SING FOR THE MOMENT

Throw Back Thursday TOTD

Growing up I was never into rap music – I mean I knew NWA, Public Enemy etc existed – the kids at secondary school used to bring in these tapes on their Walkmans and they’d never play it out loud but you’d hear these tinny beats spilling out of the headphones and catch a few words, but it wasn’t my thing. It wasn’t until I think when I first heard Bobby Brown, and I started getting into the New Jack Swing thing in the late 80s early 90s that it really started to have an impact on me. That said, my friend Imran introduced me to Eminem way later, with the arrival of his album “The Slim Shady LP”. 

By this point I knew who Dr. Dre was obviously, and 2Pac, Puff Daddy, The Notorious BIG, LL Cool J, the whole East Coast/West Coast rivalry, but this was different. 

Eminem crashed into the music scene with this album, with incendiary bars, topics that were completely off limits, and would gain him the wrath of different groups the world over but he succeeded in getting himself heard.

The song I have chosen is “Sing”, and while his debut single “My Name Is” features Chas n Dave (Funny story!) I chose this one because it’s one of my favourite songs by him. Plus it features a sample of Aerosmith “Dream On”. 

The bassline, guitar, and hook are used for this but the beat is pure hip hop, and Eminem turns his guns against the establishment which is nothing new but this time, when you examine the lyrics he’s calling them out for making him out to be the bad guy, it’s interesting because once upon a time rock music, specifically heavy metal was seen as evil in the world, so the fact that he’s combined hip hop and Aerosmith is quite a thing….. 

This is definitely one of my favourite tracks by him….

Happy 50th birthday Marshall Mathers.

Listen to the track here now

Words by Del Osei-Owusu