January 12 we saw the biggest leak of tracks from Eminem’s vault in recent years and now we have the third part of the infamous “Straight From the Lab” series. Fans are divided into two camps:
One part – refuses to listen to the leaked material (although who are they trying to fool? I will never believe that they have not listened to these tracks at least once ;),
The fans from the other camp – without a twinge of conscience, have been enjoying some great tracks with a fresh Slim Shadyesque and vintage Eminem take for two days straight.
[I have “Marshall Powers” playing in the background right now – a great catchy track recorded in 2018 for “Kamikaze” and produced by Dr. Dre. It sounds so good! Like from the early days of Slim Shady and his angry don’t give a fuck voice, and as Em himself says on the track “Ayo, Dre, this does sound like some vintage shit though”.]
I don’t know which part of the fan base you belong to, dear reader… if it’s the second, you are probably under fire from the first camp which are trying to make you feel like a bad person, betraying your favorite artist.
When unfinished tracks leak to the web – It is definitely not good and it hurts the artist, not just because they may lose money, but it can also hurt them morally. The artist works hard to create the perfect track, and someone leaks its early version, so the artist can’t get the desired effect on the listeners.
Or even worse, if a cancelled track is leaked, where the artist mentioned something inappropriate, which he would not say today, something that can hurt his loved ones and friends. It’s a horrible turn of events.
I condemn people who steal tracks from artists. But that’s only one side of the coin.
[Now playing in the background is “Ritz” – a track probably recorded in 2012 for the MMLP2 album. The chorus of the track is a parody on the track Puttin’ On The Ritz by Taco. If you haven’t heard it yet, then just imagine Slim Shady singing it and you get the picture!]
So here we go
Girl who does it better? Let me know
La-di-da, came to party soon as I hit the door
Y’all are in deep doo-doo fo’ sho’
Better get a pooper scooper
It’s Welfare cheese, saltines and Ritz Crackers
Faygo, no Mountain Dew
It’s just Moon Mist when I’m at the Ritz
It’s on my rider
What the first camp of the fans doesn’t seem to get is that if something leaks to the web, then there’s no going back. It’s just physically impossible to retract and prevent the leak from spreading.
So the leak happened, Eminem has been damaged – that’s for sure. As Crook said – “I need all Em’s fans to understand that regardless of how much they want to hear the music..their favorite artist just got violated.” And that’s damn true. But there’s nothing you can do about it – whether you listen to these tracks or not, it can’t be taken back.
So, putting all this aside, these leaked tracks are actually a real treasure trove for fans. You just can’t not listen to them. I’ve been listening to them for two days now. And they are a sonic drug you don’t want to stop taking. And most likely, we would never have heard these pearls if they hadn’t been leaked. Seems to me that would be a real waste.
I’m writing this down sitting in my office, and behind me there is a huge 15-foot-long bookcase filled to the brim with Eminem CDs and vinyl, a huge collection from all over the world, tens of thousands of dollars spent. There’s nothing that Eminem released that I haven’t got my hands on. So I just want to listen to these damn tracks leaked by some motherfucker. Of course I want to hear more from my favorite artist. And I don’t want these strange people, who for some reason deprive themselves of listening to Straight From the Lab tracks, screaming at my face that I’m doing something immoral and aggressively imposing their views on me.
[And now it’s time to put on the freestyle “I’m Twisted” in the background – it was probably recorded in 2017-18. You can guess it by the aggressive delivery.]
There’s parts of me for you to love
And there’s parts for you to hate
But when you talk about who the greats
I really shouldn’t be so hard for you to rate
‘Cause all I do is slaughter, mutilate
As one dude wrote on Reddit, “I’m sure Eminem would listen to leaked LL Cool J tracks in the early 90s.”
Most of the leaked tracks just deserve to be released. Em just needs to take these tracks, mix and master them and release an official mixtape or bootleg. This way he even gets a profit from it while beating the leak masters to the chase.
[“I’m Sorry” is beating my speakers – I love it when Eminem sings. A very melodic track. This would be a great single on “Recovery”]
I’ve been playing “Straight From The Lab 3” on repeat two days straight and I’m not stopping any time soon. Whether or not you listen to these leaked tracks is your choice alone. If you ask me, just listen to them! They are worth it! And to whoever chooses to skip them – I feel sorry for you (but everybody knows you can’t stay away from it forever, and some day you will)
[A real gem is “Trade Off”. I am so discouraged that we will never (but hope never dies, does it?) get to listen to Slaughterhouse’s “Glass House” album. Em raps like a machine gun here, but the four-headed rap-monster is in no way inferior to him. It’s my personal favorite on “Straight From The Lab 3”.]
