Check out the admirable sense of symmetry by the random iTunes man. Last Saturday he served up a track from Eminem’s worst album, 2004’s Encore, and a week later he delivers a song from the rapper’s comeback album, 2010’s Recovery.
Listening to those albums back-to-back, it’s striking to note the difference sobriety makes. Eminem recorded Encore while hopped up on pain pills and Recovery after taking a couple of years to get clean.
On the earlier album, Eminem coasted by on silly accents and juvenile sexual fantasies (‘Ass Like That’ is a typical title). It sounds as if he spent about an hour total on the lyric sheet.
Recovery, though, is a verbal onslaught packed with clever and often insightful rhymes. Over 17 tracks — without a single skit or interlude — Eminem re-stakes his claim as the best rapper in the game.
Today’s song is among the weaker tracks on the album but it’s still better than anything on Encore.
Note: This song contains a hilarious example of Eminem’s habit of taking shots at completely random celebrities whose names happen to fit the rhyme. Take that, Brooke Hogan and David Cook!
Critics Never Got Nothin Nice To Say man
You know the one thing I notice about critics man?
Is.. critics never ask me how my day went
Well imma tell em
[Verse 1]
Yesterday my dog died, I hog tied a hoe, tied her in a bow
Said next time you blow up try to spit a flow.
You wanna criticize dog try a little mo.
Im so tired of this I could blow, fire in the hole.
Im fired up, so fire up the lighter and the dro.
Better hold on a little tighter here I go.
Flows tighter, hot headed as Ghostrider, cold hearted as Spiderman throwin a spider in the snow
So ya better get lower than Flo-rida inside of a low-rider, with no tires in the hole
Why am I like this? why is winter cold?
Why is it when I talk, I’m so biased to the hos
Listen dog, Christmas is off, this is as soft as it gets, this isn’t golf
This is a blistering assault.
Those are your wounds this is the salt
So get lost, Shit dissin me is just like pissin off the wizard of oz
Wrap a lizard in gauze,
Beat you in the jaws with it, grab the scissors and saws
And cut out your livers gizzards and balls
Throw you in the middle of the ocean in a blizzard with jaws.
So sip piss like sizzurp through a straw
Then describe how it tasted like dessert to us all
Got the gall to make Chris piss in his drawers
Tickle him, go to his grave, skip him and visit his dog
[Hook]
You on fire
Thats how ya know your on a roll
Cause when you hot its like your burnin up everyone elses cold
You’re on fire
Man I’m so fuckin sick I got ambulances pullin me over and shit
You’re on fire
Ya need to stop drop and roll cause when you say the shit to get the whole hip hop shop to blow
You’re on fire.. you’re on fire
[Verse 2]
I just wrote a bullshit hook in between two long ass verses if you mistook the for a song, look
This aint a song its a warnin to Brooke,
Hogan and David Cook, that the crook just took over so book
Run as fast as you can, stop writin and kill it, I’m lightning in a skillet your a fuckin flash in a pan
I pop up you bitches scatter like hot grease splashin a fan
Mr. Mathers is the man
Yeah I’m pissed but I would rather take this energy and stash it in a can
Come back and whip your ass with it again
Saliva’s like sulfuric acid in your hand
It’ll eat through anything metal, the ass of iron man
Turn him into plastic, so for you to think that you could stand a fuckin chance is asinine, yeah ask Denaun man
Hit a blind man
With a coloring book and told him color inside the lines or get hit with flyin crayon
Fuck it I ain’t playin
Pull up in a van and hop out at a homeless man holdin a sign sayin
Vietnam vet, I’m out my fuckin mind man
Kick over the can, beat his ass and leave him 9 grand
So if I seem a little mean to you
This ain’t savage you ain’t never seen the brute
You wanna get graphic, we can go the scenic route
You couldn’t make a bulimic puke on a piece of fuckin corn and peanut boo poop
Sayin you sick quit playin you prick dont nobody care
Then why the fuck am I yellin at air
I ain’t even talkin to no-one cause aint nobody there
Nobody ‘ll fuckin test me cause these hos wont even dare
I’m wastin punch lines, but I got so many to spare
I just thought of another one that might go here
Naw dont waste it save it psycho yeah
Plus you gotta rewrite those lines that you said about Michaels hair
[Hook]
You on fire
Thats how ya know your on a roll
Cause when you hot its like your burnin up everyone elses cold
You’re on fire
Man im so hot my motherfuckin fire trucks on fire homie
Your on fire
Ya need to stop drop and roll cause when you say the shit to give the whole hip hop shop the blow
You’re on fire.. your on fire
You’re on fire
Meet Me In Montauk 
Well, in your chronology, you skipped over Relapse, which, when it was released, was supposed to be his improved album coming out of his drug haze. As I recall Relapse received some decent reviews and I did think much of it was an improvement over Encore. Of course, when he then released Recovery, it was revealed that he wasn’t quite so clean during Relapse after all and, in Recovery, he roundly criticized the weakness of the tracks on Relapse.
Anyway, I agree that today’s song isn’t really a highlight on Recovery, but I also agree it is better than anything on Encore (with the possible exception of Mosh). I need to listen again to Recovery as I only heard it cover to cover once and then went back to a few select tracks. My initial impression was that the rapping was back to Eminem quality though I have to admit that I missed the balance of some of the humor, not the silly kind shown on Encore, but the kind you would find on earlier albums like Marshall Mathers and my favorite of his albums, The Eminem Show.