'Till I Collapse (The Eminem Show)

This is one song that is impossible not to nod your head to. It's just...incredible.

Eminem had reached the point of his career where he was pushing so many lyrical boundaries that he nearly succeeded in writing a verse where EVERY word forms part of a rhyme: a feat no rapper has ever attempted before or even come close to doing. The first verse to this amazing, amazing song is where it nearly happened. Let me begin on the almost impossible task of highlighting the rhymes to this incredibly complex verse. Try to follow this without confusing the fuck out of yourself. I'll start by copy/pasting the lyrics (fuck writing them out):

Till I collapse I'm spilling these raps long as you feel em
Till the day that I drop you'll never say that I'm not killing them
Cause when I am not/then I'ma stop (then I'ma stop penning them)
And I am not (not) hip-hop and I'm just not (and I'm just not Eminem)
Subliminal thoughts/when I'ma stop (when I'ma stop sending them) women are caught in webs spin 'em and hawk (spin 'em and hawk venom a-)
'drenaline shots of penicillin could not get the illing to stop.
Amoxacilin's just not real enough.
The criminal cop (cop) killin' (killin') hip-hop villain, a minimal swap (swap) to cop millions of Pac (Pac listeners)
You're coming with me, feel it or not you're gonna fear it like I showed you the spirit of god (god lives in us)
You hear it a lot, lyrics (lyrics) that shock is it a miracle or am I just a product of pop fizzing up
For shizzle my whizzle (this is the plot) this is the plot listen up (plot listen up) you bizzles forgot slizzle does not give a fuck (slizzle does not)

Holy shit. I started running out of colors. There are rhyme schemes within rhyme schemes within rhyme schemes...patterns that overlap and bend in on each other. According to wordcount, there are 39 out of a possible 158 words that don't form part of a rhyme scheme...so about 75.3% of the words in this verse form part of a rhyme. No other rapper has ever reached this strike rate and the most mind-boggling part about this verse...IT ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE.

He's pretty much saying that he is going to keep rapping until the day that he's not good anymore...until he collapses. This is eerily foreshadowing his lyrical collapse on Encore (or The-Album-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named on this blog), after which he stopped rapping for five years. On Encore, he "wasn't hip hop" at all...and he was "not Eminem." He was an overweight, pill-popping zombie. For the rest of the verse, he talks about gaining Tupac fans and then wonders if he's just "product of pop fizzing up," or if he really is a serious lyricist. He then, of course, ends the verse with his catchphrase: "I Just Don't Give a Fuck!"

The song is something special with just Eminem, but turns into something even more so with Nate Dogg on the chorus. That bassy voice over the guitar strings and stadium claps is an eargasm, along with the very catchy melody. It's a chorus to bring the house down.

In the second verse, Eminem continues the running theme of rapping until he drops dead...rapping until your run is over. And, as Eminem says, when your run is over, just admit when it's at its end. Then Eminem goes on a slight tangent, listing his favorite rappers: Reggie (Redman), Jay-Z, Nas and Biggie, Andre from Outkast (really, Eminem?), Jadakiss, Kurupt, Nas, and then me. Funny that, even though this track is on some "battling rap" shit (as he says in the third verse) and he has the license to brag (because that's what you do in battle rap songs), he's still very humble, putting himself at the bottom of that list. Let's face it: he's better than Tupac, and MUCH better than Biggie.

Then Eminem gets back to the meat of the song. We begin to see a new side to Eminem: it's almost like he's subconsciously trying to tell us something. You can tell he's very angry that he'll "never get the props" he feels he "ever deserves" and when he's not "put on the list" of the best emcees, he is bitter...he's resentful that because he's white he has to prove himself ten times as much as any black rapper.

Eminem sums up what he's all about with the last lines of the song: "A plaque and platinum status is whack if I'm not the baddest." He's not about the money...he's about the respect. And if he doesn't get it soon, well...he's going to collapse. And he did. So this song, along with 8 Mile, is like Eminem's last hurrah. 

Production

I don't usually comment on production...this blog has mainly been about the lyrics. But it's imperative I talk about one of Eminem's best beats...hell, one of the best beats in rap, period. This was when Eminem just struck gold with every beat...he was making Sing For The Moments, Lose Yourselfs and 'Till I Collapses.

It starts off with those ominous, cinematic synths in the background, and the piano comes in...then that sick guitar riff comes in, and strings build...then an explosion of claps hits your ears and you're in a colosseum, with thousands of others, nodding your head in unison.

I love the little touches Eminem/Nate Dogg add to this song: the "ohhhh, ohhhhh" background melody that backs the rapping as it leads into the chorus.