#365songs (62 / 365)

Continuing the "fellas whomst sing fast" theme from my regrettable high school years, probably the only Eminem song I ever really got into ("Stan" is pretty good, and an obvious classic, but I never really got into it like I did this one). Of course, this isn't singing, mostly, and it seems to fly in the face of all I've written about how I didn't really start getting into rap music until after high school. While this is indisputably rap music, it was a one-off that didn't propel me into taking a serious look at the genre.

Like "One Week" and "The Elements," I put some effort into memorizing this, to show off. But I probably did not show off with it because even as a high schooler I would have recognized it as too edgy and offensive, and so it hasn't stuck with me like those other songs. But I mean. Eminem has always been a big assonance showoff and "A little bit of weed mixed with some hard liquor / Some vodka that'll jumpstart my heart quicker than a shock when I get shocked at the hospital / by the doctor when I'm not cooperating / cause I'm rockin the table while he's operating" is him in top form.

There's too much highly late-90s-specific beefing and edgelord shit in "Without Me" for me to have wanted to come back to it much after it had its moment with me, but it definitely did have a moment. Why this song and not some other Eminem? The vagaries of music availability pre-Internet, man. I certainly was too much of a good boy to actually buy an Eminem album myself. The fact that "Without Me" leaned more toward the playful adolescent side of Eminem than the aggressive side probably helped. But why not some other rapper entirely? I was almost certainly encumbered by some racist musical provincialism that made a white rapper seem more accessible. Tomorrow's entry will be more evidence in favor of that theory.