FEATURED FEATURE
(Guest Spots That Steal The Spotlight)
Eminem on Terror Squadâs âLean Back (Remix)â
Eminemâs music is one of those things that I feel like Iâm unable to engage with critically due solely to how present itâs been in my life. There are those certain songs that youâve heard over and over again to the degree that they just become wallpaper. Rather than being actual pieces of music theyâre just these...things. Sonic events that unfold over a couple of minutes in the same way that theyâve unfolded time and time again.
It is, of course, possible to break through such a mental block. In fact, doing so with the Beach Boys is essentially a universal milestone for any music fan. But when it comes to Eminem, Iâve never been able to find the wonder and appreciation Iâve eventually discovered for songs like the Chordettesâ âMr. Sandmanâ or the Whoâs âBaba OâRiley.â I suspect that itâs because Emâs Greatest Rapper Alive stint coincided with my preteen years, an era in which I inhaled music, but hadnât yet developed my own taste. (Peep my P.O.D. and Alien Ant Farm CDs.) So, while Iâm intimate familiar with Emâs music, itâs hard for me to engage with it or be impressed by it.
But maybe thatâs changing. Iâve recently been revisiting Lil Jon & the Eastside Boyzâ early 00âs output, and rediscovered the remix to âLean Backâ that Iâd not thought about in a decade or so. And Iâll be damned if I donât love Emâs verse.
The whole thing sounds like Marshallâs drunk on assonance. Sure, heâs still spitting traditional raps (this is Eminem weâre talking about, after all) but heâs way looser in his deliver that he usually is. Rather than grabbing you by the scruff of the neck and joylessly forcing you to appreciate every syllable, he sounds like heâs actually...having fun? He smudges his way from one vowel to the next, turning the whole verse into a big slurry of schwa sounds.
It might not be the same as really hearing âGood Vibrationsâ for the first time, but it was still a pleasant surprise.
-TWG













