Eminem Then and Now: How has he Changed?

Eminem is undoubtedly an absolute legend in the rap industry. Go anywhere and play “The Real Slim Shady” and you’re bound to have a good few people who’ve heard it, or even have it memorized. But his style has changed noticeably since the early 2000s. 

To start off, in 2002 Eminem dropped the album The Eminem Show, in which he included a few skits, some serious songs and a few fun songs. A notably fun song, “Without Me” is known by everybody, even people born after 2002. Nowadays, however, his music is more serious, with less of the fun lines. He does still add in a few jokes for his audience, but for the most part he is more serious in his music.

Additionally, he was arguably bigger back then. In his famous song “Rap God”,  he mentions that, “See if I get away with it now that I ain’t as big as I was,” obviously pointing towards the fact that he is not as popular as he was in the early 2000s. 

That fact, however, is very surprising. He is becoming a better lyricist, with faster verses (up to 10.65 syllables per second, challenging the previous world record for fastest rap).  Additionally, he holds the world record for the most words in a single rap song, with another one of his more recent songs, “Rap God”, holding an astonishing 1,560 words.

In the end, I think that it is very easy to say that Eminem has changed for the better in the last few years, though he has admittedly gotten a little bit more vulgar with his language. Overall, he has rapped faster, rhymed more, and fit more words in one song in his newer songs than many of his other songs and even more than other rappers. 

As one more final fun fact, one of Eminem’s most popular songs, “The Real Slim Shady” (with almost 700 million streams on Spotify) was written and recorded about three hours before the album was due. Having so little time and writing such a popular song is a true testament to what an incredibly creative and accomplished lyricist Eminem truly is.