...."music is magic" and he mentions Tupac. this guy is raw and real and sparks something inside me that makes me hurt but feel alive at the same time...