He’s gone through countless musical and personal evolutions throughout his career. Still, Eminem remains one of the greatest lyricists in hip-hop history. From his 1999 debut album, The Slim Shady LP, to 2022’s Curtain Call 2, the Detroit native has consistently delivered heat for over two decades. He’s best known for crafting rhymes that his contemporaries could never conceive. In fact, this past weekend, one of the recording artist’s most iconic moments resurfaced on social media in the form of a 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper.
“I’ve heard you say that you bend the word,” the journalist says to Eminem during their chat. “Yeah, it’s just in the enunciation of it,” Slim Shady replies. “Like, people say that the word ‘orange’ doesn’t rhyme with anything. That kinda pisses me off. I can think about a lot of things that rhyme with ‘orange.’” At this point, the interview almost feels like a skit, as it’s hard to tell how serious the rapper is being. However, he quickly proves that he meant every word, giving Cooper prime examples of his lyrical wit.
Eminem’s Rhyming Skills are Unmatched
“If you’re taking the word at face value, and you just say ‘orange,’ nothing is gonna rhyme with it exactly,” the “Mockingbird” hitmaker admits. “If you enunciate it, and you make it like, more than one syllable, ‘or-ange,’ you can say like… I put my or-ange, four-inch, door hinge in storage / And ate porridge, with Ge-orge.” As Eminem recites the bars, Cooper lets out a giggle, admiring the 8 Mile actor’s obvious dedication to his craft. “You just have to figure out the science of breaking down words,” the former noted.
Elsewhere in the news, Eminem’s incredible influence on the industry was proven once again this past weekend. Following the arrival of their Sremm4Life album on Friday (April 7), Slim Jxmmi of Rae Sremmurd admitted that he used to try to rap like Marshall Mathers in the earlier days of learning his craft. Read more about that here. Additionally, let us know if you think the 50-year-old did a good job of rhyming in the comments below.
[Via]