BulletProof
Just a B@stard Living in a Suit
The stories from his older days were interesting.
Eminem Breaks down his bars on Rap Genius
- Thread starter Jimmy ValenTime
- Start date
Rell84shots
Veteran
You don't need to be a genius to break down most of Em's rhymes, I mean he can spit but he's not as complex as some make him out to be.
Jimmy ValenTime
A really good Lawyer
Lose Your Self + Demo version
[Intro] Eminem – Lose Yourself
When we were making 8 Mile, I was revisiting this old CD from two years before, going through old loops. I found the “Lose Yourself” demo on this session where me and Jeff Bass were just making beats. Jeff was just sitting on those guitar chords, and then it went into something different. I was just like “Yo, that section, right there, I gotta make a beat out of that.” I recorded the demo version of it the same day I made the beat. I didn’t like the rhyme, and put it off to the side.
But it’s one of those beats I never gave up on. That beat was definitely a highlight of my producing. I ended up doing the new version on the set of the movie, just writing between takes.
8 Mile wasn’t coming out for another year and a half, and Curtis really wanted music for the movie. He wanted it to be created from the environment, so he was pushing me to make stuff. I think “Lose Yourself” was the only thing I worked on specifically for the movie.
We filmed half of it in the dead of winter. We had a music trailer on set, designed like a studio. One trailer was music, and we had another with gym equipment in it.
We were on lunch break, and I needed to finish the track. I don’t think it was one take all the way down, but it was one take each verse. “Got the first verse, okay, punch me in at the second. OK, the whole third verse.” For some reason, I just captured something there that I didn’t want to change. I remember trying to change it and go back and re-do the vocals, and I was like “Yo, let me listen to the old ones? Just keep the old ones, fukk it.”
God only knows, he's grown farther from home, he's no father He goes home and barely knows his own daughter Eminem – Lose Yourself
Maybe people are just thinking father rhymes with daughter or something. But it’s about repeating a pattern. The trick is to get the pattern to hit on the same beat — “grown farther,” “own daughter,” the “knows” and “goes,” like that.
Food stamps don't buy diapers, and there's no movie There's no Mekhi Phifer, this is my life Eminem – Lose Yourself
Putting the name of the actor right there in the lead single was just about the rhymes. I had started with this syllable scheme — “somebody’s paying the pied piper” and “Mekhi Phifer” ended up fitting. That was all it was.
That was one of those songs where I remember telling Paul, “I don’t know how to write about someone else’s life.” Because the movie is not me, the movie is Jimmy Smith Jr. So I’m playing this character, but I have to make parallels between my life and his, in this song. I gotta figure out how to reach a medium. It would sound so corny if I was just rapping as Jimmy Smith Jr. How is that going to come from a real place?
If I’m telling you that my daughter doesn’t have diapers, I need this amount of money to pay my bills this month, and it’s some real shyt I’m telling you, then you know that it’s just coming from me. That was the trick I had to figure out — how to make the rhyme sound like him, and then morph into me somehow, so you see the parallels between his struggles and mine.
His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy There's vomit on his sweater already: mom's spaghetti Eminem – Lose Yourself
The first verse is all about Jimmy Smith Jr. It’s me talking about Jimmy Smith Jr. — like, I’m not saying my sweater, I’m saying his. I’m trying to show you what his life is about.
The Demo
[Intro] Eminem – Lose Yourself (Original Demo Version)
This is going to sound stupid, but I have no recollection of the demo version on Shady XV. Paul remembers me doing that but I don’t know where I recorded it, I don’t even know when I recorded it. I did a lot of drugs, so my memory is all over the place.
Cause when we descend together, we begin to move as one In perfect unison just like the moon and sun Eminem – Lose Yourself (Original Demo Version)
This is the only rhyme I remember. It’s the only line that sounds remotely familiar to me.
[Intro] Eminem – Lose Yourself
When we were making 8 Mile, I was revisiting this old CD from two years before, going through old loops. I found the “Lose Yourself” demo on this session where me and Jeff Bass were just making beats. Jeff was just sitting on those guitar chords, and then it went into something different. I was just like “Yo, that section, right there, I gotta make a beat out of that.” I recorded the demo version of it the same day I made the beat. I didn’t like the rhyme, and put it off to the side.
But it’s one of those beats I never gave up on. That beat was definitely a highlight of my producing. I ended up doing the new version on the set of the movie, just writing between takes.
8 Mile wasn’t coming out for another year and a half, and Curtis really wanted music for the movie. He wanted it to be created from the environment, so he was pushing me to make stuff. I think “Lose Yourself” was the only thing I worked on specifically for the movie.
We filmed half of it in the dead of winter. We had a music trailer on set, designed like a studio. One trailer was music, and we had another with gym equipment in it.
We were on lunch break, and I needed to finish the track. I don’t think it was one take all the way down, but it was one take each verse. “Got the first verse, okay, punch me in at the second. OK, the whole third verse.” For some reason, I just captured something there that I didn’t want to change. I remember trying to change it and go back and re-do the vocals, and I was like “Yo, let me listen to the old ones? Just keep the old ones, fukk it.”
God only knows, he's grown farther from home, he's no father He goes home and barely knows his own daughter Eminem – Lose Yourself
Maybe people are just thinking father rhymes with daughter or something. But it’s about repeating a pattern. The trick is to get the pattern to hit on the same beat — “grown farther,” “own daughter,” the “knows” and “goes,” like that.
Food stamps don't buy diapers, and there's no movie There's no Mekhi Phifer, this is my life Eminem – Lose Yourself
Putting the name of the actor right there in the lead single was just about the rhymes. I had started with this syllable scheme — “somebody’s paying the pied piper” and “Mekhi Phifer” ended up fitting. That was all it was.
That was one of those songs where I remember telling Paul, “I don’t know how to write about someone else’s life.” Because the movie is not me, the movie is Jimmy Smith Jr. So I’m playing this character, but I have to make parallels between my life and his, in this song. I gotta figure out how to reach a medium. It would sound so corny if I was just rapping as Jimmy Smith Jr. How is that going to come from a real place?
If I’m telling you that my daughter doesn’t have diapers, I need this amount of money to pay my bills this month, and it’s some real shyt I’m telling you, then you know that it’s just coming from me. That was the trick I had to figure out — how to make the rhyme sound like him, and then morph into me somehow, so you see the parallels between his struggles and mine.
His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy There's vomit on his sweater already: mom's spaghetti Eminem – Lose Yourself
The first verse is all about Jimmy Smith Jr. It’s me talking about Jimmy Smith Jr. — like, I’m not saying my sweater, I’m saying his. I’m trying to show you what his life is about.
The Demo
[Intro] Eminem – Lose Yourself (Original Demo Version)
This is going to sound stupid, but I have no recollection of the demo version on Shady XV. Paul remembers me doing that but I don’t know where I recorded it, I don’t even know when I recorded it. I did a lot of drugs, so my memory is all over the place.
Cause when we descend together, we begin to move as one In perfect unison just like the moon and sun Eminem – Lose Yourself (Original Demo Version)
This is the only rhyme I remember. It’s the only line that sounds remotely familiar to me.
Jimmy ValenTime
A really good Lawyer
Working with Dr. Dre the first time on My name is
Slim Shady Eminem – My Name Is
Dre put on the Labi Siffre record, and I was just like “Hi! My name is!” That beat was talking to me. I was like, “Yo, this is it, this is my shot. If I don’t impress this guy, I’m going back home and I’m fukked.” I knew Dre wasn’t an easy person to please. I made sure that everything he had a beat for, I had a rhyme ready to go, or I came up with a rhyme on the spot.
“My Name Is” was the first thing that came out of my mouth that first day I was at Dre’s house. I don’t know if we released what I did the first day or if I re-did it, but it was basically the same. I didn’t understand punching, or believe in it. So I would just go from the top of the song all the way down. I was never flying in hooks. Everything was live, one take. If I got all the way to the fukking end, and messed up the last word, I’d be like “Run it back, let’s do it again.” I remember Dre was like “Yo, are you fukking crazy? Let’s just punch.” I didn’t like that concept because I wasn’t used to it. When we were recording here in Detroit, in the beginning, I was saving up my money to go in. We only had an hour, you know? I’m like “One take down, alright, let’s go to the next song. fukk it.” That’s what I was used to.
“My Name Is” was the first song we recorded. We recorded three or four that day, in like six hours. One song was called “Ghost Stories” and one was “When Hell Freezes Over.” I feel like there was one more but I can’t remember what it was. We always have this discussion, because Dre says it’s four.
Paul used to live in New Jersey, right across from Manhattan. He had an apartment he shared with three roommates. I was over, sleeping on the couch. We didn’t have money yet, really. We had already filmed the video, and we saw it for the first time on MTV. It came on really late at night. I was sleeping on the couch when Paul saw it for the first time.
That’s when it was like, “Okay, this isn’t a joke anymore.” We had kind of felt that, being in the studio with Dre and shyt. But once that single came out, my life changed like that. Within a day. Just going outside. I couldn’t go outside anymore. In a day. It went from the day before, doing whatever the fukk I wanted to do, because nobody knew who the fukk I was, to holy shyt, people are fukking following us. It was crazy. That’s when shyt just got really — it was a lot to deal with at once.
Right after the first single came out, I did a signing at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square. While I was there, I got served by a court processor. They knew where I’d be, and they had to physically serve me. The guy got tackled. He was stupid. You don’t need to physically serve someone anymore, like in the movies. But the guy was being a cowboy. It was some lawsuit from my mother, I think.
Slim Shady Eminem – My Name Is
Dre put on the Labi Siffre record, and I was just like “Hi! My name is!” That beat was talking to me. I was like, “Yo, this is it, this is my shot. If I don’t impress this guy, I’m going back home and I’m fukked.” I knew Dre wasn’t an easy person to please. I made sure that everything he had a beat for, I had a rhyme ready to go, or I came up with a rhyme on the spot.
“My Name Is” was the first thing that came out of my mouth that first day I was at Dre’s house. I don’t know if we released what I did the first day or if I re-did it, but it was basically the same. I didn’t understand punching, or believe in it. So I would just go from the top of the song all the way down. I was never flying in hooks. Everything was live, one take. If I got all the way to the fukking end, and messed up the last word, I’d be like “Run it back, let’s do it again.” I remember Dre was like “Yo, are you fukking crazy? Let’s just punch.” I didn’t like that concept because I wasn’t used to it. When we were recording here in Detroit, in the beginning, I was saving up my money to go in. We only had an hour, you know? I’m like “One take down, alright, let’s go to the next song. fukk it.” That’s what I was used to.
“My Name Is” was the first song we recorded. We recorded three or four that day, in like six hours. One song was called “Ghost Stories” and one was “When Hell Freezes Over.” I feel like there was one more but I can’t remember what it was. We always have this discussion, because Dre says it’s four.
Paul used to live in New Jersey, right across from Manhattan. He had an apartment he shared with three roommates. I was over, sleeping on the couch. We didn’t have money yet, really. We had already filmed the video, and we saw it for the first time on MTV. It came on really late at night. I was sleeping on the couch when Paul saw it for the first time.
That’s when it was like, “Okay, this isn’t a joke anymore.” We had kind of felt that, being in the studio with Dre and shyt. But once that single came out, my life changed like that. Within a day. Just going outside. I couldn’t go outside anymore. In a day. It went from the day before, doing whatever the fukk I wanted to do, because nobody knew who the fukk I was, to holy shyt, people are fukking following us. It was crazy. That’s when shyt just got really — it was a lot to deal with at once.
Right after the first single came out, I did a signing at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square. While I was there, I got served by a court processor. They knew where I’d be, and they had to physically serve me. The guy got tackled. He was stupid. You don’t need to physically serve someone anymore, like in the movies. But the guy was being a cowboy. It was some lawsuit from my mother, I think.
TrifeGod
Chasing The Dragon
No disrespect....disrespect but breaking down Ems bars?
Is that really needed?
Is that really needed?
Jimmy ValenTime
A really good Lawyer
Just dont give a fukk and the birth of the Slim Shady Persona
Slim Shady, Eminem was the old initials (bye bye!) Eminem – Just Don't Give a fukk
Coming out with an alias was part of Proof’s whole idea. He said, “Let’s be in a group called D12, and there will be six of us, and we’ll each have an alias. We’ll each be two different people.” When I started rapping as Shady, as that character, it was a way for me to vent all my frustrations and just blame it on him. If anybody got mad about it, it was him that said it, you know what I’m saying? It was a way for me to be myself and say what I felt. I never wanted to go back to just rapping regular again.
I'm buzzin', dirty Dozen, naughty rotten rhymer Eminem – Just Don't Give a fukk
I brought the material to Proof and the rest of the guys in D-12. Proof had the idea like, “Yo, let’s all rap like ‘fukk the world’.” That’s when I feel like I started rounding a corner. Whenever we’d make D12 songs, it was just staying on that page, that same page. I felt like it was a way to getting everything out that I wanted to say.
So put my tape back on the rack Go run and tell your friends my shyt is wack Eminem – Just Don't Give a fukk
When we put Infinite out, it was local. We pressed up under a thousand, initially. We expected we’d be able to get something with it, though. When that didn’t happen, it was really deflating. People were saying that I sounded like AZ and Nas. I was upset. Not to say that I didn’t love AZ and Nas, but for a rapper to be compared to someone, for people to say that you sound like someone else — nobody wants that. I had to go back to the drawing board. So I remember getting mad. I was like, “I’m gonna rap like I don’t care anymore. fukk it.” I started to write angry songs like “Just Don’t Give a fukk.”
Slim Shady, Eminem was the old initials (bye bye!) Eminem – Just Don't Give a fukk
Coming out with an alias was part of Proof’s whole idea. He said, “Let’s be in a group called D12, and there will be six of us, and we’ll each have an alias. We’ll each be two different people.” When I started rapping as Shady, as that character, it was a way for me to vent all my frustrations and just blame it on him. If anybody got mad about it, it was him that said it, you know what I’m saying? It was a way for me to be myself and say what I felt. I never wanted to go back to just rapping regular again.
I'm buzzin', dirty Dozen, naughty rotten rhymer Eminem – Just Don't Give a fukk
I brought the material to Proof and the rest of the guys in D-12. Proof had the idea like, “Yo, let’s all rap like ‘fukk the world’.” That’s when I feel like I started rounding a corner. Whenever we’d make D12 songs, it was just staying on that page, that same page. I felt like it was a way to getting everything out that I wanted to say.
So put my tape back on the rack Go run and tell your friends my shyt is wack Eminem – Just Don't Give a fukk
When we put Infinite out, it was local. We pressed up under a thousand, initially. We expected we’d be able to get something with it, though. When that didn’t happen, it was really deflating. People were saying that I sounded like AZ and Nas. I was upset. Not to say that I didn’t love AZ and Nas, but for a rapper to be compared to someone, for people to say that you sound like someone else — nobody wants that. I had to go back to the drawing board. So I remember getting mad. I was like, “I’m gonna rap like I don’t care anymore. fukk it.” I started to write angry songs like “Just Don’t Give a fukk.”
bruh you already linked to the fukkin page you don't need to keep replying to your own thread to paste every single one. nobody cares that much.
Jimmy ValenTime
A really good Lawyer
No disrespect....disrespect but breaking down Ems bars?
the oldschool stories are interesting
Jimmy ValenTime
A really good Lawyer
Jimmy ValenTime
A really good Lawyer
Talks about losing the rap Olympics
Look, look Eminem (Ft. Papa Doc) – 8 Mile: Final Battle
This is Rabbit’s battle, not mine. I had a big battle of my own, and it was definitely not like Rabbit’s.
We had pressed up The Slim Shady EP and it was doing pretty well in Detroit. At some point, Wendy Day called me and said “I want you to be on the battle team. I got you a ticket to the Rap Olympics in LA.”
I went to the Olympics, got all the way to the end, and then lost to the last guy. The guy who won was Otherwize, from LA. It was a local thing. They had a bunch of crowd support there. When I rapped, he went and hid behind a video screen. He walked away while I was rapping. I didn’t have anyone to battle! I’d never been in a situation like that before. I went through a lot of people to get through to the end, and then he walked away while I was rapping. I’m like, “What the fukk do I do?” I was devastated.
I come off stage. I’m like, that’s it. It’s over for me. This kid from Interscope, Dean Geistlinger, walks over and he asks me for a copy of the CD. So I kind of just chuck it at him. It was The Slim Shady EP. We come back to Detroit, I have no fukking home, no idea what I’m gonna do. Then, a couple weeks later, we get a call. Marky Bass said, “Yo, we got a call from a doctor!”
eminem always does this face in interviews
; this is prob most candid hes been
Look, look Eminem (Ft. Papa Doc) – 8 Mile: Final Battle
This is Rabbit’s battle, not mine. I had a big battle of my own, and it was definitely not like Rabbit’s.
We had pressed up The Slim Shady EP and it was doing pretty well in Detroit. At some point, Wendy Day called me and said “I want you to be on the battle team. I got you a ticket to the Rap Olympics in LA.”
I went to the Olympics, got all the way to the end, and then lost to the last guy. The guy who won was Otherwize, from LA. It was a local thing. They had a bunch of crowd support there. When I rapped, he went and hid behind a video screen. He walked away while I was rapping. I didn’t have anyone to battle! I’d never been in a situation like that before. I went through a lot of people to get through to the end, and then he walked away while I was rapping. I’m like, “What the fukk do I do?” I was devastated.
I come off stage. I’m like, that’s it. It’s over for me. This kid from Interscope, Dean Geistlinger, walks over and he asks me for a copy of the CD. So I kind of just chuck it at him. It was The Slim Shady EP. We come back to Detroit, I have no fukking home, no idea what I’m gonna do. Then, a couple weeks later, we get a call. Marky Bass said, “Yo, we got a call from a doctor!”
eminem always does this face in interviews
; this is prob most candid hes been
dirty_yo
hired help
Ask him to break down Foolish Pride and So Many Styles 
http://genius.com/Eminem-foolish-pride-lyrics
http://genius.com/Eminem-so-many-styles-lyrics
I wonder what the deep meaning behind this shyt was
http://genius.com/Eminem-foolish-pride-lyrics
http://genius.com/Eminem-so-many-styles-lyrics
I wonder what the deep meaning behind this shyt was
Jimmy ValenTime
A really good Lawyer
Eminem Show
[Verse 1] Eminem – Sing for the Moment
This is where I was dealing with critics who didn’t understand why people were identifying with me. I realized I was becoming like the rappers that I looked up to as a kid. I identified with and loved LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys. I felt like if everybody didn’t understand their music, it didn’t matter — they were speaking to me. So that’s what I was trying to make people realize on this track. I may not be shyt to you, but there’s a kid in fukking Nebraska, or somewhere, that I’m talking to. I don’t care if you’re listening, because he’s listening. That’s who I’m directing my material at.
[Intro] Eminem – White America
I always wanted to make sure that people knew what I was doing. That’s part of what Paul’s role was in the skits. He was the adult. We wanted people to know that we knew this shyt was fukked up and pushing the envelope, but that there was still a voice of reason somewhere.
Songs like “White America” and “Cleanin’ out my Closet,” those aren’t really Shady. So I thought, “I’m going to call this album The Eminem Show. This is me as the rapper, not as the character.”
[Verse 1] Eminem – Sing for the Moment
This is where I was dealing with critics who didn’t understand why people were identifying with me. I realized I was becoming like the rappers that I looked up to as a kid. I identified with and loved LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys. I felt like if everybody didn’t understand their music, it didn’t matter — they were speaking to me. So that’s what I was trying to make people realize on this track. I may not be shyt to you, but there’s a kid in fukking Nebraska, or somewhere, that I’m talking to. I don’t care if you’re listening, because he’s listening. That’s who I’m directing my material at.
[Intro] Eminem – White America
I always wanted to make sure that people knew what I was doing. That’s part of what Paul’s role was in the skits. He was the adult. We wanted people to know that we knew this shyt was fukked up and pushing the envelope, but that there was still a voice of reason somewhere.
Songs like “White America” and “Cleanin’ out my Closet,” those aren’t really Shady. So I thought, “I’m going to call this album The Eminem Show. This is me as the rapper, not as the character.”
Jimmy ValenTime
A really good Lawyer
Ask him to break down Foolish Pride
http://genius.com/Eminem-foolish-pride-lyrics
I wonder what the deep meaning behind this shyt was
he wont go there and they wont ask him .. wonder why
dirty_yo
hired help
i guess he could talk about the dualities of interpolating biz markie to make a racist anthem :mjtaylor:he wont go there and they wont ask him .. wonder why
DontEemTry
Superstar
Did he break down
"Now you get to watch her leave/
Out the window, guess that's why they call it window pane/pain"
"Now you get to watch her leave/
Out the window, guess that's why they call it window pane/pain"