#rap 101

This guide is designed for people who are not already familiar with rap culture and who also vibe with me, personality-wise. I'm not an expert on anything. I'm just a fan with a lot of opinions. I may put this under a cut later, but tbh I want as many people to learn to love rap as possible, so I'm just gonna leave it eating up your whole feeds for a while, so it's unavoidable LOL. Sorry, not sorry. Inspired by @agentrouka-blog's comment on a recent post of mine, wherein I cannot stop thinking about Eminem. Receipt:

This is gonna take me a while to write, so apologies if by the time it comes out you don't even remember making this comment. LOL

This brings me to my first point:

1. Where to start with rap? Eminem. He is the GOAT.

But Eden, critics say, he's a white guy! And if you know Eminem, even he'd say to start with those who came before him. To them I say, YES. THAT IS WHY YOU MUST START WITH EMINEM. Em had to fight to hard prove himself in the world of rap music, because he isn't Black and, at the time, many (not all) people considered rap to be an exclusively Black genre. Today, there is a lot more tolerance for people of different backgrounds participating in the genre. That said, as someone who is unfamiliar with rap, you must ALWAYS remember and respect that this is a primarily Black art form with deep roots in Black culture. Why, then, is my recommendation for newbies to start with Eminem? A few reasons:

Eminem consistently points you to his predecessors. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of rap history and early hip hop, both in terms of artists and of cultural moments. Listening to his music will literally tell you who else to listen to to learn more.

His skill is unmatched in most categories. You want to learn about lyricism? Rhyme schemes? Metaphor schemes? Cadence? Counterbeats/poly-rhythms? Word bending? Putting doubles, triples, etc. on bars? Cadence? Flow? Diction? Chopping? Fucking internal rhyme schemes?! Diss tracks????????????? There's no one better. Period.

He's a shock rapper, but for a purpose. Em's lyrics will probably upset you. They should, at some point. He has some songs I refuse to listen to (Nobody listen to "Kim," unless you're already deep into his backlog and want to brush up on lore. He doesn't even perform it anymore. Of all his songs, I believe he's said that's the one he regrets most). He pushes the envelope for two main reasons (1) he doesn't go too much further than his predecessors, and he wants you to confront why it matters so much to you when it's coming out of a white guy's mouth rather than a Black guy's. Most of the time it's either because the person so offended is unfamliar with rap history and therefore should be quiet until they famliarize themselves with a culture they are not equipped to comment on OR (2) he is calling you out for putting a different set of expectations on him than on Black artists. For him, that's an unfair set of expectations. But more importantly, for you, he wants you to confront if you simply expect less from Black artists than a white artist, because (if so) that's incredibly racist and you should address it before commenting on him.

2. You mentioned in an earlier post there's a difference between Slim Shady, Eminem, and Marshall Mathers, but I looked it up and they're all the same guy???? Yes and no. (This is gonna be a very brief, high-level overview)

Slim Shady: Eminem's completely unhinged chaos demon alter ego. The most out-of-pocket shit Em ever says is from Slim Shady. You can recognize this era and persona by his short, bleached blonde hair. When Em first came out, he was almost exclusively (ALMOST, I SAID!) rapping as Slim. Slim can be called Slim, Shady, or Slim Shady in his lyrics. He is here to make you uncomfortable and also to make you laugh. He has no pride or shame. He is constantly throwing shade. He is a brat. He is a nuisance. He's like the class clown in elementary school who you know is always gonna be in trouble, but you can't help but like.

Eminem: This is Em as a complete artist. I tend to refer to him as Em, clearly, just cuz its faster to both say and type. He's the bridge between Slim and Marshall, as well as whatever iteration of himself that Em takes into the future. All Slim songs are Em songs, but not all Em songs are Slim songs. I think a good example of an Em song is "Stan." Sure, it's written in his largest Slim era, but he's just telling a story as an artist. While the story itself is shocking, his perspective is as a more well-rounded and less shock-based performer. A lot of his non-diss collabs are also non-Shady Em songs. For instance, "Love the Way You Lie" with Rihanna. "Venom" is a gray area to me, but it seems like an Em song wherein Em writes about Slim AS Venom, but the song POV is Em's.

Marshall Mathers: This is Em at his most emo and philosophical. This is also who Em is outside of being an artist. This is Em's real name (the two Ms are why he calls himself Eminem). I won't say that there's ZERO overlap beween Slim and Marshall, but I will say that the overlap is EXTREMELY SMALL. I would argue that "Cleanin' Out My Closet" is a Marshall song, because he gets deep into his own personal history and feelings without putting on show. While Marshall songs can be hit or miss for me, I deeply respect his work as Marshall even if the lyrics don't hit for me personally 100% of the time. I think his absolute BEST Marshall song by far is "Mockingbird."

3. OK. You've convinced me to listen to Em. Where the fuck to I start? This guy has written so much!!!!! Good. Convincing you was my goal, LOL. Great question! I have a couple of options for you!

The shock-rap route: "White America" off of The Eminem Show. (Personal research/background knowledge required for this route, but only after listening), This is a hard as fuck Slim song from his fourth* studio album, titled The Eminem Show. This album was preceded by, in chronological order, Slim Shady EP, The Slim Shady LP, and The Marshall Mathers LP (Now called the Marshall Mathers LP 1, as he did a sequel later). This album was my own personal introduction to rap as a genre and is what got me hooked. I cannot stress this enough: "Kim" is on this album. Do NOT listen to "Kim." Just...trust me on this. I don't wanna get into it rn. That's a whole other post. ...Anyway, back to "White America," this is Em/Slim at his angriest. To make a very long story short, this song summarizes his extreme anger at censorship, protection of free speech, respect for Black artistry, and disrespect for a system that failed him in every possible way. This song, in my opinion, more than any other song of this era of his career, not only demonstrates rage, but also demonstrates Eminem's RIGHT to that rage and to a platform with which to share it. Eminem was failed by the system in every possible way--abused, neglected, unprotected, ejected from the school system, unsupported by welfare when he urgently needed it, drawn to drugs both from within his household and outside of it, feeling unwelcome in his community and his profession, single parenthood at a young age within a toxic relationship... And through all of this, his lifeline was feeling understood through rap music and being able to creatively and nonviolently express violent feelings through the creation of rap music. So, of course, he popped off when Congress and the FCC started coming after him, trying to stop his shows and tours, destroy his sponsorships, slap parental advisory stickers on his art (when, in his view, he WANTED to talk to kids who were being failed by the same system that failed him. He wanted them to know they weren't alone). In "White America," Em has no respect for authority whatsoever because they haven't earned it. He looks directly into the faces of those in power and tells them that they want to make school shootings and drug problems and whatever other issues that did (and continue to) plague white American youth culture (and youth culture more broadly) his fault. They want to blame his lyrics and his impact. He asserts that his lyrics are the result of a failed system, and his impact is a result of the people in power who refuse to take responsibility for their failure to address the real causes at play. This is not his most technically or lyrically complex song, but I would argue that it is one of his hardest-hitting songs. It is antiracist before antiracism was a mainstream concept. If you want to get into his music for the vibes and emotions and understand the anger behind his early work (which is crucial to understanding and appreciating him as an artist, imho) without having to focus on deciphering bars as a beginner, this is where you need to start. Nobody layers meaning like Em. So, when you have a song that doesn't really do a lot of layering, it's because he has one very clear message, and he wants to make sure you digest every word of it.

In a move that frustrates the fuck out of me to this day, the lyrics in the Music video are censored (DID YOU READ WHAT I JUST WROTE?! FUCKING HELL. THIS SONG??? STILL FUCKING CENSORED?‽‽‽‽!?), but the video is good and important to drive home what he's saying. I recommend listening to the full lyrics and then watching the music video, personally.

Lyrics:

Video:

* Technically, this is his fifth studio album. His first studio album, was called Infinite, but it wasn't produced by Dre, so most people (including me) don't really count it the same way.

Fun fact: This song is directly referenced by Lin-Manuel Miranda in Hamilton in the song "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)." LMM has repeatedly listed Em as a major influence. In Yorktown, Hercules Mulligan says (rough scheme highlighted below):

"We in the shit now, somebody's gotta shovel it."

This is a rephrasing of Em in "White America" to a nearly identical beat and flow:

"I shoveled shit all my life, and now I'm dumpin' it..."

(LMM also references Eminem's lyrics from another song, "Without Me" in "The Schuyler Sisters" in the lyrics "Burr, you disgust me." "Ah, so you've discussed me." This is a flip of Em's lyrics in "Without Me": "Everybody only wants to discuss me. This must mean I'm disgusting.")

2. The technical proficiency/holistic route: "Rap God" off of The Marshall Mathers LP 2. The song itself+Music video:

Listen, there is simply no one video or other explanation that can fully explain this song's lyrical proficiency and complexity. Genius can't fully capture every bar or double. No reactor can capture it all. Knox Hill does the best job out of everyone.

He spends nearly two full hours reacting to every single bar he can catch and explaining every double meaning. Even he still misses some. Even I still miss some, because it's so dense. But that's ok! You can still enjoy it even as just a song you're hearing for the first time. It's just a song that gets deeper and more meaningful every single time you listen to it. The song also contains a lot of lyrics describing specifically who influenced him, rap history prior to him, the people whose careers he destroyed via diss tracks, etc. There are so many avenues introduced in this song for you to start exploring the larger modern and historical world of rap in whatever way that most speaks to you.

If you'd rather focus more on the rhyme and musicality aspect of proficiency, rather than lyricism, just start by trying to digest the complex internal rhyme schemes.

There's a lot more reliable guidance from YouTube when using "Rap God" as your entry point into Em's work and rap in general than there is for "White America." People will straight up just tell you what shit means, why they like it, or the technical aspect of what he's doing. You CAN research on your own, like I recommend with "White America," but there's less research and legwork to find what you need in order to appreciate it fully.

Fun fact!: When it came out in 2013, this song set the Guiness World Record for most words rapped per second. Since then, that record has been broken twice, BOTH TIMES BY EM HIMSELF. First on a Collab with Nicki Minaj called Majesty in 2018, and most recently breaking that 2018 record on his own song "Godzilla" (2020), featuring the late Juice Wrld. He pushed himself to break the record for Godzilla as a way to honor Juice Wrld, who died before recording his feature verse (Juice Wrld did record the chorus to that song). The music video includes some words from JW at the end, a tribute to him, and video of him. Em wanted the world record associated with that song, so that any time people looked up the world record, they'd have to learn about JW. At the end of the day, despite everything, Eminem is a real class act when it matters most.

OK, so! This post is already longer than I intended. So, even though I wanted this to be long and clog your feed, I'm not a monster and will cap it here. The rest of what I wanted to put in this post will have to be a separate post. In your next class (LOL), I'll go into other rappers from other backgrounds that I love and why, as well as detailing who I do not fuck with and why. Teaser: Shout-outs to Missy Elliot, N.W.A, Coolio, Biggie, Tupac, Noga Erez, Snoop, Subliminal, T.A.C.T, Doomtree, Blondie (Yes, Blondie. I said what I said), Sifu Hotman, Skee-Lo, and more! Fuck off to Diddy, MGK, Suge, Kanye, R. Kelly, and Macklemore (and maybe more, I haven't decided yet). Controversial takes on Kendrick, Drake, Cube, Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, and more!