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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   3087 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 31, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Guess who's back? Back again. Eminem just released his new single "Houdini" today. It's billed as a kind of return to form to his old Slim Shady character. The music video is filled with references to his classics like "Without Me" and "My Name Is." Even his voice sounds like a younger version of himself in parts of the song. Is this just memberberries getting to me? Maybe. I did enjoy it in that early 2000s way though.

I haven't listened to Eminem or the rap genre since around 2010. I've tangentially heard about him in the years (I'm glad he felted MGK so hard that MGK had to change genres). Is the song as good as his late 90s to early 00s era? Maybe this is nostalgia talking, but I don't think so. Something about the song just feels like it's not as raw or groundbreaking as his early work. The lyrics are not as unleashed as they were in the early days. The music video, while good, paused too much in the middle of the song. Now all that being said, it's good. I enjoyed it. The lyrics, while not as hard hitting, are what you'd expect from Eminem. His rhyming is still crisp. He still raps like Eminem, or Slim Shady in this case.

While I'm just someone who used to listen to Eminem in high school or whatever, I think the song is good enough to stand on its own even without the callbacks to his classics. Is this his best work? No. Is it as completely rancid as Relapse? Definitely not. It's good. And that's more than I can say for a lot of the shit that gets released these days.

If any more serious Eminem or even rap fans would like to weigh in, I'd love to hear other opinions.

I had a whole post written here but the gist of it is: this is bad, I dislike listening to it, but for a rap song it's pretty good because I merely dislike it. Generally rap especially of the thug type, especially if originated in Europe makes me feel downright genocidal.

Wondering if rap music fans feel that way about any genre.

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