note*- I listened to relapse 4 times before writing this review. I usually write a few pages and cut it down to under a page, but with this I am just going to be unedited. I think we both had something to say and it was worth saying it without a filter. If you can tough it out, I think its worth reading.
Music history has been constantly showing us how popular music is “re-invented” by various pioneers. Elvis, NWA, Nirvana, there are a lot of bands who have moved and shaped music over time, pushing boundaries, breaking down walls, setting new trends. And I think all artists strive to be that. Em, Kanye, Jay Z, each one wants to be the first to reinvent rap… and each did in their own way.
I think there comes a point when pushing the envelope isn’t enough. Sometimes you gotta soak it in gasoline and light it on fire. That is what they attempted with horror a few years ago. Everyone was getting tired of the “slasher-Scream” rip off, and they wanted something scarier. Edgier. Audiences weren’t buying into monster movies anymore. So out of this was borne two schools of thought. The Japanese and The American. One got it right. Guess which one?
Americans thought the route was to go gruesome. To show torture and blood and guts and gore. They didn't understand that making us squeamish and making us scared weren't the same thing. The Japanese got it right. They knew that showing us the thing we are afraid of, building it up, letting us know the inevitability of our death. That was frightening.
I widely regard “Saw” as one of the worst movies ever. “Saw” is the horror movie for people who are too fucking stupid to know what is entertaining and what is stupid. Only idiots buy into that “Hostel” torture porn bullshit. When I want a horror movie. I want the Ring. I want something to make me think. I want something to take something i know and make me rethink the way I see it.
Eminems new album “Relapse” kinda leans towards “Saw”. Now I know that my yammering about horror movies probably sounded like bullshit, but its all connected. Because “Relapse” is a horror movie. It’s designed to scare you. It wants to make you feel uneasy. It wants you to be scared.
Although it’s different for Em. Usually I love him. He’s crazy and fun and ridiculous and says crazy shit, but I’m pretty crazy myself, so I like it. Say what you want, be who you want, fuck the system. I feel that. I LOVE that. Yall reading this know that I will say damn near anything… but…
Ugh, I feel like shit saying this, and it really really hurts me to say it.
…Em went too far. There are jokes. And death, racism, handicaps… not tasteful, but I accept them as jokes. But rape, incest, pedophilia… that’s shit you can don’t use heavy handed. He went “Saw” for a lot of the earlier tracks. Then I heard the rest of the album.
Let me say this. The album is fucking brilliant. It breaks you down and builds you back up again. It exists as a single entity not an entity of singles. Some of the earlier tracks really really bothered me. REALLY bothered me. The shit he says… you have to just listen to it. The worst part is that it is so incredibly well produced that from a objective point of view its a solid fuckin album. The songs were he says the shit he says is taken down a notch because he does that annoying nasally accent he does. But when he brings it for the hot tracks, he brings it hard.
Some of the tracks are so good, so heartbreaking, that you empathize with a guy who just detailed how he is goona murder and rape a bunch of people. But that’s when you realize why he is saying all this shit. He really did loose it. Like actually lost it. He was taken to the darkest places ever traveled with his addiction, and he takes us there with him. Then as he desperately tries to claw his way back to life, we are taken on that journey. Maybe the only way we could go to that darkness he went to is for him to say the things that really tear us at our souls. But after he slips back, after he relapses, we get to go on his recovery with him. I have said a lot but what it boils down to is that you have to go through a lot of shit to get through this album. But it’s a trip worth taking.
And to address the concerns some of us had about his flow being whack, he’s got it. He’s got it better than ever. He was deliberately off-kilter. Don’t loose hope.
That is basically what he wants us to take from this album. Don’t loose hope.
Until Next Time, I Remain… Somber.
note**- I’ll post links, fav tracks, and vid’s soon.