Eminem - "Cleaning Out My Closet"

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What do you think of this? I like it a bit. I can actually notice why people think he has good flow. I like the insistent central hook. Maybe the chorus and the video might be OTT. The NME trashed it because they thought it was too earnest and not funny enough or something.

― sundar subramanian, Friday, 11 October 2002 06:44 (twenty-three years ago)

I like it, even though it kinda serves as final proof he's boxed himself into a corner as far as actually having anything to say. For a lot of reasons I dig the stylistic qualities of the vocal, particularly the way he kinda hhhhuffs it out through parts of it, sort of feeling around for the flow, he needs to employ that trick more often. The parts where it degenerates into barked/shouted delivery seem unnecessary, and the chorus... well, I guess it works well enough and provides a good "hey radio, here's your soundbite" kind of hook -- almost like filler between the verses in a sense.

But yeah, I like. One of the seven-or-so good songs on Eminem Show.

― gazuga (gazuga), Friday, 11 October 2002 07:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Every time it starts, I think it's "Abracadabra" by the Steve Miller Band. And then there's a bit that sounds exactly like a bit off the last Ugly Duckling album, which I can only assume is some sort of cosmic joke on hip-hop fans.

As for the song itself: overlong, tedious, dull, and whiny.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 11 October 2002 08:22 (twenty-three years ago)

i quite appreciate the bit where he goes 'you should see Hayley now she's beautiful but you'll never see her' which while bitter and vindictive underlines repeatedly Marshall's own feelings for his own kid in relation to how his mother felt about him and its just weird to hear this on record and while i think he may be really pushing it in being so open about all this i do like how he is quite unparalleled in this field

― blueski, Friday, 11 October 2002 10:40 (twenty-three years ago)

It's a pretty brave song to put out as a single.

Not because it's intense and personal, but because it's rubbish. Everything that's wrong with Eminem and none of the things that he actually does in an entertaining way.

― edward o (edwardo), Friday, 11 October 2002 11:15 (twenty-three years ago)

i dunno if its any worse than 'The Way I Am' but whatever

― blueski, Friday, 11 October 2002 11:48 (twenty-three years ago)

What do you think Em's relationship with Haley's gonna be by the time she's 13 or 14? I'd never want to see my dad again if he used me the way he's using her. Seriously, I'd want to kill him. I agree with Edward O, he needs to stop airing his laundry so much. Definitely one of the very weakest tracks on the new one.

― matt riedl (veal), Friday, 11 October 2002 11:49 (twenty-three years ago)

The part at the beginning with the "snare in my headphones" -- is that in there to show me that it's just a song and not real life? I figure it is mostly his real life.

Also, there's a part in there where he asks to listen to the record to find out who he's really dissing -- chorus implies it's his mom, but there's a lot about his ex-wife too. So what's the secret? Also, as bitter as he is, then why is he "sorry, momma"? He doesn't sound sorry for the most part.

― dleone (dleone), Friday, 11 October 2002 12:05 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't have a problem with him airing his laundry per se, this can be done in a way that's entertaining. Closet is just a rant that never seems to end attached to a chorus that, amazingly, is worse.

Really, The Way I Am is one of the few times he's sounded convincing doing stuff like this.

― edward o (edwardo), Friday, 11 October 2002 12:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Someone's bound to say it, so I'll just be a party pooper and say it before anyone else gets the chance to:

The correct Smartass ILM Reaction to this single is: "This is Eminem's "Plastic Ono Band", thus it's rubbish."

― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 11 October 2002 12:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Daniel I SO NEARLY SAID THAT before! You are OTM about my ILM instincts. But I don't mind it when Eminem does it because he's a better lyricist.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 11 October 2002 12:14 (twenty-three years ago)

The chorus is bad, but I like the rest of the song. Has there ever been a bigger lie in the history of pop music: "I'm sorry, Mama/ I never meant to hurt you/ I never meant to make you cry" -- er, what sorts of things does he say when he does mean to hurt somebody?

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 11 October 2002 12:24 (twenty-three years ago)

er, what sorts of things does he say when he does mean to hurt somebody?

"Nobody listens to Techno!!!" It worked, too.

― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 11 October 2002 13:22 (twenty-three years ago)

There are some nice moments in my song, but as Edward O pointed out, "The Way I Am" covers similar ground in a similar style in a vastly superior manner.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 11 October 2002 13:36 (twenty-three years ago)

i think its a queer song. no i cannot defend this

― anthony easton (anthony), Friday, 11 October 2002 13:46 (twenty-three years ago)

It seems to me that a big part of Eminem's appeal is that he seems contradictory of himself. He is sorry, but he is not. He loves his daughter, but has urges to kill her mom. When this happens on Jerry Springer, everyone laughs and forgets about it in 5 minutes. Is the "I'm a complicated paradox" angle all that great? Is it even "artistic" (i.e., different than anyone else's persona)?

― dleone (dleone), Friday, 11 October 2002 13:51 (twenty-three years ago)

"What do you think Em's relationship with Haley's gonna be by the time she's 13 or 14?"

Oh please....WHO CARES? We all already know WAAY too much about this man's personal life.....and I didn't want to know from the get-go. Wasn't two full albums of it enough? Doesn't he have anything else to bring to the table? Jeez!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 11 October 2002 14:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Ha, Eminem's next album should be a startlingly personal look into the life of James Brolin!

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 11 October 2002 14:22 (twenty-three years ago)

It's true though -- Eminem's music is weird because you can't really understand it w/ out knowing a lot about his personal life. It'll be interesting to see how people respond to it in 20 years, when people have forgotten completely about the Kim/pistol-whipping incident and all the other little details. I have a feeling it'll be like reading the "Random Notes" section of an old Rolling Stone, i.e., boring as shit.

(NOTE: I am NOT saying that music has to sound good in 20 years to be valuable. Just making an observation about Eminem's music.)

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 11 October 2002 14:33 (twenty-three years ago)

It's really big of him to use his daughter as arguing tool.

― DavidM (DavidM), Friday, 11 October 2002 15:35 (twenty-three years ago)

I like imagining the chorus of this sung to the tune on Funky Cold Medina. It works!

― Graham (graham), Friday, 11 October 2002 15:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Is the "I'm a complicated paradox" angle all that great?

That angle (and bullets) made 2Pac a saint. It's generally what substitutes for depth amongst gangsta rappers.

I'm not sure this stuff needs "depth." At least of that type.

― wl (wl), Friday, 11 October 2002 16:05 (twenty-three years ago)

This song causes me a dilemma. I used to think of Eminem as just a shallow creep who uses misogyny as just another blunt tool for getting attention. Now I think of him as a slightly less shallow creep who I almost sympathise with. Note I say almost. I think he needs a shrink, not a microphone.

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Friday, 11 October 2002 16:43 (twenty-three years ago)

What's so great about Eminem is he's saying, "This is me, warts and all." He's not pulling any punches. It's just him. Real. Love him or hate him, this is Marshall Mathers.

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 11 October 2002 17:13 (twenty-three years ago)

...yeah, and? So what!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 11 October 2002 17:15 (twenty-three years ago)

He's real, is what I'm saying. Isn't that enough?

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 11 October 2002 17:19 (twenty-three years ago)

For me? No.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 11 October 2002 17:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Real need not always equal credible or even good, in my book.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 11 October 2002 17:21 (twenty-three years ago)

He may be real, but is he authentic?

(sorry, couldn't resist)

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 11 October 2002 17:22 (twenty-three years ago)

When you're real, you don't concern yourself with authenticiy. Realness trumps everything -- just ask Pink. C. Aguilera's finally getting on the real, too, or so I hear.

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 11 October 2002 17:25 (twenty-three years ago)

I think someone trumped Mark's keyboard.

― dleone (dleone), Friday, 11 October 2002 17:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Why is it that only psychologically maladjusted people get props for being real? What if you're a happy, well-adjusted, self-actualized, stable person and you play happy music? Shouldn't you get points for being real too?

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 11 October 2002 17:29 (twenty-three years ago)

If it doesn't leave radio real soon I won't be able to listen to it ever again. Mini-props however for giving me the chance to air-rap (ie. moving lips w/o making a sound) to it in the record store and thus impress the clerk who put it on.

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Friday, 11 October 2002 17:35 (twenty-three years ago)

o.nate: Why is it that only psychologically maladjusted people get props for being real? What if you're a happy, well-adjusted, self-actualized, stable person and you play happy music? Shouldn't you get points for being real too?
Mod up: +2 Insightful

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Friday, 11 October 2002 19:13 (twenty-three years ago)

What if you're a happy, well-adjusted, self-actualized, stable person and you play happy music?

Jonathan Richman gets his Real props as well -- no way to fake "Hey There Little Insect."

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 11 October 2002 19:19 (twenty-three years ago)

The 'is he real' issues regarding Eminem aren't authenticity, they're the blurring of private life and public image and the use of his life as theater. The former does remind me absolutely of Lennon except the 'facts' of Em's life predated his fame where the opposite is true w/lennon -- one reason why Em is more compelling, and why his music could remain compelling. (that and the sonics run laps around lennon's 'serious' busker-or-blues guitar primal scream-era stuff.) The story is in the music rather than the other way around, if that makes sense. Put in another way: If I find Em's life compelling, it's because of his records, and I learned most of what I needed to know through them (all except he had a connection to dre); 'what it feels like to be lennon' = only interesting if you care about lennon before the needle dropped. "I don't believe in Beatles," "Yoko and me / that's reality" = who in 2002 cares?

― scott pl. (scott pl.), Friday, 11 October 2002 20:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Can anyone really use terms like "keepin' it real" and "props" and not abjectly loathe themselves by this point in history?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 11 October 2002 20:06 (twenty-three years ago)

i like that without me song ok but 'cleaning out my closet' drives me up the wall. it'd be better if it was 'coming out my closet'. that'd make a good video.

i just watched the video for pink's 'family portrait' and it's pretty annoying for the same reasons. why do popstars have to get all whiney and my tough life serious? what happened to getting the party started? what happened to fun and being kee-razy?!

― brian badword (badwords), Friday, 11 October 2002 20:11 (twenty-three years ago)

props for pointing that out, Alex in NYC.

*wince*

― Dave M. (rotten03), Friday, 11 October 2002 20:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Word.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 11 October 2002 20:17 (twenty-three years ago)

PROPS TO THE FIRE!!!!!

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Friday, 11 October 2002 20:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Okay, that actually made me laugh.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 11 October 2002 20:24 (twenty-three years ago)

Sorry, I was kinda trolling up there -- this "real" thing does interest me, though, but in an academic way. It seems to me a trend in the way pop musicians promote themselves, now more than ever: "This one is the real me: No managers, no handlers, no bullshit."

It reminds me of what Marlon Brando termed as the Actors National Anthem -- complete lyrics:

Me me me me me me me Me me me me me me me Me me me me me me me Me me me me me me me Me me me me me me me Me me me me me me me...

― Mark (MarkR), Saturday, 12 October 2002 13:56 (twenty-three years ago)

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