Dec 1, 2016

For me it's: Dr. Dre Presents...The Aftermath

For the younger members of this board, this album was an absolute crushing letdown to Dre fans and at this point in time, everyone thought Aftermath was a failure and everyone lost faith in Dre.

After leaving Death Row and starting Aftermath, I was so f---ing amped for this new album. I couldn't wait to hear what Dre was gonna do with complete creative control. I begged my older brother to drive me to the record store after school on a Tuesday the day it came out and I bought this CD with money I saved up from cutting my neighbors lawns and raking their autumn leaves. Point is, I was in middle school and barely had enough money to buy CDs.

I popped it in and couldn't believe what I was hearing. West coast rappers aren't always bad, but growing up in the northeast there aren't a whole lot of west coast rappers I like. And this album was filled with subpar rappers. There are some gems and some of those dudes have dropped dope s--- over their careers but this was not the way to show off your new label. After releasing his own classic album and producing classics for Snoop and 2Pac, this compilation missed the mark badly. I still hate it to this day haha. It's probably not THAT bad of an album but what it represented at that time and what it actually sounded like were so far apart. Thank god he signed eminem.

Edit: Sorry for the extremely long post. No one will probably even read this and I doubt anyone will even agree with me. But this topic brought back old memories (and some old wounds apparently!).

 

Dec 1, 2016

Relapse is a brilliant album

 

Dec 3, 2016

OK, I'll give you my real input...

I liked Eminem since a little before he made it to the mainstream. I loved SSLP (my favorite Eminem album), MMLP and TES because they were creative, they had energy, there was wit and great writing.

Encore is lazy. It uses childish humor in the middle of the album, and tired out, boring concepts from TES to finish it. Granted, yes, I get that Encore was an encore from the Eminem Show, but I didn't think he'd come off lazy.

Was there high points? Sure.

I loved Never Enough. I really liked Yellow Brick Road, Like Toy Soldiers, Spend Some Time, Encore, and I think the most underrated song is Crazy In Love.

But even with these highs, would I consider them top 20-30 Eminem songs? f--- no.

The middle of this album is an embarrassment to how great Eminem was from 98-03. He legit s--- on the reputation he built up for himself, as not only being a credible MC, but one of the best.

If it was just ONE song? Sure. But it was 8 out of 16 songs.

When I heard this album, I was in straight disbelief that Eminem could ever make something so f---ing bad. That's how highly I thought of him prior to Encore.

This is the Eminem that I remember, and used to respect:



(He's definitely drugged up here, but notice how he talks about respect and wanting people to give him respect as an MC. He used to talk about this A LOT. Now tell me Big Weenie is something that earns respect as a rapper.)

 

Dec 7, 2016

 

Dec 3, 2016

people are crazy

It's better now than it was a year ago too imo

 

Dec 3, 2016

but yikes at not liking Compton

 

Dec 1, 2016

Encore and it's not even close.

 

Dec 1, 2016

Curtis or Shady XV imo.