Eminem’s fans, today, October 17, the great rapper Marshall Mathers celebrates his 41st birthday.
With a number of rappers referring to themselves as higher beings, Em makes sure there’s no dispute that he is a rap god. 10/15/13 Em teased fans on Facebook that he’ll drop his new song “Rap God,” offering five clues about how it would sound. However, the song leaked in Europe just moments before its official release. Over blaring sirens and hard piano keys, the Detroit MC switches through a variety of flows, showcasing his versatility. We also hear classic Em in his best shape with name-checks to the industry’s best and poking fun at his opponents. It’s a reminder that Em is still the illest.
Eminem gets criticism for being immature, over-the-top, offensive… a lot of things. For those criticisms to hold any weight, though, they have to end with a “but.”
“Eminem is extemely offensive, but he’s the most talented rapper alive.”
“Eminem needs to grow up, but he can still rap his ass off.”
“Eminem takes things too far, but damn, did you hear that line about elephant man’s skull?”
There has never been a rapper quite like Eminem, equipped not only with a unique and complicated map of brain wires, but also the technical skill to make his odd visions come alive. This comes across on almost every song Em makes, but it’s no more raw and evident than in his freestyles. Watching Eminem freestyle is like seeing a dog bred for fighting trapped in a corner. Maybe it has to do with his past, maybe it has to do with the fact that as a white rapper from Detroit, he always had a lot to prove. It’s an ocean of raw talent being funneled through a microphone, and it’s intense. Here are the best Eminem freestyles.
1) Here’s Em on The Wake Up Show. Start off a freestyle with, “Met a retarded kid named Greg with a wooden leg, snatched it off and beat him over the head with the peg…” and you know things are bound to take a turn for the crazy.
2) “Broke the rubber, busted a nut up in your mother, so how you feel about havin’ another little brother?” Dead.
3) On Tim Westwood’s show on BBC Radio in 2009 Eminem spazzes and proves that he’s still got enough dark stuff tucked away in his brain to spit a twisted freestyle. Kon Artis is also in on this one, with Alchemist providing the beats.
4) Ruthless battle raps from the Rap Olympics. You thought 8 Mile was just a movie?
5) This one is from an old MTV interview with Kurt Loder. For the finale, Eminem sat in the driver’s seat of a car and freestyled with Proof leaning in from the window.
6) “Look, my face is pale, but you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
7) On stage in New York, Eminem gets twisted. Shots fired at Cage and Mystikal, and an onslaught of ruthless homicidal torture threats ensues. No beat necessary.
8) More shots fired, and toward the end Em declares that he’s so bored with everyone saying the same shit that he’s just gonna make up a language. And then he does just that. From there on, everything he says is quotable.
“Who’s the hottest? To be honest, hip hop ain’t been the same since Tupac moved to Cuba on us.”
9) It’s great that Eminem is sober and seems to be a lot more peaceful these days, but his old drug-and-anger-fueled freestyles were nasty. In a little over a minute, this freestyle epitomizes the old Eminem that craved drugs and was pissed off at the world.
10) You know you’re a good emcee when your freestyles get titles. This one is “Weed Lacer.”
11) Freestyling gives rappers a chance to let their mind wander, and when that happens we get an interesting look into some of the stranger, less traveled paths in a rapper’s brain. But with Eminem, there’s not much left unexplored… right? Well, you might think so until this freestyle when Em’s turn comes and he casually drops a line about fucking the elephant man’s skull.
12) On this one, Eminem spits daggers while jumping back and forth between revealing real life pain and spewing shock-rap brilliance. It’s part of what made Eminem such a fascinating artist, and it’s even more fascinating when you realize just how naturally it came to him.
Too perverted, stay alerted
Went to the club murdered the first slut that flirted
Deserted
Abandoned by my mama and it hurted
The worst nut my daddy ever squirted
Screaming, cussing
Buzzing when I’m busting
Open sores pussing
I need another dose of Robitussen
Fussing over nothing
An army couldn’t calm me
Bitching like a lady
Shady like a palm tree
What the fuck you call me?
Happy Birthday to the Rap God @Eminem!!!
— Paul Rosenberg (@rosenberg) October 17, 2013
Happy Birthday Eminem!!!
