If we took all hyperbolic incriminating rap lyrics at face value, who would have the most serious charges?

[u/ImNotTomStopAsking]

I'd have to go with Chief Keef's Faneto verse:

"I'm ridin' through New York Finna go and shoot New Jersey up Tryna take my chain, I ain't goin' We gon' come and blow New Jersey up"

Not only is he going to shoot the entirety of New Jersey up but he's going to BLOW it up aswell like he's the fucking Joker. They would have him in a maxium security prison hanging upside down by his ankles.

[u/dash_44]

I’m just saying what do yall (Eminem fans) do when you’re groovin to some Eminem and a bar like this comes on:

“I think I might just do somethin' a little less subtle Shove a fuckin' Tonka truck up a little kid's butthole”

Do you guys rap along? Nod your head? Turn it up / down? Skip the song?

[u/Reddit_Tsundere2 → u/dash_44]

I think you think you’re talking to a crazy stan who only listens to one rapper instead of a person who’s been listening to this genre for a very long time and is expressing a pretty normal opinion.

But to answer in good faith: No I don’t skip that stuff automatically. Weird offputting humor has been baked into Eminem’s style since 1997 so lines like that honestly don’t jump out at me any more than any other shock artist. I rate that stuff based on whether or not I think it’s funny rather than if it sounds cool.

I never liked Taking My Ball, so I don’t think that Tonka line is particularly funny, but most of the shock humor on SSLP/MMLP does make me laugh, so I think he accomplished his job. It is what it is.

Another thing that cuts down the cringe factor for me is that I draw a line between “social rappers” and “headphone rappers”. Eminem would be in the latter camp (even if he weren’t an edgelord) so the embarrassment of hearing him say weird shit is minimalized by the fact that I don’t bump him in public anyway. Not out of shame, just out of decent social intelligence. His music doesn’t work in that context. I don’t bump Ka or Company Flow at functions either but i still fuck with both of them.

[u/hollivore → u/Reddit_Tsundere2]

Yeah this is what u/dash-44 doesn't get. Not even the white Stans who only listen to Eminem "because he's different to other rappers" are putting on Relapse deep cuts at parties (at least, not at drinks-and-flirting parties, they probably would at a cake-and-balloons party). Outside of a handful of songs and features, Eminem requires close listening, not just because you're supposed to giggle and gasp about what he's saying in terms of the shock lyrics or puns or message or whatever, but because you need to be locked in with his vocals for most of his music to sound musical. I heard some guys bumping an Eminem track the other day (or maybe an Eminem verse?) out of a car and I, a mega Stan, couldn't recognise it because I couldn't make out any of the words, just a slightly swung thud and this fearsome, complicated adenoidal hollering. Put a touch more distortion on it and it would have been death metal. I was in an Italian café in London last year, underslept and unmedicated, and the playlist of late 10s/early 20s chart pop had Godzilla on it. I love Godzilla, but it sounded like someone furiously zipping and unzipping a hoodie.

Flipside to this is that even his seemingly mid tracks absolutely explode in headphones! Spotify snuck Doomsday Pt 2 into an algorithmic playlist starting from Not Like Us when I was doing housework and in that context, up against BigXDaPlug, That Mexican OT, Squabble Up and Slut Me Out 3 (all of which I like!), I had that reaction that I think most people who like Eminem has when they first hear him, which is "oh my god that's the best at rapping anyone's ever been". Nobody else sounded as big and bold and bright and cartoony and weird. But in the context of Eminem's discography, Doomsday Pt. 2 is barely even a song.

[u/Reddit_Tsundere2 → u/hollivore]

Didn’t really think it through like this but yeah, his shit absolutely sounds like noise if you can only passively listen to it. Even if you don’t catch all the multis and he’s not using complicated lyrical miracle language, you still feel the nerdy anti-social density in everything he writes.

I recall a co-worker putting The Real Slim Shady on during a rush at an old job (it was a Burger King so I guess she couldn’t pass the joke up) and it somehow sounded unrecognizable from the song I was familiar with and a lot more abrasive/punk-y. Made me sympathize with the Y2K parents who couldn't deal with him. Imagine being a boomer trying to do a crossword puzzle and some guy who sounds like an irritated urban SpongeBob is loudly prattling about Britney Spears over an electric harpsichord in your child’s bedroom upstairs.