A Shady CD

There occasionally comes a time when you have to look at good art gone bad and simply state the fact. Shouldn't that overcome blind allegiances or does it come off as being disloyal to a brand, a team, an idea and/or a hope? I have came to believe in my life that if something you love is wrong/broke, then you simply are obliged to do something to "fix" it even if it's just commenting on its lack of appeal.

I am a fan of Eminem/Slim Shady/Marshall Mathers.

I do have to say that because thus far the reviews that I've read about Relapse are along the lines of stating the obvious and they seem to be the typical people drawing the typical lines.

" ... musically white-hot, dense, and dramatic ...his flow is so good, his wordplay so sharp, it seems churlish to wish that he addressed something other than his long-standing obsessions and demons"
-Stephen Thomas Erlewine
" ... Relapse's real resonance comes from the fragile, harrowing genius that lies behind that painted-on grin"
-Entertainment Weekly
" ... being insane is simply not a good enough excuse to spread chauvinistic hate-speech like this, especially not when delivered in such a formulaic casing. All in all, Relapse is not much more than a brightly polished turd of old-hat hate, incompatible with the direction society is headed"
-PopMatters
" ... Eminem could have pulled his music into a new category. What he presents is still powerful, but narrowly cast"
-Ann Powers

First thing first...does anyone agree completely with the direction society is heading? Of course not. And how much different is the world as a whole from when The Slim Shady LP was released in 1999? Seems to me that most Americans--while noting that the world doesn't begin and end with America or what its people think--and maybe most of the world would consider it a better place in the 1990s than the first decade of this millennium.

Second, whether you agree with the man or not, I think it's hard to deny that Marshall Mathers is a very capable lyricist regardless of the persona he is using. It shouldn't have ever been WHAT he said but instead of HOW he said it. He'd often rhyme words that were rarely rhymed together, partially because of how he'd pronounce them but also the way he'd use the slang to accentuate his point even further.

Third, it's freakin' Slim Shady! If you're expecting there to be something that's not supposedly controversial or mean or sick or however else you want to describe it, then you're just not using your mind. So instead of commenting on what he's saying, which is always going to be very capable lyrics that are sometimes true, sometimes funny, and always littered with words, phrases or entire verses/songs that will upset GLAAD, feminists, Micheal Jackson, Benzino or other non-threatening entities, maybe you should comment on the direction his approach is headed and what that means for both his career and the genre of music altogether.

The thing about Eminem is that he's had a lot of good nonsingles that are lesser known treasures. I think that's true of most of the great artists. Great hits like Without Me, The Real Slim Shady, Cleanin' Out My Closet, Lose Yourself, The Way I Am, Stan, are really well put together but run a very high chance of being overplayed. All great singles can and often are overplayed--that's what gives them their status. But when an artist can make Kill You, I'm Back, Marshall Mathers, Drips, Say What You Say, all really good nonsingle songs and then add contributions like Forgot About Dre (with Dr. Dre), Go to Sleep (with DMX), and then add D-12 (The Band, How Come, American Psycho II, Purple Pills) and lesser known songs like The Sauce, allows you to see that his greatness does exist.

HOWEVER, what is equally clear to me is that this is an artist that has lost something. His video for We Made You is as hiliarious as so many of his past efforts, but the song falls incredibly short. The bad thing is that it makes Just Lose It seem like it's a good song. And I wonder if maybe there's a common theme in his music now. Encore had fewer of the hits and fewer of the great nonsingles than his previous collective efforts. Actually, the song I like best on that CD isn't even ON the CD! It's on the bonus disc (I bought mine in the Athens, Greece airport!). Love You More is very much in line with the great nonsingles, but there aren't many others on that compliation. When I bought Relapse, I sent a text to a friend and I basically said that the songs are lazy. He's adding weird accents that aren't really funny (like The Real Slim Shady accents) nor do they push the story of the song further (like Stan's voice) and these faux accents are heavily overused to the point of boredom. On Encore, there were a lot of gaps between the listenable songs and there were hardly any good songs whatsoever. And it's gotten even worse in this latest effort. And the music really isn't that good. The rap isn't edgy and it's almost nonexistent because of all of the pop-type of music drowning it out. On 3 a.m., which had the opportunity to be a great song, I could barely tell it was Eminem doing the singing. That is not a good thing. I do not consider myself to really be a fan of rap or hip-hop, but the little that I do like, it's a result of Marshall Mathers. The genre does have many luminaries, so it's not like it needs the very bright light that Eminem used to be.

The problem is that there's a second CD that's coming out later this year. I know it won't happen, but it would be nice if there was some kind of movement that pushed that back if it's anything like the first issue. George Martin was pushing for the White Album to be a single release--instead of the double--featuring all of the great songs while cutting the substandard--and that's in reference to the 10th greatest album of all time (according to Rollingstone). But, if Relapse I gives us any kind of clue as to where Em's music currently is, how do you come up with one super CD out of two subpar ones?

A friend of mine often bashes on my taste in the Beatles, calling them irrelevant. Good music, in my opinion, is never irrelevant. As much as it hurts me to say this, Eminem has become irrelevant.