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[07 Dec 2004|07:15pm] |
I finally got around to reading the review of Eminem's new album. Here are my favorite highlights:
"When Eminem's rhymes click, they feel both musically calibrated and lexically tuned, the careful work of someone who loves language and has crumpled up a lot of paper trying to figure out how, and where, words fit together."
I've always defended Eminem on this account. As someone obsessed with scansion, especially of the Shakespearean make, I appreciate his tragically misused talent that my other favorite whiny white rappers, The Beastie Boys, lacked. Or, I should say, lack since they've recently come out with another album to underwhelm us all. (They're mentioned in the beginning of the article, actually.)
"But on 'The Eminem Show,' his third major-label album, Eminem's scansion was being squashed by his personality. No longer the underdog, he sounded like Al Pacino is 'Scarface,' paranoid and entitled." [Emphasis added.]
I might be tempted to try to listen to the album, but I know that it will no doubt feel like Sasha Frere-Jones describes:
"Listening to it is like being hit in the arm by someone's little brother forty-five times in a row."
It's too bad the Eminem can't get his head out of his nether regions and let his talent for metered verse take him, and us, somewhere real.
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