Eminem
(2 of 2)
When Relapse works, it's usually because Eminem drops the pretense that he wants to be loathed and returns to subjects that actually haunt him. "My mom, my mom/ I know you're probably tired of hearing about my mom," he sighs on "My Mom," and since even people who know almost nothing about Eminem are aware that he and his mother are not close, you prepare for the worst. But rather than self-pitying, the tale of how Mom launched her misbehaving son's drug problems by dosing him with Valium turns out to be tragic, squirm-inducing and funny: "All right, Ma, you win, I don't feel like arguin'/ I'll do it, pop and gobble it and start wobbling/ Stumble, hobble, tumble, slip, drip, then I fall in bed/ With a bottle of meds." It goes without saying that "My Mom" and "Insane"--the latter about the sexual abuse dished out by a nasty stepfather--are horrible and more graphic than they need to be, but they do feel honest. They're also fun. When Eminem packs in the syllables and takes a deep breath, his word-slinging is as artful and entertaining as swordplay.
If he's going to have a second act as interesting as his first, Eminem should probably drop the ironic psychotic fantasies and stick to rhyming the details of his life. He's never been quite the storyteller that fans of "Stan" or "'97 Bonnie and Clyde" claim he is, but hand him a task like describing the logic of addiction and his skills take flight. On "Déjà Vu," over a minimal beat and guitar loop, he explains, "Maybe just a nice cold brew, what's a beer?/ That's the devil in my ear I been sober a f___in' year/ And that f___er still talks to me, he's all I can f___in' hear/ 'Marshall, come on, we'll watch the game, it's the Cowboys and Buccaneers'/ And maybe if I just drink half, I'll be half buzzed for half of the time/ Who's the mastermind behind that little line?"
Written in rehab and rapped in a flat monotone, "Beautiful" finds him mired in writer's block and contemplating the future. "I decided just to pick this pen/ Up and try to make an attempt to vent/ But I just can't admit/ Or come to grips with the fact/ That I may be done with rap/ I need a new outlet." With his limitless ability to turn pain into rhymes, Eminem clearly has the right outlet. It's his outlook that could use a little tweaking.