After a rapper blows you away with his first three albums, you don't really know what to expect from the next one. Will it blow you away, or will it fall flat on its face? This song is definitely the latter, and it is very, very bad. The beats are not terrible, but the rhymes are the same s**t you've heard from Eminem three times before. Eminem seems to recognize he is running out of controversy, which is the fuel of his success. He tries to make some more, but he ends up just sounding like an idiot. When your taking shots at Michael Jackson and Jessica Simpson, you know you've lost it. The humorous songs on this album are very terrible. Big Weenie is one of the worst ten songs EVER. More on that piece of s**t later. Now for the singles review.
Mosh was the first single, and it is the album's best. It is laid back with a perfect beat, and Eminem's lyrics target Bush and all of the corporate suck-ups that flood our world. Such lines as "Mr. kiss his a*scrack, he's a class act," show that Eminem still has some skill. When this came out as the first single, it gave me hope that Eminem had one last good album in him. Very long for a rap song, over five minutes. Never tedious though. The rhymes are very fresh, and his flow is flawless. Eminem tries to incite anarchy with this song, in a desperate attempt to overthrow Bush. It sort of seems like a half-a*ssed effort though, he knows he won't really do anything with this. He seems to mock this also, making it seem as though he is a little kid, with the opening and closing sections sung by little kids.Also, some of his age begins to show in his rhymes, with subpar rhymes such as "Stomp, push, mush, f**k Bush." Overall, this would be a fourth or fifth best song on one of his other albums. The fact that it's the best here is not a good sign.
Just Lose It is an absolute train wreck. The lyrics are just incredibly stupid, and it uses the already dead and rotting theme of "Guess who's back?" again. And this song doesn't even come close to I'm Back on MMLP or Without Me on The Show. One rhyme on this song is "Give a little toot toot! It's okay. Oops! My CD just skipped. And everyone just heard you let one rip." He also pretends to be gay, rape little kids, and beat up old ladies. It is kind of like when you make a joke you think is hilarious, and nobody around you thinks it is funny at all. There is that awkward pause right after, and you know everyone is thinking "this kid's a loser." That's kind of what this song is like. The lyrics even mock his own song, Lose Yourself. Overall, this song is disgustingly terrible. To my horror, even this tops the next single.
Ass Like That is easily in Eminem's worst five. It starts with a gong hit, and the beat has a very middle-eastern feel. This songs lyrics are about police walking in on a Arabian rapper who is engaged in some sexual act, who escapes everytime with a hand puppet dog named Triumph. Pretty cool, huh? In this song, Eminem compares different celebrities a*ses. While I agree with most of his judgements (that show on MTV makes my peepee go doing, doing doing too, Em), it is still an incredibly dumb song topic. Which brings me to the song's chorus, which features Eminem saying "The way you move it, you make my peepee go doing, doing, doing." He also asks Gwen Stefani to take a piss on him. Could it get any worse? Em, your not funny anymore. I don't know what happened, but you lost that biting humor from your first three albums and replaced with stupid s**t that nobody besides 10 year olds think is funny. Terrible, terrible song.
While those two songs gave the album a terrible rep, two moderately good singles close out the single parade for this album. Like Toy Soldiers is the first of these. It is the album's second best. The rhymes, although not individually spectacular, at least aren't stupid humor, and his flow is good. The chorus is sung by a bunch of girls, and that is a weak spot, but the rap verses shine. They lament rapper's violence to each other, and he offers a salute too all of his soldiers who stand up for him on street corners around the U.S. A lot of bottled up rage released on this song. It is kind of ironic how this song's video has Proof's funeral in it, when less than a year later Proof would be shot in the head and killed. Eminem states in this song that he is willing to walk away from the game if it means saving people's lives. He realizes the controversy around him is escalating too high, and that may lead to many of his closest friends death. Which it did. His close friends Bugz and Proof were killed after the making of this song, and Obie Trice was shot in the stomach but survived. Maybe this has something to do with his leaving rap? It probably does. Very good song, anyhow.
Mockingbird is another single that isn't a total embarrasment, and probably the song with the most staying power off this album. As many of you know, this song is Em talking to his daughter, Hailey. He is promising to spend more time with her, and to protect her from his Enemies. Some pretty lame rhymes though, such as "We're all we got in this world, when it spins, when it swirls, when it twirls." Eminem is just tired of rap at this point in his career. He has to break his flow in many points to make his lines make sense, something that never happened on his first two albums, even in the filler tracks. A pretty good beat, nothing spectacular. Just another song about Eminem and his life, not a new topic. Not nearly as real or heartwrenching as Rock Bottom or If I Had, though. It is not terrible, but not the great singles Eminem has shown in the past. At least it beats the s**t out of Just Lose It and A*s Like That, though.
One last single. I'm not sure in what place this one was released, but it's cool. Encore, the title track, and the first title track of Eminem's career. The rhymes individually suck, and Dr. Dre and his crew don't really add too much. Good chorus though, and sweet party-like beat. Very long for a rap song, at 5:48. Eminem, Dre and others are on the familiar topic of dissing haters and posers. Also features a skit at the end where Eminem kills all of the people at his concert with a machine gun, and then says "See you in hell, f**kers" before blowing his brains out. Much like his first album SSLP, this album has a running theme of suicide, but less of a comic approach than his debut. So the ending isn't really disturbing coming from someone like Eminem. This is Eminem's farewell, and it turns out it was his final one. Pretty good party bumper, and an enjoyable listen.
And that's it for the singles. Not too many non-single highlights at all. Rain Man is probably the best, and that's saying something about the quality of the singles. It is just a nonsensical babble of humorous rhymes by Eminem, featuring the hilarious line "Dr. Dre? I got a question, if I may. Is it gay, to play putt putt golf with a friend, and watch his butt-butt when he tees off?" It's so dumb it's funny. Also, in one point, he rhymes balloon-a, tuna, and trash can-azumah. I have no idea what a trash can azumah is either. Pretty enjoyable listen. I think I should devote a whole paragraph to one of the worst songs ever before I finish this review up.
Big Weenie. You can tell from the opening bass honk that this song is going to suck. It doesn't even rhyme for most of the song! Check out this chorus: "You are just jealous of me, cuz you, you just can't do what I do, so instead of just admitting it, you walk around and say all kinds of really mean things about me cuz you're a meanie, a meanie but it's only cuz you're just really jealous of me
cuz I'm what you want to be, so you just look like an idiot when you say these mean things, cuz it's too easy to see you're really just a big weenie, big weenie." Need I say more? Even A*s Like That and Just Lose It top this disaster easily.
Overall, this was a weak album from one of my favorite artists. Here's your best three:
1. Mosh
2. Like Toy Soldiers
3. Mockingbird
And your worst three:
1. Big Weenie
2. Puke
3. A*s Like That.
A terrible album with some high points that elevates it from an awful to a poor.
