Regardless of how much you consume his newer records these days, you have to give Eminem his props for still pushing the limit.
And in light of him celebrating his 46th birthday today (October 17) and still being more lyrical than younger and hungrier artists, here are 46 songs that prove why he’ll always come up in Top 5 dead or alive discussion.
HipHopDX wishes Eminem 46 more years of macabre music! Enjoy this trip down memory lane.
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“8 Mile”
“You never seen, heard, smelled or met a real MC who’s incredible, upon the same pedestal as me”
Confident bars.
”Fall”
“Detractors, I might have to fuck Pitchfork with a corkscrew/Just what the doctor ordered/Revenge is the best medicine/Increase the dose, from least to most.”
Em came out swinging on his Kamikaze album and “Fall” is the perfect example of Em getting back at anyone who crossed him — including critics, Grammys and Joe Budden.
”Berzerk”
“Just like I did with addiction I’m ’bout to kick it/Like a magician, critics I turn to crickets.”
Addressing the sobriety, one bar at a time.
”Renegade”
“See, I’m a poet to some, a regular modern-day Shakespeare/Jesus Christ, the king of these Latter-day Saints here/To shatter the picture in which of that as they paint me as/A monger of hate, satanist, scatter-brained atheist”
Originally a Bad Meets Evil collaboration, “Renegade” ended up in the hands of JAY-Z and resulted in one of the most acclaimed collaborations in rap history.
”Without Me”
“Well if you want Shady, then this is what I’ll give ya/A little bit of weed mixed with some hard liquor/Some vodka that will jumpstart my heart quicker/Then a shot when I get shocked at the hospital/By the doctor when I’m not cooperating.”
Pre-sobriety, Em had no problem comparing himself to various substances he once used.
“We All Die One Day”
“Cause we gon’ bring it to anybody who want it/You want it you gon’ get it/Name ’em we gon’ hit ’em/Chew ’em up and spit ’em out/Too much venom/And if you roll with ’em, we gon’ fuck you up with ’em”
That’s a mouthful.
”Guilty Conscience”
“You gonna take advice from somebody who slapped Dee Barnes?/What’s wrong? Didn’t think I’d remember?”
One of Em’s more controversial lines, the rap goliath is referencing Dre’s infamous 1991 assault on Pump It Up! host Dee Barnes.
”Amityville”
“That’s why we don’t call it Detroit, we call it Amityville/You can get capped after just having a cavity filled”
The dark recesses of Eminem’s mind turned the Motor City into the new Amityville Horror on his diamond-selling Marshall Mathers LP.
”White America”
“Who would’ve thought, standin’ in this mirror, bleachin’ my hair/With some peroxide/reachin’ for a t-shirt to wear/That I would catapult to the forefront of rap like this?/How could I predict my words would have an impact like this?”
The moment you come to grips with an undeniable influence on young, white, suburban rap fans.
”Stay Wide Awake”
“Soon as my flow starts I compose art like the ghost of Mozart/Even though they all say that they’re real, I know that most aren’t”
The Criminal Minds equalivant to rap music.
”Dead Wrong”
“There’s several different levels to devil worshippin’/Horse’s heads, human sacrifices, cannibalism/Candles and exorcism — animals, havin’ sex with ’em/Camels, mammals and rabbits, but I don’t get into that, I kicked the habit”
A million Hail Mary’s — and head nods.
”Killshot”
“I’d rather be 80-year-old me than 20-year-old you/’Til I’m hitting old-aged still can fill a whole page with a 10-year-old’s rage/Got more fans than you in your own city, lil’ kiddy.”
Em obliterated Machine Gun Kelly in response to MGK’s “Rap Devil” diss track. Killshot indeed.
”Medicine Ball”
“I’ll pee on Rihanna, see man, I do what I wanna/Spray perfume in the sauna room/Crazy Gluing Madonna to the La-Z-Boy sofa/Fold her in two, then sit on her”
The world is mine!
”Detroit Vs. Everybody”
“But Jesus, I can see just why people quit callin’ me to do features and them cyphers on BET/’Cause ifI wasn’t me I probably wouldn’t want to play with me neither, shit”
Eminem put on his city when he declared it’s “Detroit Vs. Everybody” with Royce Da 5’9, Danny Brown, Big Sean, Dej Loaf and Trick Trick.
”Any Man”
“I’m Slim, the Shady is really a fake alias/To save me with in case I get chased by space aliens/A brainiac with a cranium packed full of more uranium than a maniac Saudi Arabian”
Eminem was beginning his ascent to mainstream fame in 1999, but he got one last chance to showcase his underground roots on “Any Man” from Rawkus Records’ Soundbombing 2 compilation.
”My Name Is”
“My brain’s dead weight, I’m tryin’ to get my head straight/But I can’t figure out which Spice Girl I want to impregnate.”
Inebriated Shady reminds his fans what his name is by claiming he wants to knock up a pop star.
”Fight Music”
“You Liberace’s, Versace’s, and you Nazis watch me/’Cause you figured you got me in this hot seat”
Lyricists never let you see them sweat.
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”Bad Influence”
“I’m meaner in action than Roscoe beating James Todd Senior/Across the back with vacuum cleaner attachments”
Slim Shady showed he’s a diehard LL Cool J fan, dropping this reference on his contribution to the End Of Days soundtrack.
”Till I Collapse”
“Women are caught in webs, spin ’em and hock venom/Adrenaline shots of penicillin could not get the illin’ to stop/Amoxicillins just not real enough”
Eminem’s “Till I Collapse” managed to chart without every being released as a single, which is understandable with Nate Dogg on the hook.
”We As Americans”
“Fuck money! I don’t rap for dead presidents/I’d rather see the President dead/It’s never been said, but I set precedents”
Trump isn’t the first commander-in-chief to feel Slim Shady’s wrath.
”Cleanin Out My Closet”
“Picket signs for my wicked rhymes, look at the times/Sick as the mind of the motherfucking kid that’s behind/All this commotion emotions run deep as ocean’s exploding.”
Slim Shady is more sensitive than he appears.
”Nuttin To Do”
“I came in the diner with skateboarders and placed orders/Ate hors d’œuvres and hit the waiter with plate warmers”
Bad Meets Evil’s other pre-2000 single is another lyrical onslaught with Em taking the lead on this one.
”Murder Murder”
“Left the keys in the van/With a gat in each hand/Went up in Eastland and shot a policeman”
Wordplay like this will get you life in prison.
”Scary Movies”
“I’m free-falling feet first out of a damn tree/To stampede your chest ’til you can’t breathe”
Before fans got an actual Bad Meets Evil EP in 2011, Eminem and Royce Da 5’9 listeners had to cherish their stray singles, such as “Scary Movies.”
”Brainless”
“I walk around like a space cadet/Place your bets/Who’s likely to become a serial killer?/Case of Tourettes … fuck-fuck-fuck!/Can’t take the stress”
They do indeed prescribe medicine for that.
”The Real Slim Shady”
“Will Smith don’t gotta cuss in his raps to sell records/Well, I do, so fuck him and fuck you too!/You think I give a damn about a Grammy?/Half of you critics can’t even stomach me, let alone stand me.”
Em flexes his sense of humor by telling off The Fresh Prince.
”Kamikaze”
“Which is why I identify with the guy/Who I was invented by, Dre’s Frankenstein/Energized like a nine volt/Ice cold like Snake Eyes, twice in a row on a dice roll”
The probability of dopeness is high.
”The Way I Am”
“I’m so sick and tired of being admired/That I wish that I would just die or get fired/And dropped from my label, let’s stop with the fables.”
By 2000, the pressure of fame was clearly starting to get to Em — but it heightened his flow.
”Rock Bottom”
“Cause it’s cool to be the player, but it sucks to be the fan/When all you need is bucks to be the man, plus a luxury sedan”
Before Eminem became one of the biggest stars in Hip Hop, he was fighting and clawing like every other rapper to make a name for himself.
”Like Toy Soldiers”
“I’m supposed to be the soldier who never blows his composure/Even though I hold the weight of the whole world on my shoulders/I ain’t never supposed to show it/My crew ain’t supposed to know it”
Heavy is the head…
”What The Beat”
“Cause I ain’t crazy, I say shit that’s crazy to crazy people/To make ’em believe I’m crazy so they can relate to me/And maybe believe in Shady so they can be evil, baby”
Before DJ Khaled was stuffing his albums with rap’s biggest names, DJ Clue was assembling a who’s who in Hip Hop — including Em — for The Professional album series.
”Must Be The Ganja”
“Faced with a dilemma/I can be Dalai Lama and be calm or bring drama/A step beyond of Jeffrey Dahmer”
Bipolar bars.
”I’m Back”
“I murder a rhyme one word at a time/You never heard of a mind as perverted as mine/You better get rid of that nine it ain’t gonna help/What good is it gonna do against a man that strangles himself?”
Em suggests there’s nothing you can do to him that he isn’t already doing to himself.
”Just Don’t Give A Fuck”
“I’m nicer than Pete, but I’m on a search to crush a Milkbone/I’m Everlastin’, I melt Vanilla Ice like silicone”
Eminem’s debut single was the perfect introduction to his brash attitude and included some notable shots at other white rappers.
”Bitch Please II”
“Give me the mic, let me recite ’til Timothy White/Pickets outside the Interscope offices every night”
Eminem creating a sequel to Snoop Dogg’s “Bitch Please” might’ve seemed odd at first thought, but it worked well.
”My 1st Single”
“One for the money, two for the fuckin’ show/Ready, get set, let’s go/Here comes the buckin’ bronco/Stompin’ and stampedin’ up the damn street like them buffalo/Soldiers, I told ya I’m ’bout to blow/So look out below, Geronimo”
Dizzying foolishness.
”Forgot About Dre”
“So what do you say to somebody you hate/Or anyone tryin’ to bring trouble your way?/Wanna resolve things in a bloodier way?/Just study a tape of N.W.A”
Taken from Dr. Dre’s 2001 album, the entire song vividly shows off Em’s twisted mind.
”Off The Wall”
“Beware of this rap terrorist with a therapist/With a hair up his ass like a rabbit crawled in his pants/Got a habit of holding Tylenol in his hands/’Til it melts in his fucking palms and dissolves in his glands”
Eminem and Redman’s first team-up oddly took place on The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps soundtrack, but their Erick Sermon-produced collaboration was still potent despite being attached to a family-friendly film.
”The Anthem”
“This place is my house/I might as well erase my face with white out/‘Cause y’all can’t see me like Ma$e’s eyebrows”
Sway and King Tech recruited Eminem for 1999’s This Or That album, throwing him on a posse cut featuring the Hip Hop version of an all-star lineup.
”3 a.m.”
“I’m just a hooligan who’s used to using hallucinogens/Causing’ illusions again/Brain contusions again/Cutting and bruising the skin/Razors, scissors, and pins”
What’s sharper? The objects or his rhyme scheme?
”Greatest”
“God forbid I forget, go and jump out the window/Somebody better child-proof it cause if I lose it, we can rewind to some old Ja Rule shit and I can remind motherfuckers how I do shit”
No, not the old Ja Rule shit!
”Kill You”
“I invented violence, you vile venomous volatile vicious vain Vicodin, vrin vrin vrin!/Texas Chainsaw, left his brains all dangling from his neck while his head barely hangs on”
Although horrorcore had been part of Hip Hop for quite some time, no one provided it with as big a platform as Slim Shady.
“Who Knew”
“I’m like, guidance?!/Ain’t they got the same moms and dads who got mad when I asked if they liked violence?”
Slim Shady is not the scapegoat.
”Lose Yourself”
“Snap back to reality, ope there goes gravity, ope/There goes Rabbit, he choked, he’s so mad but he won’t/Give up that easy, no, he won’t have it, he knows.”
As the theme song for Em’s 8 Mile film, “Lose Yourself” showcases Em’s penchant for witty wordplay (duh).
”Rap God”
“But for me to rap like a computer must be in my genes/I got a laptop in my back pocket/My pen’ll go off when I half-cock it/Got a fat knot from that rap profit.”
Rival deities need not apply.
”Stan”
“Dear Mister ‘I’m Too Good To Call Or Write My Fans’/This will be the last package I ever send your ass/It’s been six months and still no word, I don’t deserve it?”
Easily one of Shady’s strongest conceptual tracks, “Stan” created a whole new word for the dictionary with this one.
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“A brainiac, with a cranium packed full of more uranium than a maniac Saudi Arabian.”
Lyrical af, and that bar is minimalist wordplay compared to what he does now. Too bad he turned into a cucked out soyboy.
GOAT! Deal with it.
I agree, but I wish he retired before he started making albums that are no longer legendary. Casnt vibe with his last few albums. Heck, idk a single person who plays anything from has past 4 or so albums. After the Eminem show, it went downhill. His first 4 albums, including infinite, rocked!
Kamikaze is better than infinite. Why do I care if you don’t know a single person?
I want some of whatever you’re smoking fool!
Mural from Lupe better than all 49 songs
U already proved U can’t count so why should we trust ur opinion?
Mural from Lupe better than all 46 songs
Strongly disagree, but I definitely be listening to some Lupe
Missing Groundhog Day, Don’t Front, and Medicine Man… some of his hardest tracks ever…
Your entitled to your opinion, but IMO those tracks are perfect examples of the decline of ermine. Those songs may be considered to be lyrical, but they aren’t poetic or meaningful. Eminem doesn’t seem to have an topics worth rapping about anymore. I think Eminem is pretty much the most talented rapper to exist. But his skill to make dope music is dead how.
Sure, he can put spit anyone. He can rhyme anything.
But he doesn’t make legendary music anymore. By legendary, I mean songs that surpass hiphop as a genre. Like Lose Yourself, Stan, and many others.
There are few rappers that anyone can say have made songs that surpass Lose Yourself.
But nowadays? Lame. Eminem LITERALLY made a diss track to the NRA and went all anti gun, after over a decade straight of rapping about his infatuation with guns. He even caught a gun charge on 2003 for an illegal firearm lol. Today’s he’s an anti gun pop rap star. He’s everything he gained stardom being against. He raps beside pop artists and boy bands. Eminem became a parody of himself.
The smartest thing I ever did was take the bullets out of that gun
Fuck the guns, I’m done ill never look at gats
If I scrap, I’m a scrap it like I never whooped some ass
I thought Groundhog Day was pretty meaningful..
Happy birthday my whigga. Greatest wordplay in rap of all time.
After Eminem Show every album has been borderline trash. Lyrics can only do so much he cant make a good songs anymore with concepts pretty much everything he raps we heard before in the past he never evolved as a artist he’ll even a lyricist he raps fast and people think he is saying some crazy shit if I wanted to hear fast raps I’d go back to Bone He still is one of the goats just not the goat
Name 1 emcee who has done more with lyricism than Em or 1 emcee who continues to push himself with lyricism/rhyme schemes/flows, this late in their career…. You can’t.
u want 1 ill give u Krayzie Bone
Lupe Fiasco
Listen to his first album and then listen to His last he evolved in every way.
Now do the same for Em lol
Pretty much the same shit
Reason it worked some much when he came out was cuz of shock value it’s 2018 it’s not that big of a deal anymore.
He use to kill pop artists now he is doing songs with them lol think about it
Lil’ wayne
Lol seriously? Wayne? Haha
So that’s just your opinion. Here’s mine… Lupe isn’t even in the top 20, but I do think he’s a good rapper. Eminem has been a little bit inconsistent since The Eminem Show.. I will give you that, but to say he hasn’t had one good album since makes me think you’re just a hater. But it’s okay I’d be upset too if I hated Eminem he just recently dropped Kamikaze.
Queue the barrage of haters and stans to masturbate all over eachother like some sort of entitlement circle jerk.
Em kills it verbally. Try being witty/clever 10+ albums…..
dot dot dot….
Even writers and novelists admit that it’s hard to maintain a sense of originality and hunger. Even though I disagree with this article, it’s still dope that Em is getting his props because…look at his contemporaries….Just saying.
He’s still doing his job and it’s still cool to hear, IMO
Pretty dope and varied list. Nice to see some underground gems on here too. Didnt pick one song of Revival though, as if Offended and Chloraseptic didnt have crazy bars. Not to mention the structure of the second verse of In My Head. At least one of them shouldve been on there. I didnt spot infinite neither. As if the last 4 bars of the third verse arent dope as hell and a telling of whats to come from this guy. Happy birthday Em!
Oh. And not one song off Recovery? As if Youre Never Over isnt one of the most personal tracks he ever did. Or Not Afraid for that matter. How you gonna make room for My 1st Single? I literally have never heard anybody ever say put on that song, ever.
Jay Z is the GOAT…Em is a legend for sure but way too inconsistent to be the greatest.
And Jay-Z isn’t inconsistent? Magna Carta = weak. Blueprint 3 = terrible album. The Carters = boring. Kingdom Come = weak. Blueprint 2 = great moments but so much filler. Vol. 1 and Vol. 3 = also too much filler. Jay has just as many disappointments as Em
If I Had … Off SSLP
What is life?
Life is like a big obstacle
Put in front of your optical to slow you down
And every time you think you’ve gotten past it
It’s gonna come back around and tackle you to the damn ground
What are friends?
Friends are people that you think are your friends
But they’re really your enemies, with secret identities
And disguises to hide their true colors
So just when you think you’re close enough to be brothers
They wanna come back and cut your throat when you ain’t lookin’
What is money?
Money is what makes a man act funny
Money is the root of all evil
Money’ll make them same friends come back around
Swearin’ that they was always down
But it’s life, and I’m tired of life
I hate to be that person that tries to show off what they know about shit by pointing out what didn’t make the list but I will say that Em’s verse in Dre’s ‘What’s the Difference’ is so well crafted that the imagery and wordplay have stuck in my brain for 20yrs. One of my fav Em featured tracks for sure
GOAT
Kamikaze proves that Eminem can still put together a dope project. It’s easily one of my favorite albums of his, probably top 3. I think the trick for Em is keep his albums tight and relatively short from now on. The 20+ song album trend is thankfully wearing down and rappers realize that quantity doesn’t equal quality.
I think he just needs to soak in what his strengths and weaknesses are. Personally I think his hooks are very hit and miss. He could probably fix that by rapping the chorus rather than singing or by using samples or appropriate guest features. And his beat selection could be stronger but aside from a couple of iffy choices I thought Kamikaze was fairly solid in that regard. Lastly I think the relationship songs need to be cut back because they all say the same overall thing and the “insecure guy” thing is getting very old. A bit more imagination when it comes to concepts would be great too. This is the guy that made Guilty Conscience, Stan and Kim so he has shown proven story telling credentials.
But Eminem’s wordplay is off the charts and he’s finally found a balance so that he’s not drawing out metaphors too long just to be clever which results in syllable cramming. And his rhyme schemes and versatility on beats is second to none. It’s also good that he’s gone back to being a less restrained and more unpredictable. Eminem was always very good at pushing boundaries and maintaining an element of surprise, especially when it comes to saying wild shit. Do the grown up reflective stuff but keep it less self loathing and balance it out with some intensity (see White America). This was the problem with Revival, it wasn’t necessarily a bad album but it did lack focus and felt too soft and bloated. Kamikaze is the opposite.
Just my thoughts anyway.
You guys erased my comment about this list being half assed and put out in a rush by someone either low on time or unmotivated, guess i was dead on right, only reason to erase that comment
To add to this, one of my favorite lines from Remember Me:
“Sick, sick dreams of picnic scenes //
Two kids, sixteen, with M-16’s and ten clips each //
And them shits reach through six kids each //
And Slim gets blamed in Bill Clint’s speech to fix these streets?!”