Eminem: The Defining 50

Since being a kid and listening to Eminem’s Curtain Call CD after school and (importantly) before my Mum got home from work, getting Eminem’s Anger Management DVD off my Uncle for Christmas and going to my other Uncle’s house to watch 8 Mile I have always loved Eminem. It’s been one of the constants of my life for the past dozen or so years, my enthusiasm for and opinion on many things has changed and will continue to do so, but this is almost certainly never going to be one of them.

Ofcourse, at first it was all about the music. The energy of it, the extremity of it, how different sounding it was to anything I’d ever encountered before. Then as I got older, more appreciation came for his lyrics, his subject matters, how skilfully he told a story. Now, I am also able to appreciate his story, how he became the biggest and best selling rapper of all time against all odds.

Eminem was born Marshall Bruce Mathers III in October 1972 after a 73-hour labour which almost killed his mother Debbie who was just fifteen at the time. Eminem’s Dad, known as Bruce abandoned his young family when Marshall was just six months old, leaving to start a new family. The boy Marshall’s letters to his Dad were apparently always returned, unread.

Marshall’s childhood was spent moving between Michigan and Missouri where he lived with his Mum at the home of various different family members. The regular moving meant regularly moving schools which made Eminem as a small, scrawny kid a target for bullies. The most noted bully is D’Angelo Bailey who is mentioned in his song ‘Brain Damage’. He severely injured Eminem in an assault, leaving him in a coma. Eminem’s relationship with his mother was also very toxic, she suffered with several mental health conditions and struggled with raising Em and later his brother Nathan, alone.

Rap Music was introduced to him by his Uncle Ronnie, who was a good figure in Eminem’s life until his premature death due to suicide. It was also Rap music that introduced Em to another key figure in his life, Kimberley Scott who first saw Marshall when he was 15, rapping shirtless on a table in their school lunchroom. Em would remain in school until aged 17, when he left after failing the ninth grade for the third time.

Eminem spent much of his formative years in a working class, predominantly black neighbourhood. This had some drawbacks such as getting beat up quite regularly in racially motivated attacks but it also gave him something that is extremely important to rappers ‘street credibility’ as he grew up on the Detroit side of the 8 Mile Road, the road which separates the city with its violence and poverty and suburbia which was considered a better, more prosperous place to live. Despite his colour, living on the Detroit side allowed Eminem to feel something like belonging when he began in the rap scene, rather than an imposter coming from the outside and trying to claim allegiance to a place he didn’t really live in for credibility.

Eminem began attending Detroit’s Hip Hop shop with his best friend Proof where he learned the art of performance and lyricism in the most pressured of circumstances.: Battle Rap. Battling an opponent who is trying to destroy you ripping you in any way he can, in front of a crowd of people. For Eminem at the time, these battles would come to mean life and death. Winning meant earning respect, which was not an easy thing to come by for a white boy performing a black medium in front of an all black audience.

But Marshall was good (though maybe not quite as good as Proof, who once reportedly faced 30 men one after another and defeated them all one by one. This may be why Proof was selected as the only man to beat Eminem’s B-Rabbit character in 8 Mile) and he won the crowds over, going onto take second place in the 1997 Rap Olympics.

Record labels and Radio DJs on the other hand were an all together trickier hurdle. The previous year Eminem had released his debut album ‘Infinite’ to little interest. (It apparently only originally sold a sad 1,000 copies. Em would later go on to more than make up for this commercial flop with later albums). This was especially problematic for him due to the birth of his daughter Hailie Jade on Christmas day of 1995. For the first six months after she was born Marshall worked 60 hours a week cooking and washing dishes for minimum wage but he was fired 5 days before her first birthday, leaving him with just 40 dollars in his account to get her presents.

Substance abuse due to disappointment over the failure of Infinite aswell as struggling to provide adequately for Kim and Hailie led Eminem down a dark spiral. He attempted suicide but thankfully was unsuccessful. Around this time Eminem and his family were living on a crime riddled street and their house was constantly being broken into so he moved his family in with his mum in her trailer park home.

The Rap Olympics did however introduce him to the CEO of Interscope Records Jimmy Lovine, who procured a copy of ‘The Slim Shady EP’ Em’s follow up to Infinite. Here aswell as themes of poverty and family life, Eminem for the first time branched out into the alter ego of ‘Slim Shady’ where he began to experiment with themes of sadistic violence and dark comedy. Lovine gave the tape to record producer Dr Dre who was immediately blown away and made sure Eminem was signed straight away. Due to the fact Eminem was white, Dre’s decision attracted a lot of immediate scrutiny as the only well known white rapper of the time was Vanilla Ice who had no credibility in the scene and was regarded as a joke.

“In my entire career in the music industry, I have never found anything from a demo tape or a CD. When Jimmy played this, I said, ‘Find him. Now.’” -Dr Dre upon hearing Eminem for the first time



When Eminem showed up to the studio for his first meeting with Dre, dressed in all yellow tracksuit he had been given by sponsors due to having no money for clothes of his own, everyone around the studio cracked up laughing at him. They weren’t laughing once he stepped onto the mic.

On that fateful day, Eminem took a mighty step toward becoming the most celebrated and successful rapper of all time. I wanted to take a look at the 50 songs I believe were a big part in how he was able to achieve this.

*Disclaimer* this list is not about chronicling Eminem’s 50 best songs necessarily. That list would have some differences to this one. This list is about choosing 50 songs that I feel best summarise Eminem’s career. His whole career, so for that reason I’ve tried where possible to include something from every phase of his long career.

1. INFINITE

Infinite-Adjective- limitless or endless in space, extent, or size, impossible to measure or calculate.



“It’s Eminem baby.”

Killer instrumental, 4 minutes of Eminem demonstrating his lyrical skill, a memorable and almost prophetic chorus from the then unknown Eminem seems to predict the seismic impact he would go on to have on Rap Music and Pop Culture and as well the lasting legacy he would go on to leave. Eminem’s first demonstration of the greatness he possesses.

2. IF I HAD & 3. ROCK BOTTOM

If I had and Rock Bottom, two equally great songs from Eminem’s debut album The Slim Shady LP. These songs excellently sum up being a young low class man living in America. Before being signed by Dr Dre, Eminem’s teens and early 20’s were spent in and out of low paid insecure jobs with the sole purpose being to keep a roof over his head and food on the table for his young family. These two songs express with plain speaking honesty the frustrations he felt, the despair, the lack of hope. They were a world away from the brash, brag rap we’d come to expect from rappers and go a long way to showing why Eminem became the most relatable rapper for young people all over the world.

“minimum wage got my adrenaline caged, full of venom and rage, especially when I’m engaged and my daughters down to her last diaper, it’s got my ass hyper, I pray that God answers, maybe I’ll ask nicer”

4. MY NAME IS

“Hi kids, do you like violence?”

The song that exploded Eminem onto the scene. Everything about it, the video, the lyrics, the chorus were really unlike anything we’d seen before in mainstream music. Energy bursts out of this song for every second of its four minutes plus running time. Who the hell was this blonde white kid rapping about his mothers drug habit, slitting his dad’s throat, raping lesbians and impregnating spice girls? With one of the most catchy and memorable choruses of all time, backed with shock provoking lyrics, Eminem ensured his first top 40 single (#36 in America, #2 in the UK) would be one that stands the test of time. Not that he would’ve cared about that at that point, dude would’ve just been happy the royalties ensured some stability for his family.

5. GUILTY CONSCIENCE FT. DR. DRE

An interesting but simple concept. Eminem in his role as satan on the shoulder, raps encouraging young men to give in to their worst impulses and rape, rob and murder. Dre Dre in contrast raps as a guardian angel, imploring the young men to see sense.

6. I JUST DON’T GIVE A FUCK

Pure, raw Slim Shady. The Slim Shady LP isn’t quite as highly regarded as his two following albums, it sold significantly less (a mere 18 million copies as opposed to over 35 million and over 30 million respectively for the MMLP and TES respectively) and is his only album not to reach number 1 in the US Album charts, having to settle for second but in my eyes it deserves to be seen on the same pedestal as those more revered albums, it was a superb debut album and still sounds fresh 20 years later.

7. STAN FT. DIDO

Stan- noun- an overzealous or obsessive fan of a particular celebrity.

Eminem uses three letters and one tape to tell the story of Stan, a troubled young soon to be Dad with an Eminem obsession. Complimented excellently by an eerie Dido chorus, a moody music video complete with dark dingy basements with Eminem plastered walls, heavy rain and flashing lightning, this song remains one of the best examples of Eminem’s creative genius.

8. THE WAY I AM

Four and half minutes of Eminem launching a tidal wave of rage. For 3 verses, Eminem maintains a constant furious energy. His angst is aimed at but certainly not limited to: people approaching him when he’s with his young daughter, the media, label pressures, interviewers. Dude just wants to have a shit in peace. One of Eminem’s strongest songs, with 3 brilliant verses and a worthy chorus.

9. DON’T APPROACH ME FT. XZIBIT

Eminem and Xzibit trade back and forth for 2 verses each with Eminem also adding in an excellent chorus. This song can more or less be considered the B-side to The Way I Am as the song explores similar themes from Eminem’s perspective. In this follow up of sorts, Eminem makes plain that he does not want fans showing up at his house anymore and he’s not shy of making a gun threat or two to maintain a small degree of privacy for himself and his loved ones. I consider this one of Eminem’s best ever songs to not feature on one of his album’s, lyrically its extremely strong especially his second verse which ranks as one of my favourites.

“sometimes I feel like loading this rifle and climbing the roof at night and hiding outside to snipe you, it’s not that I don’t like you, it’s just that when I’m not behind the mic I’m a person who’s just like you”

10. MARSHALL MATHERS

Eminem launches an attack on: Biggie and Pac imitators, the backstreet boys, Ricky Martin, Insync, Britney, boy girl groups, Vanilla Ice, Insane Clown Posse a few times and yes naturally his mum. Good song. The Marshall Mathers LP came just a year after the Slim Shady LP which is a remarkably quick turn around.

11. WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE WITH DR. DRE & XZIBIT

Excellent hip hop track with all 3 featured rappers delivering a great verse accompanied with a great chorus.

12. THE REAL SLIM SHADY

Turns out Eminem was able to top on My Name Is. In what could be considered the follow up to Em’s coming out track, The Real Slim Shady performed better in the charts, giving him his 1st top 5 US hit, and his first number 1 in the UK. It was also a better song. The final verse of this song rates as one of my all time favourites by him.

13. KIM

Must surely be considered Eminem’s most controversial song. Not content with making a song about dumping his wife Kim’s dead body in the ocean whilst on a day out at the beach with his baby daughter( as he did on The Slim Shady LP with ’97 Bonnie & Clyde), Em goes one step further here as he chronicles an (extremely one-sided) shouting match with his wife Kim as he confronts her for cheating on him. The song ends with Em choking the life out of his wife. It is a song that on first listen really has an impact on you, a bit of a stunned silence can be known to follow on from the conclusion of the song. It really has a ‘shock and awe’ factor about it.

14. FORGOT ABOUT DRE WITH DR.DRE

From Dre’s 1999 album titled somewhat confusingly ‘2001’. So it was infact 7 years since his debut album ‘The Chronic’ rather than 9, but it was still long enough clearly to have the streets questioning whether Dre still had it. He did enough on this album to prove he did as there was a few absolute classic tracks although too much filler to be considered a classic album. Forgot About Dre certainly fell in the former category, with Dre reminding the scene just what he’d done for it with the help of Eminem who is widely considered to have at least assisted in the writing of Dre’s verses for this track. Eminem comes in with the memorable chorus and a verse of his own, visibly and audibly buzzing with confidence and energy following the release earlier that year of the scene shaking ‘Silm Shady LP’.

15. SING FOR THE MOMENT

Eminem’s best ‘Rap Rock’ song. He has used ‘Rap Rock’ instrumentals more frequently recently than he used to but never more successfully than here. Tune.

16. WITHOUT ME

Without Me was the Eminem Show’s take on the ‘My Name Is’/’The Real Slim Shady’ type song and though not as good as them two in any way in my opinion, it was still a big song and a decent tune.

17. WHITE AMERICA

The opening song of The Eminem Show. Eminem takes shots at the hypocrisy of people taking offence at a White rapper for misogynistic, homophobic and violent lyrics and demonising him for it, when they never cared before when Black Rappers were doing it. Eminem points out that obscene lyrics only become a problem in America when it’s thought they will be listened to by white people. Whereas music of Black Rappers out before Eminem were considered mostly to be for the Black community, so they were allowed to say what they wanted without media scrutiny. Eminem also looks at the impact being white has had on his career, such as finding it extremely difficult to get signed to a label because of his colour but then once being signed reaping the benefits of the thing that had once been a hindrance.

18. SQUARE DANCE

The Eminem Show was Eminem at the peak of his powers. The third album was the one that cemented his legacy and secured his place among the all-time rap greats. As on previous albums Em provided commentary on current issues on the American psyche but this time in a more serious but no less brilliant way. On Square Dance, Eminem rhymes and flows hypnotically well as he critiques Bush’s war on Iraq in a way no artist of his stature was willing to do. At a time when most Americans seemed to back these Middle Eastern invasions in the wake of 9/11, Eminem’s anti-establishment views were extremely welcome and not to mention brave in a country as seemingly pro military as America.

“All this terror America demands action, next thing you know you got Uncle Sam’s ass askin’, to join the Army or what you’ll do for their navy, you just a baby, gettin’ recruited at eighteen, you’re on the plane now, eatin’ their food and their baked beans, I’m twenty-eight, they’re gonna take you, ‘fore they take me”

19. TILL I COLLAPSE FT. NATE DOGG

5 minutes of Em going in hard.

20. SAY WHAT YOU SAY FT. DR. DRE

It shows just how good The Eminem Show was and how many top songs it had that this song went completely under the radar. Just bars on top of bars from Em and Dre. For me their best collab and one of Em’s most underrated songs.

21. REVELATION (D12)

“I’ve been praised and labelled as crazed, my mother was unable to raise me, full of crazy rage, an angry teenager, nothing can change me back, Gangsta rap made me act like a maniac.”



This is one that had definitely gone under my radar. I had ofcourse heard it a fair few times but I’d never appreciated what a good song it is until compiling this list. Really good song with strong verses from everyone, especially Eminem. In the song, the members of D12 recount their traumatic childhoods with emphasis on education or rather lack of and aswell their dysfunctional family life. Eminem also focuses on the impact hip hop music has had on his life, beginning with when he first discovered it and how it quickly changed his life with its hold over him.

“hip-hop overwhelmed me to the point where it had me in a whole other realm, it was like isolating myself was healthy, it felt like we was on welfare but wealthy, compelled me to excel when school it failed me, expelled me and when the principal would tell me I was nothing, and I wouldn’t amount to shit, I made my first million and counted it.”



22. FIGHT MUSIC (D12)



This song comes flying out the blocks with Eminem spitting the aggressive, to the point chorus. The other 5 members of D12 then build the song up towards its climax with a couple delivering perhaps career best verses, before Eminem seals the songs fitting finale and lifts it from a very good hip hop song to a great hip hop song. By far D12’s best track and one of my favourite Eminem verses.

23. 8 MILE ROAD

Whilst on set for his film debut as the lead role in the loosely based drama on his life as a wannabe rapper in Detroit, Eminem spent any down time between shooting scenes and rehearsing script, writing lyrics for the films soundtrack. It is little wonder with such a demanding schedule that he would develop insomnia during this time which would sadly lead him to an addiction to sleeping pills. This is maybe why Em has not done any acting projects since 8 Mile bar a couple of small cameos, which is understandable but a shame as it was a superb acting debut from him and he could have had a great acting career in my opinion and done some interesting projects. 8 Mile Road is one of the three great songs he wrote for the film.

24. RABBIT RUN

In the character of blue collar worker Jimmy Smith Jr. Eminem raps this three minute song without breath or chorus break about the frustrations of writers block, the fear of underachievement and wasted potential before finally finding his inner belief, if he had half a chance he’d grab it.

25. LOSE YOURSELF

Lose Yourself was Eminem’s first US number 1 and the first hip-hop song to win an Oscar at the 2003 Academy Awards for Best Original Songs. The enduring popularity of this song is made evident by the fact the video has close to 600M views on YouTube despite only being uploaded 4 years ago, 12 years after the songs original release and the upload is not even from Eminem’s official account. The song is considered one of the biggest and best rap songs of all time, and is perhaps the song Eminem is best known for.

26. MOCKINGBIRD

Encore was an album Eminem was disappointed with, he felt it could and should have been better. And there is no doubt there are a few songs that fall far below the standards Eminem set on his previous albums and that we’d now come to expect of him. That said there were also a few brilliant songs on it, Mockingbird certainly being one of them and there is no doubt in my mind, that with better track choices such as When I’m Gone, which would instead later appear on Curtain Call (a sort of Greatest Hits album) and 1 or 2 of his diss songs made around that time (such as Nail In the Coffin) we could’ve quite easily been looking at a fourth great Eminem album and a solid 8.5/10 record. As it was, the album’s quality was dragged down by a few mediocre tracks, especially in the middle section of the track list.

27. MOSH

“Stomp, push, shove, mush, Fuck Bush, until they bring our troops home”

As protest songs go, you’re not going to find much better than this from any genre or era. The hypnotic, pulsating beat combined with Eminem’s passionate, defiant lyrics of anti-war, anti-government protest keep the listener transfixed for the entire duration. An expertly crafted song and many years on still powerful in its message.

28. WHEN I’M GONE

Eminem’s brilliant storytelling and rhyming on display again as he raps the struggle of trying to be a present father and husband whilst also dealing with the pressures of making music and touring. Eminem brilliantly conveys his inner battle between his music career and his family life.

29. NAIL IN THE COFFIN

For my money, Eminem’s best diss song which is no mean feat as he’s made plenty and is one of the things he’s best known for: be it dissing his parents, pop stars or fellow rappers. Nail In the Coffin is Eminem at the peak of his dissing powers, he was getting a lot of practice in at this point with beef occurring with a number of rappers. This track was reserved for Source Magazine editor Ray Benzino. Eminem expertly rebutted Benzino’s lines of attack from his song “Pull your skirt up”. The song goes from strength to strength with Eminem never letting up, the lyrical equivalent of Eminem beating Benzino to the ground and keeping him there.

30. I REMEMBER & 31. QUITTER (D12)

The two songs serve as a real reminder why its not a good idea to threaten to shoot Eminem or mention his daughters name on a record. These two disses were absolute murderings. On I Remember Em mocks former House of Pain member Everlast by singing the first few minutes of the song which works extremely well as the melody is memorable and it leads to the dark comedic effect of the lines “I remember when you had your first heart attack, I was right there laughing when I heard the news, I just wish the cardiac would’ve murdered you” being sang in a cheery way.

As for Quitter, most of Eminem’s disses here are in regards to Everlast being in his eyes a quitter, as the song title suggests. A quitter first for leaving the House of Pain group and also for quitting rap music in order to make country music with acoustic guitar and sing the blues like there’s no tomorrow. Eminem is again relentless here and after pulverising Everlast for three verses, including a bit where he encourages his fans to among other things throw shit at Everlast and bitch slap him, Em still isn’t done as the song cuts and the instrumental for Tupac’s famous song ‘Hit ‘Em Up’ starts playing. Em spits even more fire and even brings in a few of the boys from D12 to further stick the nail in another coffin.

32. LIKE TOY SOLDIERS

Eminem reflects on his recent beefs within the Hip Hop world. He makes clear that he wants them over with as he is drained and concerned that someone he cares about will end up getting killed in the beef, as it had got extremely personal with people’s children being mentioned and it wouldn’t be the first time someone had been murdered over lyrics and rap rivalry.

33. YOU DON’T KNOW FT. 50 CENT, CASHIS & LLOYD BANKS

The best verses of this song unsurprisingly come from Fiddy Cent and Eminem though Cashis and Bank’s verses aren’t bad. 50 gets the track started with his perfected gangsta/brag rap style before Em comes in rapping about how his relationship with 50 which started out as just a music thing but has now become a real friendship, with both willing to back each other up in disputes with people outside their crew.

34. BITCH PLEASE 2 FT. DR. DRE, SNOOP DOGG & XZIBIT

Good song with Dre, Snoop, Xzibit and Em all dropping a cool verse.

35. RENEGADE WITH JAY-Z

“Eminem murdered you on your own shit.” – Nas (Ether)

“Now who’s the king of these rude ludicrous lucrative lyrics? Who could inherit the title, put the youth in hysterics, Using his music to steer it, sharing his views and his merits? But there’s a huge interference, they’re saying you shouldn’t hear it. Maybe it’s hatred I spew, maybe it’s food for the spirit, maybe it’s beautiful music I made for you to just cherish.

But I’m debated, disputed, hated and viewed in America as a motherfucking drug addict, like you didn’t experiment?”

The two best-selling rappers of all time collaborated on ‘Renegade’ with both rappers coming in with two verses each. And though Nas made it clear who he thought got the best of it, the truth is both men went in. Classic instrumental too.

“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 and Satan, a scatter-brained atheist, But that ain’t the case, see it’s a matter of taste, we as a people decide if Shady’s as bad as they say he is, or is he the latter, a gateway to escape? Media scapegoat”



36. PATIENTLY WAITING WITH 50 CENT

A young, talented rapper struggling for years to get signed is finally discovered by a Rap megastar and signed to his label. Sound familiar? this time it was Eminem in the role of talent scout and he signed 50 Cent to Shady Records. It’s not hard to see why, 50 for the early years of his career could do no wrong. The guy seemed tailor made for hip hop: he had the look, the swagger, the street credibility (being shot nine times and surviving is not a bad background story to enter the rap game with, though not recommended) and he could back it all up with his talent. His flow and voice supported by always excellent beats meant he could even make simple lyrics work, but he was a hell of a writer in them early years too, an absolute hit maker. He exploded onto the scene with ‘In Da Club’ in much the same way his new mentor and friend Eminem did with ‘My Name Is’. And like Em and Dre, Em and 50 have always maintained a close relationship based on loyalty and respect for Eminem signing 50 Cent and by doing so changing his life for the better. Em gives the seal of approval here by hopping on this track for 50′s debut Album ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’ which sold an impressive 12 million copies in its first year of release.

37. FOREVER WITH DRAKE, LIL WAYNE & KANYE WEST

Drake announced himself as the new kid on the block in hip hop music by releasing a track featuring 3 of the biggest names in the game. It was ofcourse the white boy who stole the show delivering an iconic verse.

38. DEJA VU

Déjà vu is for me, the best song on Relapse and one of my favourites by him post Encore. Relapse had a few decent songs on it, and if he’d have used the accent a bit less, or a lot less, rather than on every song, it maybe could’ve been a solid album overall. But the accent and constant lyrics of rape and abusing women quickly grew tiresome. Déjà vu however is an excellent song. Eminem showed on it he still has the gift of great storytelling as he chronicles his problems with pill and alcohol addiction.

39. BEAUTIFUL

Out of Eminem’s more supposed ‘corny’, radio friendly songs, Beautiful would be my pick of them.

40. COLD WIND BLOWS

The first song on the Recovery track list and the song I like the most on it. It was a relief to hear an Eminem song free of that stupid accent after the last album. For me overall though, Recovery was quite a boring album.

41. I NEED A DOCTOR WITH DR. DRE

Eminem gets two verses here to Dre’s one despite it being Dre’s song. Em talks about the early days of first being signed by Dre when no one else believed in him or was willing to give him a shot due to him being white. Another main theme of Eminem’s verses are frustration and worry about Dr Dre due to the constant postponement of his album ‘Detox’ as Dre suffered with depression, lost belief in his abilities and became a self-critic & perfectionist to the point he had just stopped releasing his music. Em pleads with Dre and makes clear how badly he wants to help his mentor return to his glory days of making rap hits. So he can finally pay him back for the debt he feels he owes Dre for risking his career by signing him and giving him the platform to reach the top.

“You risked your career for me, I know it as well as you, nobody wanted to fuck with the white boy, Dre I’m cryin’ in this booth, you saved my life, now maybe it’s my turn to save yours, but I can never repay you, what you did for me is way more. But I ain’t givin’ up faith and you ain’t givin’ up on me- get up, Dre! I’m dyin’ I need you, come back for fuck’s sake!”



Dre then raps about the first time Em came into the studio for his first session with Dre and how everyone was laughing at Eminem for his appearance, until he started rapping and stunned everyone with his ability. The rest of the verses main theme is Dre talking about friends who he feels abandoned him when he needed them most because they felt he was no longer of use to them.

“Went through friends, some of them I put on, but they just left, they said they was ridin’ to the death. But where the fuck are they now, now that I need them? I don’t see none of them, all I see is Slim, Fuck all you fair-weather friends all I need is him!”



42. NO LOVE FT. LIL WAYNE

Eminem featured on a Lil Wayne album for ‘Drop The World’ and here Lil Wayne repays the favour by appearing on ‘No Love’ for Em’s Recovery Album. At the time Lil Wayne was probably the biggest rapper in the world, so Eminem made sure to bring his A-game for this track and ensured his would be the verse everyone was talking about.

43. NOT AFRAID

If this was a list for Eminem’s best 50 songs in my opinion, Not Afraid wouldn’t be on my list. This was the first song Eminem ever made that made my Mum say “I quite like that song”. Given my mum is a notorious Eminem hater, this concerned me and immediately turned me off it abit. That said, 1.2 Billion views meant there was no question of leaving it off this list.

44. LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE FT. RIHANNA

Again, If this was Eminem’s best 50 songs or even best 100, it certainly wouldn’t be making my list. I’m not particularly a fan of this song, I never listen to it. It’s okay but of the two I think Monster is better. With that being said, it has 1.7 Billion views on Youtube, so must be included in a list of Eminem’s 50 most definitive songs.

45. SURVIVAL

For me, one of Eminem’s most underrated songs and one of my favourites by him from the last 10 years. I like his flow here and the lyrics are consistently strong throughout. By far the best song on the MMLP2 which overall was quite a repetitive album.

46. KILLSHOT

After releasing two full length albums in the space of 9 months, there was no time to give the pen a rest for Eminem once young rapper Machine Gun Kelly had released a video for his diss track Rap Devil. Eminem, who throughout his career has never been one to turn down a rap beef fired back with his response Killshot just eleven days later. Though Rap Devil undoubtedly contained some good lines and quickly got buzz around it, the video currently has 1 million dislikes and 2.1 million likes (for comparison Killshot has 4.5 million likes and just 145K dislikes) so a massive 47% of the 3.1 million people who provided one-click feedback, voted the video down. More than a reflection of the quality of the song itself, I think this is more reflective on the size of Eminem’s loyal fanbase and aswell the legacy and respect which he has garnered in hip hop. People I think saw MGKs diss as him manufacturing beef where it wasn’t really there to gain clout. Killshot for me was solid throughout and gave him another clear beef victory. I didn’t include anything on this list from Eminem’s most recent album Kamikaze as this song was released in the same time frame and it’s a better song than anything on that album which for me didn’t really have a standout song.

47. HEADLIGHTS

Eminem apologises to his Mum for the things he has said about her on records and forgives her for her bad parenting during his childhood. Not the ending many of us expected to this feud but Eminem does this song quite well, he steers it away from being cheesy but the emotion and feeling is still definitely present. Nice Chorus too.

48. AROSE

The best song on Eminem’s most critically condemned album to date- Revival. I thought the Revival slating was harsh, in my opinion its certainly not significantly worse than any of his post Encore albums. Arose is one of Eminem’s most emotional songs ever, in this song he raps his inner most thoughts and feelings to his daughter and his deceased best friend Proof from his perspective whilst lying close to death in hospital from substance abuse. It’s a very gripping song, Em reels the listener in to his story and keeps you completely hooked throughout. It’s very captive storytelling and very good lyrically too.

49. GODZILLA FT. JUICE WRLD

After a busy 2017 and 2018 Eminem shocked a lot of people when he announced the release of a new album in the very first month of 2020. This would be his third studio album in just over three years, with his work rate having returned from his early famous years, with the difficult inbetween period of writer’s block, burnout and drug and alcohol addiction which slowed his output to just 3 studio albums in 12 years now thankfully a distant memory. The quicker output seems to suit Eminem much better than years inbetween albums as this stretch has seen each new release be better than the one before it. After the much maligned Revival, Kamikaze won back some people and Music To Be Murdered by is certainly Eminem’s best album since Encore, and quite possibly his best since The Eminem Show.

If I was surprised at the speed at which Em came back with a whole new album, I was even more surprised by the fact it’s actually a replayable album. In fact I’ve already listened to it more times than his previous four efforts. Whilst Kamikaze was a good album in comparison to Revival, MTBMB is ‘just’ good. On everything- beats, lyrics and features it is significantly better than all his albums from the previous decade. The three songs featuring Royce Da 5′9 are all high points on the record but I’ve gone with Godzilla featuring a chorus from the recently departed Juice Wrld as the most significant record on the album.

50. RAP GOD

“Why be a king when you can be a God?”

I see ‘Rap God’ as kind of a follow up to ‘Infinite’. Coming 17 years later, it features similar braggadocios statements, ‘I’m Infinite’ ‘A Rap God’ and just like Infinite was Em showing off his lyrical ability, here he seems to be showing off his lyrical speed. Incidentally, showing off is something I feel Eminem has leaned into more over the last few years, for example using unusual words to demonstrate the size of his extensive vocabulary, and rhyming in more complex schemes or with more difficult to rhyme words. This is not a criticism by any stretch just an observation. But there is more to ‘Rap God’ than just Eminem’s ability to rap really fast, it’s also lyrically a good song too with Eminem looking back over his long career: the controversies, the criticism’s and the successes of a Rap God.

Eminem opened the door for white rappers, before him it was unimaginable for a white rapper to be respected and rated d by hip hop artists and black fans alike. He made Hip Hop music bigger and more popular, brought it to new audiences and played a significant role in raising rap music to where it is today, one of the biggest and most loved music genres in the world.

The love and praise for Eminem in the early years was almost unanimous (bar the feminists, LGBT groups, the government, less talented jealous rappers & the people he dissed) but for most hip-hop lovers and music critics he clearly cemented himself as number 1 in the world at the time.

In recent years, it’s become somewhat fashionable to criticise Eminem. Sustaining your position as number 1 in the game and staying there for 20 years was always going to be a challenge, and it’s a long way down.

There’s no doubt Eminem has produced some corny stuff in the last decade or so and some mediocre stuff (though I think there’s always been atleast something redeeming about them to stop them being truly terrible, be it a cool chorus, great beat or flow) but to dismiss everything in that time frame as wack is just nonsense. Eminem has paid the price for having 3 incredible albums at the start of his career, as everything since has been judged against them and when invariably its fell short, its been dismissed as wack. I do feel Eminem is judged against the highest standards of everyone in the hip hop world, if he puts out a song that isn’t great it seems to often be immediately dismissed as terrible.

Eminem has not done a very good job of hiding how much this criticism bothers him, and though that’s understandable when you put as much into your craft as he does, after the amount of criticism he’s given to others about their music in his career, it’s only fair he soaks some up to.

That said, I think it’s definitely fair to say a lot of disrespect he’s received has been harsh. He’s been in the game for 20 years and he’s still getting number 1 albums every time he releases, featuring the biggest artists in the world and the MGK beef shown he can still generate enormous hype and interest. Compare that to other Rap greats, for example 50 cent, whose last album sold just 125,000 copies or Snoop Dogg whose last album charted at 148.

A lot of hip hop heads have moved on to the next shcmo who flows but for me you can keep your Drakes, Kanyes, Jay-Z’s, Tupac’s etc. I’m happy with my decision to keep bumping the white boy. I’ll leave the final say to David fucking Porter a.k.a Future.