The 10 Best Eminem Songs Since His Comeback

October 30, 2013 - 4:50 pm by M.T. Richards

The genius of Eminem is that he reinvents himself yearly (or bi-yearly), rarely settling on one shtick for longer than it takes to court a new demographic. The Slim Shady LP in 1999 was an observational comedy classic with shades of Slick Rick and Posdnuos. Then came the angry, anti-authoritarian Marshall Mathers LP.

After a few albums of woebegone introspection came the slasher-flick fun of 2009’s craven Relapse. The following year’s Recovery struck a more inspirational tone, with evangelical power balladry and galvanizing choruses.

Em’s chameleon act has paid off extraordinarily handsomely: he speaks to many different people for many different reasons, cutting a broad enough swath across the music-listening world that 100+ million records sold isn’t an implausible figure. Today his influence in hip-hop is vast, from science-dropping technical wizards like Yelawolf to voices-of-a-generation like Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, The Creator.

Five years ago, Em rid himself of an addiction to prescription sedatives. For a while, he’d been making arid, serotonin-depleted music because of the pills, but his recent work is exponentially more upbeat; regardless of how well they sit with first-gen believers, triumphal Billboard smashes like “Not Afraid” and “Berzerk” suggest a new lease on life. But even those two songs are wildly, aesthetically different. Em can never get too comfortable in one lane.

With Eminem’s seventh studio album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2, slated for release on Nov. 5, here we count down the 10 best songs since his 2008-2009 comeback.

Photo Credit: thisisfakedly

10) “Slaughtahouse (Remix)” (2008) Em is a capable, even great producer when his heart is in it. Here, he improves on Masta Ace’s G-funk-skewering 1993 hit “Slaughtahouse” with machete-sharp drum kicks and evilly cackling synths. A most appropriate precursor for what was to come on the bad-vibey Relapse. [videoembed size="full_width" alignment="center"][/videoembed] Photo Credit: xxlmag

9) “Rap God” (2013) Hip-hop’s least sparing social critic asks some more tough questions (“Who thinks their arms are long enough to slapbox?”) on the hookless but hilarious “Rap God.” Over six minutes of scuffed-up piano, Em spits treacherous ether—uninterrupted save for an impersonation of Busta Rhymes and a riff on Hotstylz’ “Lookin’ Boy.” [videoembed size="full_width" alignment="center"][/videoembed] Photo Credit: allhiphop

8) “Roman’s Revenge” (2010) Em goes mano a mano with the big-haired, gum-smacking Nicki Minaj on this class cut from Minaj’s Pink Friday. In truth, though, the skonking, insanely hype beat is reason enough to fuck with “Roman's Revenge.” [videoembed size="full_width" alignment="center"][/videoembed] Photo Credit: respectmag

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7) “I’m Having a Relapse” (2008) In late 2008, Shady shook off his pill-dependent cobwebs and reemerged with a thoroughly enlivened freestyle called “I’m Having a Relapse.” Em’s Aladdin-like cadence here is so off the wall it would make Kool Keith do a double take. The supposedly humorless MC even pokes fun at the addiction that had so stymied him for so long: “It seems like everyday, I get a little flakier/The medication is making my hands a little shakier.” [videoembed size="full_width" alignment="center"][/videoembed] Photo Credit: urbankompass

6) “Beautiful” (2009) Em has always been a sucker for the sappiness and loud-quiet-loud dynamics of classic rock—he sampled Aerosmith on “Sing For the Moment” and Ozzy Osborne on “Goin’ Through Changes.” The chorused-out, guitar-heavy “Beautiful” is crybaby catnip, achieving an irresistibility unique to the Boomer rock gods of the ’70s. Waterworks have their place, too. [videoembed size="full_width" alignment="center"][/videoembed] Photo Credit: blograpnews

5) “Old Times’ Sake” (2009) Dr. Dre brought out the best in his fairer-skinned muse on “Guilty Conscience” and “What’s the Difference?” Relapse’s “Old Times’ Sake” doesn’t quite scale those same heights, but it’s great fun all the same. For those blackly funny few minutes, it’s like 1999 never ended. [videoembed size="full_width" alignment="center"][/videoembed] Photo Credit: localdistribution

4) “Drop the World” (2010) This was Em’s pre-jail parting gift to Lil Wayne: a thrashing headbanger with not one, but two murderous verses from the Blonde Bomber. Em spits the “rude, lucrative lyrics” of his renegade past life—and just as impressive, Wayne keeps up. [videoembed size="full_width" alignment="center"][/videoembed] Photo Credit: blogspot

3) “Chemical Warfare” (2009) “Got an axe in the duffle bag/Couple of fags/Stuffed in the backseat/Muzzled and gagged,” begins Eminem’s jaunt on “Chemical Warfare.” The Marshall Mathers LP-like strings and horns (courtesy of longtime tour DJ Alchemist) do Em ample favors. For perhaps one of the first times since MMLP itself, Em sounded truly possessed and in unfeigned love with the mastery of words. [videoembed size="full_width" alignment="center"][/videoembed] Photo Credit: NPR

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2) “Déjà vu” (2009) Relapse is set in a suburban Detroit mansion where rape, murder and false imprisonment are nightly realities. Everyone is a pawn in one of Em and consigliore Dr. Dre’s many mazelike mind games. “Déjà vu,” though, refreshingly deviates from the album’s campy norm. Eminem the character bows out; Marshall Mathers the man faces up to the hard, real-life truths of his fragile sobriety. [videoembed size="full_width" alignment="center"][/videoembed] Photo Credit: mlive

1) “Talkin’ 2 Myself” (2010) Recovery, Em’s Grammy-sweeping, NA-themed 2010 album, has some problems: a great many of its tracks are miserly, marathonic in length and indebted to the cheesiest practitioners of emo and metal. “Talkin’ 2 Myself,” though, is admirably candid and self-critical. “You’re lying to yourself/You’re denying you need help/Your self-esteem is declining with your health,” Em raps. Maybe “Talkin’ 2 Myself” is too sentimental for some and maybe it exists to beget the fandom of Dr. Phil viewers, but that subtract from the song’s very real power. [videoembed size="full_width" alignment="center"][/videoembed] Photo Credit: hollywoodreporter

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