Eminem’s latest verse on Kid Rock’s Christian album continues to spark conversation, as intended. Recently, support came from an unexpected source: Joe Budden, who left Shady Records and Slaughterhouse under a dark cloud and doesn’t hold back when he has something critical to say about Marshall. Not this time, though.
Joe and his team of co-hosts shared their opinions on “Heal My Faith” on The Joe Budden Podcast. Overall, they had little to say in support of the track, from its concept to Em’s verse. Joe was on board with the criticism when it came to Kid Rock; apart from that, he found Em’s verse impressive:
The song is absolutely horrible, ’cause Kid Rock. It’s a Kid Rock song, and whoever is doing the chorus, it’s trash. Kid Rock’s verse is trash. All of this shit is trash. It’s horrible.
I don’t love the choice. He didn’t have to rap with Kid Rock. Outside of the song being trash and horrible, and it being Kid Rock, and me not agreeing with the decision, I thought he absolutely smoked that verse. I thought that verse was great. Kid Rock’s verse was so bad that I was anticipating hearing what the fuck Em was about to do. But if you fuck with Em, this is 2008 Em. If you put a better hook on it and let hip hop producers do the drums – that’s his beat and hook. Put Skylar Grey on there. I thought he smoked that verse in terms of rapping ability.Most people would say, “Why the fuck did he choose to do that song?” So hearing him take the approach of trying to explain not only why he did the song but how Kid Rock helped him early in his career, how they met here and then ended up over here and just happened to be in the studio, yada yada… He told a few different stories in it and kept going with that flow. If I’m only judging Eminem as an MC, I thought he did better than anybody else can do on that.
As a rapper – he ate.I wanted to kill him, too. I hated the decision. I wanted to come in here and hit the shit in the back. I put it on, expecting to hear the worst of the worst. And when he came – he smoked.
It’s tough to do what he does. It’s very, very, very, very hard to do that. To keep that syllable flow on beat like a metronome, he’s unbelievable, even when the song is the worst it could possibly be.
I hated Em with Kendrick. The shit he did on that record [“Love Game”], I was like, yo, let me close my ears. But I also don’t love the “Rap God” Em. I don’t love it, but there’s skill to it. But Em, when he’s saying something and not just showing you that he could rhyme every syllable in the galaxy, when he’s saying something, I don’t think anybody can fuck with the white boy.
While all the co-hosts agreed that Eminem’s rapping skills did not let him down, their general impression of the verse was much less favourable. Moreover, the main idea that both Kid Rock and Eminem promoted, reaching out to friends across the political divide, did not resonate with everyone. Marc Lamont Hill, a professor of urban education at the CUNY Graduate Centter in New York City and co-host of that episode, put it in no uncertain terms.
That whole line about “That’s my brother. We’re not political enemies” – fuck that. I can’t respect that. Fuck that bar and that idea.